I rolled my eyes.
“I did fine Mom.”
She gave me a stern look.
“You know I hate it when you do that.”
“Sorry.”
Just then, we heard a loud crash that came from the back yard.
“Darn those boys, I’ve already told them twice to be careful out there.”
They’re assholes Mom, what do you expect?
“You know how they are when their friends come over and they’re playing basketball.”
“Would you go out there and tell them to come inside.”
It took everything in my power to keep from rolling my eyes again.
“Okay.”
I got up and walked through the living room towards the door that went to our backyard. Three years prior, my Dad made the mistake of pouring a concrete slab next to the pool and putting up a basketball net. Since then, our back yard became the official ‘hardwood’ of Glendale.
I opened up the door and stepped outside.
“What do you want runt?” my oldest brother Todd said, which elicited chuckles from my two other brothers and their friend.
“I want you to stop acting like an asshole for a couple of minutes,” I said saucily.
That elicited even bigger laughs and a couple of high fives from the other onlookers. My other older brothers Scott and Jim really looked up to Todd, so when I got in a good zinger like, it felt especially good.
“Mom’s pissed because you’re banging into the garage again and she wants all three of you to go inside so she can chastise you.”
“Well, I know she didn’t say pissed, she probably said something like darn it or dang it,” Jim said, smiling.
“Trust me, she was thinking assholes, she just didn’t say it.”
That got all three of my brothers smiling. My mom is very religious and never used profanity, no matter how mad she got. The rest of us swore enough to make up for her, though.
“Don’t touch the ball while we’re gone runt, or I’m throwing you into the pool when we get back.”
“Whatever Todd, just get inside and take your admonishment, and since your retarded ass probably doesn’t know what word means, I’ll explain it to you when you get back out here.”
“You’re getting thrown into the pool as soon as I’m done talking to Mom,” he said, before shutting the door.
I rolled my eyes.
Yeah right.
“How are you doing today Melanie?” Todd’s friend Anthony said softly.
I shot him a dirty look.
“Isn’t there another house around here you could be terrorizing?”
“Hey, take it easy. I was only asking you how your day was.”
I looked into his soft, gentle eyes and realized I was acting like a bitch for no reason. He wasn’t one of my smart ass brothers, and he always treated me really well.
“I’m sorry Anthony, I had a good day, how was yours?”
We made small talk for a few minutes which gave me an opportunity to sneak some glances. It was a hot day and he had taken off his shirt to combat the searing Southern California heat. He stood in front of me wearing only gym shorts and high top sneakers. It was the first time I really noticed his long, lanky, tanned body which was covered in sweat from the strenuous physical activity. He was actually kinda… sexy. He had short, wavy brown hair and he was sorta handsome, in his own way. He was way older than me, but maybe… just maybe…