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

by R. L. Mathewson

  “And you’re doing an amazing job,” Sebastian said, biting back a sigh as he stepped over her and knelt down on the other side so that he could talk to her.

  “I know,” came the weakly mumbled response.

  “Would it make you feel better if I bought you an ice cream?” Sebastian asked, deciding that they should move on to the bribery phase to avoid wasting anymore time.

  A sniffle, and a mumbled, “Maybe,” gave him hope.

  “How about a movie? Would you like to go see a movie?” Sebastian asked, mentally calculating how much money he had in his wallet. With his allowance and the money his father owed him for helping him last week, Sebastian probably had enough to take her to a movie, buy her usual snacks, and take her out for a burger afterwards.

  “I don’t know,” Mikey mumbled after a slight hesitation.

  “We can hit the arcade and maybe go bowling afterwards,” Mathew said, jumping in and earning a killing glare from Sebastian.

  Ignoring the warning look on Sebastian’s face, his cousin Elizabeth added, “We can also grab food at the food court.”

  Before he got a chance to say anything, Mikey mumbled, “I like the arcade,” sealing his fate. Knowing that there was no way of getting out of this now, Sebastian grabbed Mikey’s bag off the ground and tossed it to Mathew. Biting back a sigh, he reached down and picked Mikey up, threw her over his shoulder and carried her home.

  Ten minutes later, when he turned to carry her to her house, she stopped him with a sadly mumbled, “I’m not ready to face them. Not yet.”

  That made him pause. “They still don’t know?”

  “Do you think I proudly share my shame?” she asked with a shuddering sigh.

  Shaking his head, because he honestly didn’t know how to deal with her sometimes, Sebastian turned around and carried her across the street just as his father’s truck pulled into the driveway.

  “What’s wrong with Mikey?” his father asked as he climbed out of his truck.

  “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it. Not yet,” she said around a few more adorable sniffles as his father put his bag down.

  “Bad day?” his father asked as he reached over and plucked Mikey from Sebastian’s shoulder and threw her over his.

  “It really was,” Mikey mumbled in agreement.

  Sebastian grabbed his father’s bag and followed them inside just in time to hear his brother and sister asking their mom for a ride to the mall. When his mom spotted Mikey over his father’s shoulder, his father said, “She’s not ready to talk about it yet,” as he carefully placed Mikey down on the kitchen counter where she continued to pout.

  With a damning finger pointed at Sebastian, Mikey said, “That boy promised me ice cream.”

  Worrying her bottom lip, his mom said, “I don’t think we have any ice cream,” as she went to check the freezer.

  “There’s ice cream across the street,” Mikey mumbled sadly.

  When Sebastian stood there, glaring at her, she added, “It will make me feel better,” making it impossible for him to say no.

  “You really are spoiled,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he headed for the door only to feel his lips twitch with amusement when she said, “Appropriately adored.”

  Hoping that this helped, Sebastian quickly made his way across the street, around the back of the house and went inside where he found Aunt Kasey in the kitchen, cooking. At her questioning look, he said, “Mikey,” putting a world of meaning into that one word.

  With an understanding smile, she gestured with a dough-covered spoon toward the first freezer. “There’s homemade chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cup ice cream in the back.”

  Mikey’s favorite.

  Nodding, Sebastian grabbed a quart of homemade ice cream only to smile when one of the twins threw a ball outside their play area. After placing the ice cream on the kitchen island, he walked over to the play area that Uncle Reese had created for the boys, pausing along the way to give Happy a scratch behind his ears and grabbed the ball off the floor. “Here you go,” Sebastian said, leaning over to hand the ball to Nathan and give him a kiss on his forehead. With a smile, Nathan pulled his arm back and sent it flying again. With a mock glare, Sebastian obediently retrieved the ball and handed it back to him as he glanced at the crib in the corner, noting that Nathan’s baby brothers were fast asleep, along with his twin.

  “Are you joining us for dinner tonight?” Aunt Kasey asked as Sebastian headed back over to the kitchen island and grabbed the ice cream.

