Heather
After a few hours, I finally woke up from my nap and looked around my room.
It was a pretty nice room, I had to admit. I personalized it by painting it a midnight blue and adding glow-in-the-dark stars to the ceiling. It was childish, but it comforted me. As I stared at the little stars, I remembered the dinner at my parents’ house.
I groaned and buried my face into my pillow. This was going to be a long night for sure, especially with all the tension between William and me.
After rolling around my bed in misery some more, I finally got up and got dressed. Since I was already wearing a white t-shirt, I slipped into a dark gray sweatshirt and blue jeans. After all, it was only my parents’ house, and they wore their pajamas to dinner!
Once I got to the door, I grabbed my white Converse and pulled them on.
I grumbled and made my way to his room. My hand clenched into a tight fist, I knocked on his door as softly as possible.
“What?” he called, exasperation clear in his tone.
I opened the door and leaned against the frame. William’s room was a dark maroon color and pretty plain. He definitely didn’t spend his time personalizing it. There wasn’t even a picture of his family anywhere!
My eyes darted to where he sat at his desk in the back of the room. He was already staring at me, his eyes running over my body. I was uncomfortable with his piercing stare, especially after this afternoon’s incident.
“Eyes up here!” I snapped at him.
He smirked. “Why, are you uncomfortable?”
I glared daggers at him. “No! It feels disgusting to have you looking me over like that, especially after you blatantly told me that I was a whore and gold digger.”
An indecipherable emotion flashed in his dark green eyes.
“Anyway, I came here to tell you my mom wants us over for dinner. She’s been bugging me to bring you along,” I said, staring at the wall behind him.
He rolled his eyes and put his pen down. “Fine, let’s go.”
I frowned at the sight of his formal clothes.
Why was he wearing a dress shirt to my parents’ house? It was only dinner. He was going to look so out of place.
“Come on. Let’s get this over with,” he muttered, slipping into his long winter coat and grabbing his keys from the bookshelf.
I rolled my eyes at his attitude and followed him outside. We got into his silver Mustang and yanked our seatbelts on, trying to ignore each other’s presence. A few minutes into the drive, the silence became unbearable, so I turned the radio on to break the awkwardness in the air. “The Man” by Aloe Blacc started playing, and I sang along quietly to distract myself.
As I continued singing, the feeling of someone’s eyes burning through the side of my head was evident. I turned my head and saw William staring at me in shock.
I frowned at him. “What?”
“You can sing,” he stated incredulously.
I pursed my lips and glanced at the passing scenery again.
If he had tried to get to know me, he would have known singing and dancing were a big part of my life ever since I was a little girl.
He didn’t say anything after that, so I just tapped my fingers to the beat of the next song. A few minutes later, he pulled into the driveway of my parents’ house and I immediately noticed my brothers’ cars in the driveway as well. I raced up the steps to the house excitedly while William took his sweet time, moving slower than a snail.
When he was finally on the last step, I pressed the doorbell impatiently. There were a few yells before I could hear footsteps racing to the door. When it finally opened, I saw my nephew, Landon, jumping up and down with a wide grin on his face.
“Aunt Heather!” he yelled, hopping right into my arms.
I laughed and swung him around, hugging him tightly. He was absolutely adorable with his chocolate brown hair and bright gray eyes. Landon was almost an exact replica of my oldest brother, Andrew, at the age of five.
“How are you doing, buddy?” I asked as I carried him inside the foyer.
“I’m super-duper good! I didn’t get a timeout at all this week!” He pushed his chest out proudly, pointing to himself.
I laughed and kissed his cheek. “That’s great! Maybe if your parents let you, I’ll take you out for ice cream to celebrate.”
“Yes!” he shouted, and hugged my neck.
He turned to William. “Hi, Uncle Willie!”
William smiled and gave him a high-five. “Hey, Landon.”
I put him down and held his hand as we walked down the hallway with William trailing behind us. When we entered the living room, all heads turned to us.
“Hi, sweetie!” Mom grinned, standing up to kiss my cheeks. I smiled and gave her a quick hug.
People have said I look like my mom when she was my age, but I don’t really understand how. She was quite tall, almost five foot nine, while I was, like, five foot two. And on top of that, she had dark brown hair and stormy gray eyes, so you could see why I was so confused.
“Hey, Booboo, how’s life?” Alex asked, kissing my temple.
Alex Luis Montgomery was my older brother. He looked mostly like me in face structure and hair color, but his eyes were a pretty midnight blue color. He was also, like, nine inches taller than me, much to my dismay and his joy.
Being short was a blessing and a curse.
My brother was a very optimistic person, but he could be scary if he didn’t like someone, especially if that someone had asked me out.
The one thing that annoyed me about Alex was his overprotectiveness. He acted like every male in my vicinity was going to eat me alive. So you can imagine how my dating life was.
“It’s great, Alex! I’m a bit stressed at work, but it’s not too bad,” I added quickly when I saw concern flash in his eyes.
I turned to look at my other brother. “Andrew.”
“Heather.” He nodded, giving me a blank look. I mentally heaved a sigh.
Andrew Jacob Montgomery, at the age of thirty, was the oldest and the coldest brother. Well, he was cold to me, but I had no idea why!
I accepted his remoteness eventually, especially once I heard him tell someone that he had just a younger brother. It hurt that my oldest brother didn’t want anything to do with me, but there was nothing I could do. My parents and Alex had tried talking to him, but it was to no avail.
Andrew looked mostly like Dad, but he had Mom’s gray eyes. He owned a chain of hotels and lived with my parents in their house, although I wasn’t quite sure why he hadn’t moved out yet.
I turned to his wife, Stephanie, and beamed. She gave me a grin and wrapped her arms around me tightly.
“Hey, Heather!” she exclaimed, squeezing the life out of me. I laughed and hugged her back just as tight.
Stephanie was the total opposite of Andrew. While he acted like he had a permanent stick in his butt, she acted like a Disney princess. I had no idea how they met, but they did make a cute couple who had their moments of PDA.
“Hey there, shorty, long time no see!” Dad called from the couch.
“Dad, you saw me just last week!”
“Well, that’s a long time for a retired old man.” He shrugged.
I beamed and kissed his cheek.
Dad retired as soon as Alex was ready to take over, so now he spent his time playing golf and teasing Mom about her attempts at baking. He was very supportive of me, and I truly appreciated that, but he was overprotective as well, which was another reason why I couldn’t date anyone.
We had a similar face structure and the same color hair, but that was it. He was exactly six feet tall, which really irked me. Everyone was taller than me, and it was blatantly obvious too, especially during family pictures.
There was always a row of tall people around the same height, and then there was me in the corner. I looked like a dwarf in front of them, which was probably why Alex and Dad were extra overprotective.
Our conversation came to abrupt end when Mom called me to the kitchen. I quickly set my phone on the coffee table and went to join her. Mom handed me a bunch of utensils and nodded to the dining room, where Stephanie was already setting the table.
“How are you and William doing?” Stephanie whispered as she put some plates on the table.
I sighed sadly and slammed a fork on the table. “He hates me.”
“He’ll get over it soon, don’t worry. Once he finds out what a great girl he’s missing out on, he’ll come running back to you,” she said, patting my back encouragingly.
I gave her a weak smile and started putting the napkins out. Once everything was ready, I went back to the living room to tell everyone that dinner was served.
As soon as I walked in, Andrew turned to glare murderously at me. A lump formed in my throat at the intensity of his stare and my mouth went dry.
This was not good.