Misunderstood: Inspired by the Neighbor from Hell Series (A Neighbor from Hell YA Book 1)

by R. L. Mathewson

  He had two hours before he needed to head back to the school so that he could walk Mikey home. Plenty of time, Sebastian decided as he headed to his uncle’s garage. An hour later, he’d managed to find everything that he needed, sliced his hand open when he ripped up one of the rotted boards, cut new ones and nailed them in place. He’d have to come back next week and seal the boards, Sebastian decided as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm and focused his attention on the wheelchair.

  After two more trips to the garage, he was finally able to get the wheel off and secured it to the back of his bike as he mentally calculated how much money he had in his wallet only to sigh when his phone alerted him to another message. Really hoping that his mother wasn’t going to ask him how the spaghetti was, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, swiped it open, and–

  Realized that he didn’t know as much as he thought he did.

  Chapter 5

  “He does realize that we don’t need him to walk us home every day, right?” Mathew asked with an annoyed sigh and a lazy gesture toward Sebastian, who was waiting for them on the park bench across the street.

  “He’s not waiting for you,” Jessica pointed out with a pitying look at her twin brother that had Mikey’s lips twitching.

  “What are you talking about?” Mathew asked, frowning in confusion as Mikey reached into her backpack and grabbed the old Yankees baseball cap that Uncle Jason had given her after her Red Sox hat had somehow managed to find its way into the trash compacter during a Christmas party at his house a few years ago.

  “He’s here for Mikey,” Jessica said only to add, “You make me sad sometimes,” with a sad shake of her head before heading off to catch up with her friends.

  “That’s not true!” Mathew called after his sister. “He misses me!”

  “He really doesn’t,” Mikey threw over her shoulder as she hurried across the street and headed toward her best friend, noting the strain around his eyes as he reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled out a baseball. Without a word, he tossed it to her.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, absently catching the ball and began rolling it between her hands.

  Sebastian released a shuddering sigh as he shoved his hands into his sweatshirt pocket and sadly mumbled, “I just missed Mathew so much.”

  “Really?” Mathew asked, grinning hugely as he joined them.

  Chuckling, Sebastian said, “No,” making his little brother narrow his eyes on him as Mathew headed toward the fields where a game of touch football was already underway.

  “You know you missed me!” Mathew threw over his shoulder as he ditched them.

  “What’s going on?” Mikey asked as they cut across the park.

  “Nothing,” Sebastian said, shaking his head as they made their way toward the picnic tables at the back of the park.

  “Did I ever tell you how much I loved it when you lied to me?” she asked with a heartfelt sigh as she hopped up onto the bench and jumped onto his back.

  “What makes you think I’m lying to you?” Sebastian asked, pausing to grab hold of her legs and shifted her higher before heading toward the sidewalk.

  “Because I know you,” Mikey pointed out as she laid her chin on his shoulder.

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” he said, sounding amused as he carried her down the street toward their houses.

  “It really did though,” she said, wondering when he was going to realize that it would make things easier if he just told her what she wanted to know.

  Sometimes he was just so damn difficult…

  “It really didn’t,” he said when they reached her driveway.

  “I’ll find out eventually,” Mikey reminded him as he headed toward her house.

  “There’s nothing to find out,” he said, lowering her to the ground when they reached the back door and moved to place his hands back in his pocket, but not before she saw the dried blood staining the back of his hand.

  “What the hell happened to your hand?” Mikey demanded as she grabbed his hand only to have him pull it away with a muttered, “Nothing,” as he turned around to leave, for some reason thinking that she would just let it go. He had a lot to learn, Mikey decided as she grabbed his other hand and dragged him inside, noting that the normally busy kitchen was empty.

  “It’s nothing,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as Mikey released his hand so that she could drop her backpack on the floor and pull her sweatshirt off, watching his every move the entire time with a look that dared him to try to leave again.

  When he only stood there, she narrowed her eyes on him until he got the hint and pulled off his sweatshirt. As soon as his sweatshirt was hung on a peg, Mikey was dragging him through the insanely large kitchen that Reese had built for her mother. Her stepfather had his eye on this house for a long time, but it wasn’t until he’d fallen in love with her mother that he’d decided to buy it. He’d torn the house apart to its frame, redesigned the layout, combining the old kitchen, pantry, and dining room into her mother’s dream kitchen with a customized kitchen island, two commercial refrigerators, multiple ovens, and enough cabinet space to make all of her mother’s cooking fantasies come true.

  Once the first set of twins were born, her mother had taken advantage of all the extra workspace and started her own catering company to compliment her online recipe business, KaseyCooks.com. Reese had offered to build her mom a separate building for her catering business, but her mom had loved being able to spend time with Mikey when she was little and wanted to be able to do the same with the boys.

  So, her stepfather had built a small play area in the corner of the kitchen for the boys and added a large bathroom, which made it convenient for interrogating teenage boys. With that in mind, Mikey threw the bathroom door open, dragged Sebastian inside and leveled a glare on him. “Start talking,” she said as she began rolling the baseball between her hands again, needing the soothing action to get her through this.

