Chapter 1

Today is raining. I'm in my room. Lying on my bed, staring at nothing. Except for the clear clean ceiling. I heard shouting downstairs probably my parents arguing about something. So I got up, went downstairs to see what was going. I heard my mom screaming the crap out of her by saying "Why don't you just call the mechanic?!"

"I can handle fixing my own car without any help!" that was my dad.

"Well you're not doing a very good job" mum muttered.

"What?"

"I said you're not doing a very good job!"

"Whoa Whoa, What's going on?" I asked.

Both my parents turned to look at me, then my mother said "Your father here can't fix his own car properly"

"Why don't you just call the mechanic?" I asked.

"I can fix my own car Lanisa!" dad yelled.

"O..k... you know, you don't have to shout or else you'll get yourself a wedgy" I snorted. "Oh hey, remember the time when you kept screaming and shouting? Your face went funny and you told mom you had an atomic wedgy" mom and I started laughing out loud and my dad's face started to get red. Thank god he started to calmed himself down. So he won't scream too much. Then he said "Thank You, Lanisa. I remember"

My sister came downstairs with her son, holding him by the side of her waist. She said "What's all the racket about?"

"Nothing" My parents said at the same time.

She frowned. "Ok....Lanisa can you carry him for a minute? I need to make his food"

"Sorry. Busy" I said. Then she raised her eyebrows. "Let dad carry him. Gosh! I'm heading out"

"Where are you going?" mom asked.

"Need fresh air. It's too stuffy in here" I said.

"But it's raining out"

"A little bit. Not a lot, mom. Besides, I have my hood on. When I get outside"

"What time will you be home?"

"Nine. Maybe"

"What time is it now?"

"Six. I think"

"But where are you going after that?"

"I'll stop by Sophie's house"

"Ok. Be careful, love"

"I will"

She nodded. I walked to the door, opened it and shut it behind me. I saw my brother in law's car stop at the front of the garage. He turned the ignition off, got out of the car, spotted me and smiled, while shutting the door and locking it. He then walked to me and said "You look bored"

"Yeah. Nothing to do"

"Where are you going?"

"Sophie's house"

"What time will you be home?"

"Nine. Maybe"

He nodded. "Hey. When you get home. Can you stop by the shop and by me chocolate for your sister?"

"Why didn't you buy it on your way home?"

"I forgot. That's not a problem is it?" he took out his wallet and handed me a twenty.

"No. Fine. Whatever. I'll buy it when I get home"

"Thanks"
"Uh huh"

"Oh. If there's change. Keep it or if you want to buy something useful"

I nodded. He went in the house and shut the door behind him.

I put on my hood and then walked to Sophie's house. Sophie Leonard has been my best friend since grade eight and we've been friends since now. It's still raining but at least it's not heavy rain like the ones that hit your head and you fall to the concrete. Oh wait, that's hail.

Anyway, I'll tell you about my family. My mom (Margerat) has dark brown

hair, dark brown eyes and light skin. My dad (Victor) has black hair, blue eyes and light skin. Well, practically my whole family has light skin. Then there's my sister (Clarissa) she has brownish hair and brownish eyes. I am a sort of a mixture of my dad with really black hair and bluish eyes. My sister (Clarissa) is a mixture of my mom, same dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Then there's my nephew (Harry) and brother in law (Michael). My nephew is still a year and a half. His skin is so soft and smooth. Yeah I know his still a baby because all babies have soft, smooth skin. He has hazel eyes (like his dad) curly black hair and light skin. Last is my brother in law, black hair, hazel eyes and light skin. Every day my house is always full of drama, but not much fun. Sometimes my parents go out to dinner once or twice a week. So yeah, I'm the youngest sibling in the family. Well Harry is practically the last one in the whole family, anyway.

When I finally got to Sophie's house. I was about to cross when I saw a taxi, stopping at the front of her house. Coming out of the taxi was a guy about his twenties, dark hair, light blue eyes and tall with a luggage with him. I kept

staring at him until I shook my head and thought, Get over It! You don't even know him! I saw Sophie's house door open. Sophie and her parents over

rushed to him and gave him a big hug. While I crossed the road, I kept asking myself. Who was he?

When I got to the door. I pressed the bell and the door opened with Sophie standing on the other side. She looked at me and said "Lanisa! What's up?"

"Nothing much"

"Come in. I want to introduce you to someone" I thought, if she introduces me to that guy that just came in here. I may have kill myself. She was looking at me, frowning. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Uh....let's just go in"

As I was walking in her house, Sophie took me to the living room. Her parents were sitting on the couch and he was sitting in a one seat. They were chatting and when I walked they turned to look at me. He was staring at me until Susan (Sophie's mom) jumped up, rushed to me and gave me a tight hug. She let me go, took at step back and gave me a warm smile. She said "Lanisa. How are you? How are your parents?"

"I'm good. They're ok"

Steve (Sophie's dad) stood up and hugged me. "Your brother in law is still working as a chef?"

"Yep" giving him a smile. He smiled back.

Then Sophie spoke up, "Oh. I almost forgot. Josh this is Lanisa. Lanisa, Josh. My brother"

"Brother?" I was confused. I looked at her. She looked at me with a play-along-look.

