C4

***

My parents were always busy with their work. But at least once a week we sat and had long dinners together. I cooked my famous meatloaf, which they all enjoyed. Even Travis was into it, though he didn’t want to compliment me. But the contented look on his face and his second servings were enough to tell me how much he loved my cooking.

One night, I ate alone because both my parents were out of town. Tom was probably hanging out with Travis or on a date. Yes, there were days like that when we didn’t even see each other at all.

Just as I was about to finish up my dessert, Tom walked in, followed by his devil of a best friend.

“You ate alone?” Tom asked.

“Yup.”

“You should have called me,” he said. “We could have picked you up and gone out.”

“And eat with him?” I asked, pointing at Travis. “No, thanks! I’d rather eat alone.”

“Of course! I’m sure you find my body more appetizing than food—you wouldn’t be able to eat at all,” Travis murmured, and I glared at him.

“Cut it out, you two,” Tom said to both of us. Then he turned to me. “Next time, okay? Call me. I would come home no matter where I was or what I was doing. I don’t want you to be alone.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. I was so thankful that in spite of my parents’ oblivion to their kids and their family, I had the best brother in the world. And I knew I would never be alone.

I leaned forward and hugged him. “I love you, Tom,” I whispered.

He kissed the top of my head. “I love you too, princess.”

Behind us, I saw Travis’s mouth curve into a half-smile. I couldn’t believe that he looked sort of touched at the sight of our familial bond. But then again, maybe the reason why he was close to Tom was because only an angel like Tom could stand a devil like him.

Early the next Friday, Tom barged into my room. “Pack your bags!” he said, waking me up.

“We’re running away?” I asked lazily. “What did our parents do?”

“They’re sending you back to the orphanage where they got you,” Travis said with a smirk when he appeared by the door of my room.

“Is that the same orphanage where your parents got you? How come I didn’t see you there before?” I shot back.

“Because I got adopted the first day I was there. Some of us are just too adorable. You…you stayed there for at least five years,” Travis said seriously. How could he insult and joke so convincingly?

“And what happened then? Your parents realized it was a mistake to adopt you?” I asked, raising a brow at him.

His face hardened for a second, and then he disguised the hurt look on his face with another smirk. “No. I decided I didn’t want them.” His voice told me that I hit a nerve…something he was sensitive about. Come to think of it, why did Travis practically live with us?

“It must be a relief for them, huh,” I said relentlessly.

He raised a brow at me. “Probably. But that’s bad news for you, isn’t it? Because every day I can’t stand to be with my folks only means I’ll be here to annoy you. And I prefer that any day.” Then he winked at me and walked away, not giving me a chance to retaliate.

I turned to my brother, who wasted no time getting my luggage bag out of my cabinet and filling it with my clothes. “Tom, remind me again why you picked that punk to be your friend?”

I stood up from my bed and shoved Tom away from my cabinet. He had already packed half of my things for me.

“Travis is a good guy, Brianne. Actually, more than good. He’s great,” Tom said. “He has a troubled home. We’re the only family he knows now. So please, it would mean a lot to me if you tried being nice to him.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you don’t ask him to be nice to me?”

“No,” Tom shook his head.

“That’s unfair!”

Tom sighed. “I have my reasons, little sister,” he said. “I love you both. But no. I have seen the charming side of that guy, and you’re the last girl I want to see it.”

“I’m sure I cannot see what doesn’t exist.”

Tom chuckled. “It does exist. You would be surprised how soft-hearted Travis can be. But let’s give it to him. He prefers to be a tough nut, and I think he’ll need that more to survive in his world.”

“Where are we going, anyway?” I asked.

“To Travis’s grandparents’ beach house.”

“Why?”

“Because he invited us and we’re all going.”

“Mom and Dad, too?”

Tom nodded and I smiled. It had been a while since we all went away together on a family weekend. Suddenly, I got excited. After ten minutes, my bag was ready and Tom was carrying it down the stairs.

“It was really nice of you to invite us, son. We could use some time to unwind from work,” my father was saying to Travis.

Son?

“You’re welcome anytime,” Travis said.

Then I saw my mother pull Travis into a hug and gave him a kiss on the forehead. I groaned. It’s like he was a real son to them already. Travis stared up and saw me glaring from the top of the stairs. He smiled devilishly and winked at me.

Oh, this is going to be a long weekend!

I realized I’d left my phone in my room. I went back for it while everybody loaded our bags into the cars. When I came out, I saw my parents in our car with Tom behind the wheel.

“Brianne, your brother will drive for us. My leg has been cramping since this morning,” my dad said.

“It’s okay,” I muttered and started to get in.

“No, sweetheart. You ride with Travis,” my mom said.

