Page 22 of Slap Shot at a Second Chance

All the men in the Sinclair family were the same and to see Niel growing to be like Brian and my father kind of stressed me out. As much as they were protective and careful with the women in their lives, they had some kind of animalistic trait in them that I could never understand. And they liked meat, a lot!

Growing up in this family, I had to excel in something to have some kind of mutual interest relationship with my parents and brother. However, it was difficult. I sucked at a lot of things while Brian seemed to excel easily in his academics and sports.

My brother was smart, but since he was lazy when growing up, he tended to lean heavily on sports. That was how he was ableto get into college riding on a full sports scholarship; my parents were extremely glad that they didn’t have to pay for most of his fees.

I believe they hoped the same would happen for me, even though they never admitted it, and it never happened.

I was average.Beautifully average!I hated sports and didn’t like the idea of sweating and running or chasing. I did not see the significance at all and it always disturbed me how tired they would be right after giving it theirall.

My academics were average as well. However, I was quite excellent in History and I did have a few awards from the debate teams and so forth. My parents knew almost nothing about history except what they had learned in elementary school since neither of them chose it as a subject in high school.

Yay.

My parents had to pay for my college fees and I still remember my mother’s reaction when she saw my results. The shock on her face was priceless but it did not beat the reaction she had when she found out I was pregnant with Niel.

I’m not trying to sound proud, but now that we’re over that phase... it was kind of funny.

“When will you guys be going to camp?” my dad asked Brian.

Brian searched for any type of meat in the salad bowl and the soup pot.

“There’s no meat in any of those bowls, Brian. Stop scraping them,” my mother scolded and I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing.

“I wasn’t looking for meat,” he grumbled as he chewed on the lettuce. And there it was. He was brooding! “If all goes as planned, we’ll be going before the end of next week.”

If I knew my brother well enough, I knew that once he was out of this house, he would be going to his favorite restaurant and ordering meat to his heart’s content. And because my mother knew him just as well, she would be saying something soon.

“You don’t have practice tomorrow do you?” she asked and Brian shook his head, which was clearly his demise. “Sleep over until Wednesday.”

She knew his schedule just like she knew the exact times she gave birth to us, even though with both of us combined, it was ages ago. I could see the hope die in my brother’s eyes and it was quite hilarious.

It might seem as if I hated my brother, but I loved him like a little sister would. He wasannoying, and somehow today, ever since I entered my parents’ house he was very short with me.

That’s why I told my mother the boys are supposed to be on a meat diet.

Take it as punishment for being moody toward me when I didn’t even say anything to him at all. Brothers could be moody for no reason at all and it was perplexing and quite annoying to deal with his/her moods.

He really was my mother’s child.

Throughout the entire dinner, I was quiet and I enjoyed not having the attention on me for once in my life. It finally felt like I could just be myself, but of course, just like my brother, myhopes were short-lived too when he finally decided to talk to me like a normal human being.

“Avery, what’s your relationship with Nate?”

My fingers suddenly squeezed my fork and I looked up from my plate of food confused.

“What do you mean?” I asked calmly as if I weren’t shitting myself right now. Did he...not possible.

“Nothing.” He shrugged as he took a long sip of his drink while keeping his eyes on me.Shit, that’s scarier. “He sent me pictures of the date you guys went on yesterday.”

What. The. Fuck?

“Nate took you out on a date, Avery?” my mother asked and I shook my head before I nodded. It felt as if my heart was beating outside my chest, I was nowhere near prepared to hear anything about Nate so soon.

“I guess?” I answered and they looked at me confused. “He took Niel and I to the amusement park because he wanted to thank Niel for coming to support you guys at the game last week.” My throat felt fucking dry.

I picked up my glass of water and almost gulped down the whole thing as Niel giggled beside me.

“Uncle Nate gave me and Mommy a big teddy!” he squealed and Brian smiled a little as he gathered the plates and my mother picked Niel up and gestured to Brian with her head.

---