"What took you so long?" Shane asked, sitting at the counter as I walked into the kitchen.
"Had to plan my revenge against you and Mitch," I said, hopping up on the chair next to him. "Where is Mitch, anyways?"
Shane shrugged. "He took off. Good riddance to him."
"You know I live here too, right?" Mitch said, coming into the kitchen and pulling the refrigerator open. He pulled out a water bottle and kicked the door shut.
"Are you done killing time with us for today?" Shane asked.
My heart sank a little as Mitch nodded. I watched Mitch as he turned and disappeared out of the room.
"Hey, stop zoning out," Shane said, snapping in my face. "What's gotten into you lately?"
"I wish I knew," I said, shaking my head.
"Seriously, did Mitch do something?" he asked.
I shook my head again. "No, man. I swear Mitch didn't do anything. Well, other than bruising my arm and throwing me in the pool."
Shane cracked a grin. "I'm guilty of half of that, and you're not acting weird around me."
"What's happening to me lately," I groaned, banging my head against the counter.
Shane pat me on the back. "I think we need to get you out of here and away from Mitch. Let's go to the park and be delinquents together."
I picked my head up and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
We jumped up and went out to the car. Shane drove us to the nearby park and we went over to the monkey bars, climbing up on them and turning on Shane's speakers.
"As I focus on the clock, time stands still but I cannot. I should strap myself in bed, I guess I'll sleep when I am dead," the music cried.
Our legs swung over the side of the monkey bars as we sat and listened to music. The park was usually pretty quiet since it was so small, so it was a favorite hang out of mine and Shane's. We had killed time here ever since we were little kids.
"Oh no," Shane groaned. "Isn't that Winchester's little brother?"
I looked over and also groaned. "Maybe he's not here. Maybe it's just the kid and the parents," I said hopefully.
Austin Winchester was quite possibly the most obnoxious human being on the planet, and I despised him with every little part of my being. He was our friend's old roommate, and he stalked the hell out of us, convinced that we were all best friends who skipped off into the sunset holding hands and humming cheery tunes.
In reality, Shane and I hated the guy. He had started creeping on Mitch, too, and Mitch hated him. I'm pretty sure everyone except his parents hated him, to be honest. He was annoying, creepy, clingy, and he chewed food with his mouth open.
"Shane, hide," I said in alarm as Austin came into view, following after his kid brother.
But Austin looked up at the sound of our music and his eyes lit up. He broke out into the weirdest smile I had ever seen in my life and literally ran over to us waving his hand frantically.
"Shane! Jace!" he cried, stopping in front of the monkey bars, still waving so rapidly that I was surprised his arm didn't fall off. "Hello!"
"Hey Austin," we grumbled. "I haven't seen you guys in, like, a week!" he said.
"Yep," I said. "We've been busy:"
"Busy hanging out. Together. With Mitch," Shane said. Shane tried to be as obvious as possible about our hatred of Austin, but Austin was too oblivious to get it.
"We should all hang out!" he said eagerly. "Tomorrow!
"Can't," I said.
"Why not?" he asked, his whole face falling.
"I haven't been home in a few days. I promised my mom l'd keep her company for a little," I said, glad I had an excuse not to hang out with Austin.
"How about you, Shane? You, me, and Mitch!" he said, turning his gaze to Shane.
"No" Shane said. "I don't want to."
"Oh. Well, maybe another day! I'll text you guys!" he said.
"How about we text you?" Shane said, though we knew full well that he would never text Austin.
"Okay!" he said brightly.
I watched in horror as he pulled himself clumsily onto the monkey bars, nearly falling over on Shane as he did so.
"Uh...I think we have to go, Shane. I left the stove on," I said.
"I left the other stove on. We definitely have to go," Shane said.
"You have two stoves?" Austin, ever oblivious, asked in confusion.
"No. But if weren't so oblivious, I'm sure you would have figured that out on your own," Shane said and jumped down. I copied him, hitting the ground and straightening up.
"Oh. I don't get it. But bye guys! I'll text you!" he said.
"We'll text you. Don't text us unless we text you," Shane said sternly, grabbing my hand and yanking me over to the car.
We scrambled into the car and Shane hastily pulled out and away from the park. We relaxed back against the seats.
"I hate that kid. I feel like he shows up everywhere we go," Shane said.
"He totally put trackers in our arms," I said.
"Because I'm proud of my demons, they're one of a kind. They play in the fire and breathe in the ice. I know I should leave, but I'm barely alive, I'm barely alive, I'm barely alive," the speakers sang.
"The lies that live in my head have all the weakness of a bullet proof vest," I mumbled along.
I looked out of the window, Mitch rising in my mind. He would've been sarcastic and rude to Austin too. Just another way that he was so scarily similar to his brother.