  When he moved to walk past her, she reached back and closed the bathroom door. At his questioning look, she turned the lock, letting him know that he wasn’t going anywhere until she got her answers. He looked from her, to the door, and back again. “You realize that I outweigh you by thirty pounds, right?”

  “Forty,” Mikey said, waving that away as she gestured with her ball for him to get on with it. “Start talking.”

  Sighing, Sebastian reached over and turned the sink on. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “And if I was anyone else, I would probably believe that,” Mikey said as she walked over and hopped up onto the bathroom counter while he rinsed his hands off.

  “Just drop it,” Sebastian said, turning the faucet off and reached for a hand towel only to mutter a curse under his breath when she placed her ball on the counter and grabbed his hand, pulling him closer so that she could inspect the gash running across his palm.

  “Not happening,” she mumbled absently as she inspected his hand, noting the broken blisters, the jagged cut that didn’t look like it was going to need stitches, and the

  “Damn it!” Sebastian snapped as she pulled out a nasty looking splinter.

  “You were saying?” Mikey reminded him as she reached for the soap.

  “I fixed Mrs. Blaine’s ramp if you must know, you evil little gremlin,” he bit out on a hiss as she carefully washed his hand.

  “That was very nice of you,” Mikey murmured as she used the pad of her thumb to carefully clean his cut, “but that’s not why you’re upset.”

  He was quiet for a moment and then…

  “I didn’t get in.”

  “Didn’t get in where?” Mikey absently asked as she grabbed a hand towel off the counter and carefully pressed it against his palm.

  When he didn’t say anything, she looked up at him as she said, “You know that you can tell me anything.”

  Sighing heavily, he said, “I tried to register for high school,” taking her by surprise.

  “
Really?” Mikey asked only to bite back a groan when he ground his jaw as he pulled his hand free with that look on his face that told her that he was about to shut down on her.

  He was her best friend and she loved him more than anything, but sometimes, now being one of those times, she wanted to throttle him. Why did he have to make everything so damn difficult? Mikey had to wonder as she reached over and grabbed hold of his shirt before he could storm off and make her job more difficult.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” she said softly, using her hold on his shirt to pull him back.

  “They feel that it would be in my best interest if I continued my education from the comfort of my own home,” Sebastian said, trying to shrug it off like it was no big deal but the look on his face…

  “Can they even do that?” Mikey asked as she grabbed the antibacterial ointment, the small box of gauze pads, and medical tape that her mother kept well-stocked for moments like this from the medicine cabinet.

  “The only thing that they have to do is provide me with access to a public education,” Sebastian said, watching as she carefully laid his hand in her lap.

  “And they found a way of doing that without allowing you to step foot on campus,” Mikey guessed as she carefully applied ointment to his cut.

  “The district has started to offer an online alternative for students who don’t want to go to school, which means that they don’t have to worry about trying to come up with an excuse not to let me go next year. They were kind enough to send me a link so that I could register, along with a reminder that I am not eligible for any extracurricular activities because of my expulsion,” Sebastian explained as she finished bandaging his hand while she watched him.

  For a moment, Mikey didn’t say anything and then, she asked the one thing that they’d always avoided talking about.

  “Why didn’t you go to Radcliffe when you had the chance, Sebastian?”

  “Just drop it,” he said, pulling his hand away, and this time, she let him.

  “Why didn’t you go to Radcliffe when you had the chance?” she repeated, refusing to let it go this time.

  “Because Jonathan wouldn’t have been able to go if I had,” he admitted, taking her by surprise because she honestly hadn’t expected him to answer her.

  “What are you talking about?” Mikey asked, watching him as he rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh.

  “You can’t tell anyone,” Sebastian said, looking as though he was debating whether or not he should say anything else.

  “Duh,” Mikey said, even as she gestured impatiently for him to get on with it.

  “Jonathan didn’t get the scholarship,” he said, dropping his hand away. “I did.”

  “And you let him take your spot,” Mikey said, knowing she was right before the words left her mouth because that was just the kind of thing that Sebastian would do for someone that he loved.

  “Okay, then why don’t you apply somewhere else? What about Latin Scribe High School?” Mikey said, knowing that Uncle Jason would do everything he could to get him in.

  “I wouldn’t let my parents spend forty thousand dollars a year on tuition and you suddenly think I’m going to be okay with them spending fifty thousand?” Sebastian asked, shaking his head.

  “Maybe you’ll get offered another scholarship?” she said with a hopeful smile.

  “I won’t,” the stubborn teenage boy who was really starting to piss her off, said.

  “How do you know?” Mikey demanded, wondering why he had to make everything so damn difficult.

  “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

  “What are you talking about?” she absently asked even as she tried to figure out how she was going to manage to talk to Uncle Jason about helping Sebastian apply without breaking her promise when he managed to take her by surprise and said the one thing that she’d never expected him to say.

  “I’m going to wait until I turn sixteen and get my GED so that I can go work for Uncle Jared full-time,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal while she sat there staring at the boy who had clearly lost his mind and just in case he didn’t know, she decided that perhaps she should be the one to tell him.

