Stephanie pushed Paul into the bathroom and slammed the door, "what's wrong with you? How much have you had to drink?"
He leaned on the bathroom counter and thought, "I don't even know," he slurred, not that much I don't think," he looked in the mirror and squinted, "are my eyes bloodshot?"
She crossed her arms, "let me see," she too noticed his eyes were red, "did you smoke pot?" She put her head down, "I thought you said you weren't gonna do that anymore after you got arrested for it? Its not fair that you're making me deal with this."
"I didn't smoke anything," he rubbed his eyes, "I haven't even left your sight Stephanie, and you would know if I did, because I would smell like it. Do you smell pot? Cause I don't." He held his stomach and turned around to the toilet to throw up, just barely making it.
She put her hand over her mouth and turned away, "are you okay? Who was making your drinks?"
"My mom was, I think," he kneeled over the toilet and spit, "all the kids are asleep right? And my parents?"
"Yeah," she helped him up off the floor, "you choose Paul, the full sized bed in the bedroom or the couch in the den, where do you want to sleep?"
"The couch is fine, you and Madison can have the bed," he flushed the toilet and opened the door, "goodnight," he paused and turned around, "I didn't drink that much, but I feel like I got hit by a truck, I'm sorry you had to deal with me this way," he walked to the den and plopped down.
The next morning, Stephanie woke up and went to the kitchen to get Paul a bottle of water, just as she was about to turn the corner, she heard Leona and Laurie quietly arguing, "yes mom, I may have given him a little bit more vodka than I should have, but it was for his own good, he was being such a jerk to everyone yesterday." Laurie scoffed.
"That wasn't all you gave him, Laurie his eyes were bloodshot, like he went out and smoked pot or something, and I know he didn't." Leona pressed on, "what else did you do Laurie?"
"Okay, so I may have also given him a cookie with pot in it, it helped him get to sleep didn't it?"
"So its your fault my husband's been puking all night," Stephanie pointed her finger at Laurie, "why would you do that to him, he's your brother, what the hell is your problem?"
Leona angrily looked at her daughter, "was this all over Kevin? Did you sedate your brother so he would like Kevin?"
"Maybe," she looked away, shamefully, "mom, you know how Paul gets, he's so overprotective of all of us, I didn't mean for him to get sick from it or anything."
"You selfish bitch," Stephanie yelled, "Paul just wants to look out for you because you're his little sister, and you can't accept that because you're so self-absorbed in forcing everyone like Kevin," before she could go on, Laurie reached out and slapped her across her face, a surprise for all three of them. She held her cheek, in silence, and turned around, right into Paul's chest.
He looked up at Laurie and scowled, "I already did like Kevin, but now I'm starting to not like you so much," he put his arm around Stephanie and walked with her to the bedroom, "are you okay?"
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I shouldn't have said that to your sister, I feel like such a horrible person right now," she sniffled, "I was just going to get you some water."
"Either way, she shouldn't have hit you," he hugged her, "do you see why I didn't really want to come down here? I knew there was gonna be some kind of drama and I just didn't feel like dealing with it. Stephanie, stop crying, you had every right to be mad at her, you shouldn't have had to deal with that, you had to put me to bed last night, it shouldn't have been like that."
She wiped her eyes and sat up on the bed, it was silent until Madison started fussing in her crib, making Stephanie tear up again as she picked her up, "can you get me a bottle of room temperature water please?"
"Sure," Paul got up and left the room, running into his mom in the hallway, "excuse me," he tried to walk past her but she dug her nails into his arm, "what? I have to get Stephanie a bottle of water for Madison."
"Your sister and I are gonna go for a walk, your father and Kevin are taking the kids down to the beach to go swimming, Kevin asked if they were taking Madison, or if you guys wanted to go with them."
"Um, when are they going? Cause Stephanie's gonna feed her and I guess they could take her with them, Steph and I can just meet them down there in a little while."
"I'll let them know," she patted his cheek and smiled, "I'm sorry about Laurie, she said she's just having a hard time with Kevin and her kids, Lily is the only one who seems to like him."
"It was still fucked up that she had to take it out on me, I didn't have a problem with him," he grabbed a bottle of water and went back to the bedroom, "Kevin and my dad want to take Madison to the beach with the rest of the kids, when you're done. I said we would go down there in a little while."
"What about your mom and Laurie?" She added the water to a bottle of powered formula, "are they going too?"
"My mom just said that they were gonna go for a walk, which usually consists of my mom yelling, they'll be out for awhile I'm guessing," he opened his suitcase and grabbed some clothes, "I'm gonna take a quick shower, be right back."
As he was getting dressed, Stephanie knocked on the bathroom door, "I have a question for you, can I borrow one of your T-shirts to wear over my bathing suit?"
He opened the door and looked her over, speechless, she was in a black bikini, "you packed my bag, just go find a T-shirt," he tried not to stutter, or stare, "why are you gonna wear a T-shirt?"
She blushed when she caught him, "because, I feel like I'm showing a lot more than I should, you know why I feel that way?" She waved her hand in front of his face, "you haven't quit staring at me since you opened the bathroom door," she cleared her throat, "forget it, I'm not wearing a bathing suit, hurry up and do your hair so I can have the bathroom," she walked to the kitchen, not knowing he was right behind her.
"What do you mean you aren't wearing a bathing suit?" He inched closer, backing her up into the kitchen counter.
She looked away, flustered, it was the perfect setting, she was in a bikini, he was shirtless after just taking a shower and his hair was sopping wet, dripping down his chest and stomach to the elastic of his sweatpants, "what are we doing?" She bit her lip, "Paul," she whined as he stood in front of her, barely an inch between them.
