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"Oh hey Jermaine! You taking the two little terrors out for icecream? Isn't that nice?" Annie asked from behind the counter.
"Yeah, well. I am nice. We've just been to the movies as well." Jermaine smiled an insincere and long-suffering smile as he handed over his hard-earned cash in order to buy his annoying little brothers treats that would be gone in a matter of minutes.
"He's doing this because he loves us!" Ethan taunted, a massive grin on his little face.
"Love is too strong a word for this situation," Jermaine sighed.
"Why are you doing it then?" Benny asked, eyes glued to the chocolate icecream cone being made for him and bouncing on his heels ever so slightly. He could never manage to be entirely still.
Because mum and her new boyfriend were done with your shit and wanted the house to themselves for a bit and I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter, Jermaine thought to himself. "Because mum thought it would be a nice thing for us to do together," he said out loud.
Annie shot him a sympathetic look as she handed over their icecreams. "I know what that's like, my parents are always coming up with things for me and my siblings to do together as well."
Yeah, like that's the same. You guys actually all like each other and get along, Jermaine thought to himself. "Thanks," with another fake smile was all he could manage out loud.
"You know, we should all get together sometime, let our siblings entertain each other," Annie smiled at him.
Jermaine could think of about a thousand ways that could go wrong, all of which revolved around his brothers being the annoying little shits they were and Annie's younger siblings ending up in tears. He couldn't say that to her though. "Maybe..." he hedged as he hustled the little terrors off to find a table to sit at. It was only when he glanced back at her look of disappointment that he realised she was maybe hinting at something else there, at maybe the two of them getting some time together while the younger kids were distracted. Shit, he thought. Now I've gotta worry about that as well.
"What's up with you?" Ethan asked him through a mouthful of strawberry icecream.
Jermaine pulled his face back into a semblance of normalcy. He hadn't realised how badly he must have let it slip for his usually completely oblivious younger brother to have noticed. "Nothing, kid, don't worry about it."
Ethan apparently took that literally, not saying anything more as he concentrated on licking the side of his icecream before it could drip any further onto his already sticky fingers.
Benny hummed happily while he ate, swinging his legs wildly under the table the entire time.
Jermaine smiled wryly to himself. They weren't that bad, really, when they weren't actively trying to be a nuisance towards you anyway. They deserved a break from mum and her new boyfriend's shit more than those two deserved a break from them. Maybe this wasn't such a bad use of the paltry amount of minimum wage he got from working 10 hours a week after school. Maybe they could make a habit of this at the weekends.
Then Benny kicked a little too wildly under the table and connected solidly enough with Ethan that Jermaine heard the thud. Ethan yelled "OW!" at the top of his lungs, causing everyone in the icecream shop to stare at them, and then dumped the last bit of his strawberry icecream right on Benny's head in retaliation. Benny, who was genuinely not trying to hurt anyone and was just unaware of his own limbs sometimes, started crying loudly in shock, a blubbery "whyyyyyy?" making it through his sobs every now and then.
Jermaine put his head in his hands. Nope, he was not doing this every weekend. He was not even doing this every month.
Before he could fight his way out of his despair and frustration enough to figure out how to deal with this, Annie came over with tissues and calm words to defuse the situation, and his smile this time was genuine. "Thank you."
"You're welcome hun, the little ones can be a bit of a handful can't they?" she chuckled at him like she wasn't even bothered and he didn't know how she did it.
"Yeah, definitely," he nodded, "You know what? I think you're right about us all getting together sometime. Maybe they'd be easier to handle with the two of us."
"Oh great! Give me a call when you want to set it up," she sounded delighted at the prospect, and he was sure that he caught a hint of flirtation in her smile as she walked off. Dammit. Oh well, I'll just have to let her down gently. I'm sure she'll be cool about the gay thing once she knows. If I tell her how important it is to keep a secret even from the kids, since they sure as fuck can't be trusted to keep secrets.
Jermaine was starting to sweat already with the anxiety of it all, but thankfully his brothers were back to their oblivious self-absorbed selves so he didn't have to answer any awkward questions about it.
He just needed his luck to hold out for one more year and he'd be able to move out on his own, then it wouldn't matter who knew. Nobody would be able to kick him out for it.