Afflicted

My breath caught in my throat as I glanced down at my old, baggy pyjamas and bunny slippers.

"Alright Katy?" Linc asked as he spotted me. "Reese said you've ordered too much food."

My eyes found Reese and he raised an eyebrow at me as he smiled widely. I wanted to punch him so much that my fist actually closed in anticipation.

"Come on through man, we're eating in the front room." Reese headed in and I remained frozen on the spot.

"Nice slippers." Lincoln winked at me as he followed my brother and I dashed into the kitchen to stop myself from screaming.

Lacey arrived as I was pulling an extra can of soda from the fridge and pushed the kitchen door closed behind her.

"Oh my god!" she whispered excitedly. "He's gorgeous! I don't know how I'm supposed to sit in there and eat pizza in front of him without staring the whole time." She started giggling and I couldn't help but join in.

"Can you believe Reese brought him in here? Look at the state of me!" I pointed at my pyjamas and Lac

ey laughed harder. I didn't care about looking like a slob in front of Lacey and Jason - they stayed at my house so often that it was unavoidable but this was completely different. I shushed her in case the boys heard us.

"It's not too bad. At least you've still got your make up on and your hair isn't terrible."

"Gee thanks, not terrible is just the look I was going for." I rolled my eyes at her as I closed the fridge. "I'm tempted to fake a headache and go up to bed."

"Don't be silly, he's already seen you now. Would it help if I got ready for bed too?" she offered.

"You don't have to do that..." I felt bad making her get changed.

"Don't be silly, this is a sleepover after all. I might as well look the part. Mind if I head up and grab something?" She headed for the door without waiting for a response and I took a deep breath before going to join the boys in the front room.

"Here." I handed Linc the can of soda and he smiled gratefully as he accepted it.

I settled myself down on the floor by the coffee table rather than joining him on the couch. It wasn't like it was the first time we'd sat around a pizza box together but the time apart had put a distance between us that didn't seem likely to close again any time soon.

"I feel like I should say sorry about your dad Linc," Reese said. "But he was kinda an asshole so I'm not sure it's the right thing to say."

"I'm not sorry so you shouldn't be." Lincoln took a slice of pizza and started to eat.

"How did he..."

I glared at my brother. He had about as much tact as an elephant at the beach.

"Liver failure. The booze was bound to catch up to him eventually."

"Shit," Reese said by way of a response.

"How's your mom doing?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation on from Reese’s unhelpful statement.

"She's..." Lincoln glanced at Jason briefly before continuing. "Fine. How are your folks? I'd like to catch up with them when they're around."

"Dad's crazy busy working on the air filtration systems in Harbour City," I said. "He's been working there a lot so they put him up in one of the apartments so that he doesn't have to do the long commute on the cable cars. Mom goes and stays with him quite often so that they get to see each other. They hate being apart which is kinda cute and kinda gross."

"That's pretty cool. I worked a few security details for the construction workers when the terror threats were high. We didn't see that much of the city itself but The Wall ringing the city is insane. It's so tall that you can't even make out the top of it and its shadow stretches on for over a mile."

"Security detail?" Reese asked before I could.

"Err yeah, I joined up." Lincoln raised an eyebrow at us expectantly. "Didn't I mention that?"

"I thought you went to juvie-" Reese began before I managed to kick him.

Lincoln laughed but there wasn't any humour in it. "I think if the cops had gotten the whole story about me and my dad then I wouldn't have been the only one carted off. He made a deal with me. I enlisted and he dropped the charges. He got rid of me and I got away from him."