Max (A Carter Brother series Book 4) (9 page)

I chuckle, not taking my eyes from him. “Seriously, though, my parents are great. The only mistake they’ve ever made was ever having me,’’ I tell him, not meaning for the truth to slip out. As soon as the words leave my mouth I know there’s no way to take them back.

This is the first moment since running away that I’ve desired to tell someone. But I know as soon as the truth about what I did leaves my mouth, I’ll have no one. And as much as I promised myself I’d make myself suffer for what I did, I still yearn for that warm touch, for that love blanketing me. And I know in an instant of telling the Carters and their family, I’ll lose every single one of them.

“I don’t believe that for a second. How could you be anyone’s mistake?’’

Tell that to my brother who is now 6ft under,
I whisper to myself. I shrug not knowing what to say or wanting to answer him, scared I’ll reveal more than I intend to.

“Enough of the depressing anyway, I could just go listen to Myles talk about college for that shit. Tell me, you ever had an orgasm?’’ he teases, lying back on the bed with a cocky grin on his face. I follow, lying down next to him and just laugh at him, the earlier tension easing from my body.

“By myself or someone else?’’ I ask teasing him back.

That’s how we fall asleep, talking about nothing important and getting to know each other. It turns out the arrogant boy has more to him than just his muscles and looks.

The sound of someone letting one rip jolts me awake. I roll over, glaring at a sleeping Max. He’s lying flat on his back again, although, this time he’s got one hand down his boxers and one on his bare chest.

That’s when the smell catches up with me and I begin to gag, pushing Max off the bed. He falls with a loud thump before jumping to his feet in fright.

“What? Where did he go?’’ he shouts, looking around the room with an alarmed expression. I cover my mouth to smother the giggle. He’s shirtless, standing in Bart Simpson boxer shorts, hair looking like he’s been electrocuted and wearing the most adorable facial expression I’ve ever seen on him.

I’m about to fake waking up when a loud scream comes from down the hall, scaring me half to death.

“Myles, how could you?’’ Kayla screams, her voice full of sadness and anger. Her raised voice is followed by heavy footsteps stomping down the stairs.

Max and I look to each other before jumping off the bed and running down the hall and down the stairs to where they’ve stormed off to.

“How could you do this? I’ve got an interview later on and I can’t go looking like The Bride of Chucky,’’ Kayla cries.

I turn the corner just in time to see Max’s handy work. Laughter erupts from my mouth before I have a chance to cover it. Max has drawn raindrop shapes around her eyes in black and somehow he’s managed to colour them in. How he did that in the darkness is incredible, it’s a little smudged but that’s most likely from moving around in her sleep. It’s the mouth that is the funniest. He’s drawn a full blown smile across her mouth in red and even in a temper she looks as happy as Larry.

Max starts laughing like a hyena and Kayla and Myles turn to glare at him. My laughing soon stops, not wanting to be on the receiving end of their glares.

“I’m going to get a drink and then I’m leaving,’’ Kayla snaps at us all before storming off into the kitchen.

“What did you do?’’ Myles grits out the second Kayla is hidden from view. His eyes are hard and completely focused on Max, his look deadly and ready to strike.

“Me? Nothing. What did
you
do?’’

Myles sighs looking at his brother for any indication that he’s lying. When he can’t figure him out he turns to me, but I just hold my hands up, palms facing him, and back away without saying a word.

Kayla walks in still looking as happy as can be, her eyes narrowing on Myles. “I’m going home; I don’t think I’ll be back later,’’ she tells him shortly, storming off. Myles follows her, but she turns back around quickly, stopping him and giving him a sad expression. “Myles, I’m supposed to be storming off, I can’t do that if you’re following me,’’ she sighs.

He nods, his head letting her go and once again she turns around squaring her shoulders before storming out of the house. Myles looks confused once again as he watches the now closed door.

“Is it bad I’m wondering if she still made me lunch?’’ Myles asks before shaking his head.  “Never mind. Oh and Max, if I find out you had anything to do with this I’ll pay you back.’’

Max grins. “Now, now, Myles, you don’t want to go playing around with Karma now do you? You know how much of a bitch she can be,’’ he winks before heading into the kitchen. I follow a few seconds later, wondering why there isn’t a full blown punch out.

This family is so freaking weird.

If I had done something like that to my brother he’d go ape shit right there and then and cause a massive riot.

Then again, with the strength and love this family have for each other, nothing should surprise me.

