Chapter 6

Axel

I parked in front of Megan’s apartment building and turned off the engine. I texted Megan to warn her that I was outside her house and didn’t wait for her answer. I went into the chat with Emma and checked. What I didn’t know.

My message remained as not displayed, or rather, ignored, since Emma was online until an hour ago.

I wanted to tell her how the conversation with Liam went, which was bad, and I just wanted to talk to her, like we used to, ever since we were kids. But she had decided to ignore me completely, she had not even visualized it. I frowned and I’ll decide whether to send her another message or let her answer me when she could. 

Maybe she was online just to answer her father, but she was actually busy, maybe she was fixing her things after the return, after all, she had only come back yesterday and I was sure that she still had to fix everything. Emma was the queen of chaos, and already I imagined her room upside down after only one day at home, at the thought of it a smile appeared on my face. Maybe we should have waited.

And yet...

My fingers moved even before I thought, and the message was already taking shape.

How’s the homecoming going? I asked her and waited with the phone in my hand.

I waited for those two cues to turn blue, waiting and with my heart in my throat, not even the result of an examination. I was staring at my phone when I saw that Emma was online, I waited again but immediately disconnected, without reading my messages. I sighed and I held the phone in my hand. What was happening to her?

I was shaken from my trance by a slight touch on the window. I looked up and found Megan knocking with her knuckles on the window. I smiled at her, and I waved her to get in the car. Megan immediately went around, almost hopping, and I sighed, putting the phone in the compartment next to the seat. It was useless to wait for an answer that would never come. It was more than clear that Emma wasn’t going to talk to me that day, and that was fine. We didn’t have to talk to each other every day, but I couldn’t stop the pang of disappointment that was causing me to think. After a year in which we had not seen or talked about it I expected... What exactly did I expect? I did not even know. 

I was confused, as never before. Part of me kept yelling at me that I was crazy, that I was sick for wanting something that I clearly couldn’t.

Another part of me repeated that it was just blood, it didn’t matter, there was nothing wrong, it would only be wrong in the eyes of others and I didn’t care what others thought.

I shook my head and sighed as the passenger door opened and Megan happily entered the car. I looked at her as she approached and threw her arms around my neck and then gave me a loud kiss on the cheek, creating a swirl inside of me that I could not explain. Chaos never existed within me.

I set the car in motion as Megan laughed cheerfully, she always was, as if the problems of life never touched her or simply did not show it, or did not want to get knocked down by these. It all seemed so easy with her. No complications, no morals, no disgust. Easy. And maybe that’s what I needed. Something easy.

I traveled lightly through the streets of Philadelphia as Megan talked to me about her journey, her voice was melodious, and the joy that was constantly giving off made me relax. She was talking but I didn’t really feel what she was saying. All I could hear was the sound of her voice, not what she was saying, not getting into my brain, but I let her voice fill the car anyway.

She was so cheerful as she talked about this trip and all the beautiful things that they had seen that I didn’t have the courage to interrupt her. So I let her. 

I decided to go to Thai, that night I wanted to change and I knew that Megan liked it very much, she never hesitated to exclaim euphoric what her preferences were, she loved many things and was always excited to have them, but also to try new things.

As Megan kept talking, I got near the restaurant and I set out to find a convenient car park. As soon as I found it I parked and turned off the engine. Only then did I realize that Megan had stopped talking. 

I turned to her and I saw her looking at me with her arms crossed over her chest and an eyebrow raised, she was frowning. She was very pretty when she frowned.

I frowned, "What?" I asked her.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked curiously.

"Don’t you want it to be a surprise?"

"As much as I like surprises, it’s food, I never joke about food, Ax" she said very seriously.

I laughed and I untied my belt and then I got out of the car, Megan imitated me and I locked up, put my hands in my pocket, and started walking.

"Hey!" I heard Megan say and then her hasty steps behind me.

She put his arm in mine and we walked together. The restaurant was a few hundred meters away and the light spring breeze gave me goosebumps.

"So what?" insisted Megan.

"Can’t you wait and see? It’s only a few hundred yards away," I said.

"No," she replied.

"Okay, okay, buzzkill. We’re going to Thai," I said.

Megan made an exciting verse and squeezed my arm, almost squeezed it, "I love Thai!" she said cheerfully.

"I know," I replied.

Megan laughed cheerfully and almost skipped next to me while together, arm in arm, we headed towards the restaurant. Maybe it would have turned out to be an interesting evening, and maybe I would have made it clear what I wanted.

****************

Liam

"You’re cheating!" I complained when Miles won again.

Miles made an indignant noise that reminded me a lot of Megan "Always the same excuse! You can’t lose so you invent that I cheat! Accept the defeat Man!" he complained.

"I am much more certain that you are cheating"

"Oh, think what you want," Miles snorted.

It was ten o'clock at night and we’d been playing the PlayStation all day, and I’d been failing all day. All this asshole did was cheat all the time, and he wouldn’t admit it.

I sighed and put the joystick on the coffee table and then stretched.

"Stop playing. I feel like a beer," I sighed.

"I don’t think so," Miles replied seriously.

"Don’t you think so, or don’t you think she gives you permission?" I said, angry.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," he replied.

"Oh please! I was at their house yesterday! Do you think I didn’t see you leave Alison’s room? And that I didn’t hear you at night fucking her?"

Miles shrugged his shoulders but didn’t answer. He just pulled out his phone and typed a message.

"Are you asking her permission? God, I had no idea my cousin cared so much about you by the balls, she practically made a necklace out of your tiny balls".

"I don’t think so, she prefers them attached to touch them when she sucks my dick," he replied without even giving me a look, "And I’m not asking her permission, I’m asking if she wants to come to the bar with us," she said.

"Why?" I asked, not understanding.

"Because I want to spend time with her," he replied casually.

"Wasn’t the whole night together enough for you?" I asked, frowning.

"You could never understand"

"Explain it to me! I don’t understand how you can run after her like a puppy dog when Alison is a giant fucking iceberg, she’s as cold as death. I just can’t figure out what you might find in her, although from what I heard last night I can imagine" I snapped.

I loved my cousin Alison, we had the same blood, and I had memories of her sweetness in the past, I just didn’t understand her anymore.

The sweet child of my memories had been replaced by a cold and careless person, she showed no empathy for anyone, she didn’t care for anyone, she didn’t even try to improve herself.

The only time she approached others was for her own gain. Because she needed something. She used people and then she threw them away, she did it with us family. She was doing it with Miles all the time.

She used him for sex and then she pushed him away. And yet Miles kept coming back to her. All the time. Every time she called him.

"You say that," Miles replied.

"We all say that, Miles," I answered.

"You say it because you don’t know it! I know who she is, I know how she is, and you can never understand what I see when it’s just me and her," she replied looking me in the eye.

His green eyes were furious with anger. That was the problem. Miles became an asshole when it came to Alison. He lost her mind, no one could speak ill of her so he immediately went into Berserk mode and attacked without asking questions.

I really hoped that Miles would wake up and realize that Alison wasn’t the right person for him.

His phone rang and he picked it up immediately.

"So? Your mistress gives you permission to go out?" I asked ironically.

"She doesn’t come, she says she’s at her grandparents' house and prefers to stay with them," he said with a sigh of disappointment that made me snort bored "I put my shoes on and I warn the dads," he added before getting up and going to his room.

I had to find him some girls so I could get him away from Alison, maybe I could ask Ellen. Yeah, I should.