I own the story, but not the people.

Unexpected Situations

In the morning I was awakened by the sun light streaming through my curtain-less windows. I was going to have to fix that. I heard my mother in the kitchen talking and suddenly remembered I was supposed to be up early for breakfast with my brother. I grudgingly forced my eyelids open. As soon as I could see I realized there was another set of eyes about two inches from my face, but they didn't belong to a girl.

I screamed and scrambled backwards in the bed.

"You rotten excuse for a brother! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Emmett was too busy rolling on the floor in a fit of soundless laughter to notice that I was serious. At the same time I caught a glimpse of myself in the dresser mirror and realized that I did look fairly comical. My eyes were wide and my hair was scrambled all over my head. The annoyance melted away and I climbed down from the bed.

I realized that I hadn't knocked Rose out of the bed with my sudden jump and thought that must be who my mom was talking to. I strode across the room and headed out the door, giving my brother a swift but light kick to the groin area. He sucked in a quick breath.

"Yeah, keep laughing. I'll get you back." I knew my words wouldn't be taken lightly.

I turned and began running as soon as I saw that gleam in his eye that said, 'I'm about to do something unpleasant to you and I'm going to think it's the funniest thing ever'.

I could hear him gaining on me, but he wasn't fast enough. I reached the kitchen first and used my mom as a human shield.

"What are you doing?"

"Em is after me. I need a diversion. You're his mother, he would never hurt you."

Just then Emmett burst in the room, still out of breath. "Put the old woman down and back away with your hands up."

"Call me old again and I'll give you something to make you forget about whatever she did to you." My mother held a spatula up to his face and stared him down.

I could see that he realized I wasn't moving for now and he gave up on the chase.

"That's fine, just gives me more time to plan my revenge." He strode over to the bar and took a seat beside Rose, then reached over and stole a piece of bacon from her plate.

"The bacon is fine, but touch my potatoes and you're a dead man. " She lowered the fork that she had pointed directly at his eye and returned to eating.

"If it's a death by suffocation with nude body parts I'm all in."

If eyes made noises the kitchen would have been filled with the sound of three sets rolling hard. As it was, we did let out collective groans. My brother had a way of making too many dirty jokes. Most people found it offensive, but I kind of found it endearing. I knew he didn't mean any of it.

"Morning Rose, sleep okay?" I turned to her with a knowing grin.

"Yeah, when you weren't kicking like mule."

"Hey, I only kick when you try to cuddle."

"Hey Rosie, wanna go take a nap? I promise I won't kick you away." Emmett slid up really close to her and started blowing in her ear. When Rose kept her gaze straight forward and pretended to ignore him he laughed and gave up.

"So what do you girls have planned today?" My mom was mindlessly scrambling some eggs.

"Well I've got some empty moving boxes that need to be put away in the shop out back, so I'll probably get Rose to help me with that after breakfast. Then I have nothing planned."

My mom's stirring spoon stuttered in the pan. "Why don't you let Emmett do that for you dear?"

I didn't even have to reply, Em beat me to it. "No can do, as soon as I'm finished I've got to load up some equipment and get it delivered to a job site for next week."

"Oh, well, I was hoping we could go shopping right after breakfast. I want to get to the mall early before all the good sales are over." My mom was a huge fan of the early bird deals.

"Okay, I can get to them later. You wanna come Rose?"

I had obviously pulled her out of some other train of thought, and her eyes blinked before she responded ,"Sorry I was planning on getting some work done around the apartment this afternoon before Vicky gets back tomorrow."

"Okay, well, let me get a shower and get dressed. We can drop you off at your car on the way."

"Thanks."

I showered and dressed quickly. I finished drying my hair and headed back to the kitchen. They were talking when I came back in the room and I caught the end of a question Em was asking my mom.

"...haven't told her yet?"

"Told me what?"

They all turned to look at me. I could tell they were all talking about me.

"Oh, uh, that I might be able to let you help a little this fall. I'm sure I can find something for you to do around the job sites."

My brother ran a landscaping business. He did rather well for himself and had accumulated a wide array of equipment that he now stored out back behind my mother's house. He used her workshop as a make shift office.

"Okay. Whatever. I could use the extra money, and I wouldn't mind working outdoors."

"Great. I've got to get going." He gave my mom a quick kiss on the cheek and then glared at me. "I'll be waiting for the perfect time to get you back. Sleep with one eye open."

I rolled my eyes and waited for my mother to turn her back to me. Then I gave him a quick one fingered wave and smiled as sweetly as I could.

Rose started laughing, which caught his attention. He turned to her and in his best attempt at a seductive voice he whispered, "I'll be waiting for you too. Whenever you're ready, come find me."

"Em get out of here, you are so gross." I playfully pushed him away from her and we giggled in unison.

Em and Rose were as much brother and sister as any two unrelated people could get. She and I had been best friends so long that we all practically grew up together. Em was only two years older than us, and he was such a typical boy. He never "dated" girls, but he did take them on dates before he slept with them, and we had a lot of fun at his expense about it.

Once he was out the door I turned to Rose and asked, "So are you ready to get going?"