"Oh. Yeah. Brother. You told me about him, right?"

She gave me an apologetic smile, said "Yeah. A lot"

He stood up, walked to me. Took out his hand and said "Nice to meet you"

I took his hand and shook. His palm was warm and soft as I gripped it. Then let go.

He was staring into my eyes and I stared back, eyes locked. It was so impossible to look away. It's like I've been hypnotized with his warm bright eyes.

"Yeah, Nice to me you too" He smiled at me, and my heart was pounding

faster and faster. Then I was the first to look away. I kept thinking we were alone in the room until Sophie said "Come on Lanisa. Let's go up to my room".

We turned around and headed for Sophie's room. I looked back to see Josh standing there. I smiled, then he smiled back.

We made it Sophie's room. I got in and she shut the door behind us. I turned around looking at her. "You have a lot of explaining to do"

"She let out a sigh and said "I'm sorry I've been keeping my brother a secret from you. No big deal"

"No big deal?!" I was yelling now. "Oh it is. Not when your best friend keeps it a secret for all these years!"

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because we agreed to tell each other everything!"

"Alright!" she was yelling now "I'm sorry. Ok?! I didn't know he was coming until last minute"

I didn't say anything. I just shook my head in disbelief.

"Look. Can we start over?"

I looked at her. Her face was full of sadness. I think she meant it. So i just sighed. "Ok. Just don't keep that kind of stuff to me"

She hugged me. Then I hugged her back. She let go, said "Promise". She walked to her bed, sat on it. I joined her. "So" she said "I saw they way you and my brother were staring at each other before in the living room" I stared at her pretending not to know "You know" I did "When you were staring at him and he was staring at you" I didn't comment on that. Just kept thinking about it "I think he likes you" she whispered.

I was grinning "I don't think so"

"I think so" she was looking at me "So you like him?"

"Huh?"

"I said. Do you like him?"

"Like who?"

"My brother, dork"

"Oh" I had no idea. Yeah sure his cute and all, but i might as well answer. "I don't know"

"I don't really tell much about him. Do you want to know something about him?"

"Much like you didn't tell anything about him?"

"Yeah. Something like that"

I nodded. "Ok. Tell me."

"Actually...Just ask me. Shoot. Ask me anything about him"

"Um....Where did he go school?"

"New York"

"University?" she nodded "Why not here?"

"He applied but didn't get in. The reason why Josh went to school there was because he always fights and argues with my parents. He fell in love with this girl when he was in grade ten and she was about same age as him but three months younger. He thought she was the one but he was wrong. He didn't know she slept with guys while she dates guys that like her. She doesn't even give a damn crap about him. She broke him into pieces. Then he started smoking and drinking until he could choose some random girl and have sex with her. Then he asked my parents if he could go to New York to go university. They didn't approve because he kept drinking and sleeping with girls and they didnt want to let him go on his own yet. He said he wanted a fresh start. He promised he wouldn't. But my parents still didn't approve. He started not talking to them for months. My parents told me to reason with him, but he kept shutting me out and chucking things at me. I couldn't stand him being like that" her eyes were filled with tears now "I didn't know what to do. I kept crying and crying in my room and didn't come out since he started shutting me out. A couple of months later my parents approved because they couldn't stand me crying everyday and every night. The next week he flew to New York. He tried saying good bye to me and that his sorry for shutting me out, but I just stayed in my room and locking it, crying. I promised myself that I didn't want to have to do anything about him anymore" she stopped. Wiped her eyes and continued. "When he came back. I almost forgot about him. It's been years. He hasn't even contacted once since he arrived at New York. He just called this morning to say that his coming home. I didn't know until I was looking out the front window and there was a taxi at the front of our house. I looked to see who it was. It was him. My brother. I missed him every day of my life. I love him and he just threw it back at my face. So when I got out of the house. I hugged him with my parents. When I hugged him, he didn't smell of smoke and alcohol instead he just smelt like cologne and aftershave. That's when I noticed he changed. He told me he was sorry for everything and that he didn't want me out of his life again. Then we were a happy family again. No arguments. No fighting"

When she finished speaking. I just stared at her.

Finally I found my voice. "I'm....I'm so sorry"

"For what? It's not like you had anything to do with it"

I sighed and changed the subject "So....do you want to go out? Just to cheer you up"

"Yeah. But we're going to have dinner in a couple of minutes"

I nodded. "Watch a movie?" I asked.

"Yes. Please. I'm dying to watch that new movie. What was it called...The Wolfman? Yeah that's it. Last I checked it was on the top ten list of the two thousand and ten movies"

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear from you" I smiled and hit her with a pillow. She gasped, grabbed a pillow and hit me back. We laughed and laughed until we ran out of breath.

I said. "You know. If that movie's going to be awesome and freaky. I am going to run around like a maniac and say 'That was the best movie EVER!'

We kept laughing until she said "If it sucks. I am going to hang myself"

"You would NEVER do that. If you do. I'd kill me too" I gave her my sad eyes.

She kept laughing and hitting me with the pillow. I hit her back.

Then we both yelled "PILLOW FIGHT!" and laughed out loud.