Lesson 120- Be nice to your siblings. You’re stuck with them either way.

Shit, shit, SHIT! I show Laura the message and her eyes go wide. I quickly call him back while she rushes off to find Torin. I chase after her, not knowing what to do. I enter the bar, brushing past a confused looking Catcher and find Tori has just unlocked the front door. But when he sees the panicked expressions on mine and Laura’s faces, he locks it again immediately.
“What’s wrong?” He asks urgently. I open my mouth to respond, but Damien picks up.
“Damien! Hey, sorry I missed your call, I was… In the bathroom. What did you need to talk about?” I force a pleasant tone and he scoffs at me. I can see Laura is giving Torin a whispered explanation of the text messages. His poker face falls into place. This is really, really not good.
“Rina, I know you’re in there. I saw you answer the door for that redhead chick and that guy. Except now I can’t find the door again. The front is locked. Come out here. I’m worried about you.” He insists. I go peek out the window, and sure enough, he’s standing out there.
“Uh… I really can’t come outside.” I tell him honestly. I can see him pacing in front of the door. I point at him, gesturing for Torin to come and see. He stands over me and looks through the window.
“If you don’t come outside, I’m going to find a way in. I’m not leaving until I see you.” Damien argues. Standing this close to me, Torin can hear him over the phone. Tori sighs and starts unlocking the front door. I cover up the microphone on my phone.
“What are you doing?” I hiss at Torin. He just shrugs.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to invite your brother in for a drink. I’ll be right back.” He steps outside and closes the door behind him, leaving me to stare after him.

I think I’m going to be sick. I walked in on all this magic stuff by accident and I ended up trapped in here. I don’t want the same thing to happen to Damien. What is Torin planning to do? I bite my lip anxiously and hug my arms around myself. Laura takes my place staring out the window.
“That’s your brother? He looks different than I imagined.” She comments. I shrug.
“I take after mum, he looks more like our father.” I answer. She isn’t wrong. Damien and I barely look alike. We both have the same dark hair, and our features are a little similar. But he’s way taller than me and where my skin and eyes are fairly dark, he has lighter skin and green eyes, like our dad. Sure, there are similarities between the two of us, but at a glance, we look fairly different. Catcher joins her at the window, clearly curious. A moment later, Kyle comes rushing in.
“Where is he?” He says, sounding way too excited. I stare.
“Huh?” I respond dumbly.
“Laura texted me, she said Torin is talking to your brother.” He explains. What? When did she text him? I turn to face her and she shrugs unrepentantly.
“The boss is outside talking to Rina’s brother. Oh, wait, they’re coming this way.” Catcher informs us. The door opens and Tori comes inside first and my brother trails in behind him. He looks pissed off and suspicious. Torin looks guilty.
“Sorry Rina. I tried to explain that you couldn’t come outside and that he should come in and have a drink, but I think it came out wrong. You might need to talk to him.” Torin says apologetically. I’m not particularly shocked. Torin is awkward and my brother is in no mood to be patient or understanding. He bravely pushes his way past Torin and rushes over to me, picking me up in a huge hug.
“Rina! Have you been here this whole time? I’ve been so worried about you!” He lets go of everything except my arm and starts pulling me towards the door.
“Come on, I’ll take you back to my place and we can talk about this in private.” He takes another step and I automatically follow him. It takes another half second for his words to register. When I realise we’re heading towards the door I panic, but not as much as Torin does. With a roar he pushes Damien away, then wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me to his side protectively. I do notice that, even in his panic, he didn’t hurt Damien. Just maybe shocked him a little. He definitely didn’t push him as hard as he could have. Damien takes a step closer, like he’s planning to try to fight Torin and get me back or something. Aside from the fact that he has no chance, it is completely unnecessary. I pat Torin’s arm reassuringly.
“It’s alright Dami, Torin was just protecting me. It’s… Not really safe for me to go outside right now.” I explain. Damien crosses his arms over his chest, clearly not happy. Although I doubt Torin having his arm around me is helping. I disentangle myself and take a step away to stand partway between the two of them. I have no idea what to do or say. There’s an awkward silence for a moment until Catcher steps in with a relaxed smile.
“Can I get anyone a drink?”

Catcher’s soothing voice does its job, and a couple minutes later, Damien and Torin are sitting on either side of a table while I sit in between them. Kyle, Laura and Catcher are all behind the bar, pretending to work but most definitely spying on us. They bicker a little about who gets to bring our drinks over and eventually Laura wins and places drinks in front of us on the table before slowly and reluctantly going to stand behind the bar. Damien is staring Torin down suspiciously. He looks very unfriendly. Torin doesn’t look particularly friendly either, but knowing him the way I do now, I’m fairly sure that he’s actually just nervous and probably internally freaking out a bit. I search around for a way to break the silence.
“How did you find me here?” I ask Damien. He rolls his eyes.
“I logged into your amazon account. The address went to some house. I thought at first it was your friend Tori’s house. But then this guy came out. I was suspicious so I followed him. He came here and I saw you and that’s about it.” He sums up. I frown.
“How did you get into my account?” I ask.
“Sis, really? You’ve been using the same three passwords your whole life. It took me about a minute to guess which one it was and get into your account.” Damien points out. Oh… Oops. That means him showing up here is kind of my fault. I glance over at Torin who sighs. He doesn’t look mad or anything. He knows I didn’t do it on purpose. Technically Damien could have done this weeks ago. He just didn’t think to do it until now. I suppose if he thought I was missing, checking my online shopping wasn’t his first thought.
“Oh… Well… I suppose that was pretty smart.” I admit reluctantly. Damien smirks.
“I know. Now, why did you lie to me? You said you were staying with a friend, not that you were living in a bar?” He looks around, confused. There’s nothing particularly obviously magical about this bar, but it’s not exactly normal either. He probably thinks it’s themed or something.
“It’s Tori’s bar, so I didn’t lie.” I object. Damien crosses his arms over his chest.
“Right. Sure. And where is this Tori?” His eyes fall on Laura and he raises an eyebrow. She shakes her head and Torin raises his hand like a kid in class.
“I’m Torin, or Tori I guess.” He mutters awkwardly. Damien coughs out a breath.
“YOU’RE Tori? You’re… A guy. Tori is a guy… Of course you are. Rina…” Damien turns to me and gives me a look. The kind that says he doesn’t know what the hell I’m doing but he doesn’t like it. I stare back at him, not backing down.
“What are you doing here Damien? I told you I was fine!” I complain. He narrows his eyes.
“I needed to be sure you were okay. You would do the same thing if I vanished for a month.” He argues. I know he’s right, he has a one hundred percent valid point. But he’s my brother, and he sounds like a know it all and that makes me feel the need to argue.
“You were meant to trust me!” I whine.
“I DO trust you. It’s everyone else I don’t trust.” He insists, glancing sideways at Torin again. I sigh.
“Damien, be nice. Why didn’t you just call, why were you panicking earlier?” I ask and he turns his attention back to me, completely serious.
“A couple guys came by my place, they were looking for you.” He says flatly. My heart sinks. Damn, this is not good.