Safe

-24- Not Today

Holt Jacobs

I survived dinner.

Everything settled down once we started eating. Well except Mrs. Lincoln who kept stealing glances at me as she ate, a warm smile on her face.

I'm not sure if she believed me the last time she asked if I still wanted to be adopted. I had said yes.

As everyone finished, Mrs. Lincoln dismissed me from the table telling me to go with "the girls" again.

I think I might be bothering them even though I haven't said a word. They're playing some game, the graphics so much clearer than the game that Mr. Lincoln has.

"When's Brody coming?" Mia asks her sister.

"He said he was on the way like twenty minutes ago." Ari tells her but it sounds more annoyed than anything.

"Perfect than we will have four. Super Mario party?"

Ari glances back at me. "If he'll play."

They don't say anything for a minute, furiously tapping their controllers as they twist their bodies around. The screen flashes the word "winner" across it and both of them turn to look at me.

"You'll play, yeah?" Mia asks.

"I-I..." I gape. "I don't know how."

They both laugh like I've said something funny before Mia sobers up and says "really?"

I nod.

"How?"

I shrug, having no desire to actually tell them how.

"But everyone has a Wii." Ari comments.

I'm not exactly sure what to do or say to that so I just sit there while they stare at me.

"Come here, I'll show you." Mia waves her hand at me.  When I don't instantly jump up she smiles and says "come on, I don't bite."

So I gingerly push myself off the couch, trying not to irritate to my ribs, just as someone shouts Ari's name through the house. Ari dashes out of the room squealing and I catch the tail end of Mia rolling her eyes.

"She's obnoxious now that she has a boyfriend." She tells me, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. "Here, take this."

I take the controller from her, sliding the loop around my wrist like she has hers. She sucks in her bottom lip as she navigates the screen that's on the tv. She has freckles that dot her cheeks, spreading over her nose and these light hazel eyes that make her look softer than her older sister. I release a breath, trying to steady my nerves.

"Alright, so this is for moving and stuff, and this button right below is basically how you select things or make your character jump or grab things or whatever." She points to each button on her controller. "And then this button, you'll use it the most in the mini games but there's directions for those." She flips the controller over to show me. "But that's..."

"You're going down this time Mia." A voice booms into the room.

I jump so hard I swear all my organs get whiplash as I spin to see who it is. It's too familiar. I've heard it before and my heart is instantly on a marathon.

"So this is I guess our cousin, the one I told you about." Ari says, pointing at me. "Holt. This is my boyfriend, Brody."

My eyes meet his for a second before my stomach turns and my ribs twinge from where they're still healing and I drop my eyes to the ground. Panic races through me as I realize the only way out of the room is past him.