Finding Love

15

Why do people say

Chicken as a term

For coward? Have you

Ever met a chicken?

Those things will

Fuck you up!

I can feel my bed moving up and down as I groan, and my eyes open. Next to me on the bed, Aiden and Rayen are having a pillow fight. At one point, Aiden hits Rayen so hard that he falls on me. An "oompf" sound leaves my mouth when I feel that I am slowly losing my ability to breathe. "Get off Lily, you fat bastard, you're killing my sister" Owen is startled when he sees the scene in front of him. Quickly, Rayen jumps off me when he looks at me, 'Sorry' he mumbles. Just when he wants to give me a kiss on my cheek, Jax shouts something to him from the hallway, 'No kiss'.

I see a twinkle in Rayen's eyes when he gives me a quick kiss on my cheek. As if Jax has laser eyes, he rushes towards Rayen. "Don't ruin Lily's innocence" he yells when they both run out of my room, Rayen screaming and Jax punching. I see Aiden following them laughing as Owen drops herself on the bed next to me. "Sister?" I ask in amazement. "Yeah, from now on I claim you as a sister, get used to it" he winkles.

"Food" I hear Alex shouting from downstairs as Owen rubs his hand through my hair. "Come on, he's made his famous pancakes. If we don't hurry, the others will eat everything,' he shouts as he walks down the corridor. I quickly change and, like Owen, go to the kitchen. In the kitchen I see everyone working greedy pancakes inside. I laugh when I sit down next to Alex. ‘I saved you some pancakes' he says as he puts two pancakes on my plate. I nod gratefully to him when I spread Nutella over my pancakes. I put some strawberries on my plate as I attack as well.

‘This was fun and all, but why are you here?' I ask when I look around the table. Everybody's looking at Alex. ‘There's someone who wants to hurt you, so I've, we've decided to protect you. From now on there will always be one of us with you,' he says normally as if talking about the weather. I look around the table with big eyes and see all the boys nod dutifully.

‘And we're going skating today' Owen shouts very enthusiastically, causing all the boys to jump off the table. ‘I have yet to study' I break up the fun. ‘I'll help you study on Tuesday, but today you're coming with us to have fun' Alex tells me. I think for a moment but a nod from okay, it's been a long time since I've skated.

I skate happily a tour, it may have been a long time since I've skated, but I used to do figure skating. After my tour, I end up at the entrance. There I see the five boys frightenedly looking at the ice. ‘Don't say that you were so excited to go ice skating but have never done it' I ask. Nobody answers which makes me laugh. I grab my belly as I imagine again how happy they were and how scared they are now.

The faces of the boys light up immediately when they see the smile on my face. They stick their chests forward and step onto the ice. Alex is the first to fall, followed by Aiden. Rayen and Jax turn out to be natural talents. I skate to Alex and help him get back up. I keep holding his hands as I skate backward. After a few turns, I let go of his hands and he skates forward on his own, without falling.

With a cute smile, he looks at me as he skates towards me. Right in front of me, he stays stuck in a hole and falls forward. I can barely catch him as we stand in each other's arms. I feel my heart beating faster when butterflies fly around in my belly. Alex opens his mouth to say something when we are interrupted by a screaming Aiden.

‘Beware' he screams when we quickly let go of each other to jump to the side, just in time. Aiden comes skating at a high speed but doesn't stop when the side comes insight, instead he skates straight against it.

We're all in the movie room. Aiden sits with ice on his foot on one of the mattresses. I sit next to Jax with my head resting on his shoulder. Occasionally, I see Alex looking at him angrily, but Jax seems immune to it. I scream when I feel something shaking in my pocket.

"What's wrong?" Alex asks. Alex gets worried right away. We're watching a comedy because Owen didn't want me to be scared if we saw a horror. Of course, everyone agreed with Owen, as I rolled my eyes. But now that I've had to scream all of a sudden, everyone's alert.

Glad to answer my phone, I scream again. "HAAAAA, I missed you so much" I shout happily in Dutch to Coll and Justin. "Lily!" they're both shouting. "What's it like there?" Justin asks. My cell phone is being pulled out of my hands by Owen. I hear Coll and Justin asking who all those guys are when everyone is standing Owen.

I quickly get my mobile back when Coll panics, "Isn't my sister my little innocent sister anymore? I told you to stay away from the opposite s*x!' he shouts in panic while Justin looks angry. Quickly, I say goodbye as I turn off the phone, in the middle of Justin's sentence. I decided to turn my mobile phone off completely, knowing that they will keep calling until I have given an explanation.

Alex looks confused, "Who were they?". "My brothers," I say when my cheeks turn red. "What language did you speak?" Jax asks curiously, "Dutch’.

The next hour I taught all the boys a bit of Dutch, so now we're lying exhausted on the mattresses. I'm lying on the side next to Alex. I was first in the middle, between Owen and Aiden when Alex had lifted me up and laid me on the edge of the mattresses. I just wanted to say something when I felt his arm around me, my resistance melted away.