Page 35 of Ivy's Venom

“I had some great nicknames for her, too.” Mother chuckles.

“I don’t think we should be saying…” Dad starts.

“I think one was ‘bubble gum head’, right?” Marlana grins.

“Cotton candy brain.” Mother adds.

“Okay,” Dad interjects. “Let’s leave it at that.”

Everyone laughs again and I must say, I do like the sound of it.

“Oh!” Aunt Adri exclaims, “I have a game we adults can play later, have you ever heard of saying your name backwards?”

I’m stunned when I see Mother spit out her wine and when every one of the weird adults start laughing.

“Let’s leave the weirdos.” I grab Sabrina’s arm and Carmelo follows behind us.

“Can you believe it?” I hear Marlana chuckling, “I was shocked when she came and asked me if she could dye it pink.”

“Sabrina!” Sammy calls out. “Come play chess.”

Sammy is one half of the twin duo and he’s quiet, subdued. Then Sonja is the loud one who likes to joke around and play pranks. So much like Mother and Uncle Emmett but reversed. Then they have a little brother Gabriel and he’s really smart for eleven. Next year, they have decided to bump him a grade and that brings him closer to Saxon.

If my brother put as much effort into school as he does his attitude then I have no doubt the fucker would be a genius. It actually scares me that next year he starts high school and I won’t be there to tell him not to be a jerk.

He will have Sabrina and Amelia, also Cameron will be in his final year so that eases my mind slightly. Sonny and Sammy also start high school with him but they for the most part stay out of his way, especially at school. He needs to snap out of whatever phase he’s in because I worry he’ll either be bullied or an axe murderer, it could go either way at this point.

“Is there anywhere we can go to smoke this fat ass blunt I brought?” Carmelo whispers and I groan.

“Thank you for small miracles. I really didn’t think I’d make it out of this in one piece.” I grab his hand and poke my head in the family room. “Cam, family meeting.”

Cameron’s head shoots up and his smile is instantaneous, our ‘family meeting’ either means drugs or plotting.

“I’ll be back.” He says to Amelia.

Both boys follow me out to the back yard, through a foot of snow, and towards the large shed in the back of the lot. It’s a place we’ve made our own and my parents have let us take it over since we were kids. Before that, my mother said it was her uncle’s man den or something. There are still a lot of car pictures on the walls and these are rare cars, and a sweet bar in the corner that used to house our juice, but now we hide beers.

I punch in our code on the keypad and hear the door unlock. We open it and step inside, it’s fucking freezing.

“Turn on the heaters.” I tell the guys. The place is insulated but it’s fucking cold in Whitsborough during the winters.

We huddle on the couch and Carmelo sparks the blunt. Each of us taking a hit whenever it passes in front of our faces. We’re quiet, contemplative of our current situations, and I’m finally starting to feel at ease, the anxiety slowly draining away.

“Who fucked up your face this time?” Cam breaks the silence.

“Some new kid,” Carmelo passes me the blunt. “He goes to the local college and one of the guys brought him. He has a hard left hook.”

“We gotta somehow teach you to fight without someone having to pound you into mince meat first.” Cam mutters and I snort.

“Is that funny?” Carmelo knocks my shoulder, “my face being called mince meat?”

“You’re gonna end up looking ugly when you’re older.” I say between chuckles.

“Whatever.” Carmelo rolls his eyes. “You hit Amelia yet, bro?” He knocks Cam’s shoulder.

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s not like that?” Cam huffs.

“It’s really not like that.” I say before I can stop myself. Fucking stoned brain.

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