Chapter 195

I screamed loudly, bringing my hand to my chest, over my racing heart.
"Whoa, what made you so jumpy?" Case asked as she shone the light from her phone screen at me.
I shut my eyes, my brows scrunching up together as I willed my heart to stop banging against my ribcage, it was starting to hurt.
"Shit, Case. Why are you still awake?" I asked her as I finally peeled my eyes open to look at her.
She raised her phone at me and I saw a screen full of words.
"Uh, reading, duh?" She replied. She looked at her phone, swiping the screen. "What the.. did you just come back?"
I sighed, straightening back up and clearing my throat, as if I didn't just scream like a sissy. "Yes, if you do need to know, I just got back."
Silence blanketed the room for a few seconds before Casey raised her eyebrows when I didn't elaborate further. "From where?" She waved her hand in a circular motion to urge me to continue explaining.
I shrugged. "Here and there," I answered casually, flopping to the empty spot beside her, fishing some of the crackers out of the plastic sitting by her leg and popping them into my mouth before snatching away her book from her hands.
"Hey!" She protested, her hand shooting out to get the book back but I rolled away quicker to keep it out of her reach.
Nothing makes her forget about what topic we were talking about quicker than by getting her books involved.
"I just wanna know what you're reading all the time!" I rolled away from her, arms stretching out away from her.
"You'll wreck my book!" She shrieked.
"I am no-" I cut myself off with a yelp as I tumbled off the bed and onto the ground.
Did I mention that there's a gaping hole between my bed and Casey's?
"Ouch," I picked myself up from the floor as Casey dove to the edge of the bed, the upper half of her body dangling off the bed.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fi-" I stopped short when I realized she wasn't talking to me.
Casey had picked her book up from the floor and was inspecting it closely, checking for creases and the its spine.
I looked at her, hurt.
"Aren't you gonna check up on me?" I gestured to myself, only to receive a glare from sister dearest.
"I told you you're gonna hurt my baby!" If she had been any closer to me, I had no doubt that she would've bit my head off.
I rolled my eyes, "Your book is fine, Case."
"No, it's not. Look at this crease! You did that!" She wailed out, pointing to one of the corners of her book cover.
I squinted, trying to see what she was referring to but still couldn't see any. I finally gave up after a few seconds.
"You should be grateful I haven't burned your book collection for taking up so much space in this house." I muttered under my breath as I dusted myself off.
I swear I've never seen someone's head turn so fast in my life. It was like those horror movie scenes where the possessed person turns their head in an unnatural speed to a super creepy angle that causes their hair behind your neck to rise.
I was surprised I didn't hear a loud crack from her.
I raised my hands up in surrender as quickly as she had turned her head to stab me with her glare before she actually murders me.
Anyone who knows Casey knows not to mess with her book collection, unless they want to end up dead in a ditch in the middle of nowhere.
That girl does not joke about her books.
When she finally secured her book and redirected her focus back to it instead of me, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about questions being rained down on me.
I laid down on my bed, sighing under my breath while unfolding the duvet and laying it over my body. I got comfortable and turned to my side to look at Casey.
The exhaustion was quickly catching up to me and I could feel the fatigue taking over as my eyes started to droop. Before I let myself fall asleep, I called out to Casey through a yawn.
"I'm gonna have a nap, wake me up for dinner."
Casey raised her head, paused her reading and looked at me over her book. "I forgot to tell you. Mom called earlier. She said her and Dad are on their way home and we'll go out to have dinner together. She said something about dressing nice because we'll be meeting guests."
I nodded wordlessly, the side of my face rubbing against the smooth pillow case, lulling me further into sleep.
Before I knew it, I was out like a light.
I woke up to someone shaking me. "Wake up, you buffoon. We'll be late."
I squinted through my eyelids, still feeling heavy with sleep. I patted my bedside table, feeling around for my phone. I brought it to my face when my hands finally found it and checked the time, wincing when the screen's brightness stung my eyes.
"What time's the dinner?" I asked Casey, letting the phone fall to the space on my bed beside my head as my eyes fell shut again mid-blink.
"7," she answered before I felt something hit my face.
"Ow." I muttered, eyes still glued shut.
"Get up, you lazy ass!"
I groaned in annoyance as I forced myself into a sitting position, rubbing my eyes and looking at the pillow sitting on the floor. So that's what hit me.
"It's still 6, Case." I complained. "You didn't have to wake me up this early!"
I could practically feel my sister rolling her eyes. She was sitting in front of her vanity mirror, trying to slip on her earrings. "You take 30 minutes alone to style your hair, you still need to shit and shower."
That shut me up. But I can't let her win the argument, so I mumbled a weak, "I don't take that long," to which she snorted as if it was the most ridiculous lie she has ever heard.
"Mom and Dad's already back, I told them you were still sleeping because you stayed up studying last night." She told me, grinning at her reflection when she finally managed to put her earrings on.
I glared at her back as I stood up from the bed and stretched, hearing some satisfying cracks from my back. I can't even hate her even if I wanted to, she always does something to win some cookie points just when I think she's getting annoying.
I left the room to pick out some clothes from my room and started to get ready.
Something you should probably know about Casey, she's almost always right, just like any other women.
When I was done getting ready, the clock has just struck 7 and my parents called us downstairs to leave.
I grabbed my watch, wallet and phone before rushing downstairs with my sister in tow.
My mom beamed at me as she saw me descend. "I missed you so much!" She cooed, grabbing my face between her hands and started peppering my face with kisses.
I chuckled, "Mom.." I pulled away from her before she could cover my face with traces of her red lipstick and embraced her instead. "I missed you, too." I smiled as I hugged her.
