Invitation

I was on crunch time. My report was due tomorrow and I just started the project this morning after waking up and finding out that I neglected to do it for four days, because I was too busy getting Brandon’s business homework done instead of my own. Bad enough, all of my courses for becoming a doctor are extensive and work-heavy. Now I need to pull a ten-page essay on “Why cocaine is so much worse than marijuana and their effects on the human body.” out of my ass in less than ten hours. So I researched and typed as fast as lightning while listening to the low hum of the study hall. Well, that is until the peace was so rudely interrupted.

"Hey Bax, you're coming to the ski Resort tonight, right?" Confused, I stopped typing my report and looked up at the blue-eyed man.

"For what?" I returned to typing and occasionally shot a glance at him while he made his way around the table I was sitting at. Taking a seat next to me.

"My birthday duh." I stopped what I was doing to question him further. He just brushed his dirty blonde hair back

"But your birthday is Monday..."

"Yeah and?" He shot me a cocky smile.

"Today is Wednesday. What about class Brandon?"

"So? We have straight A’s; one or two zeros won't hurt." I looked back down at my laptop slightly annoyed and resumed my typing.

"No. I have straight A's, you have me and Trey who you pass homework to whenever you "don't feel like doing it", it's annoying." He obviously didn't like that.

I was typing away when he slammed the top of the laptop down just enough to tag my knuckles and make me more annoyed.

"Babe. Come on. It's just a few days. You'll have your laptop. And I'll be paying for everything." He was giving me a look and talking to me in a way that said ... I'm not asking.

So, I folded... like I always do.

"Are you going to do your own homework?"

"Does it matter?" I swallowed the spike of annoyance that welled up inside me. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself a bit.

"Yes, it matters. I pushed his hands off of my laptop and checked the screen. It was fine. I made eye contact only to catch Brandon's pure annoyance written across his face.

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Fine. Are you coming?"

"Gimme one good reason why I should go."

"Babe I'm trying to get laid on my birthday..." I stood there quietly for a moment expecting him to start laughing or say "got ya" but it never came. I quickly brushed off my disappointment.

"... I'm still waiting for that good reason." Brandon stood and pulled me to my feet and into a very uncomfortable hug.

"Bax ... baby. I can't leave you here alone, a pretty thing like you will be swept away by the next big thing as soon as I leave campus. Come with me. Please?" All my faith in hearing a good reason disappeared with the completion of the sentence.

"…"

"Thank you, you're the best!" then dropped all physical contact with me immediately. He then began to walk away

I counted ten seconds before the twin Idiots came bursting into the study hall and what does Brandon do?

Hype them up

"Hey Kristen, Donny you guys coming to my ski resort birthday party?"

"Duh."

"Fuck yeah!" Brandon shot a glance back at me only to receive a glare… he knows how rowdy they get and still chose to rile them up in a quiet place. He quickly ducked out of the study hall and raced off in the direction of the gym. As if right on cue, the idiot duo started hooting and hollering as if they were attending their personal rave, boisterously making their way over to me. Of course, the unnecessary noise made nearby students who were trying to focus upset but when some random kid turned in his chair and told them to “shut the fuck up” the pair halted. Donny, an individual who wakes up and chooses violence every morning, chose to throw her large Pepsi Burger King drink at him, the top burst off and the icy beverage coated the poor man.

… Should have stayed quiet.

When he stood to confront Donny she didn’t flinch; she just stood there waiting for the first swing… she knew she was strong and loved showing that power every chance she was given. Kristen smugly smiled and calmly came to rest on Donny's right shoulder almost as if she was saying “please make our day.” The angry man pulled off his soaked sweater and stormed off leaving all of his material for his friends at the table to scoop up and rush out after him.

Now that the altercation was over, they continued over to me continuing their unnecessary volume as they made their way. I instinctively saved a copy of my work to the cloud under a different name and waited for them to make it to the table. I tried my luck with locking the computer, but it was too late.