"What?" He came a little bit closer, before brushing his lips against hers, "am I making you nervous?" He smiled, putting his hand behind her ear, "why is it that when you kiss me, you don't get all skittish like this?"
"I don't know, maybe because we're not in our house, and its so wrong where this is going right now, and I'm trying to figure out in my head the ways we could make it right."
"Where is this going?" He continued to stand over her, knowing she was just as sexually frustrated as he was, "what's wrong?" He leaned down and kissed her again, moving his hand to her lower back and his lips to her chest, covering everything in between. After a couple seconds, he lifted her up onto the counter.
She whimpered his name again, "Paul, not in the kitchen, let's go to the bedroom," she giggled as he picked her up again and carried her towards the bedroom, "do you think Kevin's parents keep condoms here? Cause I don't have any for you."
He put her down on the bed and held his finger up, "I hope they do," he turned around and ran towards the master bedroom, "what am I doing?" He asked himself, putting his hand on his forehead, "I can't do this, I can't…." he turned around to see Stephanie in his T-shirt.
"What can't you do?" She looked away, "this time you led me on, and now I'm upset. I tried twice to get your attention, and both times you walked away from me. I kinda thought you stopped fighting yourself."
"I did for a second," he sighed, "but this is just weird Stephanie, I know you too well and I wasn't supposed to fall for you."
She smiled, "so that's really how you feel? How long have you felt like that?" She pushed past him into the bedroom, "you think they'd be in the nightstand? Or maybe the second drawer of the dresser, where you keep them."
He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He went to the bathroom and opened one of the sink drawers, "how do you know where I keep them?"
She opened the dresser and grabbed the box, "because that's where you keep money and all your extra car keys, I just know," she stared at him, "how long have you liked me?"
He turned red, "awhile," he took the box from her, "why have you been in my second drawer?"
She smiled and shrugged, "how long is awhile?" She tugged at the waist of his sweats, "what? Now I'm the one making you nervous?"
He smiled, "awhile is a long time," he turned her around, "wait, do you hear my mom talking?" He pushed her to their bedroom and threw the box of condoms into Stephanie's bag on the bed, "we can't do anything here, I should have guessed they would come back now."
She sat on the bed, watching Paul slam he bedroom door shut. The front door clicked and someone came stomping down the hallway, past the door, to the master bedroom, "I think that was your sister," they heard things being thrown around, then everything went silent, "Paul, go check on her."
"Why do I have to check on her? I'm the one mad at her," he stood against the door, "I'll bet she's acting like a little brat just because my mom 'talked' to her."
"Fine, she slapped the shit out of me, but I'll go talk to her," she got up and pushed him out of the doorway, "Laurie?" She peeked out and walked around the corner, "Laurie, are you okay? Paul and I heard you throwing stuff around in here," she slowly entered the master bedroom, seeing clothes all over the floor. She didn't see Laurie but she felt Paul's hand on her waist, "what are you doing out here?" She whispered, surprised he followed her.
"I figured we should face her together," he cleared his throat, "Laurie, are you in here?" He noticed the bathroom door was shut, "are you okay?"
"Just leave me alone, everyone hates me around here," she was packing her stuff loudly, "you guys hate me, mom and dad hate me, my kids hate me, I'm surprised Kevin hasn't told us to leave yet."
"We don't hate you," Stephanie smiled reassuringly, "I'll admit we were mad at you, but we never hated you. You made a mistake, a really big mistake, but its okay now, I think we're over it," she looked up at Paul, "are you over it?"
"Sure," he shrugged, receiving an elbow to his ribs, "yeah, I'm over it," he cringed when Stephanie put her hand on his thigh. He grunted and moved it away, "what are you doing?" He whispered, trying to keep serious, "stop."
Her hand gently brushed over the front of his pants, "Laurie, maybe you and Kevin just need some alone time with the kids. Without your parents or us. Make some plans that you can do with just all six of you guys."
Paul could only think of how bad he wanted to go back home and have Stephanie all to himself. He groaned and walked away, wishing Laurie would just tell them to go home so she could do what Stephanie told her, "I'm taking a nap," he went to the bedroom and closed the door.
"Stephanie, I'm sorry, I should've never done what I did last night, and what I did this morning. It's just that, Paul's always been overprotective of me, and it was always hard for me to get him to like someone I liked. He hated my ex-husband, and I mean, hated him."
"Well I don't have an older brother, but I have two younger step-brothers and I know how that goes," Steph motioned to the duffel bag, "why don't you just go and unpack your stuff again. Tonight, Paul and I, and your parents will take all the kids out to dinner, while you and Kevin have your 'alone time', sound good?"
"Alright, fine," Laurie smiled and took all her clothes back out, "where are you guys planning on going?"
"I don't know, we'll think of something. I think you and Kevin should go on a little date of your own. I've heard of this nice little restaurant by here, I can call and make a reservation for you."
"Oh Stephanie, you don't have to do that. You're so sweet," she reached out and hugged her, "I'm happy to call you my sister-in-law. When I was married to Jim, his sister hated me, I don't even know why, I tried to be so nice to her and she treated me like crap."
"I'm gonna go call that restaurant for you, and then wake Paul up, I'll bet he's not even sleeping anyway," Stephanie walked away, gently knocking on the door, "get dressed, you and I and your parents are taking the kids out today."
He laid in the bed, his hand covering his face, "who's idea was that? Where are we going?" He grunted as his questions went ignored, knowing he had no valid argument, "okay, fine."