“What?!” I asked in horror, and I knew Tom was biting his lip to keep from laughing. Traitor!

“It’s not nice to make him drive alone, considering he’s inviting us over, after all,” my mother said.

“But Travis is a menace!” I complained. “I hate him!”

“Stop that, young lady! He’s like a son to us and a brother to you. He’s a part of this family, too,” my mother scolded me, and I knew she was disappointed to know my real feelings toward Travis.

“Come on, sis.” Tom smiled at me encouragingly. “You promised me you’d be nice to him.”

“You forced me to promise,” I muttered. I sighed and headed toward Travis’s car.

As soon as he saw me approaching, he got out of his car and opened the passenger door for me, smiling like an angel, knowing that my whole family was watching.

“It’s an hour and a half drive, sweetheart,” he whispered so only I could hear. “Two, if I drive especially slow.”

I glared at him.

“You’re not scary when you glare. In fact, I think it’s cute. It makes me want to you annoy you even more.”

I groaned and stepped inside his beautiful car. If I wasn’t too busy hating him or the fact that I would be riding with him, I would have stopped to admire his sleek two-seater Porsche.

The minute he stepped inside the car, I caught a whiff of his cologne. It smelled fresh and masculine. Not overwhelming, but rather refreshing. The inside of his car was almost dust-free. The interior was made of sleek leather and smelled like ocean air freshener. What a surprise! Travis was a neat freak, not just about his hygiene, but also about his belongings.

I leaned forward to turn up the volume of the music, letting him know that I was in no mood to talk to him during the ride.

But just as soon as the music got louder, it immediately became quiet in the car. I raised a brow at Travis. He didn’t look at me. Then he pushed some button on his steering wheel and the volume turned up a little louder, and then a little lower. He looked at me and smiled.

“Sorry, cherie. I control everything in the car. Including the radio,” he said smugly.

I sat back in my seat, quietly fuming. I was trying my best not to let Travis get to me.

He played rock ballad songs. Surprisingly, we had the same taste in music. I decided to hum to the tunes of the songs I knew. Just as I was lightening up, Travis switched to the next song midway. Then, just before the chorus played, he switched to the next song again. He did this for the next five minutes, not finishing an entire song, just switching from one to the next after a few seconds of playing each.

I knew he was trying to annoy me. I glared at him again. “You’re very immature, you know!”

He grinned at me. “News flash! I’m sixteen, you know.”

“I hate you!” I groaned.

He chuckled. “I know. And I love it.”

I sat back in my seat and turned to look out the window again, trying to tune Travis out. He was quiet beside me. Thank God he decided to stop being an ass. He settled for a U2 song that I really loved. And soon, I was drifting off to sleep.

I felt a gentle tap on my cheek. When I opened my eyes, I saw Tom peering down at me.

“Wake up, princess.” He grinned at me.

We had stopped. I turned to my left, but Travis was no longer sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Are we here?”

“Yep,” Tom said. “Come on! I wanna surf!”

I sat up straight in my seat and realized I was warm. A jacket was draped over me and the seat was reclined so I could lie back and sleep more comfortably.

I looked at the jacket I was wrapped in and knew it wasn’t one of Tom’s. There was embroidery on the back. TJCross. I knew the scent all over me was familiar. But wait—did Travis do this while I was sleeping? How? And more importantly, why?

I put his jacket aside and stepped out of the car.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw the huge house in front of me. It was a breathtaking three-story mansion. I could tell that even my parents were impressed.

“Who lives here?” my mother asked Travis.

“Maids, butlers,” Travis responded, helping my brother unload our bags from the cars.

We were met by two men who immediately took the bags from Tom and Travis. They greeted Travis in Spanish and he spoke to them fluently, impressing—I mean, surprising—me. I didn’t know he could speak a language other than douchebag.

The inside of the house was even more impressive. It had a huge staircase on the sides that led to the second floor. The front of the house faced the beach and was covered in glass. As soon as you stepped out, there was an infinity pool with a perfect view of the ocean.

I was speechless. I wondered why he spent most of his days in our modest home when he had all this?

A woman about the age of my mother greeted us.

“This is Mrs. Beets. She will take care of everything you need,” Travis said to us. “Mrs. Beets, they’re my family. You know Tom. These are his parents, Mark and Alicia. Please take them to their rooms.”

I realized that Travis didn’t even introduce me, which was really another one of his ways to annoy me. He was dismissing me as unimportant.

I looked up the lady shyly. She was smiling at me.

“Hi,” I greeted her.

“Welcome, Miss Brianne,” she said, which surprised me.

“How… how did you know my name?”

“I know everybody the young master cares about. It’s my job,” she whispered to me. She led me up the stairs, with my parents following behind us while Tom disappeared with Travis.

