Chapter 4

Author's Note: Reviews keep the writing machine full of gas.

Every member of the Russo family was currently home at the apartment. The father, Jerry was in the family Sub shop calculating sales over the past week while the mother Theresa were in their bedroom relaxing on the bed and reading a book. Justin was in his room studying about something for his planned College class and Alex was sitting in the loft playing her pink Nintendo 3DS, solving little brain-teaser puzzles to make the time pass by. Her friends, or rather only friend, Harper, hadn't been around to hang out lately for whatever reason so she had been forced to hang around home and her family, not that she really minded; they were just boring, although she had to admit the past couple of days with Max had been quite interesting and far from bland. Max was in his room like a sloth hanging about depressingly, thinking back to yesterday as his miniature fan soothingly blew him in the face, causing his hair to go back slightly.

"Damn, she looked hot," he silently told himself as he couldn't stop thinking back to when he saw Alex in just a towel around her body right after coming out of the shower. He did his best to forget his stupid flirtatious comment he made about it even though she had assured him not to think anything of it, but it still embarrassed him. It also bothered him slightly to know that he found his sister to be very attractive, but he was comfortable with himself and his feelings more-so than your average person. It didn't bother him the way it would someone else, but still. It felt weird thinking that way about his own flesh and blood and made him feel even more pathetic about his love life.

Suddenly, a knock was heard!

"Who is it?" Max asked, turning his head backwards to the door as his back was facing it on the bed.

"It's your mother, open up mijo!" Theresa spoke. It annoyed Max when she spoke in Spanish. They did live in America, not Mexico or some other over-the-border country. Again, that was just the way his mind operated.

"Yeah, come on in," the young man told his mother while reverting back to his usual stance of his elbows propped on his knees and his face staring down at the floor like a broken man… being depressed and lonely sucked major ass.

"Max, would you and one of your siblings mind running to the grocery store for your father and I?" Theresa asked her son, holding out a list. "And stop looking so depressed, you're too handsome to be sad!" the mother spoke trying to cheer her son up. She was always the best at telling if something was wrong with any of the three Russo siblings, although with Max it was incredibly easy with how repetitive his depression has been for the past year or so growing up.

"Uh yeah, sure Mom… and I'll try to cheer up, sorry," he spoke to her as he stood up, going to put his sneakers over his feet.

"No need to be sorry, mijo. I just hate seeing any of my babies upset." Max winced at being called a baby, but he understood seeing as it was coming from his mother.

"Do you have a preference on who you want to tag along with me?" he asked her, now standing up with his MP3 player in his pocket with ear buds tucked in and ready to leave.

"Well I think it would be better if you took Alex, Justin is busy in his room studying for his future classes."

'Of course,' Max thought. "Okay, I'll run down to the loft and grab her. Love you mom," he says as he gives his mother a hug and a peck on the cheek before exiting his room with Theresa making her way back to her own.

"This game is so stupid," Alex spoke seemingly to herself as she closed her handheld, right before feeling a hand latch onto her shoulder, causing her to jolt in surprise and turn her head around to see who had touched her from behind the couch. "Max! What the hell! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" she exclaimed, eyeing her younger brother angrily. Max gave her a sheepish grin and chuckle, running his fingers through the back of his black hair.

"Surprised you, eh?" he asked still standing behind the couch as he looked down at Alex who was just now calming down

"No shit," she responded, moving back to get comfortable on the couch only for Max to speak up for her to get up.

"I need you to go with me to get some groceries for Mom and Pops. Mom said specifically to get you to come with me since Justin is busy with his all mighty schoolwork." Alex scoffed in annoyance before getting up to her feet, moving to slide her sandals on.

"For fuck's sake, you're seventeen-years-old, why do you need one of us to go with you anyway?" Alex seemed annoyed but she couldn't really blame Max, it was their mother who was dragging her along with him since God forbid the golden child has any chores. Max was used to it enough to not pay it any mind. It kind of made him sparkle a bit inside to see her so ruffled up. It was… cute.

"I don't know, but gotta do what the big Momma says, right? Besides, no license," he tells her with a slight rough pat on her back and a large grin, causing her to almost stumble as Max made his way to the door.

"Whatever, let's just go. I was getting bored being stuck inside anyway." Soon the two made their way to their mother's car, the keys in Alex's hands being slid into the ignition with Max sitting in the passenger's seat with both of them buckled up safely.

"You got a list of what we're getting?" Alex asks as she slides on a pair of sunglasses from out of her purse, causing Max to turn his head to her.

'Damn, she looks good in everything,' Max thought to himself while shifting his head back straight away from his sister. "Here," he says as he reaches into his front pocket and hands her the grocery list along with his music player and ear buds, placing them inside his ears while his sister takes the list.. Alex takes a look and then the two begin to drive off after she stuffs the list into her purse. Halfway to the store, Alex spoke up about a sensitive subject out of nowhere.

