There's multiple experiences of being home alone when you have one older brother and one younger brother who sometimes seem like twins, and sometimes are the exact opposite.

One, there is being home alone-alone. Like, not even my siblings are there. It's just me, acting like I'm in YouTube videos, drinking out of bottles, taking candy and hiding the wraps with paper towels...

Then there's being alone with Minho, who thinks he's in a movie and can just throw a house party and not get caught. I manage to stop him every single time by simply telling him people will make out on his bed.

Being home alone with just Finn means watching movies, eating a lot of food— basically the same as I do with Minho after I convince him not to throw a party.

Home alone with the three of us is just chaos.

And that happens every month, because Mom and Dad go on a date every single month. They want to have some time together without us kids bothering them. Whenever they come back, they're always over the top in love again, so I guess it does help keep their relationship nice.

But, leaving us alone either goes very well or very bad.

I have not yet been able to tell what's it going to be this time. I just finished making my old jeans into a mini skirt and it looks really nice when I put it on. I know I'll never wear it out in public, but still.

After that, I went downstairs. Minho was watching TV and Finn was sitting in the kitchen, bent over a weird book about views on life or some philosophy thing. I don't know.

Now I'm not sure what to do because the TV is taken and I'm not the biggest reader. I could've grabbed my phone, but I swear Dad will put screen time on there if I add another hour of watching useless videos.

STEPHANIUSIBUSIUSYPUSSY

Thomas

Viviette

I'm bored

I'm Thomas

You're not funny

Yeah, I'm Thomas

Stop

Sorry
What do I do about the fact that ur bored

Idk
Unbore me

That's not even a word

Who cares
It's type-able and pronounceable isn't it

Got a point there

Wyd

Indawby

The what

Abbreviations

Stop doing that

You sent an abbreviation so I sent one back

...

What
I'm pissing you off. Un-boring you
Anyway the translation: I'm not doing anything, what about you?

Trying to get rid of this boredom

Good luck

Can't you come over or something
Depression seems to have snuck into our house and infected both Minho and Finn
They're not speaking
And I will get told to shut up if I do

I'll call an abuse line

Or just come over

Can't
I'm with Tes

Why the hell did you not mention that earlier ?! ?!

It's one of those phone hours where we just don't speak and do absolutely nothing on these devices
She's saying 'hi' though

Hi back
Idk what to talk about Thomassssss
Teresa do you have siblings

She says no

Otherwise she could've given advice

It's literally just your siblings Sage
Tell them ur bored and let them fix it

"I'm bored," I say.

With a hum, Minho puts the next chip in his mouth. I turn to Finn, who doesn't even bothering reply.

That did not work

Wait

What're you gonna do this time

A second later, Minho's phone goes off. Lazily and half-asleep, the boy picks the thing up. "Yeah?"

"Your sister is bored," Thomas and Teresa start yelling in unison, spelling it out slowly as if Minho's a foreigner, "and we need you to fix it!"

"Leave me alone." He hangs up and puts his phone completely off.

"Why is everything so depressed today?" I ask.

Minho eyes me. "Please— let me continue watching Home Alone and live in the moment. Shush."

I turn around to the kitchen table. "Finn."

"What?"

"Can I make you some clothes or something?"

"Right now, I don't feel like going through the whole process in which you have to measure me," he replies, eyes on the book, chin resting on his palms.

Nothing works

You can come over

This is your free time with Teresa
No

Yeah and she says she's fine with you coming over because apparently I'm also boring
And I'll spend my free time however I want to spend it
So will she
And we say you come over
And we'll bake cookies or something

Alright then
See you in a sec

I spend a record time—one and a half minute—putting on my shoes, then walk up to the door. "Bye."

"Where are you going?"

"Thomas's."

"Can I come with?"

With my mouth wide open, I stare at Finn. "Absolutely not. Bye, have a good night."

Basically ignoring me at first and then wanting to come with me, huh? No way.

I close the door behind me and walk the twenty-eight exact steps to Thomas's house. I really didn't have to put on these shoes just for those steps, but alright.

The door opens before I can ring the bell. "That took way too long for a three second walk," Thomas announces, immediately taking me inside.

"Hi, Vi." Teresa smiles at me. "Good to see you again."

I smile back at her as brightly as I can. I'm happy that I have actually met her now and that she's a nice person. She deserves Thomas, and Thomas deserves her. "You, too," I say.

"Your little brother's Minho, right?" She asks. "I've seen him at school before."

"Oh, yeah, probably. He's really not as tough as he acts."

Maybe, though. I mean, he doesn't have a total different personality at school. He's just louder and— no, also not true. Not compared to those friends.

I think he is acting tough at school, but to impress those 'friends'. Means he's probably acting tough in a way he secretly doesn't like. Perhaps that's why he's quiet during the lunches. He doesn't even like those friends. He just doesn't want to be a loser, because that's what you apparently are in Minho's mind, whenever you're not popular.

But I bet he wishes he'd sit with Newt and Thomas and Alby every lunch.

Minho might just be the most complexed person I know.

"Baking cookies, you mentioned?" I look at Thomas, eyebrows raised. "Sounds good."