"Yep."

We all three piled in to my car and drove to back to the bar. She thanked my mom for breakfast and then threw a quick wave in our direction as she ran up the sidewalk to her car. I hadn't been paying much attention before, but she seemed excited. It seemed odd given what she said she had planned for the rest of the day. Something was going on with her, I would have to ask her about it later.

I was sitting in the living room flipping through the channels on the television trying to find something to watch. We hadn't even made it to the mall and my mom got a call from the hospital. Some more of the nurses were out sick and they were calling in reinforcements. It was only 9:00 am and I had a whole day ahead of me with absolutely nothing to do. I turned off the TV and heaved myself off the couch with a loud huff.

I wandered down the hall to my room and remembered the pile of boxes in the corner that still needed to be put away. I hated cleaning, but I was willing to do anything at this point to avoid the boredom that seemed intent on filling my entire day. I carried as many boxes as I could at one time out on to the back deck. My father's old Gator was parked by the steps and I decided to take advantage of it. After two more trips I had all the boxes stacked precariously in the bed. I cranked it up and headed for the shop.

My parents had bought this place when I was ten. They had saved for years to afford the house they wanted. It was a decent sized ranch house on a little less than 20 acres at the edge of town. Most people used that kind of land for farming, but not my dad. He wanted trees in every direction to provide as much seclusion from the real world as possible. Only the front porch offered a glimpse of the road that lead to our driveway.

The shop was situated a little ways from the house, nestled in an alcove in the trees. My brother must have cleared out a large section for parking his work equipment. He apparently had also added to the shop. It had a new section added to the right side with two huge garage doors on the end. I parked in front of the old part of the building and grabbed an armful of boxes. After doing my best balancing act I made it to the door and somehow got it open on the first try.

I put the boxes down and heard a muffled rustling noise. I reached for the light switch to see what kind of animal had made its home among my mother's junk. I immediately wished I hadn't.

As soon as my mind processed what was happening in front of me I froze. The room wasn't filled with junk as I had expected. It was instead filled with dressers and a bed. A bed that was occupied. Occupied by two people. Two people that looked at me with the same amount of shock and embarrassment that must have been on my face. The only difference was that I was wearing clothes, and they weren't. I had obviously interrupted something.

Before my mouth could start to form the questions about who they were and what they were doing here, a flicker of recognition hit. I knew him. It was Edward.

It felt like my feet had been speared to the floor. I could feel the blood rushing to my head, but immediately all the blood drained from my face as quickly as it had come. It was Edward, and a girl. A very naked girl.

"Oh, shit" was all I could say.

We locked eyes for the longest second in the history of the world before my body finally unfroze itself. I turned and closed the door as quickly as I could. As soon as I could feel my legs again I made a run for the Gator, cranked it , and sped away from the shop as quickly as I could, leaving a trail of boxes behind me.

I made it back to the house faster than I thought possible and ran inside. Then I didn't know what to do. I kept looking for something, anything, anyone. I suddenly realized that this morning my brother wasn't talking about letting me work for him. He was asking about why no one had bothered to tell me that my ex-fiancé was living 100 yards away from me. Because he was obviously living there. The room had been filled with his things and no one would be doing something like that in my mother's shop unless they weren't worried about people walking in on them.

No wonder my mom didn't want me taking those boxes out there. As soon as I realized that I could have avoided the most awkward moment of my life I was filled with anger. I picked up the phone and dialed my mothers work number.

"Good morning, you have reached the nurses line..."

My mother wasn't in her office. I waited to hear the beep and then left a message for her to call me as soon as possible. When I hung up I decided that I needed to get out of there. I started grabbing my things and looking for my keys. I went in to my room, remembering I had dropped them on my bed when I got back this morning.

No, I shouldn't have to go anywhere. This was my house, I wasn't leaving. Besides, I didn't have anywhere to go. I was too keyed up so I flopped face first in to my pillow and tried to slow my breathing. What was I supposed to do now? Was I supposed to hide? Was I supposed to send him an apology note? What?

I had no clue what was happening but I didn't like it one bit. As soon as I calmed down somewhat I flipped on to my back. I stared at the ceiling and realized that tears were running down towards my ears. That was odd. I wasn't crying, but there were definitely tears. Must be from the deep mortification that found its way back in to my stomach. That must be what was making me feel so nauseated. I didn't know what to do, so I just laid there and closed my eyes, and concentrated on my breathing again.

I must have been tired from the late night and early morning because the next thing I knew I was waking to the sound someone rummaging in the kitchen. My mom must have come home from work. I was immediately forming the myriad questions in my head as I stormed down the hallway. I turned the corner in to the kitchen at the exact same moment that the refrigerator door flung open.

The door to the refrigerator sometimes stuck, and had to be opened with some force. This was apparently one of those times. My head turned just in time to see the stainless steel door before it made impact with my eyebrow. And I had thought this day couldn't get any worse.

I felt my body stumbling backwards, and heard the sharp crack as my head hit the tile floor. I saw a face leaning over me before everything went black, but I was coherent enough to know it was the last face I wanted to see at that moment.