Living With Boys

five // i was about to resort to prostitution

Isabelle: So, I don't hate Will anymore because I fucking hate my brother instead!

Isabelle: And also, Will is being nice (and is sexy) so it makes the whole hatred thing very difficult. I'm just a little girl Zara! I have no willpower!

***

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."

My eyes were glued shut with sleep and my head felt a little foggy, not pounding, but just in the drowsy, heavy way that suggested I'd indulged in a little more wine than a casual dinner would call for. The light streaming from the window was on the wrong side and brighter than usual, and I couldn't smell the ocean on the air. The voice calling out in a mocking sing-song was familiar, but didn't belong to my morning routine anymore. I remembered where I was only one moment before a breath-stealing weight was dropped on my ribs.

I was on Emo Road, and my brother was fucking annoying.

"Kai," another familiar voice admonished. "You didn't have to sit on her. She was going to wake up."

"I have to be honest," I croaked, raspy with disuse. "I was not going to wake up."

My brother, in the evil way of siblings, let a little more of his weight crush me before he stood up. "It's 11AM, Isabelle. How are you still asleep?"

"Not all of us are losers who have settled into the bland routine of domestic bliss," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes until they were clear enough for me to wince at him. Kai was looming over me, a shit-eating grin on his face that was equal parts pleased at successfully irritating me and happy that I was back in the city that had raised us. He looked chipper for the hour, but to make it here in time, he and Valerie must have left Casserine just after breakfast this morning. "Some of us still stay up late and party."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Will said you went to bed at 11PM."

I yawned. "Party. Animal."

Valerie raised her hand. "I am insulted that you roped me into Loserville with Kai."

She was standing in the doorway, far more polite than her boyfriend, but her lips were quirked into a faint amusement at his antics. That had always been the way with Kai and Valerie, even before they'd started dating; just constantly laughing at anything the other did, always in adorable sync, and constantly proving that it was not always opposites that attract with their almost freakish similarities.

Despite their similar personalities, Kai and Valerie looked nothing alike. My brother was practically my male counterpart—tall, dark-haired and blue-eyed, with angular features and high cheekbones, though I had always managed a darker tan than him—while Valerie was a tiny strawberry-blonde.

"To be fair," Kai said. "We did spend last night at a community barbeque and then went to bed at 9."

Valerie gasped. "Oh my god. Are we losers?"

Kai nodded mournfully. "I think we might be losers."

"Can you debate this somewhere else?" I requested, burying my face back in my pillow. "My two cents are that Kai is, and has always been, a loser, and Valerie is doing you a great service by dating you. Now, kindly leave, I want to go back to sleep."