I should start by saying that my Aunt Julie is more like a mother to me, seeing as how she raised me from the time I was two years old, and my cousin Cynthia is like a sister to me as she's only a couple of months younger than me. As a result of this I alternate between calling Julie my aunt and my mother, and alternate between calling Cynthia my cousin and my sister.
My real mother (Aunt Julie's sister) got sick when she was pregnant with me and as a result both she and I were lucky to survive her pregnancy. While I got better my mother unfortunately got worse, and as a result was in and out of the hospital during the first year of my life, eventually passing away shortly after my second birthday. One of her dying wishes was for Aunt Julie to legally adopt and raise me.
While Aunt Julie talked about my mother all the time she never mentioned my father (or Cynthia's for that matter) until we pressed her on the issue and all she would tell us is my parents were still just dating when my mother found out she was pregnant. My father walked out on her and never came back. In the case of Cynthia, Aunt Julie admitted she was a bit of a wild child in her late 20's and Cynthia was the result of a one night stand, and honestly didn't know who her father was. With two children to take care of, she cleaned up her act and evenly divided her time between her job and raising us.
I played the overprotective brother role to Cynthia all the way into our teen years, and always looked out for her (jokingly calling her my little sister because of the two month age difference). As much as we annoy each other, we're actually very close, as there isn't much we don't know about what is going on in each other's lives. If there's something I don't know about my little sister it was because she doesn't want me to know, and I respect her privacy. She also respects my privacy if there's something I don't feel the need to tell her. Aunt Julie however seems to know everything regardless of if we tell her or not. She just has that motherly intuition. Even if she doesn't know exactly what's going on with us, she knows something is up and will get it out of us one way or another.
Cynthia and I ended up going to the same community college together as it was easier financially on Aunt Julie, and we could always transfer to a 4 year college later. We both managed to get part time jobs for spending money for ourselves and contributed to the household finances when we could.
All right, now that all the background is out of the way, on to the reason you're here.
I came home from hanging out with my buddies one summer night while school was out, and made my way to my room and quickly changed into my lounging around the house clothes. I was about to head to the kitchen and see what I could raid the fridge for when I noticed the light on in Cynthia's room and decided to poke my head in and see what she was up to.
"Hey sis, what's up?"
"Hey ugly," she was sitting in the middle of her bed wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts. She had her phone in hand and looked up from the text she was in the middle of typing. "Done running around with that crew of miscreants?"
"Something like that," I said walking over to sit on the edge of her bed. "What'cha up to?"
"Nothing much, just talking to Suzy." Suzy was Cynthia's best friend, and had been ever since middle school. "You know, girl talk."
"You need to get out of the house." I said, "You've barely left the house since you and Jason broke up."
"That was last week." she said, smirking "You act like I've been locked up here for a month. I... I'm just not ready to go out yet."
"Because you're afraid you'll see him and..."
"That fucking tramp Aisha?"
About a week earlier, Cynthia had found out that her boyfriend of almost a year, Jason, was cheating on her. The resulting argument and breakup was ugly and almost resulted in Jason and I coming to blows. I wasn't much of a fighter, having only ever gotten into one that was nothing more than a few lame punches thrown before it was broken up, but I was willing to go to bat for Cynthia.
"Besides," she added, "You're not one to talk."
I had also gone through a breakup just a few months earlier with a crazy, obsessive girl, Jessie. She was the kind of girl who was convinced that every female I spoke to was hitting on me. If I was texting or calling anyone (even Aunt Julie or Cynthia) she was convinced I was talking to a girl I was seeing on the side, and she would blow up my phone sending me 20-30 messages a day, convinced I was cheating if I didn't answer her right away. I finally broke it off with her when I couldn't stand any more of her obsessive smothering. She nearly lost her mind and swore she'd "get me", but nothing ever came of it. That was five months ago and I had been single ever since, despite my friends trying to hook me up with girls they knew.
"We're not talking about me, we're talking about you. Call up some of your girlfriends, go out, and have a good time. Forget about that asshole. You know, they say living well is the best revenge. At least I go and hang out with the guys."
"Maybe next weekend," she said, putting her phone down. "How about I spend some time with my big brother? Wanna watch some TV with me?"
"I was gonna see what's in the fridge. Since mom's gone we gotta fend for ourselves."
Aunt Julie was gone for a week on a business trip. She had no problems with leaving her two college age kids home alone, in fact Cyn and I stopped needing babysitters around the time we were 15. Since then Aunt Julie knew she could leave us alone without us throwing a 80's teen comedy party or otherwise destroying the house while she was gone.
I went to the kitchen and microwaved up a batch of pizza rolls, grabbed a couple of sodas and headed back to Cynthia who was channel surfing. I plopped down on the bed next to her and stretched out.
Since the subject of her ex came up we ended up talking instead of watching anything, leaving the TV on for background noise. Specifically about how much she hated men right now.
"Present company excluded of course." she said looking at me.
I laughed a bit, "Of course. Except for all the times you tell me I'm horrible."
"Well I only tell you that when you're being an asshole." she said, "But seriously, you're about the nicest guy I know."
I smirked "You're just saying that because we're family."
"No," she said, putting her empty plate off to the side, "I mean it."
I gave her a kiss on her forehead, "Well, I still think you're full of shit, but thanks."
We watched the show for a few minutes in silence, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Cyn kept glancing over at me. I finally looked back at her. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"
She laughed "No, it's just that... well my girlfriends are right."
"Right about what?" I asked.
"You're kinda cute."
"Your friends think I'm cute?"
