I finally get to sleep in after three nights of interrupted sleep in a new bed I'm adapting to. I force one eye open, noting the slits of sunlight shining through my blinds, randomly searching my bed for my phone.
1PM. I realize the time. I must've had at least a full twelve-hour sleep then, since I remember crashing early once getting back from the supper with them. Just then, my phone begins to vibrate violently and I drop it flat on my nose, cursing at myself.
"Hello mother," I answer the call after seeing my mom's name and photo display on the screen. She must be calling to check on how it's been with Wayne.
"You don't sound pissed off, thank God."
"Were you expecting me to be?" I question and she stays silent, probably debating about the right thing to say. She knows anything involving Wayne should be taken carefully and said with consideration.
"I just needed assurance that both my children are well and alive," she jokes, but gets more serious at the end. "I don't have to personally come over, do I?"
I laugh, hearing the uncertainty in her voice. I can't blame her for being nervous about us under the same roof. Heck, a couple of days ago, I was the anxious one.
"We're surviving, or at least I am." I assure her and hear her lets out a deep breath. "But how's my apartment going?"
"Working on it, my dear."
I sigh. "Well, alright then. I'm not being choosy, just get me whatever." And it's true. Compared to Wayne's four-bedroom apartment, I'm sure I can do fine with just a studio.
"Let me worry about that, honey." Mom says, and I imagine her smiling behind the phone. I haven't made a single complain about Wayne to her; not that I don't have any but I'd think she wouldn't believe me even if I told her about our current relationship.
"I'll wait for your good news, momma. I love you," I end the call afterwards and sit up on bed, deciding what to do with the rest of Sunday.
It's the start of school tomorrow and what better than to spend my last weekend lazing and doing absolutely nothing at all. We can leave the freshman anxiety for tomorrow.
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I stroll down the stairs to the living hall, hearing nothing but silence in the house. Apparently they all must be out, since there isn't any brunch today either. Well, that really sucks.
Waking up to no food. Ugh.
I carry my MSI laptop down to the dining table with me, before browsing the pantry for some sort of convenience food. Lucky me, I manage to find cups of instant noodles in my favourite Tom Yum flavour.
I fill up the hot water to the line, then bring my noodles to the table for the three-minute wait. I start up my 18" widescreen gaming set-up, fiddling with the neon lights on my Razer mouse. Nobody would have guessed that I own an impressive GT80S Titan rig, neither would they guess that I actually play video games.
Thirty minutes into my competitive game, I get too engrossed and annoyed at my teammate that I finally use the mic function to vent my frustrations. I rarely ever speak in a game of CS:GO, especially not on solo queue matches, because the players tend to be boys and boy do they act crazy when there's a girl in their team.
"Quit being a whiny bitch, Green." I hold on to my 'G' key as I speak through my earphones which also acts as my microphone.
Our score is currently 14-6, me being on the losing team. To top it off, my very useless team mate who has zero kill and fifteen deaths keeps going on and on about there being a cheater on the opposite team; clearly just because he can't win against them.
"Empty vessels make the most noise," I say as he starts to talk about how me being a female is the cause of our loss. I usually don't bother to have a cyber fight with toxic gamers, but this one simply caught me on a bad day.
The game ends two rounds later, when the opposing team wins their sixteeth round. Our scoreboard shows up and unsurprisingly, I top it for my team with twenty-eight kills and eight deaths.
"Next time if you want to insult a player for being a girl, at least make sure her name isn't on top of you on the board, idiot." With that, I exit the game and lean back against the dining chair, gulping down whatever cold soup there's left behind in my cup of noodles.
It's also only then that I feel the taps on my shoulder. I pull out my earphones and turn my head around, to see the boys right behind me with take-out boxes in their hands and amused looks on their faces.
"Tell me, Kelsey. What else do you have to surprise me?" Wayne raises his brow at me, a lop-sided grin stuck on his face.
"What?" I shrug, knowing he's referring to games but I don't want it to be a big deal. I strut over to the couch, not even subtle about being curious of whatever food they brought back.
"I didn't expect you to be a gamer sort of girl," he adds on, smirking.
"And a pretty damn good one, babe!" I turn to the owner of that voice, Drew, to see him hovering near my laptop and checking out my CS:GO homepage.
The other three boys go to join him, either gawking at my set-up or my achievements in game. I can't hide my own smile at being found out something I don't deny I'm good at, reaching into the box on the coffee table for some cheese fries.
"No joke, four hundred over wins and ranked Supreme Master First Class." Carson joins me on the couch, resting his elbow on the headrest.
"Shit, you're even better than me and I'm embarrassed." Wayne admits, earning himself chuckles from everyone else.
"You all play?" I ask even though I should probably know the answer from their faces by now.
"Proud Supreme here," Drew smirks while Wayne scoffs. "Don't mind him, he's definitely the toxic sort of Legendary Eagle Master you meet in game."
I laugh, picturing Wayne being a toxic player behind the computer. The image does suits him well. "What about you two?" I direct my question at the Gray brothers.
"Global Elites," Zac answers nonchalantly while stuffing a spoonful of coleslaw in his mouth. I hum in admiration, sipping on someone's coke. Global Elite is the highest rank in the game, where only less than one percent of the entire CS:GO population has earned that rank. In short, it's impressive as hell.
"So how did you get into the gaming scene?" Carson asks a very regular, and expected question but my smile instantly drops. "You've got a pretty sick machine." He looks back at my laptop that's left alone on the dining table behind us.
