Grayson:

What a fucking night.

I thought it would be just like any ordinary shift at work—tiring and boring. The last thing I expected was to collide into Talia Chase—and then fucking yell at her.

Stupid. So, so, stupid. Think before you speak, right?

She tried to take the blame for everything, but I needed to let her know that it was my fault, and that I should have never sworn at her.

Pulling into my house's driveway, I notice two of my sisters' cars are here. There should only be one. Lovely. Just lovely. As if I weren't stressed enough. Let's hope everyone's asleep.

When I open the front door of my family's one-story house, my hopes are ignored. The TV in the living room illuminates Vivian's face, also know as sister number two. After graduating from college with an accounting degree, Vivian married her college sweetheart and is now expecting her first child. She's been annoying ever since.

"Grayson William Summers," Vivian states, now standing with her arms crossed and staring at me sternly. "Who the fuck do you think you are for not telling me you got a fucking scholarship from Duke?"

"Language," I say with widened eyes, walking into the attached kitchen to put my keys down and get some water.

"Don't fucking start with me, you little shit, you swear all the time. Why did I have to hear this kind of information from Katie?"

Vivian follows me into the kitchen, seeing my movement as an invitation to follow me. I groan into my hands. God, this woman gives me a fucking headache. I sure can't tell her the truth about why I forgot to tell her, or she wouldn't stop asking questions. The truth is that Talia has been on my mind way too much. After Monday night, I find myself wondering how she's doing. Stupid, considering if I weren't thinking about her constantly, I wouldn't have to be scolded by Viv.

"I forgot," I half-lie.

"You forgot? How could you forget to tell your favorite sister something like this?" Vivian yells at me.

I roll my eyes. "You're not my favorite."

Vivian dramatically gasps and then slaps my arm. "Shut up, you're such a liar. So what's the real reason then?"

"The real reason for what?" Enters a voice from the neighboring hallway.

Sister number three enters the kitchen, rubbing the tiredness from her eyes and mumbling words under her breath. Katie lives at home so she can easily commute to the county's community college. Due to low family funds and unlucky opportunities to win scholarships, she took a route that was unfavorable to her. Out of all of the Summers children—as of a few days ago—she is the only one whose dream life had to brushed aside before she even had a chance to succeed.

"Great, now you fucking woke up Katie," I state, waving my hand in her direction.

"Language," both Katie and Viv say in unison.

"You're both annoying," I grumble before opening the fridge to take out the water jug.

"Deal with it," Vivian replies. "Get me my pickles while you're at it. And answer my goddamn question."

I resist the urge to smash her pickle jar on the ground. Why does she even keep these here when she has her own place? "Product of Viv," the jar reads. I don't have the heart to tell her I've seen our mom eating them. "I've been stressed recently, okay. Just drop it."

Vivian releases a large sigh as I slide her jar of pickles across the counter. "Fine, I'll let it go. I just wish you would have called me right away and been like, "oh, my God, Viv, Duke just offered me a full ride for basketball. This is the best day ever, ha, ha, ha."'

"That's not what I sound like."

"That's not what I sound like," she impersonates again. It's reasons like this that she's not the family comedian.

Katie laughs with her, suddenly becoming the impersonating comedian's audience. "He definitely sounds like that."

I roll my eyes again and drink my water. "Leave me alone."

"Sorry, shithead. I just want to tell you how proud I am of you," Vivian says while pulling me into an unwanted hug. Her voice then takes a softer tone. "Dad's proud of you too. He wouldn't shut up about it tonight when I saw him."

"Yeah, I know," I say, deciding it's the right time to actually be caring and hug her back. "He talked about it until he had to go in for a round."

Katie soon joins in on the action and hugs the two of us. "Family hug!" She exclaims, smothering all of us into one unit of people.

After a few moments of family love, I push away from the two of them to grab some food. Peanut butter and jelly sounds like a good 2:15 AM snack.

"Are you still fucking around, Grayson?" Vivian suddenly asks, causing my head to whip in her direction. A hand rests on her swollen stomach as she bites into a sliced pickle. Her baby is going to be ten percent pickle juice. And that's just a fact.

"Do you have to be so blunt with your questions? No, I'm not still fucking around," I say.

Viv turns to look at Katie. "Can you confirm this?"

"Yeah, I haven't caught him around any girls lately," Katie replies, giving a curt nod.

Sister number two scoffs at her answer, something that I thought would make her happy considering she hated when I was out with a new girl every other week. It's not my fault I needed a fucking distraction from her. Her and the color green.

"And how long of a time is 'lately'?" Viv questions.

Katie drums her fingers on the counter and concentrates. "Like, a month maybe."

"Wow, good job," she says, giving me a pat on the back. Viv displays a smile, which makes me think she is actually proud of me; that is, until she puts a hand on her hip and gives me a smug look. "So who's the girl?"