It always sounds good, but we have also always failed whenever we tried to bake. And I swear it's his fault. I don't know what kept on going wrong but it wasn't me.

Teresa seems like a good baker. Maybe a perfectionist, but still good.

He nods. "Yeah."

"So you can flex to your brothers," Teresa adds.

"And don't give them anything," I grin.

"Bingo." Both of us smile.

The most simple interactions here and there already mean a lot.

"Let's start, then." Teresa motions at the ingredients. They're all standing on the counter. They must've got them ready as I walked here.

Smirking, the raven-haired girl then turns to Thomas. There's a twinkle in her eyes. "And what did you learn last time, Tom?"

"Eh, not to put that electric mixer in the flour and start mixing?"

"Yup. And we only need the yellow parts of the eggs." At those words, Teresa glances over his shoulder, straight at me. "Last time, he messed all our dough up."

"What's this with you guys and embarrassing me?" He mutters, offended. Teresa and I share some laughs before we start baking.

To be honest, Thomas stays a few feet away most of the time.

He shows up when we have batter or dough he's allowed to eat, though.

Yeah, then he shows up with a little grin which to be honest is kind of adorable but I can't really say that because of so many reasons.

☯︎

No one opens our front door when I ring the bell around thirty past eleven, so it's my second attempt to call Finn. I gave up on Minho after the third try.

But I know they're home and awake because the lights are on, and they never go to sleep early even Mom and Dad are gone.

I had fun at Thomas's. Now I'm tired and just really want to go to sleep instead of stay in the cold, and I find it absolutely ridiculous that they're not answering my messages, calls, and the shrill, repeated calls of the doorbell.

It's also kind of ridiculous I forgot my keys, but come on.

I spam Finn's phone until the online thing shows up. Then, read. And then there's nothing for a while.

I wait, impatient. I'm jumping for foot to foot to stop my goosebumps. I knock on the door, I hum, I wait.

The door finally gets opened in such a rough movement that I flinch. The second I'm inside, Finn slams the door back closed. He does it so roughly that some things on the walls shake.

My eyes are big as I stare up at him. "Excuse you? Are you out of your mind? I've been calling for the past fifteen minutes and then you react like this? And don't say you were asleep. I know you weren't."

A grunt is all that leaves his mouth before he walks off. I follow, confused. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

Sure, nothing. Because when he's not stressed at all, he's picking at his nails and placing the most random things on the correct place. Like, he never lies his keys down in the little box we have, except for now. He's nervous about something and I can tell.

"What happened?" I repeat, sterner. "Where's Minho?"

"In his room."

"Did you get into an argument?"

"Maybe."

Minho's stubborn. He'd even call Google wrong when he believes he's right about something. And Finn can also be stubborn, and he has some issues with anger.

"And then?" I continue. "Tell me."

He runs two frustrated hands through his hair while he leans on the counter with his elbows. The hands eventually stay pressed against his face in frustration. "Then I lashed out."

"In what way?"

"I lifted my arm. I realized how crazy it was before anything else happened, so I didn't hurt him. I didn't even want to— well, in that moment, I did, but not physically."

"And then what?" I order.

"And then he locked himself up in his room."

Of course. "I doubt he's very upset about it," I assure. "I'll go talk to him. And jeez, reply to my texts next time. What if I was dying, hm?"

I walk up the stairs before he can reply and knock on Minho's door.

"Leave me alone, Vi."

Wow, recognizing me by knock.

"Open up and tell me what happened," I reply. Before this thing is fixed, I'm not going to sleep and neither are they. I don't ever want to go to sleep while I'm in an argument with someone. Other people being in an argument already stresses me. That's why I want this fixed.

Sighing, Minho opens the door. He doesn't look upset, so I was right. He's good at hiding things, though. But this time, his eyes look normal and so does his bored expression. Nothing's wrong.

"He saw that science thing in the trash can and gave a whole ass peptalk I didn't even want. So I told him that, that I don't give a shit, and it got heated. He was going all about how important school is and then I might've said something like 'yeah, and now you're boxing, using not a single thing you learned at school' and then he lashed out. It was stupid."

Things like this have happened before, by the way. Finn being close to hitting someone, then feeling guilty for the rest of the week.

I've experienced that being me only once, and it was scarier than it sounded. Having him tower over me, hand lifted in the air and ready to slam against my cheek or something. Made me realize all men I know could easily hold me down if they wanted to.

And Minho also really hates it when it happens, so that's why he went up to his room.

"Go tell him you're sorry about what you said," I say. "If it ends into more arguments, I'll tell Mom and Dad."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, freaking babysitter."

☯︎︎

A/n: More and more will happen by the time but the first few chapters are always just some regular things 

Anyway, I hope you like Viviette a bit!!

And I hope I'm writing the childhood friends to lovers trope alright. I haven't written it before and it will take a bit longer until it evolves, but so far, feel free to give tips or the most random things I could do to make things better :)

Have a good day/night!!
x Vera

P.S — Do we want author's notes at the end of every chapter??

P.P.S — And then what do we talk about there? Should I ask questions about the story?

Wait, here: what would actually be in Thomas's drawers??