TAG

One

When you were here before, couldn't look you in the eye...

"... Cause I'm a creep..."

"Kit."

"I'm a weirdo..."

"Kit."

I feel a touch on my shoulder and I see my brother Cord standing at the edge of my bed. I quickly pull out my earphones. "Sorry," I say embarrassed. I look past my older brother to see his twin Jayse leaning against the door frame, a concerned look on his face.

"Needed something to block it out?" Cord asks as he sits down next to me.

"Something like that," I reply tossing my phone and the attached white earphones to the other side of the bed. "What's up?"

"Jayse, the guys, and I are going go to the rec center to play some laser tag. We wondered if you wanted to come."

When I don't reply, Jayse comes to sit on my other side and nudges me gently. "Come on, it'll get your mind off things." I smile gratefully at my brothers and nod. They both ruffle my hair and Jayse is the first to get up from where he's sitting. "We leave in 10 minutes so get ready."

I feel a rush of gratitude for my brothers and after closing my eyes for a moment, I realize that Cord is still sitting beside me. "You sure you're okay?" He asks.

Lifting my leg, I push my foot into my brother's side causing him to fall part way off the bed. "I'm fine Cor, now if you don't mind I need to get ready."

Cord lifts in his hands in a defensive stance and walks out of my room laughing softly.

I shake my head, slightly exasperated at my brother's overprotectiveness, then pushing myself off my bed I grab a pair of black and white Aztec-patterned leggings off my desk chair and a long-sleeved plain dark green tee from the top drawer in my dresser.

Once changed, I pull my waist-length hair from its bun and pull it to the back of my head to do one single French braid down my back. To top off my ensemble, I put on Jayse's old black zip-up hoodie.

I leave my room and ignore the mirror that hangs above the stairs. Neither of my brothers are waiting by the door and when I sit down to pull on my white sneakers, I hear the hum of the engine outside.

Laces tied, I run from the warmth of the house through the cold darkness to Cord's old, barely running, Ford truck.

It is a short drive to the rec centre and I quickly jump out of the truck once it has come to a full stop. Outside of the rec centre, stand three of my brothers' friends, Joe Black, Devon Parker, and Matt Stevenson.

"Hey guys," I greet them shoving my hands into the pocket of my jacket.

"Kitten!" Joe greets me enthusiastically wrapping an arm tightly around me. "Cord mentioned that you might be coming."

"He drove a hard bargain, but in the end, I couldn't miss out on a good game of laser tag," I say in a gently teasing voice.

I greet the other two boys and when we're all standing in a circle, I expect us to walk in out of the cold but instead Cord asks, "Hey Matty have you heard from Leo? He was supposed to meet us here."

"Yeah he told me he was going to be late so we might as well pay and get started," Matt answers.

The boys all sigh dramatically and I giggle softly knowing that each of the boys would willingly do anything for each other. As the boys make to walk inside, I gently grab Cord's wrist and stop walking, indicating that I need to talk to him.