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

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Stupid floor,” she mumbled, making his lips twitch as he watched her drag herself back to her feet only to sigh as she turned around and closed the window behind her. Once that was done, Mikey headed toward their desk, tripped, grumbled something that he couldn’t quite make out before following that up with another sigh and a mumbled, “Stupid desk.”

  “Can I help you with something?” Jonathan asked, sounding amused as they watched Mikey try to search through their desk in the dark. Sebastian didn’t bother asking her what she was doing here since she wasn’t talking to him at the moment. Not that she was actually mad at him, because she wasn’t. No, what she was, was a cranky little thing that lived to torment him. It gave her great pleasure knowing that she had him wrapped around her little finger and could torment him whenever she wanted, which was often.

  “I need a dictionary,” Mikey said as she turned her attention to the small bookcase overflowing with books.

  There was a heavy sigh and then…

  “You don’t need to pretend. We all know the real reason you’re here,” Jonathan said.

  “Oh, and why’s that?” Mikey absently asked as she tried searching through the books in the dark.

  “Because you can’t live without me,” Jonathan announced with what looked like a sad shake of his head. “It’s okay, Mikey. You don’t have to pretend anymore.”

  There was a pause while Sebastian pushed his covers back, ready to beat the crap out of his brother and then, Mikey’s eyes went wide in the moonlight streaming into their room as she breathed, “Oh, my god, how did you know?” making him wince because he knew what was coming.

  “Does it really matter?” Jonathan asked, smiling as he climbed out of bed and

  Ended up releasing a pained grunt when Mikey palmed his face and pushed him back on his bed, grabbed a pillow and shoved it on his brother’s face as she said, “Dictionary?”

  With a muffled reply, Jonathan gestured toward Sebastian’s side of the room.

  Nodding, Mikey released her hold on the pillow as Sebastian reached over and turned the lamp on by his bed. He watched as Mikey, who was once again wearing his sweatshirt, headed his way.

  “Why do you need a dictionary?” Sebastian asked as he reached over and grabbed the dictionary off his nightstand. He considered asking her why she didn’t just use a dictionary app on her phone only to remember that she didn’t have a phone at the moment thanks to an unfortunate incident last month involving Jonathan and a bucket of ice that…

  It was probably for the best if he didn’t think about what she’d tried to do with that bucket of ice, Sebastian decided.

  “I just need it,” Mikey said, not quite meeting his eyes as she reached over to take the book out of his hand only to sigh when he pulled it back.

  “For what?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on her as he took in the way that she avoided looking at him, the way that her fingers toyed with the drawstring on his sweatshirt, and the way that she shifted nervously and knew that she was hiding something from him.

  “For stuff,” she murmured, still not looking at him.

  His gaze flickered to the alarm clock by his bed. “What kind of ‘stuff’ requires a dictionary at eleven o’clock on a Friday night?” Sebastian asked as he tossed the dictionary on the bed beside him.

  “Nothing that you need to concern yourself with,” Mikey said as she gestured for him to hand over the dictionary while he sat there, considering her.

  There was no doubt in his mind that the dictionary was to help her get through reading The Count of Monte Cristo, but the question was why? If there was one thing that he knew about Mikey, it was that she hated anything and everything schoolwork related unless it had to do with baseball. The only reason that she forced herself to go to school every day and do the bare minimum was so that she could play baseball.

  And since tryouts were Monday…

  “Why are you manhandling me?” Mikey asked when he reached over and grabbed hold of her arm.

  “Start talking,” Sebastian said, waiting for her to finish toeing off her sneakers before pulling her down on the bed next to him.

  “I would, except I’m still not talking to you,” Mikey said as she reached down and pulled the covers up before snuggling closer to his side.

  Once she was settled, Mikey reached over and grabbed the dictionary, dropped it on her lap and pulled the large book that he’d been wondering about out of her sweatshirt pocket. With a grumble, she opened the book, sighed heavily a few seconds later, and grabbed the dictionary. That was followed by her dropping the dictionary back on her lap, picking the book back up, finding the spot where she’d left off and

  Repeated the process all over again.

  Biting back a sigh, he reached over and plucked the book out of her hand with a murmured, “What’s going on, Mikey?”

  There was a heartfelt sigh from across the room and then, “She wants me.” That was followed by an, “Ow!” and a, “Why must you fight our love?” as Jonathan picked up the dictionary, which had bounced off his head a few seconds earlier, and tossed it back.

  Grabbing the dictionary before she had a chance to maim his brother, not that he didn’t have it coming, Sebastian tossed the book back on the bed so that he could reach up and give her braid a gentle tug to drag her attention back to him. With one last glare in his brother’s direction, Mikey grabbed the book that he damn well knew that she didn’t want to read and mumbled, “Nothing.”

  “You’re not going to tell me what’s going on?” Sebastian asked, watching her as she glared down at the book in her hand.

  “I’m really not,” she said as she turned the page only to grumble something and go back to the previous page, drop the book and reach for the dictionary as he sat there, realizing that she really hadn’t left him with much of a choice.

