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

by R. L. Mathewson

  Mikey managed to steal his Coke back when the feisty woman grabbed it and handed her the bottle of water. “Here you go, Grandma.”

  At Sebastian’s stunned look, Mikey shrugged it off as she said, “I don’t like to be left out,” making Mrs. Blaine’s lips twitch. Sebastian held his hand out for his Coke, but Mikey simply ignored him and took a sip as she stepped over him and settled in comfortably on her sleeping bag. He turned his head to glare at her when he caught the murderous glare Braxton was sending their way.

  Biting back a sigh, Sebastian reached over and stole his Coke back and finished it off before shifting his attention back to his iPad. Sometime later, he felt Mikey curl up against him. He swiped to the next page only to end up rolling his eyes when she grumbled in her sleep and snuggled closer. God, she really was a demanding little thing, Sebastian thought as he turned off his iPad and laid down next to her only to sit back up, reach over and swipe her pillow before laying back down and–

  Glaring when she stole it back.

  “You really are a brat,” Sebastian mumbled as he curled up on his side so that he could wrap his arm around her.

  “You knew this,” Mikey mumbled sleepily, making his lips twitch as he closed his eyes only to open them again in what felt like minutes later to find Mikey gone.

  Frowning, he looked around the living room, noting that everyone else was asleep. Mrs. Blaine had gone back to her in-law apartment for the night, and Cole and Braxton were missing along with the brat who’d refused to share the pillow with him. Rubbing his hands down his face, he kicked the sleeping bag off and decided to go see what Mikey was up to. He checked the downstairs bathroom before heading to the kitchen where he found Mikey and Braxton raiding the refrigerator.

  “What are you doing?” Sebastian asked around a yawn.

  “Starving,” Mikey sighed as she gestured lazily back toward the living room. “Mathew and Joshua kept stealing our food.”

  “You’ve gotta learn to eat faster,” Sebastian told her as he joined them, noting the way that Braxton was watching him.

  “I don’t think that’s humanly possible,” Mikey said with a sad shake of her head as she grabbed three plates out of the cabinet and started making sandwiches.

  At his questioning look, she said, “One for me, one for you, and of course, one for Uncle Jason to pay the snack tax,” making him chuckle since his father had the same rule.

  Sebastian watched as she made quick work out of making the sandwiches, adding extra mayonnaise and meat to his, knowing how he liked his sandwiches. When she was done, she grabbed the plate for Uncle Jason and moved to head to the door only to stop, level a glare of warning on him, and said, “Don’t touch my sandwich.”

  “I won’t,” Sebastian promised, nodding solemnly.

  With a grumble and a resigned sigh, Mikey left. While she was gone, he decided to make himself useful and grabbed two Cokes from the fridge and–

  “That’s kind of pathetic, don’t you think?” came the question that had him biting back a sigh.

  “What is?” Sebastian asked as he grabbed the chips and tossed them on the table.

  “Sucking up to an old woman to try to get into her will,” Braxton said as he finished making his sandwich.

  “Isn’t that what you’re doing?” Sebastian shot back as he grabbed their plates and carried them to the table.

  “Me?” Braxton drawled with a slow shake of his head. “I’m just getting to know my great-grandmother.”

  Not really in the mood to deal with the little prick tonight, Sebastian said, “I don’t want anything from her.”

  “Then I guess we don’t have a problem.”

  *-*-*-*

  “Why does this keep happening to me?” Chloe asked as she stared down at the little girl that was slowly destroying her will to live.

  “I will not apologize for defeating my archnemesis,” Katie bit out only to wince when some of the ketchup that caked her hair when she’d decided that she needed to teach Cole a lesson with condiments, got in her eye.

  “You got us banned from the movie theater for a year,” Chloe said, sighing heavily even as she couldn’t help but feel that they got off easy this time.

  “There’s nothing good playing anyway,” Katie said, shrugging it off as she shifted her attention to the toys that she had lined up along the edge of the tub.