  For the past week, they’d been alternating between his house and this house, working on their essays and filling out their applications with their parents’ help. They still needed to get letters of recommendation, but that shouldn’t be a problem. At least, not for Mikey. He still didn’t know what he was going to do since he doubted that any of his old teachers would jump at the chance to write a letter for him, and he didn’t really think that any of the schools would be impressed with a letter from his mother.

  He’d figure it out later, but for right now, he wanted to make this better for Mikey.

  “Not tonight, Aunt Kasey. Mathew and Elizabeth are trying to convince my parents to let us go to the mall.”

  “Does Mikey want to go, too?”

  “Yes,” Sebastian said even as he couldn’t help but hope that she said no so that he could avoid going to the mall and spend the rest of the night trying to cheer Mikey up alone.

  “That’s fine. Why don’t you grab some money out of my purse for Mikey?” she said while he resigned himself to spending the rest of the night surrounded by his family.

  Not that he didn’t love spending time with them, but sometimes he just wanted to relax and not have to worry about anything other than tormenting Mikey. He wouldn’t be able to do that if he had to keep his brothers and cousins out of trouble. He wasn’t worried about Jessica since his sister normally stayed out of trouble, but he would have to keep an eye on her at the mall. He’d seen the way boys had started looking at his sister and he didn’t like it. Granted, he didn’t like the way they were starting to look at Mikey, either.

  “What are you planning to do now that Mikey is going to be busy with the team?” Aunt Kasey asked as Sebastian opened her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill for Mikey.

  “Probably read,” he said, shrugging it off since that’s what he normally did when Mikey was at practice.

  “That sounds exciting,” Aunt Kasey said, making him chuckle.

  He held up the twenty for her approval. When she nodded, he slipped it in his pocket and grabbed the ice cream only to notice the curious look that she was sending him.

  “If you’re interested, I could use some help around here,” Aunt Kasey said with a casual shrug that had him going still.

  “Really?” Sebastian asked, trying not to get his hopes up.

  “I’ve got more orders than I can handle and I could really use the help,” she said, going back to mixing whatever it was that she was making.

  “Definitely, but what about Mikey?” Sebastian found himself asking because he’d always assumed that Mikey would end up working for her mom when she was old enough.

  “She’s going to be helping after baseball season is over,” Aunt Kasey assured him.

  “Does she know it yet?”

  “Not yet,” she said with a devious smile, making him chuckle because he could only imagine how Mikey would react to the news.

  “When do I start?” Sebastian asked, eager to have something else to look forward to besides hitting the library every day.

  “How does Monday sound?” Aunt Kasey asked, throwing him a questioning look.

  “Perfect,” Sebastian said, unable to help but smile as he headed for the door. “Thank you, Aunt Kasey.”

  “You’re welcome, sweetie,” she said with a warm smile as he reached for the door and–

  “How bad is it?” Aunt Kasey asked, stopping him.

  He didn’t pretend to misunderst
and as he looked back at her. “Right field.”

  “Damn.”

  Chapter 26

  “How long are you planning on pouting?” Sebastian asked her as they headed for the bench just outside the mall entrance while they waited.

  “Probably until you buy me popcorn and a large drink,” Mikey said, making his lips twitch as she dropped down on the bench with a pathetic groan, still wondering how she was going to do this.

  “Now I’m buying you a large drink?” Sebastian asked with a teasing smile as they watched Jonathan take Mathew down in a headlock only to suddenly drop him to the ground when he spotted a group of teenage girls heading toward the mall.

  “I’m worth it,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly as they watched Jonathan step over his little brother, ignoring his pained groan, and rushed to catch up with the girls.

  “Are you though?” Sebastian asked only to chuckle when she leveled a glare on him. “Fine,” he said, making sure to sound put out. “I’ll buy you a Coke.”

  “Then I forgive you,” she said with a heartfelt sigh.