I choke on my depression-meal sandwich. Now is the time to lie. "There's no girl."

"I know when you're lying, little brother. There's obviously someone who caught your attention and made you want to stop fooling around. Who. Is. She?"

"You're crazy."

"I am not. Tell me now."

"No."

"Don't make me do this."

"Do what?"

Vivian pauses for a moment and gives me a cold stare. "Katie. Get the yearbook," she states with a snap of her fingers.

"Yes, ma'am," Katie obeys, saluting before running to the bookcase in the living room.

It takes me a second to process what she's planning on doing, but once I do, I chase after Katie. Shit.

I make it to the shelf just in time to pull her away by the shoulders. "Don't do this."

Katie begins laughing menacingly as Vivian causally strolls into the room as if she has all of the time in the world. "Restrain him."

At her demand, Katie jumps onto my back and strangles me with her arm, causing me to fall back away from the shelf. No, no, no. Vivian leans forward and grabs the yearbook from last year, flipping it to the junior class section.

"Let's see here," she states before clearing her voice to begin reading off names. Katie still clings to my back and holds me captive, peaking over my shoulder to look at my face. "Lauren Adams...Poppy Avon..."

Vivian continues reading aloud the girls' names, stopping after every person to look up at me to see what type of reaction I will have. It's shitty luck that her name is near the top of the alphabet.

"Hannah Carlson...Jessica Chase...Talia Chase..."

"Stop!" Katie shouts into my ear, causing me to go temporarily deaf.

"Ow," I groan.

"You're such a baby," she complains before hopping off my back. "That was it, though."

Vivian nods her head in agreement. "I saw it, too."

I roll my eyes. No matter how hard I tried not to move my face in any way, the corners of my mouth still flinched upwards when I heard her name. I'm whipped.

Katie giggles and walks over to Viv and the yearbook. "Let me see her picture."

They both stand hovering over the book while I'm forced to watch, mumbling to myself about the headache I'm about to have. When they lift their heads to look at me, Vivian holds up the yearbook next to my face and they both tilt their heads and hum in unison.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I say, trying to push the book away from me.

"We're seeing how she looks next to you," Viv states. She squints her eyes to focus more. "How tall is she?"

I groan in annoyance and lightly shove her away from me. "I'm not telling you that."

"Hey! Don't shove a pregnant woman, shithead. I'm supposed to be your favorite sister."

Katie grows angry and points at me accusingly. "You told me I was your favorite."

Great. Just great. At least they're leaving the Talia subject alone. "I tell you guys that just to leave me alone."

"Whatever, whatever. Let's just get back to this Talia girl," Vivian states.

I sit down on the couch and grumble into my hands. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because we love you and want to know about the first girl you actually care about."

Vivian and Katie sit on opposite sides of me and plop the yearbook on my lap, opened to the page where Talia is pictured. Viv points at her and speaks softly. "She's very pretty, by the way."

More like fucking beautiful. Her hair was shorter than year, passing just below her collarbone. It was wavy as always, but its brown held a much lighter tint after returning to school from the summer. I remember comparing the color to honey after it is hit by a ray of sunshine. That only made her green eyes more appealing. "Yeah, I know."

"Awe, my little brother is blushing," Viv coos as she pinches my pink-tinted cheeks. I swat her hand away with a large slap.

"Stop it."

"Oh, come on. What is it about her that you like?" Viv pushes, bumping my shoulder with hers.

I cover my face with my hands. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Fine, but I expect to see her sometime in the future," sister number two demands.

Yeah, right. I doubt that will happen any time soon as long as I'm a fucking wimp. It's easier just to agree with her. "Mhm."

"Mhm," Viv imitates. "Well, I better get to bed."

"You're staying over?" I ask.

Viv struggles for a second to get back up off the couch, so I reach out my hand to help her. She slaps my hand away like the stubborn person she is. "Yeah, Daniel has a night shift at the hospital, and apparently says I'm too "at risk" to be left alone. Who the fuck does he think he is?"

"He's a doctor," I reply with my eyebrows raised. Her husband Daniel went to the medical school at Vivian's college, so that's how they met. He graduated the same year as her and is now a pediatrics resident at a hospital in Richmond. So, I guess he's good enough for my sister.

"I don't need any advice from a man."

I roll my eyes. Her husband would say otherwise. "You're helpless."

"Well, you're a little shit, which is way worse. Now goodnight!" She exclaims loudly while flailing her arms around before exiting the room.

Katie and I exchange a weary glance, both of us questioning her sanity. There's never a dull moment with a pregnant Vivian.

The yearbook still sits open on my lap and my eyes are drawn again to her. Katie leans over and points at Talia's photo. "I didn't want to ask this in front of Viv, because you seem stressed, but isn't this Carter's girlfriend?"

