Page 10 of Discord
“My point is that I didn’t marry your dad for money. I married him because he was hot.”
I rolled my eyes. Carmen and her damn mouth. She had no filter.She would love Mia, I couldn’t help admitting.
Her voice lowered, resembling a genuine truth. “Just because I want to protect my son’s future doesn’t mean I don’t understand James’ reasons for leaving you with everything. Your father felt terrible about ruining our friendship, and he hated that you didn’t have a relationship with your brother. He knew you’d eventually do the right thing and meant for this to gap the bridge between all of us. Now, what time should we expect you for dinner?”
With heavy resignation, I informed Carmen I’d likely come over after hell froze over. I hung up, once more staring at Mia’s hopeful eyes in those photos, the sight of it suffocating me.
Later that evening, I visited Carmen and my half-brother, David, for the first time in years.
I’d never show up empty-handed at someone’s home and brought Carmen the best broomstick money could buy.
I made polite conversation just like my mother had taught me and expressed my curiosity over why dinner wasn’t being served out of a cauldron.
I even offered to help, asking if Hansel and Gretel were in the fridge or tied out back so I could start seasoning them.
Carmen bristled and rolled her eyes throughout my polite attempts at conversation. She was fucking impossible.
David, on the other hand, was tolerable. His newfound obsession with girls, breasts, and the general female anatomy ruled the dinner table. The tween wouldn’t stop asking questions about it.
When dinner concluded—and I primed to thank Carmen for feeding me little children’s intestines—David hugged me out of the blue, asking when I’d return next. Before I knew it, my calendar app was open, and the next dinner had been scheduled.
Like everything else wrong in my life, Mia was also responsible for this horrifying turn of events.
Brandon
A frantic Ravenran down the stairs, whooshing past me as she bolted out of the house. In her frenzy, she didn’t notice me less than five feet away. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Mia dashed upstairs only moments ago. Perhaps she had taken my advice to discuss her reservations about college, which would explain Raven’s hysteria.
After our run-in last week, Mia crowned herself the Ice Queen and returned to her quest of avoiding me at all costs. Therefore, if she was upset or angry, it was her fucking problem. I had better things to do.
Ten seconds later, I took the stairs two at a time and let myself into Mia’s room.
I gritted my teeth. How did she always get the best of me before I realized it?
“Mia?”
No response. They might have spoken in Raven’s room, and Mia would return shortly. I waited, inspecting her room in the interim. It was the first time I had seen it in years.
The prominent asset in Mia’s room was her gray bookcase. The shelves were decorated with trophies from various competitions. There were books, too, though no fiction or light reading material. Otherwise, the room was a mess. A white comforter was discarded on the floor, piles of clothes were off to one side, and Mia’s desk was a war zone. Books about stocks and investments were spread out on the table. There were open tabs on her computer regarding business bylaws and divestiture. It seemed Mia had taken up a new interest. Every time she pursued something new, she turned scatterbrained, and her worldly possessions suffered from the neglect. She might benefit from an organizational system, though I’d hate to suppress how Mia functioned.
History was made of eccentric personalities, not cookie-cutter replicas. The most talented minds had authentic personalities with one too many interests and abnormally brilliant ideas. There was a reason why those gifted intellectuals were tortured souls. Others didn’t understand them, and they lashed out because they didn’t know how to fit into someone else’s mold. Mia thought outside of the box because of her unsystematic ways. If anyone forced her to become uniformed—like her family—it’d stifle her authenticity.
Nonetheless, the disarray wasn’t easy on the eyes. Unable to look at the atrocity of her room, I picked up the comforter from the floor and organized the desk riddled with crumpled papers, books, and pens. I collected her clothes and dumped them into a hamper, pausing when a black material caught my eye. I grabbed the delicate item from the hamper and moved my finger over the fabric.
Fuck.
It was a goddamn lace thong that had been in contact with Mia’s intimate parts when I hadn’t been in months. My resolve had already been breaking daily. Anything could push me over the edge, and it just did. Without thinking, I brought the scrap of fabric to my nose and almost groaned when I smelled her on it.
Irritated by my obscene actions, I threw the fabric into the hamper. What the hell was wrong with me? When had I become this person? If any of the Sinclairs caught me, or Milo found out how I wanted to tug at my cock with his little sister’s panties wrapped around it, they’d lose their minds. For once, they’d be justified in their dramatics.
Shaking it away, I realized Mia should have returned by now. I exited her room and into the long corridor toward Raven’s bedroom. My pace quickened when soft cries floated into the hallway. Following the sounds, I found Mia sitting on Raven’s bedroom floor. She was crying.
“Mia, are you okay?”
Mia looked up, mortified. I approached her the way I’d handle a wild animal because that’s what she looked like. Hair tangled and frizzy and eyes brimming red with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Hey.” My features softened. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She quickly wiped away the tear streaks.
