The silence was beginning to get to him. Michael didn’t know how much longer he could handle it. He thought bring Ryan and Trent to a place where they could hang and talk would be an easy out. But all Trent was doing was glaring at everyone and everything like he was at war with the world at large. Ryan just looked downright uncomfortable, like he wanted to be anywhere else than in between his two brothers. And all Michael could do was scowl. Maria was going to kill him if he didn’t fix this like he said he would in her Bio class. The last thought had just passed his brain when he caught sight of Maria, Isabel, Tess, Leigha and Jessie walking past the large window of the restaurant. The girls had decided to have some time alone together since Kyle had said that he wouldn’t be able to make it until the movie too. His father had wanted him to help with some stuff at home. Michael’s scowl deepened when Maria looked at all of them in the booth and glared at him in particular. It wasn’t his damn fault that his brother was being a little prick. She caught his eye before they moved away and her emerald eyes narrowed in warning. Suddenly he could hear her in his head like she was right there beside him whispering in his ear. “Fix it Michael,” her mental voice told him firmly. “He looks miserable.” The girls were long gone by now, but Michael could still hear her. “Why don’t you come in here and fix it,” he sent back to her in the exasperated Michael tone that she hadn’t heard in days, and truthfully had gotten tired of not hearing. Maria smiled to herself at the tone. Michael was so clueless sometimes. “Because I wasn’t the idiot who acted like it was going to be a giant piece of cake to get Trent to calm down,” Maria said in a coolly superior tone. She had been waiting for this since Bio. Michael had bitten off more than he could chew this time. “This isn’t working,” Michael sent back to her. “All he’s doing is glaring at me like he wants me dead. And I’m not feeling to cheerful about him right now either. He’s being a little brat.” “Michael,” Maria sent him in warning. She wasn’t amused now. The Guerin twins worshipped Michael and she wasn’t going to be the one to ruin that. “If you don’t fix things with your brothers then you’re going to be hating a lot more than them.” “And just what are you going to do to me Princess,” Michael replied in her mind, his annoyance now with her apparent. “Two words Michael,” Maria said icily, “cut off.” Back in the restaurant, Michael looked shocked and paled slightly. “Fix it,” she told him right before she cut off their link and made it where his mind was yet again only his. “Damn it,” Michael grumbled to himself. How the hell did that happen? What happened to sweet, lovey-dovey Maria from the past four days? The harpy was back…big time. And she was threatening to cut him off. “She wouldn’t do that,” he continued to grumble to himself, completely oblivious to the shocked gazes of his brothers. “That’s punishing her just as much as me. She wouldn’t cut…” his mumble trailed off when he finally noticed Ryan and Trent looking at him. “What?” He demanded of them angrily. “What the hell are you mumbling about?” Trent demanded in a very angry tone. He was so pissed at his brother right now. Hell he was pissed at everyone. First Jessie had belted him for interfering in her life the first day of school when he’d told her she was allowed to walk with Liam Brody. Then he’d gotten called into the principal’s office for it, him not her because no one ever believed that one of the precious Whitman angel’s ever did anything wrong. His mom and dad had yelled at him for hours because he’d even managed to top Michael’s record by getting called in on the first friggin day of school. Then to top everything off, he’d walked in on his brother, his incredibly cool brother, with his friggin tongue down the most beautiful girl in creation’s throat. And he wasn’t even going to think about just where he’d noticed said brother’s hand had been moving toward on said girl’s body. His life sucked. It was that simple, and now his friggin’ best friend was ignoring his existence. She hadn’t even made a face at him five minutes ago when she’d passed by the window. And now his brother, who he still looked up to, was mumbling to himself yet again about said girl. “Maria was talking to him in his head,” Ryan said calmly. He’d been wondering about what the hell Michael had been doing for the past five minutes, and it wasn’t that hard to figure out once he thought about it. Now maybe he could get Michael and Trent to actually speak to each other. Then he could go and watch Lord of the Rings with Leigha