  “He paid you, Katie. You’ve gotta let it go,” Chloe said, hoping beyond hope that her sister would just let it go and move on.

  “It’s not about the money,” Katie said as she gestured for Chloe to get on with it. Sighing heavily, Chloe stood up and aimed the showerhead on Katie so that the water was hitting the spot that was caked with yellow mustard and relish. While the water slowly removed the condiments from her sister’s hair, Chloe shifted her focus on trying to figure out which shampoo would be able to cut through barbeque sauce.

  “Then what’s it about?” Chloe asked, deciding that baby shampoo just wasn’t going to cut it tonight.

  “Honor,” Katie said firmly.

  “Really? What do you think Uncle Nick is going to say when he finds out that you attacked Cole out of honor?” Chloe asked as she gave up trying to figure out which shampoo to use and grabbed them all.

  “He’s not going to find out,” Katie said, sounding smug…a little too smug.

  “Oh, and why’s that?” Chloe asked as she placed all the bottles of shampoo on the floor.

  “Because if he did, then I might be forced to tell him that you had a boy over tonight,” Katie said, making her roll her eyes because that was just pathetic.

  “And who was this boy that had nothing better to do than to hang out here on a Friday night?” Chloe asked in a mocking tone as she grabbed the plastic cup off the shelf and found herself slowly turning around when Katie pointed behind her and said, “Him,” with so much disgust that she knew, just knew, who she was going to see standing in her hallway before she turned around. When she saw Cole standing there, leaning back against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, she may have, ummm, freaked out a little.

  *-*-*-*

  “You might as well open the door. I know you’re in there,” Cole said, smiling at the memory of Chloe releasing the cutest damn startled gasp that he’d ever heard before she raced toward the bathroom door, stumbling over her feet twice before she managed to slam the door shut.

  That had been followed by frantic whispers and then silence. Since they’d been busy at the moment, he’d decided to make himself useful by seeing what was in the fridge. That had led him to ordering pizza when he realized that the only thing in the fridge was expired lunchmeat and an insane amount of frozen dinners.

  “No, you don’t!” Katie yelled back, making his lips twitch.

  “If I didn’t, I do now,” he pointed out, taking great satisfaction from her startled gasp.

  That was followed by, “No! You can’t talk to my archnemesis!” as the bathroom door opened and Chloe stuck her head out the door. “What are you doing here, Cole?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be here?” he asked, mostly because he liked the way that she narrowed her eyes on him when she was thinking about killing him.

  “Besides the fact that no one invited you and you let yourself in?”

  “Yes, besides that,” Cole said, waving it off.

  “You don’t live here?” Chloe pointed out only to roll her eyes when Katie yelled, “Stop talking to my archnemesis and help me out of this tub so that I can finish what I started!”

  “But I live next door,” Cole pointed out, watching as her mouth worked soundlessly as she tried to think of how she should respond to that only to frown and ask, “Who’s that?” when the sound of someone knocking on the front door caught their attention.

  “Pizza,” was all Cole said as he pushed away from the wall and headed for the front door where a Blackjack’s pizza delivery driver waited, shooting nervously glances toward Sebastian’s house next-door as he noticeably swallowed.

&nbs
p; “Thirty-five fifty-eight,” the guy said, never taking his eyes off Cole’s house as Cole pulled the money out of his pocket and paid him.

  “Do the Bradfords still live there?” the guy asked, swallowing nervously as he risked a glance at Cole before looking back at his house.

  “I think they moved,” Cole murmured thoughtfully, wondering if that would be enough to get his house off the banned list so that they could start getting Blackjack’s delivered to their house again.

  “I’ve heard stories,” the guy said hollowly.

  “Really?” Cole said absently as he double-checked his order to make sure that they didn’t forget anything.

  “We’re not supposed to talk about it,” he said, noticeably swallowing as he glanced back at Cole’s house.

