Shelby was sulking. Sprawled across the sofa and bored out of her mind, she stared vacantly at some dross on the TV set. Ordinarily the summer break would have been a busy time socially for her, however this year it seemed like most of her friends had booked to go away within days of each other, or had moved to pastures new for college in the autumn. What made it extra irritating was the fact that her parents, for the first time in history, had deemed Shelby and her older brother Maddox adult enough to fend for themselves for a week whilst they went away to visit relatives. Normally she would have been dancing around in glee and admittedly at first the whole home-alone thing was pretty cool, until the novelty wore off and the reality of having to get her own meals and do her own laundry and tidy up after one messy older brother finally dawned on her.
"Hey sis! Why the long face?" called her brother cheerfully as he walked into the lounge, pulling daft faces at her as he did so."I'm bored..." she sighed, "What you up to?" looking at him hoping for some kind of relief from her tedium.
"I'm about to go fetch Ben, grab some beers and embark on an X-Box comp. What about you Billy No Mates? Any wild parties planned?" He laughed playfully and on seeing her expression chucked a cushion at her.
"X-Box comp? Nerd Alert! Maddox how old are you?" Shelby retorted, summing up the energy to skim the offending cushion back at her older brother, missing by mere inches.
"Sounds better than being Billy in front of the TV sis! Oh actually you'll have to shift over when we get back, things are going to get pretty messed up in here!"
Shelby rolled her eyes and sighed again. Feeling sorry for his little sister he placated "Might let you have a beer or two though, if you cooperate of course."
Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em thought Shelby to herself, nodding. "So who's coming over then, just Ben?"
Maddox nodded, stuffing his large feet into equally large trainers, "Yeah just Ben."
At least that was 1 turn up for the books she thought. Ben had always been the fittest of Maddox's various mates, with his sandy hair and deep blue eyes and not to mention his lean athletic body which made him uber popular with the girls. Ben had been close to Maddox since they were both little kids and was like one of the family. Shelby had to admit to secretly having a mild crush on him and as Maddox left to fetch his friend Shelby headed upstairs to shower and change, least she could do to ease her boredom she thought.
An hour later the three of them were sat in the lounge, patio doors wide open to let some cool evening air waft into the room, music turned up loud on the stereo and the beers were going down smoothly. All in all a much more entertaining way to spend her evening, even if it was watching two buffoons battling one another on the X-Box. She consoled herself by thinking "I can think of dozens of girls who'd pay just to be sat in here tonight, gazing adoringly at Benny-Boy...".
