Oh Brother - S01 E02

2 years ago

Oh Brother - S01 E02

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 2

Continues..

I was sitting on the black sofa in the living room, reading manga. My mom and Stephen were out, and so was Christian. For the first time in two weeks I was home alone. The thought had never made me happier.

Like I expected, things had been awkward and quite annoying around the house. My mom was intent on making the four of us one big, happy family, so she would make the four of us spend an extraordinary amount of time together doing random activities.

Just yesterday, we had baked as a family – which was quite awkward because only Stephen and my mom would speak. Flirt, would actually be the better term for what they were doing. That left Christian and I alone to fill the cupcake trays with batter together. Neither of us spoke as we did that, we didn’t even look at each other. I was glad to see that he was planning on leaving me alone, just like I had asked him to.

Suddenly, I heard the doorbell ring, causing me to jump a little in surprise. Putting my manga down, I walked to the door, hoping it was my mom. Turned out, it was Christian.

Once I opened the door, I turned around quickly and walked back to the couch. Falling onto it, I picked up the book and began to pretend he didn’t exist.

“Autumn.” I heard him say.

I looked at him, trying to make myself look as annoyed as possible as I raked my eyes over him. Christian was wearing a black leather jacket over a white v-neck. He was also wearing black skinny jeans. I didn’t understand why he always wore black. It wasn’t like he could ever look like a bad boy with his child-like smile.

“Yes?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Our parents are coming to pick us up in about thirty minutes,” he said, sounding tired. “We’re going bowling as a family.”

I sat up quickly. “We are?”

For the first time in a while, excitement filled me. Seven years ago – when my dad was still alive – was the last time I had gone bowling. It had been a family tradition with my dad, but the second he left us my mom couldn’t stand bowling. I couldn’t believe we were going.

“Yeah,” Christian replied, confused.

Finding myself smiling, I stood up. My heart was pumping in a good way for once.

“Wait,” Christian said cautiously.

I looked at him, suddenly remembering I hated him. My pumping heart soon began to pump with hatred as well.

“Let’s try to have fun together today, okay?” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “How about no. You have fun with your family, and I’ll have fun by myself.”

“It’s your family too.”

Once again, I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t in the mood to have this conversation again.

“You know you look like your mom,” Christian suddenly said.

My eyes widened slightly at that. No one had ever told me that, and I found it hard to believe.

My mom was beautiful. The type of beautiful that drew people in. She had long, wavy chocolate brown hair, and hazel eyes. Her body was long and thin, but she had the perfect hourglass figure. The only similarity we had was the same hair and clear skin. Other than that, I had chocolate brown eyes and was short. My figure was also less curvy than hers. There was no way I looked like her.

“No I don’t,” I eventually said.

Without waiting for a reply, I turned around and rushed upstairs. Now away from Christian, excitement began to fill me again. Bowling was one of the many things I missed from my old life.

*****

We were all standing in front of a bowling alley, waiting for Stephen to input our names into the computer that calculated points. I was staring at the area in awe, taking in the place I missed so much. It was quite empty to my surprise, but I enjoyed that because the place seemed to be just mine today. Mine and twenty other people I didn’t care about.

“Okay, we’re ready to go,” Stephen said, approaching us.

He was wearing a big smile, as he usually did. My eyes softened at the sight and I felt sorry about the fact that I was about to destroy him and the others at bowling.

“I made the order of names by age. I’ll go first and Autumn will go last.”

I huffed to myself, feeling annoyed. My excitement had been pumping through my veins for the past hour, and I just wanted to start bowling. Stupid Stephen.

“You did that so you could go first,” my mom said, amused.

Stephen winked and walked away. My mom giggled and I rolled my eyes. For the past two weeks she had been giggling at everything Stephen said, and I was close to banging my head against a wall. I was glad to see that Christian didn’t seem that comfortable with their flirting either.

Moving away from the wooden lane, the three of us watched Stephen walk back with a bowling ball in his hand. He looked dead serious as he walked, seeming to be in the zone. I found myself becoming amused.

