Dissolving

Chapter 11 - Attitude

"So we have not yet met all of your brothers yet, right?" Anna muses.

We have watched a couple of episodes of a show on Netflix and our nails have been beautified to the nines. I have to admit, we have had great fun and we laughed a lot in the past few hours. My mood has definitely improved and I am not upset with Alex anymore that he invited my friends over. It seems to have done the trick and I feel a lot more relaxed.

Or I felt a lot more relaxed.

Because I am not sure I like the turn our previously light-hearted banter is taking - again. I really thought we had put the topic of my family behind us. Apparently, my friends don't share this opinion and they feel the need to do more digging.

I shake my head, muttering some choice words to myself. There seems to be no getting away from that topic, it seems.

"If I am not mistaken, you have met...seven of them: Ben, Sean, Josh, Jordan, the twins and, of course, Jack," I count them off my fingers in the order of their appearance today.

Actually, Jack hasn't shown up yet, but they have met him plenty of times at school. Ever since that first day back at school after my accident when he took me to my first lesson, the ice between him and my friends has been broken. He made me sit at lunch with him a couple of times, too, which at first was really awkward, but his friends and mainly Nora managed to make it less horrible.

My friends suddenly turned into my permanent little shadows and somehow managed to squeeze themselves at the same table, too, much to all of Jack's friends' and also my brother's amusement. It turned out that it was a pretty hilarious setup that also, for a short time, became the talk of the school since, obviously, seniors don't normally mix with 7th graders at all. Even less so at lunchbreak where everybody can witness it. Luckily, the attention span of students is generally a bit limited and they stopped whispering about it after a day or so.

"So there's four brothers left for us to meet," Lauren calculates, looking intrigued. "Will they come to the barbeque?"

"You have seen two of them before, Sam and Alex, so they're not exactly strangers" I remind her.

"Ah, of course, they were at your soccer games and come to the twins' games, too. Alex is that intimidating, kinda serious looking dude with the dark blonde hair. Tall as a tree," Anna says. "The one who also picks you guys up every now and then from school?"

"Yep, that's Alex. He's in charge of this crazy household. I already told you that he's mine, the twins' and Jack's guardian."

"Is he as scary as he looks?" Anna asks curiously.

"He's a detective," I reply, as if that would explain everything.

It is a bit like when I excuse Ben's boring existence with his being a teacher, which obviously is kind of unfair. I know how much of a great guy he can be, but his intensity whenever it comes to school stuff and good behaviour is just tiring and not the most fun characteristic in a brother. Still, I would not want to not have him in our family because he is someone you can 100% rely on to help you if you need him to. He is loyal to a fault.

"Alex is a sweetheart," Gracie meanwhile comes to my oldest brother's defence, as I knew she would. "He's just not as goofy as some of the others. But that's fine. He has a lot of responsibilities."

I smile at her, knowing that he has a special place in her heart – and vice versa.

"That sounds as if he is spoken for already," Lauren giggles.

"Absolutely. Because I totally go for guys that are, like, three times my age," Gracie replies sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"How old is he?" Anna gasps.