Friendly Dating 2 - Ethan

Chapter 28 - Some Bonding Required

Delia is doing yoga with Scamp trying to sabotage her, when I pop into her bedroom with water running in trickles from my scalp and dripping into my eyes. She un-pretzels herself when she sees me grinning in the door, watching her wresting the cat paws insisting on becoming part of her body-breaking pose, digging its nails into unfortunate places.

She sits up, dragging the cat off her shoulder, where he fled to when she spoiled his fun and safely into her arms.

"What's up," she asks, blowing her hair out of her eyes, pretending that she wasn't just hanging out with her butt in the air or doing anything weird. Well, to be fair, it's pretty normal for my sister to be tied in knots on her bedroom floor, trying some new pose she found.

"Not much," I shrug, holding Kira's bag out, dangling from its strap; I don't want to enter the room; I'm wet and not entirely mud-free. I'm not in the mood to be yelled at for dripping on her floor. "Kicks forgot her bag here. She might need her phone. Would you mind taking it to her, please?"

"Ah!" she says, releasing the cat and getting to her feet, walking towards me to take the bag. "I was wondering why she's not reading any of my texts, but why don't you take it to her?" she asks, tilting her head, watching my face with narrowed eyes. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm dirty. I need a shower." I'm surprised by how little I feel like talking about all the tangled knots being with Kira today has tied my emotions in. I just want to have a shower and eat stuff... maybe catch up with Burlap and hear how he's doing.

"You could go after your shower."

"Maybe, but she might be in a hurry for her phone." I can see that Deli has more questions, but I'm really not in the mood right now. Kicks clearly needs some space, and I don't know what I need. Maybe I'll have fresh ideas when I'm not making puddles on the floor anymore and have mud up my nose.

"Yeah," Deli agrees. "You need a shower! Mom's gonna have a cow; you're messing up the floors."

"She already had a cow," I say, smearing some mud still left on a finger onto Delia's cheek. "And we're very fond of her; we don't need another one."

"Hey!" Deli shouts, and I know she would've attacked me, trying one of her highly unsuccessful Ninja moves, if I wasn't covered in dirty water. Chuckling, I hurry away, and up the stairs, just in case she decides she doesn't mind getting her t-shirt and stretch pants wet and dirty.

I spend a long time standing in the shower, and not because I'm too dirty ever to be clean again. My thoughts keep running away with me, and I find it hard to remember to finish washing and get out. My dad banging on my bathroom door, reminding me of the existence of water bills, finally brings me back to reality long enough to close the taps and dry off.

Entering my room, I grab my phone from my bed, where I flung it when I came upstairs, and send Kira a message: "I'm sorry, Kicks, I know I broke the rules." Maybe that will help a bit. I drop my phone back on my bed and pull fresh clothes from my closet, get dressed, grab my phone and run down the stairs to clean the floors I messed up and hunt for leftovers and coffee.

"Did you enjoy your outing?" My mom asks, putting an arm around my waist and resting her head against my bicep when I've stashed the mop I used and am filling the coffee machine.

"Yeah, it was great," I grin, tousling her hair.

She takes a seat at the kitchen table and picks up the cooking magazine she left there at some point today. My mother loves cooking, and when she's not busy making stuff to eat, she's searching for new recipes to try. Sometimes it's awesome, and sometimes it's just weird and leads to diarrhoea.