The Bad Boy’s…What?

That night I lay in a restless heap, tossing and turning. My thoughts all puzzling over many things but the main subject seeming to revolve around Drew. Sometimes, I get the feeling that he’s honest with me, but then is he really the type to play someone? Who was that girl, clinging on to him so freely? I huff as I throw the covers off of my agitated body and peel myself from my comfortable mattress.

My feet touch the cold wooden floor as I pad over to the door, opening and shutting it quietly as I make my way to Lucy’s room. The little girl’s bedroom is dark and quiet with only her soft breathing as a melody as I walk over to her crib. I caress the sleeping angel’s soft cheek, watching her sleep bringing me some unexplainable sense of comfort. I head over to the corner of the room, where the rocking chair sits illuminated by the eerie glow of the moon streaming in through the window.

Lowering myself slowly quieting the slight whine it causes, I manage to plop down without major incident. In other words, I didn’t wake up a sleeping Lucy because a tired Lucy is a grouchy baby. I begin to rock myself slowly, keeping watch over the crib, and slowly releasing my mind from thundering thoughts.

What could Adrian have possibly meant, how could I be important to the situation? He spoke as if he knew what he was talking about, yet, what could he know that I don’t? Lately, it’s been as if I’m all alone in this thing, I don’t know if my brother really does have my back sometimes. It’s as if we’ve drifted apart, could so many years cause such a great change in our relationship?

Kohl and I had been inseparable when we were younger. He used to be the guy that warned any guy away from me. He used to be the epitome of the overprotective and annoying brother. We were in middle school around the time he was sent away, before our parents died shortly after. I guess blowing up the mayor’s car will do that to you, yes, he blew it up. The mayor’s son had been bothering me for quite a while then, Kohl made a complaint at one of the town’s meetings. When nothing changed he took matters into his own hands.

If anything were to happen, could I really count on Kohl?

A haunting melody begins to reach my ears as I mull over so many things. That melody, it must be imagined, something so beautiful seeming quite unreal. I know the tune but it’s as if something in my brain won’t allow me to identify it. My rocking slowly comes to a halt as the tune begins to ring clearly. The more it registers within my brain, the more haunting it becomes. I slowly exit my baby’s room, quietly shutting the door as I follow the nostalgic melody.

Laughter rings in my ears as Kohl chases me around with a bucket of earthworms, trying desperately to dump it on me. My brown locks bounce as I run around mom’s coveted garden, I listen carefully to Kohl’s resounding footsteps follow behind me none too quietly, never one to succeed in being sneaky. I try to hide my laughter as I hurry my way around my mom’s precious willow tree, leaving the safe shade of the hanging leaves.

I come to a halt as I bump into an imposing figure, I look up the tall, muscular frame up to those familiar brown locks and smiling brown eyes that contradict the face he’s trying to pull. My father tries to glare down at me but his eyes give him away, they always do. His dress shirt rolled up his sleeves, his tie loosened, his attire confirms he just got back from work.

“Is Kohl bothering you again?” he crosses his arms over his chest, desperately trying to give off the vibe as the authoritative figure. I look up innocently as I quickly shake my head. If I snitched on Kohl, I’d have to tell him how I started this whole thing by shoving his face in a mud puddle.

“Khloe, where are you?” Kohl’s threatening voice creeps closer along with his figure. He immediately drops the bucket of worms as he takes in our father’s form standing before me.

“Were you lying to me?” my dad pretends to glare at me before hauling me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Kohl’s laughter stops as my dad takes him in his other arm, his ever so strong arms holding us tightly as he rolls us all on the grass. I laugh as I look down at my dad’s now grass stained slacks. The man cares not about etiquette.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

We all stop as a beautiful melody rings through the inside of the house and reaches our ears. My dad stands up with a knowing grin on his face. He motions for us to be quiet and follow him into the house and up the winding staircase. We creep quietly through the halls as we reach their long hallway. My dad leads us into the room at the end of the hall, the one we’ve never been into, finding it always locked.

Kohl and I eagerly follow our dad’s figure as he quietly opens the door, allowing us to step inside and listen to the now louder melody. We step to the side of the room along with our father as we watch the beautiful brunette play vigorously, her fingers melding into the keys of the piano. Kohl and I watch enthralled as our mother livens the place up with such music. A smile takes over her face as she comes to the last key. We surprise her by awarding her with our applause.