"So you thought I looked pretty hot in just a towel, eh?" she asks Max, her eyes focused on the road. Max's complexion faded as he blushed deeply and his heart skipped a beat. He just had to have his music on pause right at the moment for her to say that to where he could hear.

'The fuck, Alex!' He thought. "Sure. It's not like you're ugly, so what about it?" he replied, nervously looking out of his window and wanting to blast his music back on so he could hide away in his little world inside of his head. Alex grinned smoothly while making a turn.

"You totally have the hots for your sister," she says with an innocent but teasing chuckle. Max turned his eyes to give her a death glare, but his blush remained on his cheeks.

"I'm not that weird," Max says with a bit of an impish smirk aimed at his sister

"Uh-huh. So what are you listening to?" she asks. Max leans his head back against the headrest of his passenger's seat and tries to relax.

"A cover of Another Brick in the Wall by Korn," he tells her, just deciding to pull his ear buds out of his ears seeing as Alex was going to talk through all the way to the store. She chuckled as they got halfway to their destination.

"I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff, let alone Pink Floyd or Korn."

"You don't really know much about me. We hardly ever talk or hang out," Max pointed out, making his sister want to turn her head to him in a bit of sadness if not for having to keep her eyes on the road.

"So not true, I took you to the mall just yesterday! You even said you had fun," she tells him as they near the grocery store. Max turns his MP3 player off and hides it in the glove department.

"Which was pretty shocking to me, but yeah, you did and I appreciate it. What I said is still true though, we hardly ever hang out enough for us to really know much about the other," he points out as Alex turns in the parking lot and takes a careful amount of time to back into a space.

"Know enough that you have the hots for me," she teased him again, turning her sunglass covered face to him with the most beautiful playful grin Max thought he ever saw. He took a gulp as his nerves started acting up on him and blushed, making his older sister giggle. "Oh my God, you really do like me don't you?" she says with a bit of a laugh. Max turns his head away and quickly undoes his seatbelt, getting out of the car. "Oh come on, don't be so bashful," Alex says as she gets out and walks behind him towards the store, a playful smile plastered across her face.

"I don't want to talk about this, it's weird," he said in the calmest way he could even though she was starting to embarrass and unsettle him. Alex would admit that it was weird for her too knowing that he thinks she's attractive, but she also liked poking fun and found it flattering too. It wasn't so bad.

"It's you, Max. Come on. Nothing's weird when it comes to you."

"Thanks." He tells her sarcastically, now a little mad along with the other bothersome emotions he had going on for him as the young powerless wizard pulled out a shopping cart. Alex sighed.

"Please don't get all upset. You know I don't mean anything by it," she told him sincerely as she crossed her arms over her chest with the grocery list in her right hand. "If it means anything, compared to Dead and Mason you'd be a complete catch if you were a little older and, you know, not my baby brother." Max stopped the cart at the aisle with bread and fruit to look back at her to say something in a very soft, serious but playful tone at once.

"And all this time I thought that compared to the guys you've been with I was just another brick in the wall," he says using a line from the song he was listening to just minutes before. Alex scoffs at him and pats him on the back.

"You've really got to raise your self esteem." Max raised an eyebrow and grit his teeth. Alex was now a bit in front of him, and he got a clear shot at her backside.

'Don't know if this is having self esteem, over confidence or just stupid, but I'll show you. Here goes nothing,' he thinks before smacking his sister on the ass where all of the other shoppers could see, causing her to cutely yelp and drop the grocery list.

"Max! What the hell!" she spat at him quietly but furiously at once, narrowing her eyes at him and looking around the store to see if anyone had seen. Some old people were staring, but turned their eyes when they caught Alex looking back at him.

"There's your self esteem," he tells her with a sly grin. Alex angrily placed her front and bottom teeth together before squatting down in front of him to pick up the list.

"Just keep your hands to yourself, pervert. First thing on the list is a loaf of bread," she says, grabbing the brand that she's most familiar with her family using. An hour later of awkward silence with little conversation, the two siblings paid for the groceries using their mother's credit card as Max pushed the cart out to the car.

"Can you please not ever, ever do something like that in public again?" she asks as she buckled up, but Max knew it was more of a demand.

"Oh, so it's fine if I do it in the privacy of our own home?" Max says with a chuckle, putting groceries away at the back of the car before leaving the cart in the parking lot and hopping in the passenger's seat. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Poor choice of words on my end… you know what I meant," she told him as she turns on the ignition. Max scoffs and tries to play it off.

"Don't flatter yourself; I only did it to get a reaction and to embarrass you," he told her almost with bitter venom in his voice. He felt kind of stupid over it.

"Uh-uh, sure," and soon the two arrived back at home

End Chapter.