Walking into the kitchen I’m surprised by the mess. Chippy wrappers are littering the sides along with other bits and bobs, the sink is piled up with dishes and I’m pretty sure the bin needed emptying last week.

“I take it Joan didn’t get around to the kitchen?’’ I ask, peeling a wrapper away from the stool.

“Yeah, she did it yesterday morning. This is from last night,’’ he says, absentmindedly looking into the fridge. He starts shoving things around before grabbing the loaf of bread out of the bread bin and I watch disgusted as he makes a jam sandwich. No one should be forced to eat jam, especially on a sandwich. I used to hate it when the school dinner ladies made us eat them.

Opening my mouth to give him shit, I watch as he shoves the sandwich into a container before throwing it into the fridge. He then continues to throw a foiled – what looks like a baguette – under the sink. I’m stunned to silence then watch as Myles rushes in freshly showered and dressed.

“You could have told me it was half ten, dickhead. I’m late,’’ Myles snaps at Max.

“You’re pregnant?’’ Max gasps wide-eyed but an unamused Myles ignores him, heading over to the fridge.

“Shit. Max, I’m going to make you pay for doing what you did. I know it was you. Call it twin intuition or just common fucking sense but I know you did that to Kayla and now I’m the one paying for it. She switched my sandwich to jam,’’ he moans, slamming his head against the closed fridge door.

“Your girlfriend makes you sandwiches?’’ I ask shocked. They’re like a married couple. Jesus! They’re barely out of nappies.

Ignoring me, Myles walks over to Max, shoving him against the sink. “I’m going to get you back,’’ he yells, right before he slams the jam sandwich at Max’s chest.

“Well then, that went well,’’ I mutter, jumping off the stool.

“Where are you going? You want to lick the jam off me?’’ Max winks and I look to him in disgust.

“There is nothing powerful enough on this earth to get me to put jam in my mouth.’’

“Oh, but the licking me part is still in? That’s cool,’’ he nods, grinning.

I groan, walking towards the front door, listening to his bare feet paddling after me. “See you later, alligator.’’

“In a while, crocodile,’’ he shouts back, making me smile.

“In an hour, sunflower,’’ I chuckle, carrying on the rhyme my mother would always say.

“Fuck, I got nothing after the crocodile,’’ he shouts when I reach Joan’s. He’s still standing on his front porch and I turn around laughing. “But an hour it is.’’

“Go away,’’ I laugh. My fist rises to knock the door when I’m pulled in by a frantic looking Harlow.

“Um, morning,’’ I wave, feeling uncomfortable. As much as I’ve gotten close to Max in a couple of days, the others, not so much. Jesus, a couple of days? It feels like I’ve known him longer. It’s weird. Then again, an hour in Max’s presence and it will feel like a month.

Snapping back to reality, Harlow’s mouth is moving but she’s talking so fast I don’t understand a word coming out. She’s pale and looking frantic, her eyes moving everywhere in the room, but at me.

“Slow down,’’ I break in.

“Sorry.’’

“Okay, now tell me what you said, but remember, slowly,’’ I coax her. She looks around warily before grabbing my hand and leading me up the stairs. A snarky remark about ‘
this is too soon in our relationship’
wants to escape, but I hold it in. Judging by Harlow’s spooked, pale expression, I can tell whatever it is that she needs to get out is serious. I’m just wondering out of all people she has around her, why it’s me she’s chosen to talk to. I’m actually feeling pretty privileged.

It could be because you’re outside the circle,
my thoughts tell me, but I tell them to fuck off and go away.

She leads me to my room and starts pacing the tiny space. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I wait patiently for her to get her shit together. She’s takes a few more minutes before taking another deep breath.

“Okay, so a few months ago, a month before you arrived, I’d been really ill with the flu. You know, the normal flu.’’

Cause there’s a deranged flu,
I think as I watch her start pacing around again. It’s starting to make me feel dizzy, though, I don’t voice that.

“I thought I’d just gotten that back again. You know with you being ill and all that. I didn’t think much of it, but then this morning, Malik asked me when I needed to get my birth control prescription. Everything started to hit me, but now I’m panicking. I did some onlineresearchanditsaidthat...’’ she rushes out without taking a breath.

“Wow, wow, wow, slow down there,’’ I warn her, grabbing her shoulders and sitting her down next to me. The door flies open and Denny rushes in out of breath. She looks between us and her shoulders relax.

