My Brother's Bestfriend Is My Mate

Preparing

It was a week before the party and I still hadn't spoken to Nox. It's been about two weeks since I begged my brothers to let me come to their parties. It's not just the parties that get me so rattled up, it's the fact that they don't think I can handle it. The party is like a symbol. I'm 17 and they don't trust me.

Nox hadn't been around the house since that day. Alex, Axton and Axel said he'd be at the party. They've been to see him, but if I had to guess, I'd say he's avoiding me, but I don't see why he would be.

I did some online shopping, clothes shoes and whatnot. Just to prepare for the party. I had an idea in mind, but I wasn't really a girl who liked wearing dresses and high heels. It was a special occasion for me really, so I thought I might as well wear a dress, but I wasn't going to wear heels. I'll find some nice shoes or something later.

I went downstairs to make something to eat for my brothers and I. Spaghetti bolognese it looked like, as I walked into the kitchen and realise there was not much else to make.

We take it in turns to cook. Axel loves to cook, but it's not fair if he's always cooking tea. Even Nox cooks a meal when he stays, he makes a great chicken korma.

I start boiling the spaghetti in the pan and cooking the minced meat.

"Alright, AJ?" I heard behind me. It was Nox, I recognised his deep impactful voice everywhere.

"Alright, Nox." I said to him without facing him, I was still angry with him honestly, but I just didn't have the effort to start an argument. It is what it is.

"You don't seem too happy?" He said, but asked more like a question.

"I'm fine." I replied, barely giving him the time of day.

"What's the matter?" He pushed for an answer.

"Nox, I'm fine can you just please leave me alone?"

"No, you're moody. I want to know why."

"I'm not moody I'm just not in the mood. I'm making tea."

"You're always dancing when you make tea, something is bothering you, tell me?"

"It's you, okay? You're bothering me. Why did you do it? Were you just messing with me all this time? Because if you were, that's just sick!"

"Messing with you?"

"Yes! Messing with me. Alex sends you to try and trick me and you do it? After pretending you like me?"

"AJ, it wasn't like that."

"Well, tell me then. What was it like?"

"Well, I mean, It was a test, and you did exactly what I thought you would do. That's the only reason I went through with it, and I do like you."

"Ohhh, sure. So what if I wanted you to keep sneaking into my room? What if I wanted to sneak around with you? Would you have told my brothers that?"

"Well, no, it was a test. They were listening. I don't know what I would've done if you told me that, but I knew you wouldn't and you didn't, so drop it."

"Fine, leave me to cook then."

Nox rolled his eyes and sat on the sofas. All three of my brothers came jumping down the stairs, Axel and Axton started to play pool, while Alex and Nox started chatting amongst themselves. Call me nosy, but all I wanted to do was listen to their conversation.

I finished adding all the ingredients to the bolognese and drained the spaghetti and called everyone to the dinner table and we ate. Nox kept staring at me all through the meal, I tried my best not to make eye contact, but when we did, he'd wink at me. Even though he made me melt, I tried my best to let him know he had no control over me, that I wouldn't just melt under his feet.

"So, AJ, are you ready for the party?" Axel asked me. Alex huffed at him.

"I think so, I bought some outfits to try on before the party." Alex laughed at my reply.

"What's funny?" I asked him as I took a mouthful of food.

"You're concerned about what to wear?" He asked me, rolling his eyes.

"Well, it's a party. What should I be doing instead?" I asked him, with a bit of sarcasm in my voice and food in my mouth.

"She's not ready." Alex replied fairly angry.

"She is ready." Axton rolled his eyes.

"She's thinking about what to wear, she's not taking this serious?" Alex spat.

"Taking what serious? Why does it feel like there's something I don't know?" I raised my voice.

"You'll find out at the party." Came Nox's voice, as if without a care in the world.

"Find out what? Will someone tell me what I'm supposed to be preparing for?" I asked again, very angrily, waiting for a response but no one spoke.

"How is she supposed to prepare Alex when she has no idea what the party is really about?" Nox's voice came suddenly.

"She will be ready, Alex. Trust us. " Axel looked at his twin brother.

"She's not like us, She'll never be one of us." Alex replied.

"We don't know that." Nox said in my defense.

"What do you mean, I'm not like you? What does that mean?" I shouted at my brothers, but everyone ignored me.

"AJ, go to your room!" Alex demanded.

"No, I'm stayi-"

"ALEXA-JICE, GO TO YOUR ROOM!" Axton roared standing up from the table, interrupting me. I don't know what came over me, but something told me to leave the dining room and go to my room.

I sat on my bed, enraged. What were they hiding from me, and why did I have to stay in my room?

All I could hear was shouting downstairs, I couldn't hear exactly what was said, just loud voices. All of them argue, including Nox. I heard crashing and a loud banging and then the back doors slammed and everything went quiet.

I walked down the stairs to see what had happened, the dining table was flipped and all the food was sprawled across the floor. I pushed the table right side up and started picking up the broken plates and food.

"Shouldn't you be in your room?" I heard Nox say behind me. I was startled at his sudden voice.

"Nox? You scared me, I thought you went with them."

"No, I find it's easier to leave them to it when they fight."

"Fight? What do you mean, fight, who?"

"Axton and Alex." He said confused.

"Well, we have to stop them. Why are they fighting, they never fight."

"They always fight, AJ. I'm surprised you didn't know."

"Well, where are they? We need to stop them! "

"They're far away by now. Here let me help." Nox said as he helped me clean up.

"They can't be that far away, we can stop them."

"Leave it, AJ. They need to get it out of their system and then they'll be fine. Axel is there anyway. He will stop it before it gets too serious."

"What do you mean? You're acting like they do this all the time. How are you so calm? And why are they fighting in the first place?"

"They do fight all the time, I'm surprised they've hidden it from you for so long, and they're fighting about the same thing they always fight about, you."

I paused for a moment. Are they always fighting over me? That was a big problem for me, I never want them to fight, especially not over me. I don't want to be the source of their problems.

I didn't ask more questions. I stayed there, silently cleaning up. I grabbed the mop and started mopping up the tomato sauce from the floor after we had picked all the food up. Nox went and sat down on one of the sofas, waiting for my brothers to get back.

Suddenly, he got up and sprinted out of the house, as quickly as he could, quicker than I've ever seen anybody run. I ran to the door and put my trainers on and decided I'd follow him, it was still quite light outside. I ran in the direction I saw Nox run, but he vanished quickly. It was cold outside I quickly warmed up running though.

We lived a bit further than the small town, it might be a 15, 20 minute walk from the town center. We were surrounded by lots and lots of grassland, it was huge. I kept running but suddenly ran out of breath, I stopped to regain it and carried on running, before I saw four guys walking up the hill towards me. One was being dragged, it seemed like two were carrying him.

I ran closer and realised it was Axel who was unconscious, he looked dead he was covered in blood, clothes torn. Axton and Alex were carrying him with his arms around their shoulders. Nox then took off back the other way.

As I got closer to them, I tried to help carry Axel inside. Axton moved away and I grabbed Axel by his arm and rested it over my shoulder and walked him to the house.