this is a fight for love, lust, hate, desire, we are the children of the great empire

this is a fight for love, lust, hate, desire, we are the children of the great empire by sassy

Wednesday, May 8th; Brunch at the Lindsells, a BMM tradition that the gorgeous couple carry on. It's mandatory and bring some courage along with that appetite; your ranks will be discussed.

As I spotted Chloe in a corner of the room I headed in her direction, keeping my eyes on her and grabbing a drink in the process. Of course my awful was busy doing what she did the best, which was, since she wasn't on the runway, flirting with the occasional guy who fell for her battering lashes and a little too short dress. "Chloe!" I cut into the conversation, my eyes bouncing between her and a face I had seen before, probably on the wall of polaroid in our mom's office.
"Ben?" She asked with one eyebrow raised, looking annoying already and I had been there for maybe a full second. She broke the eye contact quickly in favor of smirking at the guy, "He is-"
"I know him already." I said and offered a smile to the model, not having a clue of who he was exactly but knowing that a full dose of confidence could convince anyone of anything, thanks to my dad.
He looked confused, but as I had predicted, didn't argue. "Yeah right, we met at that fashion show..." He trailed off, keeping vague.
I nodded as I smirked, avoiding Chloe's glare, "I have to steal my sister from you, her boyfriend sent me to find her."

"Right, sure." He muttered as he deflated like a balloon and my guess was that he was wishing he had chosen another blonde instead of my sister. I almost felt bad for him. Almost.
I didn't give Chloe any time to start a show as I grabbed her by her elbow instead, forcing her to walk away, but it didn't take long for her to get rid of my hold and turn to me with her flaming eyes that always failed to impress me. I had seen that look way too many times before and for how angry she could be, she was still my baby sister and she scared no one, mostly not me. "Why do you have to ruin my life always?!" She said between her teeth as she slapped my hand, my 5 year old son probably stronger than her.
"A better question would be, why do you have to ruin your life yourself?" I retorted, faking a thoughtful face.
"I was just having a little fun Ben, leave me alone! I'm not 16 anymore!" She hissed as she kept glaring.
My face turned serious as I shook my head, "He's married." I said and tried to sound like I knew the guy, when I obviously didn't. But she didn't either and I was good at acting, so.
“First of all bullshit.” Chloe started, narrowing her eyes on me, wasting her time and energy. “Secondly? It’s not my fault if they don’t tell me they're married.” She shrugged and grabbed a mimosa from a waiter.
I just shook my head. “Awful.” I ran my hands through my hair, exhausted for many reasons, one of them being my sister being impossible since the day she had come to life. Maybe the guys she picked weren't honest with her, but she was no saint either.
She smirked at my words, used to it by now. “He was kind of an idiot.” She shrugged it off, making no sense as always.
I just looked at her. “I will never understand you.”
She gave me a face. “Oh because you’re the relationship expert? Mr. Runs away when she starts liking you too much?”
“That’s different.” I said in a deep voice that I used when I didn’t want to talk about things. We were at a goddamn brunch and I had said literally nothing, I didn't even know where she was coming from, plus I already knew by memory her lecture that had to sound amazing in her head but awful in my ears. And it was always the same, every single time.
“Oh blah blah you have to put your son first, blah blah you can’t get serious. OR reading between the lines “I'm still hung up on mother of my child and everything would be so much easier if you just got back with her””
“Chloe.” I warned her, on my way to get annoyed already since she thought she knew everything when she knew nothing instead. I mean sure, she knew the facts and when we weren't too busy picking on each other we were even able to carry a good conversation, but she was miles away from the kind of life I had. Not that there was nothing wrong with it, she just needed to grow up and realize that not every couple had a happy ever after like our parents.
“I'm just saying it would be an easy fix! Then you would be happy, Gabe would be happy, and Cami would get laid which let’s be honest she needs.”
I brother groaned because she was at the point where she gave me too much information already. “Dear god, please stop talking now.” I said, wishing I had left her with that loser instead. Chloe always spoke her mind, it was good mostly and really bad at times, like now.
She shrugged at me. “Where’s Gabe staying anyways?” She asked. “Isn’t Cami coming?”
I nodded. “He’s at her parents.”
She sighed. “Too bad, I could use the little cutie for someone to talk to.”
I rose my eyebrow at her. “Yeah, five year olds are fantastic conversationalists.” I retorted even though my son was perfectly able to
She laughed. “Better than you.” She winked and looked around the room, her attention already gone.
