Mom and Galen left for the week to go on some woodsy retreat for Galen. Since they didn’t hire a babysitter it means they’ve left me in charge of my sisters.

I never thought Galen would let Mom leave me in charge, I can tell he doesn’t think I’m “responsible” or “mature” or whatever.

Luckily Teresa and Viv keep each other busy, so all I really have to do is watch over Scar, feed them, and make sure they don’t burn the place down. Easy enough.

Poor Scar though. About halfway through the week when the three of them were playing, I heard her cry and she ran passed me into the bathroom.

I was able to cheer her up after a little bit. She’s the only one of them that’s cool anyway. Teresa and Viv act like they hate anyone that isn’t them. So Scar and I chilled together for a while. I practiced some music while she was painting and after she calmed down and we chatted for a while.

But from inside I heard this piercing alarm and Teresa and Viv started screaming.

They really were going to burn the place down. The girls were just freaking out and I didn’t have time to figure out what happened.

It wasn’t as bad as it looked, and luckily there was no damage. But I was so pissed.

Of course it was the two of them. And of course I would get shit for not watching them.

“You need to tell me what happened right. now.”

Viv stayed silent, and as usual let Teresa take the lead, “I dunnooo. We just found this thing and put it down and it started.”

“What thing?”

“The fire thing,” Teresa said and mimicked flicking a lighter with her hand.

“You took Mom and Galen’s lighter from the cabinet?! What did you set on fire?”





“NOTHING!”

“WHAT WAS IT?”

“A napkin.

But then it caught fire-and-almost-touched-my-hand-and-I-had-to-drop-it-on-the-floor-and-then-we-didn’t-know-what-to-do-so-we-ran-away-and-thought-that-you-would-find-it-so-it-would-be-okay.”

“Stupid! You two are grounded to your room until Mom and Galen get back! I don’t care, you can’t leave this room except to go to school and eat.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Yeah,” Viv finally chimed in. “You’re not even our brother. You can’t tell us what to do!”

“They put me in charge, so you BET I can!”

I stormed out so and slammed their door. I was so mad. I decided to text this girl that my dad had introduced me to last week when we went to this little sports bar.

At first I noticed her sister (she’s one of triplets!), but she was bitchy and Harley looked like more fun when I saw her dancing.

Dad told me to go over to talk for her and I left with her number. We started chatting and sorta started getting into each other.

So anyway, I invited her over and she wanted to bring some friends along. So of course I agreed so I could see her.

She brought her sisters and they all told a bunch of friends. It was definitely more than I had anticipated, but so worth it.

And it was such a blast! After a while Harley asked if Galen and my Mom had anything to drink. I had no idea, so I went over to the bar and found some bottles of wine.

Turns out, everyone wanted some so I poured a bunch of cups out and left them on the bar for people to grab.

While I was doing that I had lost track of Harley, so I went to hunt her down and found her near Galen’s tent. That stupid thing he keeps at the side of the house as some reminder of something.

She grabbed me for a selfie my cheek briefly touched her and I felt a stirring.

I grabbed her and kissed her, not caring that everyone was around, not caring that this should have been a big moment. It was my first kiss. But I didn’t want Harley to know that, she obviously wasn’t new to this. Things got a little carried away from there.

Maybe it was the wine or just being close to Harley and tasting her lips for the first time, but she opened the tent and dragged me in.

And well, it was AWESOME. I was so in love with this girl now.

And I never wanted to be apart from her. And I wanted that again and again.

Between all the music and the wine I don’t think that anyone heard us, so we snuck out of the tent. But just as we were going inside the house, I heard a car pull up. My first thought was that it must have been some more of Harley’s friends. But when the door opened I heard Galen’s voice scream out

“WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?!”

I was SO screwed.