Mom ran her hand up and down my back as she returned my hug. She pulled away and I could see the tears in her eyes already. I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled in my chest when I saw her glassy eyes. "Mom, why are you crying?"
Mom glared at me, taking out a piece of tissue from her handbag and dabbing the edges of her eyes with it. "Don't laugh, this is all your fault!"
I widened my eyes, "How is it my fault? What did I do?"
Mom frowned, "You're right. It's not your fault." She turning to Dad with narrowed eyes. "It's your fault!"
Dad's eyes grew in size as he looked between Mom and me as if he was trying to figure out what's going on. I shrugged at him, God knows what's going on in Mom's head. She can be so random sometimes. But Dad should know that best. He married the woman after all.
Dad shook his head in a "I give up trying to figure you out" motion.
Mom made an exasperated look before pointing a finger at Dad. "You and your work deprived me of my kids!"
I raised an eyebrow at her before looking at Dad. Dad looked like he was facing a cruel injustice.
"I didn't force you to come along!" He defended himself.
Mom huffed, crossing her arms across her chest stubbornly, "I don't care. Because you travel so much, I felt obliged to tag along and help!"
She was determined to put all the blame on Dad even if it meant making herself look unreasonable.
Dad rolled his eyes when Mom wasn't looking, knowing he wasn't gonna win this argument.
"Come on, Mom." I coaxed her, grabbing her shoulders and nudging her to start walking to the car so that we can get going.
Dad took the wheel, Mom sat shotgun while Casey and I sat at the back.
"So how's things been while we're away, kids?" Mom asked, turning her head around to look at us.
I know that Mom just misses us and that's why she threw that tantrum and won't stop stealing glances from the passenger seat to the back seat of the car. Dad, on the other hand, was more discreet with the occasional glimpses at the rearview mirror.
I smiled, trying to reassure her that everything's okay so that she won't worry so much about leaving us at home all the time. "Everything's okay, Mom."
I glanced at Casey who's texting on her phone before making my additional remark. "I've been keeping Casey away from the kitchen so we haven't had any cooking disaster yet."
Casey immediately looked up from her phone to glare at me at the mention of her name in the same sentence as the word "kitchen". She knows I'd never say anything nice with those two things in a sentence until the day I die.
She looked at her phone again and started typing furiously before I felt my own phone vibrate in my pocket. I shifted in my seat and pulled it out to check.
"Be nice or I'll tell them that you didn't actually stay up doing your homework last night." The text read.
I turned my head to look at Casey and give her the stink eye, typing my reply while keeping my eyes on her, not looking at my phone's keyboard at all.
"You wouldn't."
Casey read the text and looked at me, smirking, before doing the same thing.
Her fingers moved across the surface of her phone screen whilst her eyes were still glued to mine.
My phone vibrated again and I took my eyes away from Casey to read her reply.
"Bet."
I narrowed my eyes at the text before glaring at her.
I knew that if she was aware of where I really was last night, she'd never tell my parents but she probably thought I was at a party or at Dom's so I didn't doubt that she'd rat me out and put me on the hot seat if she felt like it.
My hand shot out quicker than a flash of lightning and flicked her bare arm that was exposed by her sleeveless top.
I guess the movement was so quick that the pinch of pain she felt from the flick registered a second late.
Her mouth fell open in shock as she mouthed "ow!"
I smirked at her mischievously, knowing that I just started a war.
There wasn't any light in the car since it was already dark outside so I couldn't really see Casey's face even though she was only sitting a few feet away from me. But I knew that she was grimacing before finally reaching out and flicking me as payback.
But we both knew her flick game was weak.
My smirk grew and a snicker even escaped my lips at how pathetic her flick was.
I could imagine Casey gritting her teeth before she finally lost control of her frustrations and let her hand fly, smacking my arm so loud that the whole car can hear.
I could hear my mom's loud gasp at the sound before her head whipped to look at where the sound came from. But by then, it was already too late, all hell had broken loose.
And that ladies and gentlemen, was the start of the epic wrestling match between the Johnson siblings that took place at the back of Papa Johnson's car.
The wrestling match ended with Mama Johnson screaming at the top of her lungs for us to stop and a 30 minute lecture from Mama Johnson that only got cut off because we reached the restaurant we're having dinner at.
Mom pinched the bridge of her nose as she tilted her head up to face the ceiling of the car, looking the most exasperated that she has ever been in her life.
Something that you often see when meeting people who has dealt with me and my sister's shit.
"You guys are teenagers, for Pete's sake! You're not 6 anymore! You're 18, Bryant! You're legally an adult. Can you act like it and not provoke your sister?" Casey stopped trying to fix her hair to stick her tongue out at me before Mom finally put her on the spotlight too. "And you! Cassandra Riley Johnson! Did your father and I teach you to abuse your brother?!" It was now my turn to stick my tongue out at her.
Unfortunately, my mom caught that and that seemed to trigger her. She threw her hands in the air in a "I give up!" motion.
"I've been raising monkeys for the past 18 years." She muttered to herself.
I chuckled hearing that last one, bringing my phone up to my face to use it to check my appearance.
As I took a look at myself, I noticed how my eyes were shining for the first time since a long time and I realized just how much I missed fooling around like this with my family.
I smiled again as I looked at my phone, promising myself that I'll look this way more often soon, very soon. I'll put an end to the things that have been stressing me out for the last year and be this carefree again.
"Let's go, Reeves must be waiting." Dad finally said as he parked the car and turned the engine off.
We all unbuckled ourselves and got out of the car before walking to the restaurant.