My eyes followed hers, moving from a model to another to a so called fashion blogger, until I saw Tristan. I glanced at my sister, hoping she wasn't even thinking about it, "What's so interesting?" I asked, giving her the chance to save herself. I felt good tonight.
Her head turned in my direction as she bit her lip, "Nothing." She paused to think about the lie that I knew it was about to come out of her mouth, "I was looking for mom and dad."
"Yeah sure because you love them so much." I teased her. It wasn't that she didn't love them, she did, but she had this distorted idea of them and blamed them for...well, pretty much everything.
"Cut it Ben." She narrowed her eyes on me as she sipped her drink slowly.
"Oh look who doesn't want to talk about a certain subject now." I smirked as I kept teasing, genuinely amused because she had chosen the worst excuse. If she had said she was looking at my friend our conversation would have been a lot shorter. A no would have been enough.
"Do you want to ruin my day?" She challenged, always ready to blame anyone but herself.
"Only if you're going to cry." I smirked wider as I took her glass from her clumsy hands to set it on a flying tray carried by one of the many waiters.
She snorted and rolled her eyes, "You wish."
"And stomp your feel too." I added, ignoring her.
She ran her hands through her hair, looking exasperated which was always my cue to stop torturing her. When she was lucky. "Dear god you're such a jerk sometimes."
I shrugged, not bothered at all. "I got it from dad probably."
"Don't talk like this about dad!!" She protested and her mouth dropped open, on her face a mix of shock and indignation.
"He hasn't always been the amazing perfect dad you know." I reminded her. When your parents had been under the spotlight for their whole life it was easy to find out about the dark times of their life, a little digging and all the dirty came out, only Chloe didn't want to accept that. And she blamed them for being too perfect. She was weird.
"Where's your date?" She asked as she ignored me completely, picking a new subject and probably hoping that it'd be an annoying one for me.
"I have no idea but not here," I paused to grab her elbow and pull her in my arms, squeezing her body tightly because I knew that she hated it, "I'm stuck with you, aren't you super happy?"
“A little. Maybe.” Chloe admitted, leaning her head against my shoulder.
I shook my head, but I was smirking. She was confusing and frustrating and I loved her how she was anyway. “Weirdo.” I rolled my eyes but squeezed her against me again as we made it to the table in the front. Thank god our parents hadn't set us on the head table, it would have lacked in professionalism and it would have been embarrassing too. Being part of the Alere/Lindsell family was a lot to handle, people often assumed that my sister and I had got where we were because of our parents but that was true only because we inherited their good looks, we had done the rest by ourselves.
She grabbed another mimosa on her way to her seat and I raised my brow at her. “What?” I made a face and she groaned. “How many of those have you had?” I asked, wondering if she wanted to get shit faced in front of such a large audience.
“Not enough.” She replied, taking a sip.
“Maybe you should have coffee instead.” I suggested since she wasn't famous for handling her alcohol well, one more drink and she'd start talking nonsense.
She glared at me. “I had coffee when I woke up. Too much caffeine is bad for you.” She smirked, chuckling.
“Yes and too much champagne is good.”
“Orange juice. I need my vitamin C.”
“Then you should have a virgin mimosa instead.” I shot back.
She snorted and crossed one leg over the other. “There’s nothing virgin about me Ben.” I brother groaned, seriously considering to start stuffing her mouth with food so that she'd stop telling me things I didn't want to know. “Should I stop talking again?”
I didn’t answer and just looked up at Tristan who was walking up to him. “I see your sister is your date again.” He teased me as we greeted.
“I think you are instead.” Chloe grinned at him.
“No I'm way out of his league instead.” Tristan grinned before giving me all his attention, not looking interested in my sister. Good.
"Are you here alone?" I asked him, cutting Chloe out of the conversation completely since that wasn't any of her business.
He shrugged, a smirk playing on his lips, "I am...for now."
I grinned back at him, knowing how he liked women. Plural. "Which one of the three girls is the lucky one for the event?" I asked, wondering how the hell he was able to handle them all and keeping them happy. Didn't usually girls want more? And the sharing part? I really didn't understand how that could be possible, but if he could make that work then he was really lucky.
“If you’re my date why are you ignoring me?” Chloe cut again into the conversation.
"Because you're boring." I said flatly as I glanced at her, not liking being interrupted.
She narrowed her eyes on me but before she could say a word Tristan laughed and cut her off, "Plus, you don't get all the good sides of a real date."
