Baby brother (A Luke Brooks story)

Chapter 1

"Lola!" A tiny voice whines, shaking me awake, I peel my eyes open to see my little brother gleaming up at me. My name is Lauren, but he has called me Lola since he learnt to speak.

"Jack." I growl, ready to start yelling about how not to wake me up on a Saturday morning, but then I remember that it is my 17th birthday and I feel excitement.

"Aw I'm sorry. Good morning goofball" I grin, changing my voice tone. I ruffle his fluffy bed head and pull him into a hug. My step mother walks in a few minutes later with breakfast on a tray. She whispers something to Jack which I don't quite hear, but he toddles away.

"Thanks" I say, smiling with low enthusiasm as I take the tray from her glossy red, freshly painted fingers. I don't mean to be rude to her, I suppose she can be alright sometimes, but at the same time... what kind of b**** leaves her newborn son with no care whatsoever with a girl she barely knows? yes, I am still bitter, thinking back at 15-year-old me who had to give up all her spare time to do a job she was forced into.

Jack waddles back in as fast as he can, holding two cards. He trips and falls, but gets back up as if nothing happened. He passes me two neatly wrapped presents, one with the label "Dad&Carly x", and one messily wrapped small box with a scribbled "Jack x on the top, which Carly clearly wrapped herself. I high five my little brother anyway and open my Dad's presents first. I rip off the cello-tape and the wrapping paper just unfolds by itself, I turn it around to find that it was an art set for my AS level coursework at school.

"Thanks" I smile, impatiently grabbing the other present. I peel off the messy wrapping paper to reveal two shirts, I assume they're band shirts and my pulse speeds up. I open the plastic wrapper to a Dirty Pig shirt and a One Direction shirt. As much as I love them both, I imagine the negative comments I would get from walking out in public wearing them and tell myself id wear them on my lazy days, like every other piece of band merch I own.

"I love them, thanks" I grin as best as I can to hide the sadness I was secretly feeling, I'd asked for Janoskians tickets. It was a long shot, I know I'm being an ungrateful brat but I asked for one thing this year, just one. But Jack is their priority right now, I understand that and I realise that it would be way too much money spent on me. I just can't stop thinking that I will never see my babies.

I pick up Jack's present, but pull him onto my lap first so he can help me do it. Together we rip it open, I see the 'Pandora' logo and squeal, I have wanted a Pandora item ever since I watched 'LOL' and got obsessed with it. He's got me a Pandora charm bracelet with a charm already fitted, it's a frog with a prince crown on it, the princess and the frog is our favorite film so the charm means a lot to me. I hug my baby brother tight and kiss his head multiple times,

"Thank you so much baby boy" I say. Moments like this make me realise how much I appreciate my baby brother, he is worth every Saturday night that I spent in my PJ's.

Carly passes me my cards and Jack is still sat on my knee, I reach my arms around him and put my chin over his shoulder so I'm opening the envelopes in front of his tiny little body. I rip open the envelope of the messiest written card and find a card with a "sister" logo on the front, I open it up to see my name, in scribbles. Clearly, he was assisted to do that or probably didn't even have anything to do with it, they think I'm so gullible. The card has a picture of a large stick man with lines for hair and a small stickman holding hands with her,

"Youuuu." he drags his word, pointing to the tallest.

"That me!" he continues, pointing to the smallest stick, smiling his tiny toothed little smile. Every time he smiles it makes his big blue eyes shine, he glistens up at me with his ocean eyes and I kiss his forehead.