Living with Brothers

Mom Breaks the News

It only took 36 hours for Jacob to land a date to the Winter Formal with Natasha. 6 more hours, two disguised tantrums and a pleading phone call was all it took for Logan to earn the same honour with Zoey.

The Winter Formal was my school's version of the social deceleration of your relationship. If you brought a date to the formal, you might as well be signing a contract.

Somewhere along those lines of teachers trying their best to assure students that this was just a fun dance and not a pressurizing social that was more similar to the Hunger Games than anything high school related, they made a separate dance for grade 8s and 9s.

"So, who are you bringing?", my Mother had asked me, a week before the dance as we were crowded around the dinner table.

Kyle looked at me and snickered. "Yeah, Em. Who are you bringing?"

By this time the majority of my family had stopped shovelling food into their face to look at the youngest Kingston, I honestly hated the spotlight.

"I'm not going.", I shrugged, cramming a piece of steamed brocolli in my face so that I could think out my answers in a silent chew, avoiding my brothers dangerously specific questions.

"And why is that?", my Dad asked.

"Sailing.", I said.

It was true. I had practice on the same evening, and a Regatta the following weekend.

"Ditch it.", Cole said. "God only knows how fast Logan skipped hockey to take out Zoey."

He fake swooned into the bowl of mashed potatoes and Logan sent an asparagus stem straight into his face. Cole was clearly not pleased.

"Careful Logan, or I'll tell her your most private secrets before you can say roundoff."

Cole obviously thought he was pretty hilarious, pinning down some classic cheerleading humour. The rest of my family didn't.

Glad to finally have the attention off of me I excused myself to go load my dishes into the dishwasher. As soon as I entered the kitchen I could hear the footsteps following me.

"What?", I asked Kyle without bothering to turn and look at him.

"I came to get a glass of water. Not everything's about you."

"The pitcher's at the table you idiot.", I sneered.

"So...you're really not going to the dance.", Kyle said taking my dishes from my hands and loading them onto the top rack, completely ignoring me ratting him out.

"Mhm."

Wrong answer.

"You know already that it's easy enough for us to tell when your lying."

"But I'm not.", I mumbled. "I really do have sailing."

"Yeah but that really doesn't mean your gonna miss it."

I rolled my eyes. "Kyle let it go."

"I'm going you know, with Kiara. And if I get a whiff of whatever your planning- short dress, heavy makeup, dancing with...boys-"

"What?", I asked fed up turning to face him. "What are you gonna do?"

Kyle stopped arubtly at my silent outburst. "Well I don't know. I didn't expect you to really pay attention-"

"I'm not your princess of a daughter any more than I am your 8 year old sister. When you guys were 13, Jacob had already tried drugs-"

"He was hanging out with some guys who smoked a cigarette, which he didn't try until he was 15-", Kyle intercepted.