"Meaning?" She asked, raising one eyebrow.
He ignored her as she looked back at me, "Talking about dates, where's yours?" He asked and gave me that knowing look. Tristan was more than a best friend to me, he was, along with Ames, like a brother and of course he knew me well so it wasn't hard for him to guess that whatever I was having with this girl I was going out with it was close to its end.
"No idea." I shrugged, giving him the same answer I had given to my sister a few minutes before.
"I can't believe you're ignoring me again." Chloe said again under her breath, but loud enough for me to hear. What surprised me was that despite her crossed arms and the pout on her lips, she was still there instead of going model hunting.
I rolled my eyes and I glanced at her, "You know Tristan, right?" I asked, for a moment remembering of my manners. He worked at BMM so I guessed she did, but then again, so many people worked there it was hard to keep track of everyone.
"Of course I do, he's the only one who doesn't want to hire me." She said with a disgusted expression on her face.
"I wouldn't either." I teased her, causing my friend to laugh while Chloe? I swear, she was fuming. I knew she was an amazing model though, I just never missed a chance to pick on her.
He glanced over my shoulder and smirked, ignoring the touchy subject, "I'll talk with you later." He said before glancing at Chloe and walking away, as if he had more pressing things to do and I bet he did. When you are with three girls at the same time you always have a lot to handle, literally.
I turned my head to look at my sister and I studied her expression as her eyes followed my friend. Sure she looked annoyed, but there was something else too and I knew it damn too well. "Don't even think about it." I warned her.
“Too late….” Chloe trailed off.
“Chloe.” My voice was harsh and with most people I got my way, but with my sister it was harder.
“What?” She blinked back at me, giving me her best innocent face. I knew her better, she had a thing for guys who could never be good for her, for my friends too, so Tristan fitting both categories made of him the forbidden fruit that she craved to eat.
“He’s not the guy for you.” I replied seriously, sitting down and grabbing some of the food in the center that no one else was going near.
She just stared at me. “The guy for me?” She smirked. “I'm not trying to marry him.” She chuckled.
I shook my head. Such a smartass. “Still no.” I said flatly, the tone of my voice final.
“I'm pretty every guy is not the guy for me in your opinion.” She spat back, taking a croissant as well and spreading it with Nutella.
“Not true. I'm hoping you marry soon, a super nerd hopefully and then I can stop worrying about you.” I replied, feeling frustrated. She was a ticking bomb and I couldn't get rid of the feeling that sooner or later she'd get hurt and I didn't want that so yes, I was an annoying overprotective brother but I was for all the good reasons and one day Chloe would thank me for that. Or more probably not.
“Your “worrying about me” is annoying. Especially since you act like you can’t stand me at every other time.” She said the last part under her breath, but I heard it anyway.
I stopped eating and turned my head in her direction slowly, letting my eyes met hers, "What did you say?" I asked, wanting to find out if she had the balls to say that louder.
"Nothing." She muttered before stuffing her mouth with her croissant and glancing away.
I kept silent a few seconds, torn, because if we were staring this conversation it wouldn't lead us anywhere good but on the other hand I wasn't going to let her start a pity party. I couldn't be that bad...I wasn't. "Do you really think I can't stand you?" I asked, raising one eyebrow at her, not giving her time to answer though, "Do you think I'd be here being your babysitter if I didn't care about you?"
"I don't need a babysitter Ben, I'm not 10 anymore." She spat back.
"You get yourself in trouble all the time, if you were an angel I wouldn't worry."
"Too bad mom and dad didn't have another daughter, maybe you would've liked her more." She said with an amused tone, which only irked me more.
I stared at her with a blank look on my face, "I'm done with this conversation." I announced eventually, focusing on my food instead and looking at the people crowding the room. If my sister really thought that I couldn't stand her? Then she was stupid, and stupid wasn't something that ran in our family. I wished she could see where I came from, I didn't want her to end up like me. Sure I was happy with my son and the way Cami and I were still friends, I wouldn't ever change that with anything in the whole world but I knew that if I had done things differently, better, maybe I still would have been with my first and last girlfriend.
"Ben..." Chloe's voice cut into my thoughts, making me glance at her eventually.
"You know that I adore you Chloe, if you can't see that I don't know what else to say." I just shrugged and leaned back against my chair, running my hands through my hair.
She sighed and gave me a genuine smile. “I never said that you didn’t Benji.”