“Did you guys sneak up on me?” her blue eyes glint as she stands up from the piano bench. Her dress clings to her figure beautifully as she comes before us.

“They snuck up in here and I tried to stop them,” our father lies.

“That’s not true,” both Kohl and I exclaim simultaneously.

“Have you been rolling in the grass with our kids again?” she places her nimble fingers on her hips as she looks up condescendingly at the tall man.

“They threw me down,” he points at us before stepping closer and placing a loving kiss on her rosy lips. The love they have for each other showing through their caring gaze.

I find myself standing in the doorway replaying the memory of our eight year old selves as we watched our mother, enthralled by her playing. Kohl sits at that same wooden bench, his fingers relentlessly moving over the beautiful piano. He’d insisted our mom teach him after he witnessed such magic, dedicated his time to learning and perfecting plenty of pieces. I watch just like I did all those years ago, stunned by the beauty of the sound, this tune not having been played in a long while.

I barely even make it a habit to come towards this hallway, too many memories, too many painful memories reminding us of what we had and lost. Kohl’s never been one to show what he’s feeling so publicly, instead resorting to recklessness to deal with his emotions. He’s always been more of the fist talk kind of guy, so something in my heart snaps as I watch his moon illuminated cheek glisten with one lone tear making its way down his skin.

I now come to the conclusion that I was never there for his grieving period, he’d been away at military school. How did he cope? Did he have somebody with him, to help him in his time of grief? I had Claire and Roger to fall back on, but who did he have?

I snap my gaze towards him as the tune transitions into one of anger and sorrow, his fingers moving religiously over the keys. Why so much anger, is he still mad at our parents? So much pain, all melded into one beautiful piece. It all clicks as he abruptly stops, his chest heaving as he catches his breath. One sob, that’s all it took for me to figure out my brother, was mad at himself, why? I do not know, but the pain is plain to see in this moment in time.

Without questioning my actions, I move closer to him and plop down on the bench next to his crumbling figure. He doesn’t acknowledge my presence as he begins the melody one more time, reconciling within himself perhaps. He doesn’t need to speak to know that I am here for him, he knows. He continues to play and get lost in the haunting tune and I sit there, listening carefully.

“They came to me, the day they died,” he speaks up over the sound.

As he speaks the tune begins to become angrier.

“They wanted to see me, but I was too damned pissed off that I never showed up to the meeting room, they left after two hours of my ignoring them,” he continues to relay.

It is guilt what he’s feeling.

“I didn’t say goodbye because I was too damn stubborn,” he emphasizes with an angry stroke before finally turning to look at me.

“I think I’m the reason they died,” finally, his tortured gaze meets mine. I don’t think, I just embrace my brother.

“No, it’s not. It was an accident,” I manage to choke because suddenly I feel as if I’m suffocating. His pain becoming my pain.

“They delayed their flight for me, I think I killed them. You know, I never even opened the letter they left me, it’s still in its sealed envelope,” he mumbles into my neck.

“It’s not your fault and you should read it when you’re ready, for closure,” I advise my older brother. And it’s true, I don’t blame Kohl, or anybody, never did.

The plane crash was an accident.

“Why were they even there?” Kohl mumbles.

I wonder that too, they never mentioned visiting Kohl.

“Stop with the lovey dovey bonding feelings,” a voice grumbles from the door.

Kohl and I snap our gazes towards the voice, a feeling of utter dread flowing through me as I face a smirking Adrian standing in the doorway.

“What’s up?” Kohl greets while I take a completely different approach.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Careful, wouldn’t want to make profanity an everyday occurrence,” Adrian mockingly remarks.

“Why are you in our house?” I seethe.

“Protecting Lucy, or would you rather risk losing her,” he glares at me.

What? I got it, I’ll play dumb.

“Who’s Lucy?”

“The baby Drew handed over to you that night, you gonna play stupid now?” he steps closer.

“How do you know?” I drop the charade, not much to gain in pretending now.

“It’s easier to ask what I don’t know, I can find out a lot of information from people,” Adrian smirks.