I furrow my brows at the thought of the reason behind my gaming habits. "Just an ex," I sigh loudly hoping they'll take the hint to drop the subject. I've always known J will have to come up in a conversation somehow, because a lot of the things I do now are from his influence. As ironic as it sounds, even if I try so hard to leave him behind, I know I just can't; he's changed me so much.
Wayne tilts his head slightly, his mouth open and seems ready to bombard me with questions about it but thankfully Zac catches my frown, so he hurriedly changes the topic. "Have you thought about what you're majoring?"
Unfortunately for me, I don't have my life sorted out at all, seeing that I made the move to Boston in an effort to put everything behind. There are things I know I'm good at, such as playing pool and video games but these are not things that I'm passionate about, nor did I come to college for. It'll be too much of a daydream to be thinking of making gaming as a professional job.
I put down the bag of cheese fries, feeling the sides of my lip fall even more. "I guess I'm undecided," I say with a half-smile. People look at me, so determined about college when I'm honestly just a lost cause.
"Hey, it's fine. We were all undecided too," Zac encourages me. "Except Carson, of course. He already knew what he wanted to study."
I smile, looking at Carson's oversized glasses that takes up almost half of his face. He really is that preppy, geeky boy I assume on the first day I saw him.
"This is so overdue, but I feel like we need some sort of an icebreaker. I barely know any of you," I shock myself with my words. Never in a million years will I imagine myself trying to fit into my brother's group of friends, but there's something so nice and fitting about being in a clique.
I was always only regarded as a girlfriend of someone, back when I used to hang out in groups. They'd only invite me to sit with them when my ex is there, because well, that's all they see me as. But with the boys here, they regard me as Kelsey â I'm my own person here. They don't think of me as just Wayne's sister. They really treat me as a friend, even though it has only been four days here.
Wayne looks surprised that I try to get to know them more, him included. Honestly, it hasn't been so bad around him as long as the other guys were around. All I dread is us having to go over our shared past, but when I know these conversations won't happen with the rest of them around, I find myself curious to get to know my brother again.
"Let's do the basics. Tell me a little about yourselves," I announce, reaching in the bag of cheese fries once again. This is going to be interesting, and making new friends will start right here for me.
"Well, you already know a bit about me." Zac smirks and I smile in return. He did tell me about himself back in my car, where he told me about his major and what he does in school. "What else would you like to know?"
"Are you from Boston? I'm not even sure if y'all have a house or not," I glance between Carson and Zac, knowing this question answers for the both of them.
Carson grins. "We actually do have a house here. But Wayne's place feels more like home for us." He reaches his hand into the same bag of cheese fries in my lap and I gladly share it with him.
Carson then follows up quickly with a brief introduction of himself. He tells me he's twenty-one, a year younger than Zac and that he's grown up here in Massachusetts since birth. He's apparently a junior majoring in Computer Sciences, and of course a huge nerd for anything gaming and technical.
We move on to Drew next, who's sitting on the loveseat beside the couch. He leans back in his seat, sipping on his large coke. "Ask away," he says.
"You can do the same like Carson did."
"Sweetheart, you should know I don't settle with boring by now." He laughs. He goes ahead to reveal his age, twenty-two just like Zac and Wayne. He's a senior too, unsurprisingly, and majoring in Engineering. He's also on the Men's Soccer team. That explains why he once told Justin he could be against the entire soccer team.
"He's a heartbreaker too," Wayne adds on while Drew glares back at him. The both of them must be really close, even more so than with Zac and Carson as I realize they are usually seen together most of the time. Zac also said that they met the pair at a frat party, which means Drew was already friends with Wayne from before.
"I don't suppose I should tell your sister about your love life, bro." Drew ducks as Wayne throws a fry in his direction.
"Your turn." I wait for Wayne's introduction.
"I major in Economics," Wayne says with a bored tone. "And like you'd expect of me, I really don't care how I fare as long as I get to graduate this year."
"No frats or clubs?" I ask him.
"Your brother here is on a martial arts scholarship," Drew answers on his behalf. "You're on scholarship too, aren't you?"
"Mmhmm." College is expensive as hell, and there's no way I'd even be here if it weren't for the scholarship.
"You can't possibly be on sports or major then," Wayne begins to piece my words together. "What scholarship is it?"
I smirk. "For me to know, for you to find out."
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After savouring on fries and burgers, I come to realize I'm still in my white dress from yesterday; except it has been pushed up to resemble a top while I have on my fuzzy pyjamas pants. The boys remain seated in the living hall, talking about the new school year that starts tomorrow while I get a quick shower.
Fifteen minutes later, I exit the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my head and I'm dressed in an oversized basketball jersey with the number 11, which ends at the mid of my thighs.
"Hillgrove High Basketball," Carson says it as a statement, not a question. I continue to walk back towards the couch where Zac and Drew are currently playing a game of Rainbow Six Siege on console again.
Wayne cocks his head to observe my outfit, raising a brow. "Since when did you join basketball in school?"
"Never, this ain't mine."
"An ex, again?" He pries.
I roll my eyes, pulling out my phone to scroll through Instagram and Twitter, efficiently avoiding my brother's question.
Drew eventually loses the match against Zac, and it's Carson and Wayne's turn to play.
"What's up with all the hairties?" Drew asks, inspecting my left wrist.
I inhale a deep breath. This is possibly the first or second time they've seen me in short sleeves, and the eight or ten plain brown and black hairties I have on my wrist stands out so obviously.
"For convenience," I give a faint smile. "You never know when they come in handy."
I lied, but there's no way I'll tell them it's because of the scars underneath.