“There you are. When you texted saying it was an emergency I rushed over as quickly as I could.’’

“I called you two hours ago,’’ Harlow shouts, standing up. Denny pauses, taking a step back. She looks to me for answers but I shrug my shoulders not having any clue as to what’s going on. All I’ve managed to get so far is the flu.

“I had to do my makeup...’’ she pauses seeing Harlow’s stormy expression and back peddles. “I mean I had to feed and change Hope.’’

“Whatever.’’

“So? What’s the big emergency?’’

“As I was saying, Malik asked me this morning about my birth control pill prescription. You remember when I was ill a few months back and had to go on antibiotics?’’ she asks Denny.

“Yeah,’’ Denny urges, nodding her head.

“Well, Malik and I had unprotected sex,’’ she blurts out, covering her eyes.

My eyes shoot to Harlow and then down to her small, flat stomach.

Holy fucking shit on eggs.

“And? You always have unprotected sex,’’ Denny deadpans and I feel like I’m getting in the way. They don’t need me, a complete stranger, here while they talk about unprotected sex. More to the point, I don’t need to be here to listen to them talk about unprotected sex.

“My God, will you listen, I WAS ON ANTIBIOTICS,’’ Harlow shouts, her face bright red. “I did some research and antibiotics mess with the pill, so they don’t work. I haven’t had a period now in two months. I was due on yesterday.’’

“Holy crap,’’ Denny grins and then begins to jump up and down like a lunatic squealing. I watch, feeling out of my element, and decide to move around them to my clothes and grab some clean ones before discretely get changed behind the wardrobe door.

“This is not a time to be happy. I can’t be a mom. I’m not old enough to be a mom. I can’t even look after myself, let alone a baby for Christ’s sake. What the hell am I going to do? I’ve got my whole life ahead of me,’’ she cries, tears begin falling down her face.

I rush to get ready, not wanting them to notice me dressing when Denny smacks Harlow in the arm.

“I’m a mom and we’re the same age. What are you trying to say?’’ Denny asks offended.

Oh no! Please don’t let there be a cat fight, please don’t let there be a cat fight
, I chant as I put on a clean pair of socks. There’s one thing I can’t stand and it’s girls fighting. They don’t fight fair and they pull fucking hair. With someone who has a lot of it you can see why I hate girls getting into fights. That shit hurts.

“I don’t mean you, I mean me. You’re mature and it’s different.’’

“How is it different? We’re the same age, we both have boyfriends and, may I add, you’ve been with Malik a lot longer than Mason and I have,’’ Denny starts, counting them off her fingers.

“Because it just is,’’ Harlow cries. “How can I bring a child into this world when the mothers in my family leave their child in one way or another? Gram’s basically let mom walk out of her life and then my mom left me; she died and she’s never coming back. She’s not here for me to cry to, to ask advice to and I need her. I need my mom,’’ Harlow sobs, falling to her knees on the floor. “She’d know what to do. She’d help me.’’

“Hey,’’ Denny speaks softly, bending down to kneel on the floor. I sit on the floor next to Harlow, needing to show her my support. I didn’t know her mom had died and it saddens me, but it’s mostly seeing Harlow looking distraught. She’s always so well put together. Seeing her like this is heartbreaking.

When Max said they had crazy parents running in the family I presumed that’s why Harlow lived here with Joan, not that her parents were dead. My eyes water, filling with unleashed tears as I listen to her sob into her hands, wishing I could do something to make it better. But I’ve got both of my parents. Not in a way I can go and see them, but they’re alive so I have no idea how Harlow must be feeling right now.

“It’s going to be okay,’’ I assure her but she doesn’t hear me over her own tears.

“Harlow, you have all of us. I know we will never replace your mom but you’re not alone. Do you really think your grams wanted your mother to go? No. And do you really think you’d leave a baby? Your mom died tragically, Harlow; it wasn’t her fault or your own. I promise everything will be okay.’’

“How? How can you promise that? I couldn’t bear to let a child feel the emptiness I feel everyday from not having my parents in my life. And then knowing I was the reason for that pain? I don’t think I can do it.’’

“Yes, you can,’’ Denny says sternly, looking pissed. “Don’t you dare do this, Harlow. I know you’re scared and you have every right to be, but think of all the love and life you’d be giving another human being. Isn’t that worth it? Isn’t it worth knowing yours and Malik’s love made something so beautiful?’’