  He was going to have to get his answers the hard way.

  Chapter 9

  “Are you ready to talk?” came the question that had Mikey trying to wiggle her way to freedom even as she vowed that somehow, some day, she would make him pay for doing this to her.

  Oh, would he pay…

  “Are you ready to get off me?” Mikey countered as she gave up wiggling to look over her shoulder and glare at the teenage boy currently lounging across her legs, keeping her pinned to the floor.

  “No,” Sebastian murmured as he turned the page of the book that he was reading while she laid there seething.

  For several minutes, Mikey laid there, glaring at him, hoping that the unspoken promise of revenge would be enough to make him move. When it became obvious that he wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon, Mikey resigned herself to waiting him out as she laid her head on her folded arms, already bored out of her mind.

  “You could just tell me what I want to know,” Sebastian drawled a few minutes later.

  “And you could just let me go,” she pointed out as she glanced around, looking for something to do while she waited for the stubborn jerk to give up.

  “I really can’t though,” he said with a sad sigh as she tried to pull her legs free again, but god, was he freaking heavy. Things used to be so easy before the big jerk had that growth spurt, Mikey thought miserably.

  “I’d really like to get off the floor now,” Mikey said, giving up trying to pull her legs free with a groan and looked around for something to throw at him.

  “And I’d really like to know what you’re hiding from me,” Sebastian drawled as she realized that there was nothing within grabbing distance that she could throw at him.

  Knowing that it was pointless to try to wait him out, she said, “I can’t try out for the team unless I turn in a new book report on Monday.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Sebastian asked, sighing heavily.

  “Because you have enough to worry about right now,” Mikey said as Sebastian shifted to climb off her and–

  “Are you talking about military school?” Jonathan said, making her frown as she glanced back at
Sebastian to find him glaring at his brother.

  “Military school? What is he talking about, Sebastian?” Mikey asked as she watched Sebastian get to his feet.

  “Nothing,” he bit out with a look of warning for his brother as he reached down and helped her up. Mikey looked back at Jonathan in time to see him mouthing, “Sorry,” to his brother with a sympathetic wince that had Mikey absently nodding as she came to a decision.

  “Where are you going?” Jonathan asked as Mikey headed for their bedroom door, deciding that she’d played enough games for one night.

  “To get answers,” Mikey said as she reached for the bedroom door only to find Sebastian suddenly in her way.

  “You promised,” he bit out accusingly.

  “No,” Mikey said, reaching over to shove him out of her way before she continued, “what I promised was that I wouldn’t tell your parents that you wanted to go back to school, but since this is a completely different topic, I think I’ll go see what your parents have to say about it.”

  “Fine!” Sebastian bit out. “What do you want to know, brat?”

  Folding her arms over her chest, Mikey met his glare with one of her own as she said, “Everything.”

  Eyes narrowing on her, Sebastian said, “They’re thinking about sending me to military school.”

  “Why would they do that?” Mikey asked, unable to help but frown because that didn’t sound like something his parents would do.

  “Because the therapist thinks that it would be good for him,” Jonathan said, drawing her attention to find him watching Sebastian. “You want to go back to school? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because it’s not a big deal,” Sebastian said with a pointed look at Mikey as he walked past her and headed back to his bed.

  “Maybe if you told Mom and Dad they wouldn’t–”

  “They’re not going to send me to military school without a good reason,” Sebastian said, cutting off his brother as he grabbed his book and dropped down on his bed.

  “They might if your therapist is telling them to,” Mikey said, wondering why he wasn’t freaking out about this because this was definitely one of those things that he should be freaking out about.

  She was definitely freaking out about it.

  “Which is why I don’t plan on going back,” Sebastian said as he reached over and grabbed hold of her hand so that he could pull her back down on the bed next to him.

  “So, your plan to avoid being sent to military school is to stop going to therapy and give your parents another reason to worry about you?” Mikey asked, blinking slowly.

  “She has a point,” Jonathan said, dropping down on the end of the bed with a sigh. “You have to keep going.”

  “Or you could just tell your parents what’s really going on,” Mikey suggested as Sebastian handed her book back to her.

  “Nothing’s going on,” the stubborn jerk said, gesturing for her to open the book.

  “Then you should have no problem talking to them,” Mikey pointed out as Sebastian gave up waiting for her to open the book and plucked it out of her hands so that he could do it.

  “It’s fine, so stop worrying about it and focus on getting this book report done on time,” Sebastian said, handing the book back to her.

  Knowing that it was pointless to argue with him when he got like this, Mikey grabbed the book with a muttered, “Fine,” and settled back, deciding that she might as well get this over with, but once she was done with this damn book report they were going to talk whether he wanted to or not.

  *-*-*-*

  “I really hate you,” came the weakly mumbled words as Mikey shifted between his legs so that she was curled up on her side with her head laid against his chest.

  “I know you do, but we’re almost halfway there,” Sebastian said around a yawn as he glanced at his alarm clock and saw that it was almost four in the morning.

