Page 55 of The P*ssy Next Door
Islammed my front door and Seven hissed at me and ran away in protest.
“Sorry, poo poo. I didn't mean to scare you. I owe you a treat.” I was getting one for myself anyway. A lot of Moose Tracks ice cream was in my near future.
Maybe I would have been able to calm down if I'd gone to spend the night with Hayes, but I knew I wasn't good company and honestly couldn't be bothered with the whole sneaking in and out of the hotel thing. I was feeling second place to everything in the whole wide world, and that wasn't fair to Hayes.
So I came home to sulk. I made my sundae, made a mini one with whipped cream and tuna for Seven, and flopped onto the couch. I needed some good old-fashioned escapism to forget my detailed fratricide plans.
I pulled out my Kindle, opened the book I was in the middle of, and proceeded to read the same page three times. Gah. I couldn't even get into the book I was reading, and it was just getting to the juicy part. That made me even more irritated so I turned on the TV and navigated to my comfort episode of Star Trek Voyager.
It was the one where Janeway and Chakotay get stranded on an uninhabited planet and have to eke out a new life for themselves. It was the stuck-on-a-deserted-island trope I loved, and I wished I could escape to some tropical island where I didn't have to deal with anything but what kind of hut I was going to build and how to store all the coconuts.
The only company I could tolerate for the night was Seven, and for once he wasn't at Hayes's.At least I was important to my own cat. Could be the whipped cream and tuna that kept him by my side though.
How could Xander do this to me? Sure, he'd been a dick plenty of times when we were growing up, but he'd never been truly malicious. I didn't think I could handle talking to him right now, and this was not a text conversation. But I knew exactly where he'd be tomorrow morning.
Anytime he won a game, my mother made him old-fashioned cinnamon rolls the following morning. She'd never fucking made me any sort of baked good. Well, tomorrow I was going to my parents’, and I wasn't just going to eat Xan's precious reward breakfast, I was going to flush it down the god damned toilet.
That made me a whole lot happier just thinking about it. I fell asleep on the couch with the TV on and had lovely dreams about my brother being assimilated by the Borg.
But I still woke up early enough to make it to my parents’ house in time for the sweet scent of freshly baked cinnamon rolls the next morning.
“Xander.” I marched over to him, right past my mom plating up the warm food, my hands balled into fists at my sides. “What the hell was that?”
He looked up, his eyes widening in surprise. “Willa? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I don't know, maybe I thought some hot cinnamon rolls would help thaw out my frost-bitten fingers. The ones that turned blue trying to get into the game I was invited to last night. The one you conveniently forgot to leave me a ticket for.”
“Willa, dear.” My mother's voice was both syrupy sweet and chastising at the same time. “You don't like going to Xander's games. Why would you try to go to the one last night when it was snowing? Your father and I didn’t even go in that weather.”
Xander's brow furrowed, genuine confusion etched on his face. “What are you talking about? I left your ticket at will call, just like I said I would.”
I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well, it wasn't there. I spent half an hour standing in the snow arguing with the ticket office, trying to convince them to let me in.”
He stood up, his expression a mix of concern and hurt. “Willa, I swear, I left that ticket for you. I would never intentionally keep you out of the game. Do you really think I would do something like that?”
I opened my mouth to retort, but the words died on my tongue. The look on his face, the earnestness in his voice... could I have been wrong? Had it really just been a mistake?
“I...” I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling exceedingly small. “I don't know what to think, Xan. It's just, with everything that's happened, the way you've been acting about, you know, Hayes, and everything.”
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Willa, I would never betray you like that, and honestly, it fucking hurts that you would even think it. You never would have before you started spending so much time with him.”
“You do spend a lot of time with that boy.” I expected guilt trips from my mother, which was part and parcel of being her daughter. “I thought with you being back in Colorado, we'd see you more than when you were in god knows where.”
Guilt twisted in my gut, a bitter taste in my mouth. Had I been so wrapped up in my own life, in my relationship with Hayes, that I'd neglected my own family? When was the last time I'd spent any real time with Xander, or my parents, without being coerced into it?
“I'm sorry,” I whispered, blinking back the sudden sting of tears. “I should have known better. I've just been so caught up in everything, and I guess I haven't been a particularly good sister lately, have I?”
Xander's expression softened, and he pushed his plate over to me while my mom wasn't looking. “Hey, it's okay. We're family, Willabean. That means something.”
I ate a bite of his cinnamon roll, my anger draining away, replaced by a hollow feeling of regret. He was right. Family did mean something, and I'd been taking mine for granted.
“Care-bear, why don't we head back to bed and have a little fun.” My dad walked into the kitchen, not even noticing that Xander and I were there. “I was hoping the weather would clear up this morning and I could get a tee-time, but it's a no go.”
Xander cleared his throat a little too loudly and for an extra-long time. I laughed and waved at my dad. “Hi, Dad.”
“Kids, what are you two doing here? I thought I got rid of you both years ago.” He came over like he hadn't just propositioned my mother right in front of us and gave me a kiss on the cheek and Xander a clap on the back. “Good game last night?”
“Yeah.” Xander made a face. “But now I think I know why you and Mom didn't make it, you dirty old man.”