Chapter 9

                                    

                                          
            
                          
"Ow! What the hell?!"  I bolted up in bed.  Something hard had just pummeled me in the head.  I rummaged around in the dark to find what it was.  Next to me, Kirk wasn't even trying to pretend that he wasn't laughing.  "Kirk, you are such a dick."  He must have thrown something at me.  
                          
That's when Miles lumbered out of his room carrying a baseball bat.  "Are you guys okay?  I heard something."
                          
He switched the light on.  Now my head and my eyes hurt.  I lay back down and covered my face with my blanket.  
                          
"What happened?" I heard Miles ask.
                          
"Why do you have a baseball bat?"
                          
"I heard yelling."
                          
"No.  I mean: why do you own a baseball bat?" asked Kirk.
                          
"Just in case."
                          
Kirk was laughing even harder now.  "Of what?"
                          
"I don't know!  A burglar?  A killer?"
                          
"A ghost?"
                          
"Never mind." I heard the bat drop on the floor.  "If everyone's okay, I'm going back to bed."  
                          
"We're fine.  Piper just had a bad dream."
                          
"I did not have a bad dream.  You chucked something at my head."  I had to annunciate everything from under the blanket.  
                          
"Get a grip.  I've been asleep for an hour."
                          
"Then explain—"
                          
"You. Had. A. Nightmare."
                          
"Give it a rest, will you?" Someone pulled the blanket off of me, and the first thing I saw was Miles crouching down next to my mattress.  He ruffled my hair.  "You okay, kid?"
                          
"I'm fine.  I just want to go back to sleep."
                          
"Alright," he kissed my forehead.  Then he took my blanket and threw it over his shoulder.  
                          
I knew what was coming next.  "No!  Please! Really!  I'm—" I pleaded with him but he was too fast.  He slipped one hand under my knees, the other behind my back and he lifted me up with ease.  "Fine! Put me down! Please!"
                          
"Shhhh.  I've got you.  Don't worry."  He carried me into his room and set me down on right side of the bed.  
                          
"You're not even gonna get the light?"  Kirk called from the other room.
                          
"Relax!"  Miles reached an arm out of the door frame to flick the switch.  "Go to sleep."  He closed his door, and walked back over to me.
                          
"You know I don't like being picked up."
                          
"Why?  You don't trust me?" He teased. 
                          
"It's not that."
                          
"You think I'll drop you?"  He pulled the blanket off of his shoulder and draped it over me.  He started to wrap the edges under my body.  
                          
He used to call it a cocoon.  My mind started cycling through memories from when I was seven or eight and Miles had been the one to read me stories and put me to bed.  I was fifteen now, and he was still the only person who could make me feel this small.  "Can you stop?"  
                          
"Look, it was obvious I had to separate you two." He carried on tucking me in as if I hadn't said anything.  "And Kirk takes up more space."
                          
I was too tired to put up much of a fight.  Besides, his bed was much more comfortable then the air mattress.  By the time I felt him lay down next to me, I was already drifting off to sleep.       
                          
~                                                                                             ~                                                                                             ~
                          
                When I woke up, Kirk was standing over the bed with a phone in his hand.  My phone.
                          
                "Smile, Princess!"
                          
                "Kirk!  Don't!"
                          
                "But you look so cute and cozy in your little cocoon."
                          
                I wiggled around and tried to free my arms but Miles had made the blanket too tight.  
                          
                "Oh my God.  Are you stuck?" Kirk snapped another picture.
                          
                "Will you stop?  I'm not stuck. I just—"
                          
                "Need more layers?" He finished for me.
                          
                "Kirk! No!"
                          
                "No problem, sis."  He left the room.
                          
                I knew I only had a short window of time.  I kicked and flailed.  It was enough to free one of my feet, but Kirk easily wrapped it back up with the new layer.  
                          
                "Get off of me!"
                          
                "Sheesh!  So cranky!"  Once he finished wrapping me up in the second blanket, he waved a third one over me, and got to work pushing the ends under me.  When he finished, I could barely squirm.  I tried anyway while he stood back and admired his handiwork.  "Precious."
                          
                "Kirk, when I get out of here, I'm going to—"
                          
                He cut me off by tapping me on the nose.  "BOOP."
                          
                "Stop!"  
                          
                He booped me a few more times.  He jumped on the bed and stretched out next to me.  He was snapping his sixth selfie of us together when I noticed my screen light up.  Unfortunately he noticed too.  He jumped up and swiped the screen?  "Hello?"
                          
                "Kirk!  Hang up!"  
                          
                "No, it's not.  Baby Piper is taking her nap nap."
                          
                "HANG UP THE PHONE!"
                          
                He held his palm over the phone and turned to me.  "Have some respect.  I'm trying to take a phone call."
                          
                I just prayed it was one of my friends who had met him before and that knew how much of an idiot he was.  
                          
                "Uh huh.  This Friday?"  He was pacing around the room, taunting me.  "Uh huh.  Tough sell, but I'll see what I can do.  Alright.  You don't know her passcode do you?  I have some pictures I want to post."
                          
                "DON'T GIVE IT TO HIM," I shouted, whether or not they knew what it was.  
                          
                Kirk said his goodbyes and hung up the phone.  "Well, she wasn't any help." 
                          
                "Who was it?"
                          
                "Gabby.  She was inviting you to a party on Friday night."
                          
                A party! Just what I needed to pull myself out of this summer's slump.  "Where?"
                          
                "Some dude's house.  Billy?  Brady?"
                          
                "Brody?!"
                          
                "Probably." 
                          
                Gabby had had a crush on Brody since the third grade.  He was a year older than us, but he played soccer too. I wasn't going to miss this go down.  
                          
                Kirk tossed my phone at me.  It landed on the pillow next to my head.  "I'm going to the gym.  Later."  
                          
                "Wait!  I need your help."  
                          
                He stomped back into the room, yanked a few of the blankets off of me, and ran out again.
                          
                "Thanks but I meant with my pitch."  I knew I needed to be at that party.  But I had to get Miles on board.  Fast.  
                          
                "I'll think of something," Kirk called, before I heard the front door open and close.