Kristen swiped the computer from me, took a seat on the table beside me and proceeded to delete any work that was currently on the screen, and then started playing computer games. Donny Pulled the left two legs of the chair I was sitting on forcing me to slide off of the chair and stumble back a bit to avoid falling to the ground. Once I was far enough out of the way she released my hair and calmly took a seat. I rolled my eyes as she sat down and kicked her feet up on the table, they both did this without saying a word to each other. The study hall was finally able to return to its low hum meaning they put on a show just to bring attention to what they were going to do to me. I stood there quietly trying to swallow my anger before saying anything, it wasn’t working as quickly as I would like so of course to everyone else it just looked like I was taking their shit.

These two were known as the twins on campus because of how they look and acted, but the catch was that they were born from two different families, hell Kristen was older than Donny by four months regardless they chose a day between their birthdays as a day to celebrate and call each other “twin” or “sister”.

The only reason they “tolerate” me is because... they like Trey or more like Kristen likes him and Donny supports her sister. Trey has already expressed his dislike multiple times, but she still clings to the hope that he will change his mind, clearly showing that she had no plan in changing or giving up.

"Give my computer back already." I was unamused and a bit angry.

"Who the f-” Donny stood up to confront me but was interrupted by Kristen.

"Sis, I got this. Take a seat." She turned to face me directly, still clinging to my computer. She has broken three laptops already by dropping them on purpose or full-on throwing them out windows. The last time we were all in the same car, I didn't hear Trey ask me a question and she took it as me ignoring him and decided it would be a good idea to throw it out of the car window on the highway!!! So I was a bit on edge with my fourth new computer in a row.

"Look, just give it back I don't have time for you two dumb fucks." I heard Donny clamber back to her feet after just sitting down and close the distance between me and her sandwiching me between team toxic. I didn't need to face her to know she was about to hit me, but I didn't flinch like I said I was unamused, lucky for the both of us the hit never connected because Kristen shot her a venomous look that said "Sit. Down." over my shoulder

She did exactly as she was warned and returned to her seat.

Kristen then slowly and calmly closed the distance between us and grabbed my face to which I slap away, unlike everyone else I was not afraid of them the two of them are insufferable, but Donny alone is reserved and tolerable it's Kristen that brings all the chaos

Kristen seized me by my hair and pulled, I was completely pissed off at this point I seized by her throat and sneezed hard

"Let me go or I'll smash the laptop." Kristen croaked out but the fact that she could speak pissed me off more I wanted her to pass out. I put both hands on her throat and squeezed her grip on my laptop and my hair slipped but I kept squeezing. I will see a red at this point maybe that's why I didn't ever hear the laptop connect with the floor I was taking all of this week's aggression out on her I went so far as to throw her on the ground before someone grabbed me in a bear hug and spun me around my arms were pinned at my chest and all I could do was try to squirm and wiggle free

"Take your sister to the hospital now" his voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't think straight

"No, I wasn't finished" I started to wiggle harder which forced him to squeeze me tighter.

"You are an intermediate boxer with a brown belt in judo, I don't think so." I could feel his deep voice vibrating in his chest against my back

"Let me go!" that was when he leaned down and whispered in my ear

"Take it down a notch, Freckles. she isn't even in the same building anymore." I heard the nickname and stopped struggling immediately but I was still very angry after a few moments of allowing myself to calm down he let me go

"So, you still respond to freckles huh?" I finally moved forward enough to turn around and see his face. It was my high school best friend Trey. I answered his question with silence and a red face.

"Ha, look at you! you're so cute! look at how red you are." at this point I was cherry tomato red both because We were still talking about it and because his hands were sweetly placed on either side of my face cupping my cheeks

I wanted to die.

Trey leaned in closer and stayed about two or 3 inches away which made me blush worse if that was even possible.

"D-Don't look at me like that." I forced my face to look at the ground while he chuckled.

"Why are you stuttering…" he cupped my face and made me look at him again. He licked his lips and smiled "I didn't even do anything yet."

"What?!" he leaned in and before he could connect, I was yanked away. Trey stood there frozen for a few seconds before relaxing his body.

"Am I interrupting?" Brandon's icy blue glare was piercing Trey. I don't think he realized that he was still gripping the back of my clothes, but I stayed quiet, nonetheless?

"Cool it B, I was just messing around." Brandon roughly released me and spun me around cupping my face and placed a rough emotionless kiss on my lips

"Don't." he turned his attention to me.