I made a face. “Oh god, not that again.” I shook my head but smiled a little inside, she had been calling me Benji until middle school, when she had stopped, but sometimes she still brought it back and it remember me of when we were little.
“I love you too.” She added in a hurry, downing the rest of her mimosa as if she wanted to swallow that words again. She was weird like that, but I liked her for that too after all, a normal sister wouldn't have been as fun as her. A crazy one instead always kept me entertained.
“Mhmm.” I shook my head and refilled my own drink, giving up on everything and focusing on enjoying this damn brunch.
As Chloe grabbed another our mom's voice ringed in our ears. “Exactly how many of those have you had Chloe?”
We turned around to see her, still beautiful and fascinating despite the not so much young age. “You sound like Ben.” Chloe replied darkly, sipping it anyways because she had a rebellious streak that hadn’t gone away yet.
“He’s probably right.” Mom smirked at her, her eyes sparkling as dad came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
That was why I wasn't a fan of being around my parents that much, they were always glued one to the other like teenagers. Of course I was happy for them still being so crazy in love, but watching them wasn't that fun and I couldn't help rolling my eyes.
“Hi daddy.” Chloe smiled, acting like the daddy's girl and ass kisser she was.
“Hey princess.” He smiled, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “You look lovely.”
Mom nodded. “You do.” She replied, pushing her hair out of her eyes and taking a second to rest her palm on her cheek.
“What am I chopped liver?” I said under my breath and Dad slapped me on the back.
“You look lovely also.” He said, laughing at his own joke. Chloe chuckled as mom clearly tried to hold back a laugh. Such an hilarious family.
"So funny dad, you should be a comedian." I retorted as I smirked at him, not amused but not bothered either. "And for the record, a hi would be enough, I'm not looking for girly compliments."
"You're just jealous." Chloe grinned before sticking her tongue out at me.
"Of what? Being treated like I'm still 6? No thanks." My smirk widened as my sister's eyes narrowed.
Our mom rolled her eyes, used to us always arguing even if playfully. "You're the usual smartass." She said, her choice of words amusing me this time.
"Really mom, what are you two going to do next? Brush her hair?" I pushed the subject, noticing how Chloe was getting more and more annoyed by the way her lips pressed together. She liked all the attention and being treated like that, I couldn't care less about it, but of course I made fun of her because of that.
Before she could start insulting me our dad broke into a laugh, "That's a good one son."
"You're just like your dad." Mom sighed and shook her head, looking resigned but also smiling. In her language being like my dad was a compliment.
"That's why I'm your favorite." I smirked at her before winking at Chloe.
"Blah blah are you still playing favorites? Really?" She snorted as she crossed her arms over her chest, raising one eyebrow at me.
"Don't worry princess, you're my favorite sister always." I said with a straight face which didn't last more than a bunch of seconds before being replaced with a more amused one. Jokes aside I was happy to have a sister though, growing up with her had been a lot of fun and it had also had many perks like knowing all her friends. The female ones of course.
She ignored me and looked at our mom instead, "Are you sure he's older than me?" She asked.
"Are you sure she's my sister?" I cocked my head to the side, both of us looking at our mother while our father kept chuckling instead.
“Well, let’s see Cor….we conceived Ben when we were on vacation in London right?”
Dad smirked. “Yes exactly, I remember because you were-“
Chloe and I both covered our ears. “NO MORE!” She shook her head, squeezing her eyes tightly as my parents chuckled and she smacked me. “This is your fault.” She narrowed her eyes on me and I shook my head.
“Yeah, I really wanted to hear that.” I shot Dad a wince.
He just shrugged. “You asked.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at my glass. “I need another.” I said flatly making Chloe fold her arms over her chest.
“Exactly how many of those have you had Benjamin?” She asked, doing a mom impression so perfectly that even she grinned.
“She got you there.” Dad smiled at me, while I was rolling my eyes again even though he was smiling. It was funny, my sister was the copy of our mom, while I looked like a weird mix, but neither of us could complain about our looks. “We’re going to go to our table, but are we still on for dinner on Sunday?”
Chloe and I nodded. “Gabe’s excited to see his grandparents.” I agreed, since it was no mystery that my son loved my parents and I could see why, they spoiled him to no end.
Mom winced. “I still don’t like grandparent.” She admitted, running a finger through her still silky blonde hair.
Dad kissed her head. “It’s been five years of being one baby. You’re old now. Give it up” He winked but mom shook her head and wrinkled her nose at him.