I shook my head. “He hates me. He doesn’t care about me,” I said to her, not letting my parents hear.

She smiled again. “He cares more than he shows. Be patient with him. The young master is a fine boy. He may be mischievous on most days, but he loves you and your family and cares about all of you a great deal. He wants you to feel right at home here.”

She showed my parents their room, which seems to be the master bedroom. It was huge—they could hold a party there.

She led me to another room. It was beautiful. The bed was freshly made and covered by bright green matching bedcovers and pillows. The couches were also in different shades of green, as well as the paintings on the wall.

I smiled. I loved green. But nobody seemed to notice that. Tom always bought me pink stuff. And my mom would always get me pink duvets and pillows.

The huge bathroom was all white, with a huge Jacuzzi sitting beside the glass wall. I gasped because the bathroom didn’t look private at all. I could see through to the beach, which meant anybody could see into the bathroom as well.

“It’s one-way vision, just in case you were wondering,” I heard Travis’s familiar voice behind me say.

I turned around and found that Mrs. Beets was gone. I didn’t hear Travis come up behind me.

Then he flicked a remote and the window suddenly turned dark, as if it were covered by wallpaper.

“Either way, it’s private,” he said.

“Where did you come from?”

“My room,” he replied.

“Your room?”

I looked behind him and found that there was another door there that led to another bedroom, which meant we were sharing a bathroom again.

I glared at him. “Yeah! I feel right at home already,” I muttered. I turned my back on him and closed the door behind me, but not before I heard Travis’s laughter as he went to his room.

I must have fallen asleep because the next think I remembered, the other side of the bed sank as somebody sat on it.

“Wake up, princess,” Tom said to me. “You’re wasting the day. Come on! Put on your swimsuit and let’s go. Even Mom and Dad are already having barbeque outside.”

“Is Travis there?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll stay here all day, thank you!” I muttered.

Tom laughed. Then he stood up and pulled me.

“Come on, lazy head. Travis will always be Travis. He just teases a lot and makes fun of you. But he cares about you as much as I do. Just think that you have two brothers. One is nice, the other is naughty.”

I groaned and headed to the bathroom with my swimsuit.

“I told Travis to make your room pink,” Tom said, looking around. I bet Travis deliberately changed it to green to annoy me, not knowing that I really like green and not pink. Ha! The joke’s on whom now!

I went to the beach with Tom. I wore a green and yellow floral dress over my two-piece suit and shorts.

Travis was laughing with my parents. When he looked up and saw me, his laughter died in his throat.

“You like nice, sweetheart,” my mother said.

“Thanks, Mom.”

When I looked up at Tom, his brow was raised and I saw the daggers he was shooting with his eyes…directed toward Travis. Travis immediately turned his back on us and went back to the grill to get some food.

What was that about? It was probably the first time I saw Tom act like that toward his best friend. Before, it was like that devil couldn’t do anything wrong. Well, I can’t say I wasn’t happy to have him side with me for a change.

Tom and Travis surfed while I was left with my parents. Travis was a pro at surfing. It was like he actually lived there along with the waves. It was only recently that Tom tried surfing, too. He was good. But still not as good as his best friend.

I turned to my parents. They were eating barbecue. I noticed that they were barely speaking to each other. They were not even looking at each other.

“This is a nice house,” I said.

“Yes, it is!” my mother agreed immediately.

“It was nice of Travis to invite us over,” my dad said almost too eagerly. It was like the two of them were struggling to find a topic to speak about. Geez! What happened to my parents?

“How was your room, sweetheart?” my mother asked.

“Nice. All green.”

“Well, it’s only for the weekend. Green is a neutral color. I’m sure this house wouldn’t have pink stuff since Travis doesn’t have a sister.”

I like green! I screamed in my head. It’s as if even my own mother didn’t know me.

“I’m glad Tom and Travis became friends,” my dad said.

I’m not!

“That kid may have everything his heart desires, but he doesn’t have family.”

“Where are his parents?” I asked, not that I really cared, simply out of curiosity.

“His father is the head of Cross Magnates, one of the biggest companies in the country,” my father explained. “His mother is the head of one of the biggest magazine chains in the country. They are very rich. You can tell from all this property and the cars that Travis drives. I guess they’re out of the country most of the time. I think his mother lives in France more.”

“Yay! That makes us lucky! We get to keep Travis!” I said sarcastically.

My mother sighed. “Sweetheart, I know you two don’t get along well all the time. But over the years, we’ve learned to love Travis as our own. He needs a family. He needs us. Your brother adores him. I hope you try to get along and sort out your differences. I don’t think this setup is going to change anytime soon.”

I sighed in frustration. At that point, I didn’t think my setup with Travis and my life was going to change, either. But I guess life can be a total bitch, huh?