  “Isn’t the owner married to a Bradford?” Cole asked, wondering when Uncle Arik was going to lift the ban, but then again, since he was a Bradford…

  “I heard she lost a bet and had to marry him,” the guy said, making Cole nod with a murmured, “That’s what I heard, too.”

  “Well, I better get going,” the guy said with one last look at Cole’s house and muttered, “Goodnight,” as he left.

  Chuckling, Cole turned around and wasn’t exactly surprised to find Chloe standing behind him, struggling to hold Katie back, who somehow managed to get all that mayonnaise out of her hair, from killing him.

  “Pizza?” Cole said, raising the stack of pizzas in his arms as he headed toward the living room.

  “Look, you can’t be here,” Chloe said as she followed him.

  “Why not?” Cole asked as he placed the pizza on the coffee table and grabbed a slice.

  “I’ll get the plates!” Katie said with an enthusiastic nod as she rushed off to the kitchen, making him frown.

  He glanced at Chloe to find her shrugging. “She can be bought.”

  “Good to know,” he murmured, gesturing to the stack of pizzas. “I got extra mushroom.”

  “We’re not supposed to have anyone over when my uncle isn’t here,” Chloe said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she clearly debated letting him stay, most likely for the pizza but he was okay with that.

  “And I’ll be gone before he gets home,” Cole promised.

  For a moment, she stood there and then…

  “Why are you really doing this?”

  “Because we’re going to be friends,” he said, deciding that it was only right that she knew.

  “We are?” she asked slowly, clearly not seeing the benefits of being his friend, but she would.

  “Yes, we are,” Cole said with a firm nod as he gestured to the spot on the couch next to him.

  “And why are we going to be friends?” Chloe asked, sitting down next to him with a resigned sigh.

  “Great friends,” Cole corrected her, making her lips twitch.

  “Sorry. Why are we going to be great friends?” Chloe asked as she helped herself to a slice of double-mushroom pizza, her favorite from what he’d seen in the cafeteria.

  “Because I’m adorable,” Cole said with a sad shake of his head, because really, what else mattered?

  That was followed by a blank stare and a mumbled, “This is so sad.”

  “Fine. How about the fact that it entertains you when your sister attacks me, which means that by being my friend, that I would be able to provide you with endless hours of entertainment?” Cole said, watching as she thought it over, hoping that she said yes, because he was honestly running out of ideas to make this better for her.

  Nodding, Chloe said, “There is that,” as she nibbled on her pizza but they both knew that it was because he was adorable even if she didn’t want to admit it yet.

  Chapter 28

  She would not puke…

  She would not puke…

  She would not…

  Oh, she was definitely going to puke, Mikey thought as she somehow managed to force her trembling arms to keep moving, but it wasn’t easy. After nearly two weeks of this, she would have thought that she would be used to this by now, but she would be wrong, very wrong. Every day was worse than the last and she honestly wasn’t sure how much more abuse her body could take.

  The first day, he’d made them sprint back to the school where he had them do fifty pushups for not making it to practice early. That had been followed by making them sprint back to the fields, doing another fifty pushups before they finally were able to get to the warmup that he had planned for the day, which had been worse, so much worse than anything that she could have possibly imagined.

  Every day, he pushed them for more, made them run more laps, pushups, sit-ups, and some evil combination of pushups, squats, and jumps that were quickly destroying her will to live. By the time that they actually moved onto practice, her arms and legs would be trembling and she’d have to force herself to find the willpower to go on.

  Not sure how many more pushup/squat/jumping thingies that she could do, Mikey struggled to get back on her feet and–

  Damn near cried when the coach blew the whistle for them to stop. Truly thankful that it was finally over, Mikey moved to take a step toward the bench to grab her glove only to end up biting back a whimper when Coach Dilmore yelled, “Ten laps!”

  Repeating all those useless mantras that had been getting her through this, Mikey forced herself to run to the fence and move her butt. It took her a little longer than everyone else, but she finally managed to finish. Gasping for air, she once again headed to the benches only to end up biting back a groan when Coach Dilmore said, “Campbell, give me five more laps for coming in last!”