"And you! I said the next best thing meaning better… not the next biggest failure. I didn't think your standards were so damn low." he then forcefully pushed me out of the way and stormed off towards the door where he waited.

I looked at Trey who was shooting daggers at Brandon and watched his jaw twitch a few times before I said anything.

"Look I'm sor-"

"Bax let's go!" my eyebrows scrunched.

"Where are we going?"

"The resort! Are you slow? It's a long drive!" I shrunk a bit after being screamed at in public so to avoid drawing any more attention I quietly gathered my things and rushed over to Brandon Trey reached the door A little after I did.

"Where are you going?" I guess I was the only one still walking so I stopped a few steps down the hall.

"I'm getting in the car so we can go to the resort…" then he leaned in close and whispered obnoxiously, "Or are you going to do your own homework."

Brandon sucked his teeth, grabbed me by the hand, and dragged me all the way to the car. I was way shorter than him so, his walk was my jog meaning right now I was being forced to jog behind him. Because he had the arm my bookbag wasn't on I couldn't put my book bag on properly so, every eight or so steps I would have to readjust my bookbag mid-stride.

Once we made it to the car, he threw me in the front seat and slammed the door. He then turned around and stormed to the other side of the car and grabbed Trey by the shirt and left side of his hoodie before he got into the car. He looks like he made some type of declaration of war because when he let Trey go, he was smiling. Trey can be a bit of a troublemaker when he wants to be, and I had a feeling he wanted to be. I tend to need to be his voice of reason when he starts trying to take unnecessary risks.

I endured two hours of music-less silence which at the time was amazing. I was able to get my work done but it's been 10 minutes since I finished my ten-page essay that I started at 4 o'clock this morning. I have to admit it, it was nice to not be typing, honestly but the droning hum of the engine and the wheels on the asphalt was driving me insane. Brandon was focused on driving and was clearly still upset. I looked back at Trey. He was still smiling and listening to music through his earbuds.

I turned back around and rolled my eyes. Besides boxing, Trey and I were currently taking a botany class as an extracurricular. The heavy textbook pushed against my legs every turn, so it was hard to forget. I debated it for a while, but I had four pages of work to do for that class so if I just finished it now, I would be free until Sunday when they assign new work. I smiled a bit. Brandon was possessive but I think it's because he cared. The hard thing to get over is his short fuse. His temper always gets the best of him. I shook away my spiraling thoughts and smiled again. If I finished my work now, I would be able to spend some time with Mr. Grumpy. I smiled bigger and began working on the botany homework.

"Hey, trey..." I waited for a response and noticed that he was still listening to music. I turned to flag his attention and was met with his sleeping face. I turned back around and sunk a bit in my chair. I was three questions from being done and I knew it would bother me all day until I got my answer. So, I sighed and braced myself. I turned and tapped his knee. He just calmly opened his eyes and blinked the sleepy daze away. It was a nice change from waking up Brandon who treats any wake up as a rude awakening. I signed for him to pull an earbud out and watched as he did so.

"I'm stuck on question twenty-seven of our botany homework did you do it?" he just shook his head yes, I didn't think much of it

"Can you help me?" When I said this, he reached for his notebook and tried to hand it to me. I pushed it back politely and shook my head.

"I don't want to see it. As soon as I get it, I'll be able to do it on my own, can you just explain it?" his smug smile stayed persistent as he stared at Brandon through the center rearview mirror… I was confused, I shot a look at Brandon whose jaw was now twitching and was shooting occasional angry glances through the rearview mirror.

When it finally hit me, he snapped at Trey.

"... Did you- "

"Just answer her!" I was startled by his sudden outburst. Trey just chuckled deeply in an I won sort of way, then turned to me.

"I'll give you a hint... The answer is somewhere stem down."

I repeated the hint in my head a few times before I noticed it. He was right! He said it had something to do with the roots which brought my attention to the nightshade and ginger plants the question referred to, knowing that I was able to quickly answer the last three questions.

"Got it thanks!" I twisted to face him.

"No problem." he made full eye contact with me when he said it but when he caught Brandon's gaze he smiled silently scoffed and returned to looking out the window.

I was now done with all my work so I decided to take a nap and get ready to replace Brandon so he could rest up a bit too. I drifted off to sleep effortlessly.