  “For what?” he asked, sounding distracted as Aunt Haley’s SUV pulled up to the curb and they watched as Cole climbed out followed by Joshua, Elizabeth, and–

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Sebastian said as they watched as Braxton, who didn’t look any happier to be here than he had at the party last week, climbed out of the car. “What’s he doing here?”

  “Spending time with his cousins, same as us,” Mikey pointed out as she reluctantly got up and joined them, noting that Cole looked miserable.

  “What’s wrong?” Mikey asked, stepping over Mathew to join them.

  “Nothing,” Cole said, sounding distracted as he rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh.

  Nodding, Mikey said, “Good talk,” as she shifted her attention to find Braxton standing apart from the rest of the group, looking like he would rather be anywhere but here. For a moment, she considered ignoring him but…

  She couldn’t do that.

  “Ready for a rematch?” Mikey asked as she moved to join him.

  Lips twitching, Braxton said, “I may need more time to recover first.”

  “I should probably apologize,” she said, nodding solemnly.

  Chuckling, he said, “But you’re not going to.”

  “I’m really not,” Mikey said, unable to help but notice that he actually had a nice smile when he wasn’t glaring at everyone.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure I had it coming,” Braxton said, still smiling.

  “You really did,” Mikey promised him, easily returning his smile.

  “I don’t think your boyfriend’s happy that you’re talking to me,” Braxton said with a pointed look at something behind her. Frowning, Mikey glanced over her shoulder and found Sebastian glaring in their direction.

  “He’s my best friend, but he does look uncharacteristically pissed at the moment,” Mikey agreed, biting back a sigh when she looked back at Braxton to find him returning Sebastian’s glare with one of his own.

  Great.

  Resigning herself to the long night ahead, she sighed with relief when everyone headed inside. With a quietly murmured, “See you inside,” Braxton moved to join them and–

  “What exactly do I need your forgiveness for?” Sebastian asked, taking up their conversation from earlier as he joined her.

  “For eating all my ice cream?” Mikey said, even though she should have known better than to trust a Bradford, even her best friend, with food.

  “It was a long walk back to my house and I got hungry,” Sebastian said with a shrug as he reached past her and opened the door for her.

  “It’s a thirty second walk,” she pointed out in disgust.

  “Not if you stop to look both ways,” Sebastian said, making her lips twitch.

  “Just for that, now you’re buying me a pack of Reese’s Pieces, too,” Mikey said as they headed inside.

  “God, you’re high maintenance,” Sebastian said with a mock glare as they got in line to buy their tickets.

  “You knew this,” Mikey absently said as she pulled out her money to buy her ticket and–

  “Here,” Braxton said, drawing her attention to find him handing her a movie ticket.

  Frowning, Mikey asked, “What’s this for?”

  “For last weekend. I wanted to apologize,” Braxton said, shrugging it off.

  “You don’t need to do this,” she said, moving to hand the ticket back to him.

  “Yes,” Braxton said as his gaze found Sebastian, “I did,” before he walked away.

  “Thank you,” she said, noting the absent nod of acknowledgement before she turned her attention to Sebastian to find him once again glaring at Braxton.

  “I don’t like him,” he said as they moved up in line.

  “Really?” she asked, blinking up at him. “I couldn’t tell.”

  Grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, “Brat,” they moved up in line so that he could buy his ticket. Once he had his ticket, they went to the concession stand where he refused to let her pay for anything. Since she knew that he was probably going to devour most of her food anyway, she shrugged it off and followed everyone into the theater even as she couldn’t help but wonder why they’d let Mathew and Joshua pick the movie.

  A few minutes later, she was sitting down next to Sebastian and was surprised to find Braxton sitting on her other side. Shifting the large bucket of popcorn on her lap, she moved to get comfortable only to find both boys hogging the armrests. Biting back a sigh, Mikey settled in to watch the movie, deciding that it would probably be for the best if she pretended that they weren’t glaring at each other and focused on what promised to be a very gory movie.

  An hour later, she had her arms wrapped around Sebastian’s arm and was pressing her face against his shoulder as she mumbled, “Is it over yet?”