  “I really hate you, too,” Jonathan said as he threw his arm around Mikey and–

  Found himself shoved off the bed.

  Ignoring his brother’s pained grunt and his sadly mumbled, “Why are you so mean to me?” Sebastian returned his attention back to the book that they needed to get through only to realize that Mikey had fallen asleep, again. She was so damn adorable, he thought, biting back a sigh as he gently cupped her shoulder and gave her a small shake.

  “Mikey?”

  A grumble, a groan, and the cutest damn whimper that he’d ever heard was her response as she blindly reached down, grabbed the comforter and yanked it over her head, almost knocking the charging wire from the iPad he’d been forced to use when it became obvious that they weren’t going to be able to read the book without turning the light on. Since he didn’t think it was a good idea to alert his parents to the fact that Mikey was sleeping over again, he’d used his last eBook credit and downloaded the book so that they could read it on his iPad.

  “We have to finish this book if you want to play baseball,” he reminded her, waiting for the moment when his words sank in and when they did…

  “Fine,” came the muttered response as Mikey shoved the comforter away with a soft sigh and an impatient gesture for him to get on with it as Jonathan dragged himself off the floor and walked the short distance back to his bed where he dropped down on his mattress with a groan and promptly began snoring.

  “You’re too kind,” Sebastian drawled as he returned his attention to the iPad, noting that they were only forty percent through the book.

  Damn.

  At this rate, she was going to have to read all day, most of the night and all day tomorrow if she had any hope of finishing the book on time. For a moment, he considered writing the book report for her and breaking down the book for her in case her teacher asked questions, but she would probably throw something at his head if he even suggested it, Sebastian thought, unable to help but smile as he thought about the real reason that he liked her so much.

  She was…different.

  There was really no other way to put it. She was also funny, kind, smart, determined, too damn adorable for words, and one of a kind. Most of the kids their age were concerned with what everyone else thought of them, but Mikey didn’t give a damn. She never bothered to pretend to be anything else but herself. She knew what she wanted and who she was and didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought, which was the first thing that he’d noticed about her the first time that he’d laid eyes on her.

  After spending four hours in the car with his family, he’d needed some time to himself. So, while everyone else had been fighting over who was sleeping where, he’d been sneaking out the back of the cottage that his family had rented for the summer and found himself watching her. She’d been the cutest damn thing that he’d ever seen with her long hair in matching braids, wearing a baseball cap backwards and a baseball jersey at least two sizes too big for her as she yelled at her uncle for throwing like a girl and he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.

  Whenever Mikey was around, he’d found himself watching her, wondering what it was about her that drew him in. She was definitely the strangest girl that he’d ever met, but that hadn’t been the reason why he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her. It wasn’t until he’d gone with her to pick up tools for the renovation on her house that he’d figured it out and once he did…

  He’d panicked.

  The way that she’d made him feel…

  God, it had been addicting. She just made everything better and that terrified him because he knew that it couldn’t last. He’d been tempted, more than a little tempted, to allow himself to let go of everything and just enjoy it while it lasted, but the thought of having to say goodbye to her had been enough for him to pretend that she didn’t make him want more.

  He’d tried to fight it, tried to tell himself that it was for the best even after he found out that Reese had married her mother and were moving in across the street from him, but he hadn’t been able to fight it any longer. He’d needed to be near her,
needed to find out if he’d imagined it, and needed…

  God, he’d just needed her.

  “I know,” Mikey said, nodding against his chest. “That’s why you adore me.”

  “I don’t remember saying that I adore you,” Sebastian murmured, unable to help but smile because they both knew that he adored everything about her.

  “You didn’t have to say it,” she said, snuggling in closer to him.

  “And why’s that?” he couldn’t help but wonder as he found the spot where they’d left off.

  “Because I know,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly even as he couldn’t help but wonder if she really knew just how much she meant to him.

  Chapter 10

  The good news was that she probably didn’t have to worry about writing that book report anymore, Mikey thought as she took in the large man glaring down at her.

  “Start talking,” Uncle Trevor said, not really looking all that happy to find her curled up in his son’s bed, which was understandable since she wasn’t exactly supposed to be here.

  “I missed you?” she said with a hopeful smile only to add, “so much,” when he narrowed his eyes on her.

  “What did we talk about, Mikey?” Uncle Trevor asked, sighing heavily as he folded his insanely large arms over his chest while he waited for an answer.

  “That making Jonathan cry for my own amusement is wrong?” she said, ignoring the gasp of outrage from the other side of the room.

  “For the last time, little girl,” Jonathan snapped as he shoved his blankets aside and got to his feet, “I had something in my eye!”

  “No, he didn’t,” she mouthed, shaking her head as Uncle Trevor tried to bite back a smile only to end up clearing his throat and turning his head with a small cough to cover the chuckle that escaped.

  “You know what? We’re over!” Jonathan bit out as he grabbed a change of clothes from his bureau and stormed off toward the door only to add, “Over!” once again as he slammed the door shut behind him.