and Jessie at the theatre. He was supposed to bring Trent too, but neither Trent nor Jessie knew about that part, him and Leigha had thought that the best course of action when they’d planned it out in one of the three classes that they had together. “How the hell did you know that?” Michael looked at his brother in amazement. Sometimes he forgot just how intuitive Ryan really was. Most of the time the quiet guy’s intelligence and insight was lost in the many confrontations and sticky situations his twin pulled him into. “Could it be more obvious?” Ryan fired back with the typical Guerin smirk that Leigha would have been shocked speechless if she’d seen it. “And you,” he turned to glare at his twin. “Could you be any more stubborn? Think about it Trent, this is Michael and Maria were talking about. Would she be anywhere near his sorry ass if she wasn’t his soulmate?” Trent didn’t acknowledge his twin. He was too busy thinking, as he had been since Ryan’s initial outburst. Trent’s angry glare was gone, and in its place was a contemplative look that many would have been speechless if they had seen it. Then he shocked both of his brother’s by simply picking up a slice of pizza and biting into it calmly. Both Ryan and Michael stared at him…Trent never got over anything that quickly. “You hurt her Michael,” Trent said in a calm voice, as he looked his older, and extremely more muscular, brother dead in the eye. “And I swear on everything that we are, I swear on earth, air, fire and water that I will find a way to kill you.” Michael nodded seriously and returned his kid brother’s look. “I swear on the elements Trent that if I ever willing hurt her in the way you mean that you wouldn’t have to do it. But if I don’t kill myself, you have my permission to do it. I’d want you to.” “So you going to tell us what you’re little mumble-fest was about?” Ryan asked, happy that a truce had been reached. And you wouldn’t get a better truce with Guerin men. “No,” Michael said as he picked up his own slice of pizza. “What do you think this is the Oprah Show? Eat your pizza and shut up. I don’t want to be seen with you two any longer than possible.” Trent hid a grin as he bit into his pizza again. It was nice to have one part of his life back to normal. He turned to his twin. “Well, since we’ve bonded with the Elder, what do you want to do tonight?” “Before we go do something that we’d have Kyle’s dad arrest us for,” Ryan said with a roll of his eyes. “I want to go do something legal. I’m going to watch Lord of the Rings. You can come with if you want. I’ll go alone if I have to.” “Why wouldn’t I want to see it?” Trent asked his brother, clearly offended. “Just because I don’t go to many classes doesn’t mean that I don’t read. And it was me that let you borrow the damned trilogy to begin with asshole.” Ryan didn’t respond to his brother, he just shrugged as he nabbed another slice of pizza. “I think I’m watching that with Maria, Tess, and Kyle,” Michael said with a shrug. “Before you two go off to do whatever illegal episode you’ve got planned this weekend, you can come with us. Besides, us Royals have to stick together right?” Both his brothers snorted at him. “Uh huh,” Trent said as he looked at the last slice of pizza. He knew Michael wanted it, and he knew just how to distract his brother long enough to grab it. “Sure that’s the reason. It’s not that Maria threatened to cut you off for not fixing things and you want to prove to her that you fixed it.” When Michael stared at him with his jaw slack, Trent nabbed the last slice and Ryan began to laugh loudly. Sometimes people forgot that Trent was just as intuitive as any of the rest of the Royals. “But, we’ll be nice. We’ll help you out.” Michael’s stare turned into a glare as his brothers both laughed at him, then he growled when he noticed that the last slice of pizza was gone too. Now it was a matter of dignity. He’d have to get Maria to give in before he did. She’d declared war on him and now he couldn’t surrender. He’d just claimed his god status back in the eyes of his brothers. He wasn’t about to lose it again. “Yeah right,” Michael said as he reached over and grabbed the slice right out of Trent’s hands, “just wait to see who gives in first. Maria is putty in my hands. You’ll see.” “Twenty says he doesn’t last five minutes,” Ryan said to Trent as Michael went to pay the bill. “I’ve got faith,” Trent said as he looked at his once-again idol. “He’s a Guerin, that means he’s stubborn. Twenty says he lasts the first hour of the movie. Maria will have him begging by then.” “You are so on,” Ryan said as he slapped Trent’s hand in agreement. TBC

Part 15