Page 107 of Shelter Me

Wow.

I didn’t know that about siblings. How they can do all kinds of things like swimming and camping and singing out of tune to Issy Woo songs and being completely silly. And safe. And together. I’ve never had this: family, siblings. It’s new.

I had only read about this only in books. I had read in books about huge families gathering in sprawling ranches and mansions with little kids running half-naked around swimming pools and glamorous cocktail parties by the sunset, but I had never experienced any of it. I had been to many glamorous gatherings, many of them here in Greece, but no family ones.

This is the kind of vacation I’d only dreamed of as a kid. With bonfires and fireworks and lazy days getting a hint of that Greek summer tan and with brothers. Two of them.

Of course, we are no ordinary siblings. After the events of the Rotten Royals, we have grown much closer than other brothers and sisters would be. We’ve had to, in order to survive. But the Rotten Royals are no more.

Instead, my brothers and I, have started a charity and organization called ‘The Royal Siblings’. It supports single mothers, poverty and literation. We are already planning building schools and care centers in at least five countries, and we have plans to expand as soon as I’m done with school. Before exams started, I was working nonstop at this, with Angel and Hector shouldering their parts as well. I have worked hard all my life, but this cause is so different for me. It’s something I believe in, It feels like I was born for this.

But taking over the throne? No way. I’m too scared.

…

It’s the night before Issy Woo’s concert, and I’m trying to pick my outfit while Hector and Angel are playing video games on the couch. I turn around to hold a sparkly jumpsuit in front of the mirror, taking my eyes off them for literally a few seconds, and when I turn back to look at them, they’ve paused the game and they’re pushing each other.

I open my mouth to yell at them that they are idiots, but it turns out that, suddenly, I can’t speak. And then, out of nowhere, I start crying.

The second they notice, they both stop. Angel’s face goes white and Hector runs to me.

“Liv? What’s wrong?” his voice is trembling with a hint of rising panic.

“You just…?” I’m crying so hard I can’t talk. This is so embarrassing. I turn my head away, hot tears dripping down my chin, and then I feel Hector’s hand warm on my shoulder.

He gently turns me to face him. Angel is peering at us over his shoulder, his face a blank mask of shock.

“Why are you crying, Liv?” Hector asks in the low voice he uses when he is really, really scared. This is so stupid it should be funny. Itisfunny. But that only makes me cry harder. I think I’ve finally snapped. I’m going crazy. “Talk to me,” Hector begs. “Liv? What’s up?”

“You,” I say, wiping at my cheeks. I am so embarrassed right now, there’s nothing to do but tell the truth. “You are what’s up.”

“Me?” Hector’s eyebrows shoot up to his buzzcut.

“No, not just you…”

I swear, he turns around immediately, looking ready to start pushing Angel again. Angel is still frozen, staring at me crying.

And that’s when I start laughing. But I don’t stop crying either. So I am crying and laughing at the same time. Perfect. At some point, all the crying and laughing at the same time gets to be a little bit too much, even for me, and I slide awkwardly to the floor. Hector and Angel abandon their excitement over a second fake wrestling match, and run over to kneel next to me, crowding and pushing each other.

“Jesus Christ, Liv, are you having a panic attack?” Angel asks, sounding freaked out and confused.Join the club, buddy.

“No, you idiot,” I answer him through laugh-cy hiccups. “I am having brothers.Brothers.Do you even know what that means?”

His eyes go wide and he clears his throat. “I… I don’t, actually. I didn’t until now.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” I say.

“Nor me,” Hector murmurs.

“Apparently, it means that you two start to push each other at some random point during the day,” I say. Angel snorts, and then tries to hide his face inside his elbow, but I can see that he’s laughing his ass off. Laughing at me. Great. But, guess what? I’m laughing at him too. “That’s what brothers do. They start pushing each other. And.I. Have. Brothers.”

I am yelling at this point.

“Yes, you do. You have brothers!” Hector yells back.

And Angel, who has been laughing at me, and possibly at Hector as well, randomly jumps to his feet, and starts yelling at the top of his lungs, full on yelling, with veins roping his throat, chest caving in, body tensing:

“Brothers!” Then he goes full-on Viking, and runs over to the veranda. He just plants his bare feet on the marble, drenched in moonlight, and he just starts screaming: “And I have a sister! Sisteeeer!”

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