I grip the book harder, not because I'm scared it's going to fall, but because just hearing his name makes me want to punch the wall. Katie is only two years older than me and has helped me and my friends into many upperclassman high school parties, so it's unsurprising that she recognizes Talia. Especially considering Carter and I used to be friends. I guess she thinks they're still together.

"Ex-girlfriend," I state, trying hard not to grumble my words.

"Oh, I didn't know they broke up," she says in shock. "Does he know you like her?"

This conversation is making me realize just how much I don't communicate with my sisters. I've never been the most talkative. "We're not friends anymore."

"Damn, I'm a horrible sister."

I shake my head and lean back to blankly stare at the black TV screen. My reflection stares back at me and I notice how tense I look. Maybe this was the stressed appearance Katie mentioned. Have I always looked this way? It's probably just an end of the day type of thing—actually, an early morning. "You're not. I just didn't talk about it."

"What happened with him?"

Carter walked over to the group, and it was obvious that he was mad. We all collected at Jake's house after school—Logan, Rowan, Arlo, Leo, Jake, and myself—just like any day. When he approached, our talking thinned out after we noticed his body language.

"What's got you all riled up?" Arlo asked, making the situation a joke.

I didn't think it was a joke.

"Fuck off," Carter replied while sending a sneer in his direction.

But he continued to push. We all wanted to know what happened.

It was clear Carter had some ego issues, which paired horribly with his short temper. Some of the guys would throw in some light humor and it would just rub him the wrong way. "Rowan is so strong, I bet he could take on all of us," someone would say. Carter would disagree and then aggressively try to disprove the theory.

Jake, Rowan, and I would give each other questioning looks, but never dared to speak out against Carter. He was fun to be around most of the time, but those small moments picked at our nerves. We didn't want to be the ones to split up the group.

That day, splitting our little entourage was inevitable; because I punched that fucker right in the face.

I take a deep breath to escape from the short flashback. It wasn't one of my proudest moments, and definitely not one I share with anyone. It's surprising how that information never really leaked out of our old friend group. We all kept our mouths shut and went our separate ways. Probably because Carter doesn't want people know the reason why I hit him, so it's easier to ignore the event in the first place. And I'm fine with that.

"Just stuff," I finally reply, not feeling the need to elaborate.

Katie stares at me with her mouth hanging open. "Really? Just stuff?"

I shrug as a response. Katie hits me on the shoulder.

"I thought having three older sisters would teach you how to gossip," she complains while rolling her eyes. "But no, you're still silent."

I stand up from the couch and shrug again, finding the movement easier than speaking. When I turn around to walk to my room, Katie's voice stretches to my ears for one final statement.

"Ugh," Katie groans. "You're the worst."

With the closing of my door, "the worst" is finally alone; and he's still holding the yearbook.

I sit down on my bed and flip through its pages, looking for her. It may be creepy, but I'm actually searching for a specific photo. My thumb finally stops at the right titled page: "Prom."

Because Carter and Talia were still dating, our whole group took a photo together. It was a classic high school prom pose: the guy stood behind the girl, hands on her waist, both smiling.

The six of us all had dates. Mine was a girl from a different school that Rowan set me up with. He said that I broke enough local girls' hearts and needed to explore other zip codes. So, Rebecca Maddison it was. She wasn't my first choice. My first choice is, and always will be, the same.

I wanted to look at the photo because I remember how beautiful she was that night. Her aura attracted me so much, that instead of looking at the camera and smiling like everyone else, I turned my head to look at her. Jake said I looked like an idiot for not facing the camera and staring off, but I didn't have the guts to tell them I was staring at Talia.

A lot of memories sparked when I looked at her then.

Her dress was red, for one instance. Two weeks before prom, Carter complained to our group about Talia and how she wanted to wear a green dress. Now, if you don't know this—which was actually only taught to me last year—the girl picks out the color dress she wants to wear, and the guy matches his tie or vest or whatever to its shade. It's a predetermined system.

According to Carter, Talia showed him the dress she bought, one that was a pale green,  which I could have only imagined it matching her eyes perfectly. Carter apparently laughed at the dress and said to her—and these were his exact words—"You're going to make us look like two fucking trees if you wear that."

So, she returned the dress, and they wore red.

It might be stupid for me to admit that it was one of my biggest regrets not to tell her she looks stunning in green, but that's the cold hard truth. It was obvious that the day of the prom she was upset. Her smile never showed any teeth, and she often stayed a few paces away from Carter. I kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't say anything else that would make her more upset.

They broke up two weeks later.

I close the yearbook and toss it away from me, not wanting to continue to dwell on the past. It's better to think about the future. And future me is going to tell Talia that green is the perfect fucking color. I promise.

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Woo a Grayson chapter. It's been a while and I missed him.

Qotd: what is your idea of a perfect date?