“Never.” She gave Chloe a wink and she sighed, looking jealous which, if you asked me, was pretty silly. My sister was still so young, she had plenty of time to find happiness.
“Do you think we’ll ever find that?” My sister asked me offhandedly, surprising me. Yeah I knew that she had always had that question in her mind but saying it out loud was a whole other thing. “You know. Perfect spouse, perfect job, 2 kids a boy and a girl?”
“They might be perfect, but we’re far from it.” I said back, not meaning it in a bad way because as I had said, we were still young and I was sure that even our parents weren't that perfect when they were our same age.
She turned to me. “Do you think they hate us a little for being such fuck ups?”
"Talk for yourself, I'm not a fuck up." I raised one eyebrow at her as I smirked a little. I didn't know why she had such a low opinion of herself, sure I made fun of her, but reality was far from my jokes. She was gorgeous, smart, a great model...yes she was crazy and awful at times, still not enough to be a fuck up though.
She hit my side, frowning, "I'm serious, you idiot."
"I am too." I frowned to match her expression as I looked at her. Chloe wasn't good at serious, she usually took the overdramatic turn or the ridiculous one and I just wished she could just stay in the middle. She was just a girl after all.
"Come on, can't you just tell me your opinion without being a smartass?" She protested, looking genuinely frustrated, "Please!"
I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair, giving up and wrapping my arm around her shoulder to lead her to the bar since there was no way I was going to talk about her family issues without a drink in my hand. "Being a smartass is in my nature, but I'll make an exception for you."
She looked up at me with an eyebrow raised, relaxing in my hold eventually, "Thanks, you're too good to me." She said sarcastically.
"I can tell you that no parent hates his kids, I don't think it's possible." I started, thinking about my own son. He was a little cute thing now and could do nothing wrong except for little silly things, but even when I thought about the future, the mistakes he could make, I knew that I'd always love him unconditionally because he was made of my own blood.
"Well maybe hate is a strong word..." She trailed off, resting her head against my shoulder like she used to when she was way younger and needed my comfort. "Disappointment maybe fits better."
I glanced down at her as we stopped in front of the counter, freeing her from my hold and sitting on a stool, my eyes still looking into hers. "Why? What did you ever do so wrong?" I asked, genuinely interested.
She just shrugged, "Don't you call me awful for a reason?"
"Because I like teasing you." I smiled at her, "But really you could be so much worse."
"Is it supposed to be a compliment?" She raised one eyebrow slowly and a corner of her mouth turned upward a little, which was always a good sign.
I nodded as I let my smile turn into a smirk, "You're welcome. You didn't even get pregnant so far." I joked, wanting to make her laugh even if it went against me. I was the one who had a kid already and while now my parents were completely crazy about Gabe I could still remember their shocked faces when I had broken the news. Maybe disappointment wasn't the right world either, but sure it had been hard.
“Thank god for that.” Chloe said making a face. “I’d make an awful mom.”
My eyes snapped up at her. “What are you talking about? You’re like a totally different person with Gabe…” I trailed off, and honestly that was true. She turned in an attentive, sweet and patient girl every time she had to babysit my son and I trusted her. Plus, she always made my little boy laugh like crazy.
“Sure, but I'm just the aunt.” She smirked. “I get all the awesome parts of being a parent without all the responsibilities.” She winked and I smirked at how silly and immature she still was.
“Still, I think you’d surprise everyone…” I admitted even though we both knew that it wouldn't happen anytime soon. She couldn't even find a boyfriend, let alone a father.
“Yes. Maybe I should start looking for sperm donors.”
My soft smile tightened and I narrowed my eyes on her, starting my show. If she was silly, I was going to be too. “Seriously? I will lock you in a room for forever.” I stated and even though I was joking I could see myself do that for real too instead. Thank god I had a boy and not a girl.
“That’s abuse Benji.” She grinned.
“You know if you’d just meet a nice guy, with no hang ups about girls, with no weird kinks, no criminal record, nothing against relationships, and someone who could handle you and make you truly happy? I would be happy. Really.”
She laughed. “I don’t believe you.” She replied. “Plus a guy with no weird kinks would never be able to handle me or make me truly happy” She smirked into her drink. Dear god that wasn't something I wanted to hear, what was wrong with her? I was her brother, not her confident.
I got up, “I have so had enough of you for today.” I replied, walking towards the girl who was supposed to come back home with me after the brunch.
“I love you too!” I heard Chloe said.