Learning to Live

Chapter 4

One of my brothers was trying to sneak upstairs.

That in itself was not unusual. Except I knew from the muffled steps on the stairs that it was Stefan, not Scott.

That was unusual. Stefan didn't sneak around. All his decisions and actions were thought through logically, so he never felt the need to hide anything from anyone.

Except for that one porn folder I found in his laptop, but that was neither here or there.

I rose from the island in the kitchen, where I was doing homework. Cheddar, sleeping on the stool next to me, cracked one eye open. Once he saw I wasn't heading to the cat food cabinet, he curled around himself and went back to sleep.

I tiptoed out of the kitchen. Sure enough, Stefan was on the last step. I took a deep breath.

"Stef!"

He jumped. Then froze. I slowly walked past the couch.

"Where were you?" I asked, a smile in my voice. I couldn't believe I actually caught Stefan sneaking in from somewhere. Lia would kill to hear about this. Where had he been? My curiosity was unbearable.

"Nowhere." He cleared his throat. Turning around, he put his hands in his pockets. My spider senses pinged. There was something different about my brother. I crept closer to the staircase, scanning him from head to toe.

His hands were in his pockets.

"Show me your hands."

He scoffed, as if I'd made a ridiculous request. I reached the stairs and got on the first steps.

"Fine!" he said, throwing his hands up. He showed me his palms. I snorted. Did he think I was an amateur?

"You fought someone, didn't you?" I put my hands on my hips. "Who did you fight?"

With a defeated huff, he lowered his hands, and I could see his red knuckles. Aha! I was right.

"No one."

I narrowed my eyes. Then realization dawned on me. "You fought Aaron, didn't you?" I asked. "Seriously! I thought Scott is the only rash head in this family."

"I was not rash," he said, jogging down the steps. He walked past me to the kitchen.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked, following him.

"Since you caught me, might as well eat something," he said, opening the fridge.

I hovered nearby. "That was stupid."

"No. It's not stupid and it's not rash," he said, pulling a little container of grapes. "I didn't act yesterday when I was angry, so it's not rash."

"So you've been thinking about it the whole night and the entire day today?" I asked, watching as he popped open the container and threw a grape in his mouth. He chewed slowly, and nodded.

"Yes. I don't make decisions on the spur of the moment. That's stupid and rash. Scott does that," he said.

I threw up my hands. "You still did the same thing he had," I said. "You're blowing this out of proportion. It was a sparring session in the gym."

"I spoke to Brandon about it yesterday," Stefan said. "So I know the batard did it on purpose. I simply warned him off. I don't want to deal with taking you to the emergency room some time in the future because the idiot thought he could just punch you around."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm touched. So you did it to save yourself the trouble."

"Yes."

I patted his hand. Both my triplet brothers were idiots. I turned to the fridge. "I'm making myself a sandwich. Do you want one?"