Learning to Live

Chapter 1

I was going to kill my brother.

Boxing might be my hobby, but I wasn't an inherently violent person. Except when my stash of snacks was raided. Then all bets were off.

"Stefan!"

My call went unanswered. I closed the cupboard and stomped up the stairs, down the hallway to my brother's room. Music was bursting through the white door. I banged on it.

"Stefan! Open up, I know you can hear me!"

The music got louder. I glared at the door. Fine. "If you don't open up in five seconds I'm going to call Sam and tell him you're the one who broke his car's hood last Sunday."

It worked like a charm. Music stopped. Footsteps echoed, then the door was pulled open. My brother stared at me through dismayed blue eyes. "That's not fair. It wasn't on purpose."

"Do I look like I care?" I held out my palm. "Twenty five bucks."

"For what?" He grumbled.

"For the snacks you stole," I held my hand closer to his face. He slapped it away. I brought it back.

"How do you know I stole them?"

"Because the M&Ms are gone, and Scott hates M&Ms."

"He could've stolen them to make you doubt me."

I considered it, then snickered. "Nah. He's not that smart."

"Hey! I heard that!" Scott said, pounding up the steps like an elephant.

He walked towards us and stood next to Stefan. Two identical faces, with short dark brown hair, deep set blue eyes, a square jawline and a small bump on the nose. They were the identical twins in our triplet. I was the odd one out. The only thing we had in common was our coloring. They took after my father, while I had most of my mother's features.

"Twenty five bucks," I told Stefan.

He grumbled under his breath and went to his room, emerging with his wallet. "Wait, what I took wasn't worth twenty five."

"It's twenty dollars worth of snacks," I said.

"What's the additional five dollars for?"

"Emotional compensation," I said with a grin. "Do you know how awful it is to look forward to a snack and then find out I have none. That's trauma, right there."

Scott laughed out loud. I snatched the two bills from Stefan's hand. "Nice doing business with you."

"Wait, Sapphire. I can't find my blue shirt," Scott caught up with me in two of his massive steps. I was tall for the average girl, but my brothers were giants. Scott even more so than Stefan, since he was on the football team.

"Just wear something else. We're running late."

"Everything else is in the laundry," he said.

I groaned and we made my way to his room. It was as messy as usual.

Scott and Stefan's personalities were as different as their faces were similar. I stepped over a pizza box. The last time we'd ordered pizza was two weeks ago. Ew.

I breathed through my mouth. "My God, Scott. It stinks in here."

He raised his nose and sniffed. "I don't smell anything."

"That's because you've been marinating in it for weeks," I said, digging through a pile of clean laundry on one side of the bed. At least, I thought it was clean. Although everything that was in this room needed serious sterilization. I found the t-shirt and threw it at him. He caught it before it hit his face. Too bad.