“So, why isn’t Drew here for her?” I look up sadly at Adrian’s looming figure as he stops in front of us.

“I haven’t told him,” he shrugs.

“Why?”

“Let’s just say it’s safer for Lucy to remain with you for now,” the brown eyed bad boy, explains vaguely.

“How did you know?” I question again. It’s as if I have a replay button.

“I know everything, including that F you got in math last year,” Adrian smirks.

In my defense Algebra can be pretty tricky.

“It’s impossible to know ‘everything,'” I retort.

“Your father owned a very successful importing and exporting business, franchised all over the world, a company Kohl will be taking over. Your mom started her own modeling agency which will be given to you. You guys were born on December 13th, Kohl being born eight minutes before you,” Adrian lists off.

One perfect explanation, he’s a cyborg.

“You both have a heart shaped birthmark inherited by your father on your asses which is pretty rare,” the leather jacket clad bad boy adds on.

He does know everything.

“That was awesome bro,” Kohl finally speaks up. He seems to be taking this pretty easily.

“Wait, Kohl did you freaking know?”

“Yeah, that’s why I told you not to worry and you’d be safer closer to Drew,” my brother shrugs.

Just what the hell is up with Drew?

“A lot of shit is up with Drew right now, which is why I haven’t told him yet. There are other matters at hand that need to be taken care of. I told you, you might just be more important than you originally thought,” Adrian resorts to walking around, inspecting the place. Wait, did I ask that out loud?

“Just who the hell are you guys?” I blurt out.

“Need to know information,” Adrian turns to look at me.

“Look everything’s going to be fine, oh who am I kidding your ass is toast,” he laughs.

Adrian is pure evil.

“Does Lucas know?” I question curiously.

“No, but only because the little bitch can’t keep a secret,” Adrian responds.

“So, why are you here right now?” I ask slowly. Seems like all I do lately is question everything around me.

“Lucy needs protection, I’m here to provide such,” he points to his jacket.

Please tell me that’s not the outline of a gun I see.

“You get that gun nowhere near her,” I warn as I stand up.

“Okay, okay mama bear. Now, where’s my niece?” and for the first time Adrian smiles. It’s faint and miniscule but still there.

“Wait, you’re her uncle?”

“Makeshift,” I shrug as I lead him to our hallway and to the lilac room. I cough to get his attention before opening the door.

“What?” I look down to his jacket. With a curse he gets the gun out before shoving it into my hand. Grumbling, he flings the door open before walking over to the crib.

If it wasn’t for the death contraption in my hand, I would revel in the fact that Adrian actually cares about somebody. He places something in the crib next to Lucy before walking back out almost silently. No wonder he creeped up on us.

“How did you get in?” I wonder out loud.

“It was easy, I’ve broken in to much more secure places,” he shrugs, as if mentioning the fact he’s broken the law many times before has no effect on him.

“How do you know so much?”

“Let’s just say I’m the information supervisor for the guys, give me that gun before you shoot yourself and I waste a bullet,” he grumbles as he removes the metallic object from my hands.

Excuse me for not being a gun expert, Grouchy. I should start calling him that, when I’m sure he won’t murder me for it.

“Is there something else you know?” I don’t know why, but I have the feeling he’s hiding something from everybody.

“Yes, but now’s not the time to be divulging secrets,” he waves off.

Why does he have to be so damn secretive?

“Stop overthinking things, now where am I going to stay?” he claps his hands as we walk down the hall.

Bad boy say what now?

“Can’t you just go back to where you came from?” like hell.

No need to be mean Khloe.

“What part of Lucy’s in danger did you not understand? Sooner or later I will have to move Lucas and Drew in. Just figure out which one of us is going to tell him,” he states before opening the door to one of the guestrooms.

How did he know the layout of the house?

How did my life get so fucked up? And yeah, I know I’m cussing but I don’t really have the time to care now, do I?

This is just great. I have a baby that needs taking care of, a brother whose guilt is eating him alive, one grouchy bad boy that seems to know all of your dirty little secrets. To top it all off, add another set of boys, one that seems way too creepy, to the situation and you’ve got the perfect recipe for disaster.

To make matter worse, I forgot to do my math homework.

Fuck my life.