But they were so different, too. Shane was content to spend all day everyday with me. Mitch liked to have a few days where no one knew where the hell the kid went. He would leave and come back randomly, and never say where he went. At least when I disappeared from home, my mom knew I was most likely with Shane. No one knew who Mitch ran off with, or where he went.
"Now what do we do?" Shane asked, aimlessly driving around town.
When we were little, we used to take bike rides and purposelessly get ourselves lost just so we could kill time trying to find our way back. So whenever we were in the car now, it was just habit to drive down random roads.
"Let's head back to your place. We can have a few drinks and hang out," I said. Secretly, I was hoping that Mitch would rejoin us.
"Sure," Shane said and turned the car around. He drove us back to his house and we went inside.
"You weren't gone long," Carol said curiously as we walked in.
"Austin Winchester was at the park and I'd rather castrate myself than spend 30 seconds with him," Shane said, kicking his shoes off.
"Oh, yea, I remember him. He's annoying," Carol said.
We walked up to the living room, and Mitch looked up at us. His body was draped lazily across the couch. He was topless and had a beer in his hands. Jasper was sitting on the couch near him, casually sipping a beer and watching TV.
"Glad I didn't go to the park with you two," Mitch said.
"Shut up!" Shane said, throwing a pillow at Mitch's face.
Mitch caught it easily. "Have fun being stalked by Austin for the rest of your life."
"Put a shirt on fatass," Shane said.
"If you two start fighting, I'm going to beat you to death with the remote," Jasper said, holding the TV remote up. "Both of you shut up."
When I was positive none of them were watching me, I quickly eyed Mitch's body. He was muscular and well toned. He had a very light tan going. His skin was smooth, and his tattoos were well defined against it.
"We're bored," Shane said, sitting on the edge of the couch.
"Yea, we're really bored," I said, going over and sitting on Mitch's stomach.
Mitch let out a grunt and tried to shove me off of himself. I nearly fell over, but steadied myself. Mitch sighed in annoyance, but didn't move to push me again.
"Get a job," Jasper said, turning back to the TV and channel flipping.
"I have a job during the school year. Summer is my time off," Shane said impatiently.
"Then go join a club or something." Jasper said.
"Come help me bake cookies," Carol said, poking her head out of the kitchen. "I'll let you eat as many as you want if you help me."
"It beats sitting around," I said with a shrug, getting off of Mitch.
"Mitchell, put a shirt on and come help." Carol said.
"Why?" Mitch asked.
"Because you look bored too," she said.
Mitch sighed but got up and left to put a shirt on. Shane and I went into the kitchen and helped Carol get the stuff out to make cookies.
I knew that Shane's parents worried about us getting too bored. They were afraid we'd start getting into serious trouble if we didn't keep ourselves occupied with more productive things. A friend of ours three years ago had been on his way to college with a nice scholarship and everything. But he got a little bored over the summer and ended up trying meth. Now he was broke, unemployed, a dropout, and had been arrested twice already. Jasper and Carol had tried to keep us from getting too bored ever since.
Mitch came back into the room with a tank top on. We began to sprinkle flour on sheets to roll cookies.
"Watch it jackass, you got it on my arm," Shane said to me.
"Oh, I missed a spot," I said, dropping a handful of flour on his arm.
He glared and flicked a good amount into my face. "Yea, I missed a spot too."
"Don't start," Carol groaned.
"Start what?" Shane asked innocently, grabbing a handful of flour and chucking it at my face.
I ducked, and a little hit Mitch instead. He glared back at Shane and reached into the bag of flour, throwing some back at Shane.
Within two minutes, we had turned the entire kitchen into a mess of flour. Shane, Mitch, Carol, and I were covered in it, and the bag was nearly empty.
"You're cleaning this up!" Carol said, taking the last of the bag and dumping it on Shane's head.
"Shane's the one who started it," Mitch said, attempting to brush flour off of his clothes. "I think he should have to clean it up. Jace and I just retaliated."
"Jace started it, actually. He poured it on my arm," Shane reminded, shaking his hair and sending a shower of flour to the ground.
"You were all bitching about being bored. Now you can kill some time cleaning up the kitchen," Carol said.
"Only if we can play music," Shane said.
"Deal. Get cleaning," she said and turned back to finish making her cookies.
Shane grabbed his speakers and plugged his phone into them. He blasted music and we grabbed washcloths, beginning to clean the very messy kitchen.
"But if these vandals bring fire then I'll bring rain, we'll get this candle-lit choir to sing the refrain, and if I'm swept away by the tidal waves, just keep my casket closed and take a match to my grave!" the speakers sang.
"It's all over my clothes!" Shane whined, looking down at himself.
"Oh yea, I'm wearing your clothes!" I said happily.
