Kyle's POV.
What welcomed us immediately we entered our living room was exactly what I had imagined, Mom was pacing the length of the room tapping her phone frantically and dad as usual was sitting down sipping mom's specially brewed lemon tea with his legs crossed and his eyes trained on the football match he was watching like he had no worry in the world.
Mom turned her head sharply when she heard the sound of the door, relief crossed her face for a second before it turned to anger. I braced myself "what is wrong with both of you? I totally forbade you and you blatantly ignored me" she said fuming. Both of you? that I didn't expect but what she said next I totally expected "And I'm sure you're behind this Kyle" there we go (just incase you haven't realized, or you don't know, Keira is the good child, and I'm the... well, not so good child {more like the bad child} I just thought to inform you).
"I am so disappointed in the both of you, and you know what, I'm sick and tired of your attitude recently, if I'm not bailing you out from jail I'm begging a gangster on your behalf. Is it a crime to have you has....." she suddenly gasped then rushed forward and grabbed my arm "what happened to your arm?" she said turning me around to examine the wound on my left arm "it's nothing much, I just fell down at the..." I started but she interrupted me "hope you aren't hurt anywhere else, my poor baby" I smiled, funny how a mom can go from I am so disappointed in you to my poor baby in a matter of seconds.
"let me go get the first aid kit" she disappeared into the bathroom and resurfaced with a white and red box in her arms. She pushed me into a stool and and started dabbing my injury with an antiseptic to clean it up (and I'm not going to lie, I winced a little bit).
After about a minute, she suddenly froze then turned slowly to look at Jasmine and Su Mei standing quitely by the door. Dad also seemed to have noticed them at that moment because he turned his eyes away from his match and focused his attention on us. "so I see you've brought a friend" he said bringing his tea cup to his lips and then savouring the taste for a few seconds before looking back up. Jasmine had this look on her face as if saying *oh, I thought i was invincible*.
Mum decided to break the ice "hello dear, who are you?" she asked with a kind smile totally abandoning me. "I'm Jasmine, and this is my...." she hesitated a little bit "my sister Xiao mei" she concluded and from the look that flickered in her eyes, I saw that it was difficult for her to say that word sister without inviting some unpleasant memories. Mom suddenly tsked "you children are now becoming very rude, is this how I taught you? you brought guests home and you can't even offer them a seat or something to drink" she shook her head then walked to the door and hooked her arms around Xiao mei lifting her up. The little girl giggled then wrapped her stubby arms around mom's neck, she seemed to like mom (who doesn't). I turned to Keira and winked at her (she looked like she was going to explode), with her free arm mom waved Jasmine over to the couch were she sat with Xiao mei.
Dad who has been silent for a while now finally spoke up "So Jasmine I'm going to take a random guess that you're a Brown" "Yes sir" she replied, I noticed she was a bit stiff or should I say uncomfortable when talking to my parents (she probably wasn't good with adults). "So want brings you here to Mexico, the last I heard the Browns are still based in U.S and don't worry we're not going to bite you so you can relax now" dad said with a smile and she actually loosened up a bit. This time, it was Su Mei that answered "Jasmine is going to find who killed her sister" she said fiddling with mom's necklace.
"wait a minute, Emily is dead?" mom asked in surprise.
"kind of" "what do you mean kind of?" mom asked "well if Jasmine's sister is the same person I saw a few days ago then my guess is that she's alive" I explained though I'm not that sure if mom is that pleased to hear my voice because of the look she gave me. "who are those responsible?" dad asked "the Enriques" Jasmine replied curtly taking a sip of the tea mom offered her "The tea is very nice Mrs. Robertson" she commented "at last someone appreciates my tea" mom said passing dad a look making him choke on his tea "Hon, but you already know it's nice" he defended "I know but it doesn't hurt to hear it from someone else" "fine, I'm sorry"
"I'm not angry"
"You look pissed"
"I'm fine"
"Can you just stop?" Keira intervened (they act like kids sometimes) "mom, Jasmine and Su Mei are looking for a place to stay, can they stay with us?" "of course they can, they can stay in the empty room on your floor" mom said looking at Jasmine as if asking if it is okay with her. "thank you very much ma for your hospitality. I promise we'll leave first thing tomorrow morning" Jasmine smiled "tomorrow morning? why do you want to leave tomorrow morning? or is anything the problem?" mom asked frowning (left to her, she'll adopt Jasmine and Su Mei) "actually, I and Su Mei were going to stay in an hotel but due to a few complications, we had to find a place to stay which Is how we met Kyle and Keira. I don't want to inconvenience you and your family in any way and I don't want to take your hospitality for granted. Besides mom is quite a difficult person and if she finds out that I'm staying with the Robertson's, she's going to kick an hornet's nest" she chuckled.
"Karen Wellington Brown, your mom's quite a character, you know she poured a glass of wine on me at one event we attended a few years back and she didn't even apologize or feel remorse, she just passed and told me to clean up that I was looking messy" dad said and mom laughed "you needed to have seen Henry's face, he looked like he was about to strangle your mom" mom said still laughing "I think I remember that party, when we got home, mom kept rambling on and on and on about how much she she hates "those Robertsons" she didn't mention that she was at fault" Jasmine laughed.
I coughed trying to get their attention because it seemed like they had forgotten about us. Mom turned with a frown on her face "and as for the both of you, since you've decided to learn not to obey my rules, I'm placing a ban on that your warehouse or what ever you call it for the next two weeks, let's see if you'll die without going there a day" she said then stood up to check what she was cooking.
Just a little more steps..
A little more steps...
Please don't turn back
one more step and....
"before I forget.." damn! she turned back "you two are grounded till further notice" then she entered the kitchen. No! No! No! she just had to remember, seriously?
What was I expecting anyways, after all Rachael Brown never forgets to ground her beloved children.
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