Once he reached the lane, he winked at my mom again. She giggled again, and I found myself annoyed again. Then, Stephen pulled his hand back and rolled the bowling ball forward with a sudden speed. My eyes widened in amazement, but then it hit the gutter and I found myself smiling as Stephen walked back to my mom with his head hung low in shame.

When he reached my mom, she pecked his cheek and said, “You did well honey.”

He shook his head. “I got a gutter ball.”

“But you looked cute doing it.”

Stephen chuckled and I quietly gagged. Seeing old people flirt was disturbing. Especially, when one of them was your mom.

Stephen then bowled one more time, earning him three pins. He was still ashamed, but happy he had some sort of score. My mom went next.

Unlike Stephen, she hit eights pins. Years of practice was to thank for that, and if she wasn’t rusty she would have gotten a spare at least. I knew how good my mom was, and I was slightly disappointed in her. Stephen wasn’t though, he was extremely proud of her.

Christian went next. My eyes glued onto him as he casually walked over to where the bowling balls were, picked one up with his two fingers, and then walked to the front of the lane. Smoothly, he then proceeded to extend his arm with the ball back, take a few steps, and throw the ball forward with enough power that kept the ball fast but steady. My eyes widened as he got a strike.

“That’s my son!” Stephen cheered, clapping as Christian walked back to us.

My mom also cheered, “Good job!”

Christian wore a smug look as he ended up standing beside me. My eyes were still glued to him, so I was surprised to see him look at me in a way that I had never seen before. A way that was almost condescending, saying that he was better than me.

Huffing, I stormed up to the area where the bowling balls were and grabbed one. I was now annoyed. Annoyed by the stupid boy who thought he was better than me when he clearly wasn’t. I would show him that through bowling.

I walked up to the lane and played the movements I had done years ago to be a great bowler in my mind. The moves that Christian had done. When confident with them, I did them precisely as seen, and was amazed to see all of the pins fall down.

“Good job!” Stephen yelled as I stood there with wide eyes.

Collecting myself, I walked back to them with my own smug look. The fact that my mom didn’t say anything stung, but I ignored that and focused on the fact that I would beat Christian. The fact that his eyebrows were also raised, showed me that he didn’t expect that.

We continued fighting for the win after that, but to no success. Almost creepily, we would always get the same score as each other in every round. Our parents noticed that, but they were too impressed to be frustrated like myself. I couldn’t believe we kept tying.

The last round eventually came, and we were tied for one hundred and forty points. Christian brushed past me as he went to bowl for the last time, shooting me a smug look. He had been doing that the entire time, and I was growing insane from it. It took everything within me to not smack him in front of everyone.

Happily, I watched Christian earn a spare and then eight pins. I smiled smugly as he walked back, clearly not pleased with himself. It made sense since this was an easy win for myself.

Now brushing past him, I grabbed a bowling ball and shot him a devious smile. Without trying, I knew I could get a strike and hopefully nine pins as well. If so, I would win by a lot. That was all I wanted.

I pulled my hand back, ready to bowl and looked at Christian one last time. To my surprise, his smug look had been wiped off of his face. It had been replaced by a gentle, caring look. That threw me off guard as I threw the bowling ball forward, only hitting three pins.

Christian snorted at that and my jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe it. Not once in the game had I hit that little pins, and in the last round I had. I was horrified and a bit humiliated.

Taking a deep breath in, I grabbed another bowling ball and threw it hastily at the pins. I hit six pins, leaving one standing. My jaw dropped again as I realized I had officially lost. Lost to Christian who I had badly wanted to beat. I couldn’t believe it.

“You cheated,” I accused, pointing a finger at Christian.

Christian held his hands up. “I did nothing. What are you talking about?”

My cheeks heated up as I realized I couldn’t say what I wanted to say. Saying that you looked at me like you cared would sound weird, so I decided not to say anything.

“You both did good,” Stephen said, trying to calm things down. “Good job.”

I snorted and walked away, not caring about the others. I was so angry. Angry at myself to be honest. It was such an easy win, yet I lost. Lost because the stupid boy had distracted me. I hated Christian even more.