"Aw man! You suck!" he cried and chucked his washcloth at my face.
"Shane don't you dare start throwing things. We're cleaning the kitchen, not making it dirtier," his mom said sternly.
"Yea, yea, yea," Shane grumbled, snatching the washcloth off the floor as I straightened up and snickered.
Mitch came over to me and basically bitch slapped me with his washcloth. I jumped away and stared at him in confusion.
"What the fuck?" I asked, wiping my cheek.
"You had a bunch of flour on your face. You still do. I was trying to wash it off," he said with a shrug.
"Try wiping it off of the counters before you wipe it off of Jace," Carol said.
Mitch shrugged again. "Okay."
He went back to wiping the counters and I slowly joined him as Shane wiped up the floors. Mitch was scrubbing at the counters roughly, and I watched as his muscles moved smoothly, standing out against his tank top.
I snapped my eyes down to the counter before anyone noticed me staring at Mitch. How could I really be falling for Mitch?
Sure, he was attractive. But he was like a little brother to me. Shane's family had become my family ever since I was six years old. They had welcomed me into their family. Shane and Mitch.. they were my brothers. I didn't understand where the line between family love and attraction had blurred.
"Jace? You've been cleaning the same spot for, like, 5 minutes. And it isn't even dirty," Mitch pointed out.
"Huh?" I looked down at the clean spot I had been wiping off and blushed. "Oh, oops."
"Are you okay?" Mitch asked curiously, tilting his head to the side slightly.
"Yea, I'm fine," I said, moving over to a dirty part of the counter and wiping at it.
"You've been really weird lately. What's up?" he asked, moving next to me and helping me wipe the counter.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Just..distracted, I guess."
"Hey, hurry up and finish cleaning," Shane said to us. "I cleaned the entire floor faster than you two morons could clean the counters."
"We're pretty much done, calm down," Mitch said. He glanced at me and lowered his voice. "I hope you're alright, Jace."
"I'm fine," I said, forcing a smile.
We finished wiping up the counters and poured ourselves lemonade. We waited until Carol's cookies were ready before digging into them.
"Don't eat too many, please. Your father is making steak right now," Carol said, washing the stuff she had used.
"Steak dinner! Woo!" Shane cheered, his mouth stuffed full of cookie.
"Gross, close your mouth," Mitch said, scooting his chair away from his brother.
"Don't tell me how to live my life," Shane said, spraying cookie out of his mouth at Mitch.
"Shane, you're disgusting," Carol said.
"Thanks mom," he said, turning and spraying cookie at her now.
"Point proven," Carol said with a sigh before leaving the room.
A little while later, we were all sitting around the table on the back deck eating steak. The sun was setting beyond the trees, and it was cool enough to sit outside without sweating.
"This is so good Jasper," I said, shoving another mouthful of steak into my mouth.
"They don't call me the best cook in the world for nothing," Jasper said, grinning.
"No one calls you that," Mitch said, and ducked when his father chucked a carrot at his face.
"Shut up Mitchell. No one asked for your input," Jasper said.
"Why did you throw a carrot at my face?" Mitch asked.
"Because no one asked for your input," Jasper said patiently. He picked up another carrot. "Now hush."
Mitch rolled his eyes and went back to eating. Carol looked at the three of us and raised an eyebrow.
"So what do you boys plan to do tomorrow?" she asked.
"I have to go home. ľm pretty sure my mom is going to forget she has a son," I said.
"Shane, take Jace's example and spend time with your mother," Carol said.
"Nah, I'd rather take Jace's example and avoid her for weeks at a time," he said, grinning when I punched him in the shoulder.
"Oh, shut up," I said, rolling my eyes. But I did feel guilty. I hated leaving my mom all alone for so long. I knew she got lonely, even though she would never admit it.
We finished eating and then played cards together until it got late. I followed Shane towards his bedroom, stopping when Mitch grabbed my arm.
"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, looking into my eyes with those pale blue orbs of his.
"I'm fine," I said, mesmerized. I had never realized just how nice his eyes were.
"Usually when you say you're fine, you're lying," he said, releasing my arm.
"No," I said defensively.
"Actually, yes. The last time you kept insisting you were fine was last summer," he said before heading into his bedroom.
My face paled and I turned, following Shane into his room. Shane looked up at me and frowned.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing. I'm fine," I said, and cursed in my head. Mitch knew me too well, "I'm tired. Can we just go to sleep?"
"Sure" Shane said, tugging his shirt off and falling back on his bed.
I killed the lights and laid on Shane's couch, pulling a light blanket over myself. After a few minutes, I could hear Shane's light breathing and knew he was asleep. I folded my hands behind my head and looked out of Shane's window at the stars overhead.
"Damn you Mitchell," I mumbled, closing my eyes.