Chapter 2: Have You Always Been This Much of a Pervert?-3

“You don’t remember?” He asks, and when I shake my head no, he says, “6:30.” “Oh right. Well in my defense, we didn’t really eat dinner at the table in any of the ten years that I was coming here. Remember?” Will nods, cracking a slight smile, “I remember. We used to just eat hot dogs and hamburgers like every night.” I laugh, “Exactly. Remember that one time when you, I and Asher slept in the tree house that one night, and our mom’s went ballistic?” He chuckles before saying, “I do remember that. Then they said we couldn’t leave our rooms for the next two weeks.” “And I was trapped in that room with Hellish Hailey.” I say. “Hellish?” He repeats, as we go down the stairs, “So you curse now?” “Don’t say it like you don’t.” I say, elbowing him. “Well I’ma guy, it’s expected out of me.” I nod, “I guess you’re right about that.” We reach the end of the stairs and go into the kitchen where the rest of the family is sitting, eating a dinner of…wait for it…Wait for it…Wait for it….Pizza. My eyes connect with Todd’s almost immediately, and that’s only because he looked right at me when the door opened. Todd flashes me a quick smile, and I smile back slightly before tearing his eyes away from his. Aside from Ryder, Todd was the worst. He was basically Ryder’s beta. His second in command. If Ryder was sick or something, Todd took over as top dog in their little mission to destroy McKenna Bryant. My only guess as to why is because he’s the second oldest. He was eleven then, so he should be eighteen or almost eighteen by now. He’s hot, I admit it. Hell, all of the O’Connor boys are hot. William and I sit down at the table, him on my left side and Jacob on my right. Hailey is directly across from me, shooting daggers at me with her eyes. What I did to make her hate me so much? I don’t know. But we’ve never liked each other. Maybe it’s because we were, and still are so different, and our mothers just tried to make us befriend each other. Yeah, I guess that’s why. I look down away from her unfriendly gaze as Will hands me a paper plate with pizza on it. “Better get used to it, we are a strictly pizza eating family.” I take it and eat a bit of the first slice, “Well it’s a good thing I’m not a vegetarian then.” I say. Asher-the only O’Connor I’ve yet to speak to in my five hours of being here-laughs, “That lasted how long? Like two hours?” “Not even that long.” Todd corrects. “Yeah more like twenty minutes.” I say. At that everyone around the table laughs, even Hailey. Ryder catches my eye and winks at me. He seriously creeps me out. I mean, he crept me out even when we were kids. Well not so much crept out as scared me, but still. I look away from him, continuing to eat my pizza. “So anyone have any major plans for the summer?” Uncle Ricky asks, looking around the table at his six children. Six children. I cannot believe he and Sarah had six children. I mean, the two of them are relatively young in terms of age. I believe Sarah must be 37, possibly 36, and Uncle Ricky must be 37, or 38. Either way, that means Sarah would have still gotten pregnant at about 18. That doesn’t surprise me though. Sarah and Uncle Ricky were high school sweethearts, like my parents. In fact, they were all really good friends. I have always thought that is the only reason why Phil had never come out to Vernon with us during the summers. He’s my step dad, so that might have been a bit awkward for everyone. I mean like they could be sitting around reminiscing, and Phil wouldn’t really know what to do. He’d just be sitting there. Sad, but true. “Justin and I are going to the lake tomorrow.” Hailey says. “Really? And I assume Justin’s parents will be in attendance?” Uncle Ricky asks. “Of course, Daddy.” Hailey says, picking apart her pizza. I’m gonna take a wild guess here and say that this Justin guy is Hailey’s boyfriend. Who would want to date her and have to put up with her 24/7? I have no idea. Well not technically 24/7, probably like 10/5. “What about you Mickey, planning on staying here in Vernon?” I shrug, “Oh probably not. I’ll just go down up to L.A. Ya know, hang out at the beach and all that stuff.” Uncle Ricky nods his head, and Sarah says, “How is Mason?” “Mason’s good, he’s going to Florida with his girlfriend and some of his friends for the summer.” “Really? What college is he at again?” “He’s at Amherst, in Massachusetts.” I say. “Right, right. And he’ll be a senior in the fall?” I nod, “Yup.” I say. As we continue to eat, I glance towards the window where the sky is grey and the sun is nowhere to be seen. It’s still raining pretty badly. No thunder or lightning though, and that’s always good. Eventually though, the O’Connor’s begin to retreat from the table, and then there are three of us left. Me, Jacob, and Will. As I study Jacob out of my profile, I discover just how much more he and William now look alike. They’re “identical” twins. I put air quotes around identical, because they are identical, but I mean everyone can tell them apart. As a child, it was easy to tell them apart. William was fluffy, had glasses and braces, and Jacob…well Jacob didn’t. But now that William’s morphed into this guy who looks like he just walked off a photo shoot for Abercrombie, it’s a bit more difficult to tell them apart. William’s hair is a lighter shade of brown than Jacob’s though. It’s like, I don’t chestnut or something. “I’m really sorry about earlier McKenna; I swear I didn’t see anything.” Jacob tells me. “Wait, what happened?” William wonders. “I walked in on McKenna when she was getting out of the shower.” William chuckles and I elbow him in his side, “Shut up. It wasn’t funny. You scared the shit out of me.” I tell Jacob. “Two times.” William notes. “Two times what?” I ask him. “Two times you’ve cursed.” I roll my eyes, “Trust me, I’ve cursed so many more times in my mind between the time I woke up this morning and now.” I tell him. “Mickey, don’t tell me you’ve turned badass on us.” Jacob says. “Wouldn’t dream of it. But if I do, you two will be the first to know.” I say, jokingly. Then I yawn, standing up, “Well I’m tired, I guess I’d better get some sleep.” “How can you be tired? You just woke up.” Will says. “Maybe she’s pregnant.” Jacob says. I hit him in the back of his head, knowing I won’t inflict any serious pain. “The chances of me being pregnant are about 0 in 100,000,000.” “What, so you’ve never had s-“ Will starts. I cut him by letting out a huge yawn, “Wow, I am so tired. Flying and all that good stuff. See you two in the morning.” I say, as I quickly leave the kitchen, and go up to my room. I close the door behind me as I collapse on my bed laughing, before curling up under my covers.