  Chapter 6

  “Are you crazy?” Sebastian managed to get out before the crazed girl who had somehow managed to tackle him to the floor threw more facecloths at him.

  “Yes!” Mikey hissed out as she blindly reached over, grabbed a handful of cotton balls and

  Forced him to turn his head before she could make him eat the damn things as she continued ranting at him. “You are not getting your GED! Do you hear me, Sebastian Bradford? You are going to find a way to get your stubborn butt back in school and you are going to”

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Aunt Kasey demanded, cutting Mikey off mid-rant.

  Eyes narrowing in warning as she forced herself to release the handful of cotton swabs that he hadn’t seen her grab, Mikey slowly nodded her head and bit out, “This isn’t over,” as she climbed off him.

  With one last glare, she turned to face her mother and said, “He called me a filthy Mudblood,” effectively keeping her word.

  Without missing a beat, Aunt Kasey blinked at her daughter and asked, “Aren’t you?”

  Nodding slowly, Mikey said, “We are no longer speaking.”

  “At least he didn’t call you a Squib,” her mother said, making Sebastian bite back a smile as he got to his feet just in time to see Mikey narrow her eyes on her mother before she turned around and stormed off, leaving them to follow after her.

  “Then I’ll go where I’m wanted, woman!” Mikey said with a huff as she grabbed her book, headed toward the front door, and

  “Don’t forget a jacket,” Aunt Kasey reminded her, sounding amused as she watched Mikey pause by the coatrack, narrow her eyes on both of them as she blindly reached up and pulled Sebastian’s sweatshirt off the hook.

  Mumbling what he thought was, “Filthy Mudbloods,” she yanked his sweatshirt on and shoved her book in the large pocket before she continued to the front door where she once again paused so that she could shake her head in disgust and mumble, “This isn’t over,” as she let herself out.

  “That was my sweatshirt,” Sebastian said, unable to help but frown because he actually liked that sweatshirt.

  “Yeah, you’re never getting that back,” Aunt Kasey said with a pitying look before she returned her attention to whatever she was doing in the kitchen.

  “That’s what I thought,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he headed outside in time to see Mikey, who was adorably pissed, storm across the front yard, pause when she came to the street to look both ways, giving him enough time to catch up with her, and once she was assured that it was safe to go, she stormed across the street, up his driveway, and let herself in the front door.

  Sebastian closed the door behind them while Mikey grumbled to herself as she walked around the dinner table, pausing to pet his mother’s dogs and completely oblivious to the amused looks that his family was sending her before she dropped down in the seat next to Jonathan, grabbed a paper plate and helped herself to a slice of cheese pizza from one of the many pizza boxes piled high on the large kitchen table.

  “Hey, sweetie, how was your day?” his mother asked him, smiling warmly as she finished pulling what he thought might be a pan of baked spaghetti with extra tomato sauce out of the oven before she walked over and pulled him down for a hug only to frown. “It’s freezing outside. Where’s your sweatshirt?”

  “Mikey stole it,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off as he leaned down and kissed her cheek.

  “I needed to establish dominance,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly and making his father’s lips twitch as Sebastian walked around the table and

  “Hey!” Mathew snapped with a murderous glare as he found himself unceremoniously shoved off his chair so that Sebastian could sit across from Mikey, who he was guessing wasn’t talking to him at this point. “You could have just a
sked, jerk.”

  “I could have,” Sebastian admitted as he reached over and plucked the slice of pizza that looked delicious out of Mikey’s hands before she could take another bite.

  Mumbling to herself, something that he noticed that she did a lot when she was cranky, she grabbed another slice of pizza that he would probably steal as Mathew sat down next to him with a sigh and shot Jessica, who was too busy trying to finish her homework while she ate to really care what was going on, a pathetic pout that she easily ignored.

  “What happened to your hand?” Jonathan asked, making Sebastian bite back a curse.

  “Oh, my god! Sweetie, what happened?” his mother asked, worrying her bottom lip as she took in the bandage that Mikey wrapped around his hand.

  Before he got a chance to answer, Mikey said, “He talked back,” only to nod to herself as she added, “He’ll learn.”

  Chuckling, his father reached over and carefully took Sebastian’s bandaged hand into his to get a better look as he said, “On the off-chance that Mikey didn’t beat you, you want to tell me what happened?”

  With a sad shake of her head, Mikey asked, “My beatings aren’t enough for you, Uncle Trevor?”

  “Of course, they are,” his father drawled, shooting Mikey a wink as he carefully pulled the bandage up to get a better look at the cut on Sebastian’s hand.

  “Then why are you questioning my methods?” Mikey asked, doing her best to distract his father, which Sebastian appreciated since it actually worked sometimes.

  “You really are a brutal little thing, aren’t you?” his father asked.

  Nodding, she reached over and stole Jonathan’s glass of chocolate milk and finished it off all while maintaining eye contact with his father. “I really am.”

  “And you’re really bad at changing the subject,” his father said with a teasing smile as he returned his attention to Sebastian’s hand.