envenoMATE

7. Very Same Way

PS. There is some slight swearing in this chapter. I think maybe one or two words. :X

Seven. 

A week later . . .

“Be a man, Daniel!”

“Dammit, Becky! I am a man. So will you, please, just back off!” Daniel yelled from another room at his sister. 

“I don’t know, Daniel,” Dorian commented as he entered the living room from the kitchen. “Having your sister do the work doesn’t seem very manly. I think you should do it personally, yourself, face to face.”

Daniel growled thunderously as he stampeded to the doorway. Leaning his head out, he extended a warning hand to his younger brother. “I did not ask for your opinion. Now, will the both of you, please, shut up. It’s not like any of this is your business anyway.”

Becky scoffed. “What? You made it my business when you recruited me to be your little messenger.”

“Fine!” Daniel yelled, throwing his hands in the air. “I’ll do it myself!”

“‘Atta, boy, Danny. Now that’s being a man,” Dorian said with a brilliant smile, not knowing Daniel meant he was going to mail the letter to Adina instead of having Becky drop it off. Dorian started to clap, but when Daniel took a menacing step toward him, he separated his hands in surrender. “Hey, now. No rough-housing. We don’t want to mess up your pretty outfit, do we?” 

Daniel let out a lower, frustrated growl, banging his head against the doorway with a thud.

“Pretty?” he bemoaned.

When no one said anything, he lifted his head to see his siblings and Julius all staring at his outfit with confusion, pity, and offense.

“A tie?” Becky asked in a tone saying he ought to know better.

“A vest? Man, come on,” Julius added with a shake of his head.

“Pants fit well, but Dan, khakis? On you, seriously? Come. On,” Dorian contributed.

Daniel sighed once again. His hands tightly gripped the wall as if he were about to tear them down. Instead, he moved his attention to his clothes, apathetically removing them from his frame until he stood only in silk black boxers. Flinging his last garment onto the floor, he trudged to the brown leather couch and sat down with his head in his hands.

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” he mumbled into his palms before swearing. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

And he really didn’t. Here he was stressing about what to wear on a date that technically had not even been agreed to yet. In fact, the girl he so wanted to impress had no idea that he even wanted to ask her out. She had to read the letter first for that to happen.

The cushion next to him compressed as Becky sat down.