Meadow appeared in front of Markos's door not even a second later. She reached for the door knob and let out a huff when she realized it was locked. Seriously? Meadow thought. Still teeming with annoyance from her fight with Misty, Meadow groaned and pounded on the door.

But her knocks went unnoticed. Markos and Brie were too wrapped up in each other to hear a sound. They were still high in the clouds from their night together. Markos held Brie close while she entwined her legs with his. She giggled as Markos whispered memories from the night before and nibbled at her ear. They were lost to the world, and had no intention of returning. But the real world was literally knocking at their door. And finally, it was loud enough to catch Brie's attention. 

"What's that knocking?" Brie said.

Markos heard the knocking too, but conveniently chose to ignore it.

"What knocking?" Markos said and grabbed her hips, pulling her back in. "I don't hear anything."

A smile spread across Brie's face as she let herself slip back into fantasy land. It lasted only a brief moment. The knocking became louder and more urgent, demanding to be heard. It sounded like the police were busting down their door. 

"Okay, I really think you should get that," Brie said, pushing him off her for real this time.

"All right fine," Markos groaned as he reluctantly pulled away. 

Markos trudged over to the door, dragging his feet every step of the way. Who the hell just shows up at someone's house anymore? Haven't they ever heard of texting? Markos pulled open the door prepared to tell whoever was on the other side to go to hell, but was shocked to see his little sister.

"Meadow," He said in surprise. She was the last person he was expecting to show up at his door. Especially when he was...in the middle of something. "What are you doing here?"

"Misty kicked me out," Meadow said nonchalantly.

By this time, she was past the point of anger. Now she was just annoyed and over it. She wanted nothing more than to sink into the couch and go back to being lazy like she had been before Misty so rudely interrupted her. 

"She did?" Markos said. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised, but he was. Sure they fought like crazy, but he never thought Misty would go that far. "What for?"

"I don't know, because she hates me?"

Markos's face sunk into a sorrowful frown. It hurt him to think that Meadow truly believed that Misty hated her. 

"Misty doesn't hate you," Markos said. "She just - "

Meadow was in no mood to hear his half-assed attempts to defend her. So she deflected.

"Where are your clothes?"

"Huh?" Markos said, caught off guard that the attention was suddenly on him.

"Your clothes?" Meadow asked. "Where are they?"

Markos looked down and remembered he had nothing on but his boxers. Not even a pair of socks.

"I was, uh, sleeping," Markos said, scrambling to come up with an excuse for his lack of clothing. "Just woke up."

"You sleep in your underwear?"

"Yeah, you don't?"

As soon as the question left his lips, Markos realized he really, really did not want to know the answer.

"Don't answer that," Markos said, quickly shaking his head in an attempt to get rid of the unwanted imagery.

"Are you gonna let me in or what?" Meadow said, losing patience. 

Markos froze like a deer in headlights. He really didn't need his baby sister walking into his apartment and seeing the half-naked girl tangled up in his sheets. Even saying she was half-naked was generous. Three-quarters naked was more like it. Yeah, that was definitely something she didn't need to see. 

"Uh yeah, just um, just give me like five minutes. Ten minutes tops," Markos said skittishly. 

Markos reached out for his wallet in desperation. He grabbed a handful of bills and shoved them towards her, not caring how much it was. 

"Here. There's a coffee shop down the street. Go get yourself a latte,"  Markos said with a quick slam of the door.

Meadow looked down at the crumpled up bills in her hand in confusion. She straightened them out and saw he had unknowingly given her three twenty dollar bills. Meadow just shrugged and stuffed the bills in her pocket. If that's how he was gonna be, she was certainly going to get herself more than just a latte. 

On the other side of the door, Markos sighed in relief that he had managed to buy himself time. But he knew he wasn't in the clear yet. Now he had to figure out how to explain this to Brie. 

"Who was it?" Brie asked, emerging from the bedroom with his button-up shirt draped over her shoulders. 

"My sister," Markos said. "She got kicked out."

"What?" Brie said. "Omg is she okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it," Markos said doing his best to downplay the situation. He hoped if he made it sound like no big deal, she wouldn't ask too many questions. He didn't have the emotional wherewithal to explain his messed up family dynamics and more importantly, he didn't have the time. "My sisters fight all the time. It's fine." 

"Wait your sister kicked her out? What about your parents?"

"My parents aren't around, it's a long story," Markos said hurriedly. Meadow could be back any minute. He had to get her outta there. "Look I hate to be that guy..."

It didn't register with Brie what was happening until she saw the guilty look on his face. Then it hit her. And honestly, it pissed her off.

"Oh, so now you're kicking me out?" 

"No, no, no," Markos said, even though that's exactly what he was doing. "I'm not kicking you out. More like gently suggesting you head back to your place."

Brie furrowed her brow and gave him her best "are you serious?" look. Gently suggesting you head back to your place. What the hell was that?

"Okay so maybe I am," Markos admitted. "But she's my baby sis, you know? I gotta set a good example. I don't want her to be like me. I don't want her jumping in bed with someone after just one dat - "

 Markos's eyes widened and his heart stopped when he realized what he just said, what he implied. He knew he had really stepped in it.

"What's wrong with going home with a guy after the first date?" Brie said, her tone pointed. 

After all, she had gone home with him after just one date. If he thought it was wrong for his sister to do, it was fair to say he thought it was wrong for her to do it too. But he sure didn't seem to be complaining when he let her in last night.

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong with it," Markos said, desperately trying to save himself. "Not when you're an adult. Which you are. But she's just a kid, you know? I don't want her rushing into things she's not ready for because she saw me do it."

"Didn't you say she was 15?" Brie said. "As in like, she's a teenager?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Markos stammered. He hated having to admit that his little sister wasn't so little anymore. "I mean, barely."

"I hate to break it to you," Brie said. She ripped the button-up she was wearing off as fast as she could and threw it to the ground. She didn't want any part of him touching her. Then, she jumped back into her dress and shoved her feet in her heels. "But I'm sure she's far from innocent. She's probably working on her third boyfriend by now."

"Oh God, don't say that," Markos cringed. 

He didn't want to think of Meadow as anything other than his pig-tailed baby sister.

"You know what?" She said as she pushed past him towards the door. "I'm leaving."

"Wait!" Markos said, desperate to get her attention. 

Brie stopped in her tracks. For a split second, she thought he was going to apologize and beg for her forgiveness. Part of her hoped he would. Up until then she was having a great time. He was cute and smart and funny and she really liked him. She wanted so badly for him to redeem himself. But it didn't get better. It only got worse.

She turned to face him waiting for an "I'm sorry" or "I'm an ass" or anything, but instead his eyes shifted towards a rickety ladder hanging out of his apartment window. 

"You can't be serious," Brie said in disbelief. 

"Please?" Markos pleaded. "Meadow just left down that hallway. She could see you."

Brie was completely speechless. Never in her life had she been asked to do something so ridiculous. There were no words.

"Please?" Markos asked again, shooting her his best puppy dog eyes. 

"Whatever," she said with a roll of her eyes. 

At that point, she was so over it she just wanted to get out of there and didn't care how. She stomped over to the window, crouched down and crawled out onto the fire escape. She felt like a teenager sneaking out of her boyfriend's house because his parents had unexpectedly came home early.

"I hope you know you're an asshole," Brie said before slamming the window shut as hard as she possibly could.