“Language,” I scold, sounding just like Dad.
“Look around, Bell; you’re no more an adult than we are. So, if I wanna say motherfucker, I will say motherfucker.”
I’m completely shocked. “Oh my God, Kiki. Really?”
In the dark, from a distance, I hear a whispered motherfucker against stifled giggles. Then another whispered motherfucker, followed by more giggles and many … many more motherfuckers. I feel like I’m camping in the middle of a field, but instead of being surrounded by crickets, I’m surrounded by all the little Steels chirping motherfucker and giggling.
“Enough!” I whisper-hiss at them as I turn on my phone light and flash it around the room, seeing all their faces grinning. “That’s enough.”
Then, like little cockroaches, they begin to crawl toward me. When I’m completely circled by Max, Truth, Justice, Patrick, Tris, Amias, and Brisa, I look at Kiki and arch my brow. “See what you’ve done?”
Oh my God, I am now acting their age.
She says nothing. It’s fucking creepy.
When Justice turns on his phone light so it points up at his face, it’s even creepier. When they all follow suit, I pull my sleeping bag up to my chin.
Justice narrows his eyes. “We made a decision.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.” Max scowls. “You need to Steel up.”
“Steel up?” I ask, trying to hide my amusement.
“They kept saying man up, and we decided it was sexist,” Truth explains.
“Meaning, you need to grow a set,” Kiki clarifies, as if I need her to.
“The way we see it, we’ve let you lead the way long enough, Bell. No disrespect, but you keep it up, I’ll be yanking my chain well into my twenties, and I am so sick of you yanking my chain,” Patrick huffs.
They all look from him to me.
“You got a tattoo, and you come running in here like you’re still in middle school,” Amias states matter-of-factly. “You’re a woman. A beautiful woman who needs to own her womanhood.”
Oh my God, he sounds just like Uncle Zandor.
His sister Tris pipes in with, “I don’t plan to be a virgin throughout high school.”
“She’s not sad because she’s a virgin, Tris; she’s sad because someone gave her a tattoo and botched it up,” Brisa tells her sister, and then they all look at me.
“Is it bad?” Justice asks.
“It’s fine,” I lie, trying to stop the madness and questions. “Nothing any of you—”
“ ‘She is mine.’ Someone tagged her ass,” Patrick snaps, “without consent.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“I was tailing Aunt Carly, hiding behind the post.”
What the fuck?
“This is none of your business,” I scold him.
“Two things,” Justice begins. “One, you’re wrong. What you do affects us. Two, I want his name and address, because that’s fucked up, Bell, and he needs to learn a lesson.”
I laugh. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“We,” Kiki pipes in. “What are we gonna do about it.”
Oh, my good Lord, if Dad thinks I’m hard to handle, he’s in for a rude awakening.
Max grins. “We’re gonna teach him a big-ass lesson.”
I can’t help laughing at that. “Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do? You can’t even drive.”
They all look at Patrick, who gives them all a death glare.
“Please tell me you, at fifteen, haven’t driven. That’s illegal and unsafe, Patrick.”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Kiki draws the attention away from a completely horrifying realization.
“We’ll just rough him up,” Amias states.
“Tag him,” Tris adds.
“It’ll be done quietly, and no one will—”
“Hell no.” Not gonna lie, I’m a little more than concerned now. I don’t know if they’re letting their imaginations fly or if they really would try to do something like this. “You’ll be kids. Nice kids. Nice Catholic school kids who—”
“Can you imagine how terrified the asshole is going to be when we all come for him?” Patrick laughs.
“In Catholic school uniforms?” I scold him. “He’s a man, not a kid. And—”
“You ever see Children of the Corn, Bell?” Max asks. “Kids can be fucking terrifying.”
I have to do something, because they look serious as shit.
“He’s my boyfriend.”
They all gasp.
Shit, shit, shit.
“He was, and then we broke up.”
I am going to Hell, but as I look around, I realize the chances are slim that I won’t be alone for long.
Kiki grins. “Does Dad know?”
I shake my head.
She flashes her phone around to each of their faces. “We keep this between us.”
They all grumble.
She narrows her eyes. “We use it when we need it, but she’s one of us.” Then she looks back at me. “You really need to stop being such a pussy.”
“Doesn’t mean we don’t love you, but really? You just got your Masters.” Max looks at me like I’m the child and he’s not before he walks back to his mattress.
Tris smiles. “What was sex like?”
“You’re like ten,” I scold her.
“I’m like twelve.” She rolls her eyes and stands up then looks down at me. “And I’ve already been felt up.”
I lose my shit.
“All you motherfuckers back here right fucking now!”
They jump, and I get a slight bit of satisfaction from it. Then they all come back.
“Sit.” I point down and, oddly, they do. “Rules were made for other reasons than breaking. You break them for fun, then you’re a bunch of little thugs. You break them because they’re ridiculous, that’s another thing.”
“Well, Dad’s rules are ridiculous,” Kiki interrupts.
I point at her. “You be quiet and listen. No dating, no drinking, no drugs, and no decorating. Dad may be over the top, but he made them for a reason.”
“Mainly because he broke every fucking one of them,” Kiki quips.
“I’m adding one. No being dumb. You sound dumb when you say fuck every other word, not adult.”
“It’s a great word,” Max, my thirteen-year-old brother, defends her. “Very versatile.”
“Okay, Max, go ahead and play the dumb card even harder. But it’s true. Spend a little less time trying to be a thug and a little more time broadening your vocabulary.”
I look at Tris. “No boy deserves to touch your twelve-year-old boobs.”
“It’s not about the boy. My boobs deserve to be touched and admired,” she replies flippantly.
“Dear God, they haven’t even fully checked in yet! They’re at an awkward stage. And,” I huff, “And, you ever look at a penny from the 60s?”
She looks at me like I’m nuts.
“They’ve been handled enough that they lost their luster. You want your tits to look like a worn penny before they are even fully developed?”