  Knowing that she really didn’t have a choice, she ran/stumbled back to the fence line and after sending up a few silent prayers, she forced herself to run. She ignored the way that her legs trembled and the stitch in her side threatening to drop her on her butt and forced herself to keep going, knowing that if she slowed down or stopped that he would make it worse for her.

  By the time she was done, Mikey was gasping for air and forced to grab hold of the chain-link fence to stop herself from falling over. Deciding that she hated running more than those pushup/squat/jumping thingies, she dropped her head as she gasped for air only to find herself looking up when Coach Dilmore said, “You’re weak, Campbell. Better work on that if you want to stay on this team.”

  Nodding, because what else was she going to do? Mikey forced herself to push away from the fence and headed back to the bench. For a moment, she considered grabbing some water but thought better of it since it would probably earn her more laps. Reminding herself that she had a plan, one that didn’t involve puking or passing out, she grabbed her glove and forced herself to head to right field.

  Once she was there, Mikey…was bored out of her mind within seconds. She watched as the coach grabbed a bat and gestured for the pitcher, his son, to start throwing. She watched as the pitcher threw the ball, noting that he was decent, but predictable. He channeled every throw, shifting his feet when he threw a curveball, adjusting his baseball cap for every fastball, and–

  “Campbell!” came the shout that had her jerking her attention back to the coach only to end up grunting in pain when something slammed into her head, knocking her on her butt and had her deciding that perhaps she should have been paying attention to the ball instead.

  Definitely should have paid better attention, Mikey decided as she curled up into the fetal position and decided that it would probably be for the best if she stayed there until the high-pitched noise tearing through her head was finished. That was quickly followed by telling herself not to puke when the coach knelt down by her side and forced her to open her eyes.

  She wasn’t exactly sure what he was saying to her, mostly because of that whole high-pitched noise thing that she had going on at the moment, but something, mostly the way that he was glaring down at her and the way that he was angrily biting out words, told her that it wasn’t good. That was followed by him pointing toward the bench and her opening her mouth to tell him th
at she was fine.

  When he moved his lips again, more urgently this time with another angry gesture, Mikey forced herself to stumble to the bench. Ignoring the pitying look the assistant coach was sending her, she grabbed an icepack and pressed it against her head as she sat down on the bench and watched everyone else play. When she couldn’t take it any longer, she dropped the icepack on the bench and moved to get up only to end up grabbing the icepack with a sigh when the coach yelled at her to sit back down.

  As she pressed the icepack back against her face and watched as Coach Dilmore told Johnny Dawkins to cover right field, something told her that she should probably get used to warming the bench.

  *-*-*-*

  “How are you holding up?” Aunt Kasey asked as Sebastian carefully scooped the rest of the stuffing out of the huge turkey that she’d pulled out of the oven a few minutes ago.

  “Good,” he said, even though he could honestly say that he was doing better than good.

  For the first time in years, things seemed to finally be going his way. He was days away from being done with his applications. His mother had managed to get a meeting with the public high school thanks to his Uncle Garret, who was a lawyer with a reputation for being ruthless. He’d stopped sneaking into the school to have lunch with Mikey, but that was okay since he usually had lunch with Aunt Haley and Mrs. Blaine now. And once he was done with his schoolwork, he got to go work for Aunt Kasey, except for Tuesdays when he went with Mrs. Blaine to another board meeting.

  He wasn’t sure how this was going to end, but for right now…

  He had no complaints.

  Aunt Kasey was really easygoing. She told him what needed to be done and left him alone unless she needed help with something. She let him set his own hours, paid him ten bucks an hour, and let him eat all the food he could handle. It definitely beat raking leaves for his dad, Sebastian thought as he finished scooping the rest of the stuffing out of the turkey. Aunt Kasey was getting a start on her holiday cooking videos this year so that she didn’t fall behind, which meant that she was cooking a huge turkey dinner with different side-dishes every day this week.