  “Do you want me to lie to you?” came the whispered response.

  “Always,” Mikey said, nodding only to decide that it somehow amplified the sounds of bodies being torn apart and stopped.

  That was quickly followed by her deciding that she’d had enough for one night.

  Decision made, she released her hold on Sebastian’s arm, opened her eyes and headed for the exit sign while keeping her eyes firmly locked on the floor below. That was followed by covering her ears with her hands and trying to tell herself that she didn’t just hear what sounded like flesh being devoured.

  Before she reached the exit, Sebastian was there, wrapping his hand around her arm and quickly pulling her through the door. Once they were a safe distance away from the sounds that she would really rather not think about, Mikey dropped her hands away, spotted a lovely bench just outside the theater and decided to kill some time there.

  Sighing in relief, she dropped down on the bench, pulled her ball out of her sweatshirt and began rolling it between her hands as she sat back and waited for the movie to end. Sebastian didn’t say anything as he sat down, and to be honest, she really didn’t expect him to. He wasn’t big on malls, so she wasn’t exactly surprised when he pulled out his iPad and lost himself in a book.

  That was fine with Mikey since that left her free to people-watch, her second favorite pastime. She watched as people came and went, guessed who was out on their first date, winced in sympathy for those who were probably about to get dumped, and found herself relaxing. A half hour later, she watched as their cousins walked out of the theater, all of them glaring at Joshua and Mathew before her attention shifted to a familiar looking girl standing off to the side with a little girl doing her best to drag her toward the arcade games.

  “Isn’t that their neighbor?” Mikey managed to get out just as the little girl that really seemed to have it out for Cole, suddenly turned around and–

  Yeah, that was definitely their neighbor, Mikey thought, biting back a wince that Cole probably wouldn’t appreciate at the moment. At least, she didn’t think he would, but since he wa
s currently trying to crawl away from the little girl hellbent on beating him with a cutout of Tom Cruise, she decided just to go for it only to cringe in sympathy when the little girl somehow managed to get her hands on a wet floor sign.

  Chapter 27

  “Please don’t make me hurt you,” Mikey said when Jonathan tried to move his sleeping bag closer to her.

  “Why are you fighting our love?” Jonathan asked only to grunt in pain when Sebastian shoved him aside so that he could place the sleeping bag that he’d borrowed from Uncle Jason on the floor next to her.

  Once he was settled, Sebastian reached over and helped himself to the pillow that he saw Aunt Haley give her earlier and settled back with a satisfied sigh. That was followed by a pained grunt of his own when the vicious little pain in the ass reached over and snatched it back, causing him to hit his head against the couch.

  He considered stealing it back but decided that he’d wait until she was asleep. Wondering how he’d let her talk him into this, Sebastian pulled his iPad out of his sweatshirt pocket as he took in the rest of the living room, absently noting that everyone else had moved their sleeping bags closer to the television. Well, except for Braxton and Cole. Braxton had been given the other couch to sleep on since he was considered a guest and wasn’t used to them yet. And Cole…

  Was standing by the large bay window with an icepack pressed against his head, glaring at his neighbor’s house. That probably wasn’t going to end well, Sebastian thought as he reached for his Coke only to end up sighing and plucking it out of Mrs. Blaine’s hands.

  With a glare, Sebastian finished off half his Coke and placed it back on the end table with a look of warning that he knew the older woman was going to ignore. When she’d decided to join them for a movie, he had a feeling that it was just an excuse to get her sugar fix. Judging by the way that her eyes narrowed dangerously on him, he knew that he was right.

  “Don’t make me tell Aunt Haley, Grandma,” Sebastian said with a look that told her that he would happily tattle his ass off if she pushed him.

  With a huff, Mrs. Blaine focused her attention back on the movie. A few minutes later, movement out of the corner of his eye had him sighing and reaching back to steal his Coke away from her. This went on for several minutes until Mikey got up with a sigh and disappeared into the kitchen only to come back a few minutes later with a bottle of water.