Mister Popular's Little Sister

five: like some disease

five: like some disease

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I make my way up the marble stairs after an awkward car ride home with my brother. I really made him mad, but why should he be? Sure I was eating dinner with his biggest rival, but what harm is in that? I'm not going to give out his biggest secrets or anything. In fact, I barely know my brother so what would I even have to tell? That when he was younger he had a stuffed dog named Blue? Okay, I wouldn't share that information, though it is hilarious and cute.

The sound of a slamming door echoes down the hallway. I'm going to be honest, I feel kind of bad for going out with his rival, but then again I don't. The internal war continues. Joy. Did you notice the sarcasm?

My phone rings breaking my thoughts as I enter my room. The small screen reads, Ryland Waters. Man, I can barely read this screen. Maybe I should consider getting a bigger phone. One that, you know, isn't s flip phone. Or maybe I just need new glasses.

"Hello," I answer with the phone in one hand and the other locking my door. I don't need any interruptions at the moment. I need time to myself. And with Ryland, I guess.

"Marley, what happened?" The concerned voice of my new friend sounds through my phone.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Kylie Andrews posted a video on Twitter of your brother steaming with anger while pulling you out of a restaurant." Kylie Andrews? Who's that? Was that that blonde?

"A video?" I groan while flopping into my bed. Just what I needed: the whole internet to see my brother angry with me.

"Yeah. Coach Myers is going to be so mad at him," Ryland replies before there's incoherent voices in the background. I couldn't decipher what the voices were saying, but it sounded like yelling. I hope everything's alright.

"Why would Coach Myers be mad?"

Before Ryland replies, the faint sound of a slamming door reverberates through my phone. "Because Coach doesn't like any of his players being part of any media story unless it's shining a light on how great they are. You're brother is so well known for soccer in this town that the media is going to eat this up."

"Great," I pause, "I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow." I feel as if I have to fix this. But how?

I know how the media works. They take a story and twist it to make it look like someone is the bad guy. And that's exactly what they're going to do to Conner. And it's all my fault.

I need to fix this.

I slowly make my way towards Conner's door careful not to make any noise in case I chicken out. The sound of my brother pacing across the wooden floor greats me as he mumbles, "yes, coach," "sorry, coach," "I know, coach." Sounds like he's being reprimanded at the moment. I guess Ryland was right.

After a few moments, Conner's door swings open. My mouth opens slightly not knowing what to do. I feel like a little child getting caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing. Like I sneaked an extra cookie when I was supposed to be in bed. That may or may not have happened before but that's beside the point.

"Conner?" I squeak as he stares down at me. "Can we talk?"

Without saying a word, he steps aside allowing me to enter into his room. I've never seen his room. Although we haven't really been on speaking terms lately, so it makes sense. His room is painted a light grey with lots of soccer posters hanging up. His room is much larger than mine, but I don't mind considering my room is big enough.

I take a seat in his desk chair as he sits on his bed facing me. I rub my face before I speak.

"Conner, I'm sorry," I whisper barely loud enough for him to hear. "I shouldn't have gone out with Jackson. I caused this whole ordeal and I feel bad." I stare at my hands not wanting to make eye contact. "From what I've heard, soccer is important to you, and," I'm suddenly cut off my Conner speaking.

"Stop, Marley." He stands up and paces the room while rubbing his hands through his hair, a gesture I notice he does when he's nervous. "You're not at fault here," he pauses, "I am. I've been a complete jerk to you. When my 'friends'," he uses his hands to put quotations around friends, "have been rude to you, I've done nothing. Absolutely nothing. And the Jackson thing, yeah, I'm mad about that, but that's a whole different matter." He pauses sitting on his bed once more. "I'm really sorry, Mar. Can we start over? Please?"

I ponder his words. He seems genuine this time. "Will you stop treating me like some disease that if you even dare look at you'll somehow be infected?"

"Yes, Mar. You're my family. Not some disease. And don't mind my friends. They're just fake friends."

"Fake friends?" I question. I guess it makes sense considering he's really popular at school.

"Yeah, that's a whole other matter as well," he sighs. "Forgive me?"

Instead of verbally answering him, I loop my arms around him and squeeze him in a tight hug. I really hope this is the start of mending our relationship.

Releasing him from the hug, I ask, "So, what are we going to do about this video?"

"You're not going to do anything because it's not your fault, but I'm," he pauses to think. "I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do."

"Let me help you, Con. It's much more of my fault than it is yours. If I hadn't gone out with Jackson this wouldn't have happened, got it? I'm going to help you."

"Right, we'll have to talk about that later. But, fine. You can help."

For the next fifteen minutes, Conner and I devised a plan in order to decrease the problem. He was reluctant of my plan at first, but he finally agreed.

Let's just hope my plan works.

author's note

hey, guys. it's a very short chapter, I know. But I have an idea of how I want to story to go and end. I just have to work on creating the story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter even though I'm not a huge fan of it. :p

Ignore any grammatical errors (or let me know about them). I'll be going back and editing at some point later on.

The picture isn't exactly how I picture the siblings, but that is the kind of relationship I picture them at right now. Kinda. Idk. I'll try to find a new pic.

if you like it let me know what you think by commenting and voting. (:

thanks

.j