A Drunken Birthday

I stared at the view outside smiling as I walked down to the main hall to find Aiden seated alone at the edge of the table.

"Where's Christian and Dominic?" I asked as I walked in.

"Off to take care of some work." Aiden shrugged as he took a sip of his drink.

I frowned.

"But it's your birthday."

My brother scowled at me, "I'm twenty-four not five. It's no big deal."

"Fine." I rolled my eyes seating myself down as he ignored me as per usual.

"What are you having?" I asked and my brother's eyes lit up in mischief.

"Vodka." He said before he extended the glass to me. "Have some."

I scowled shaking my head.

"You know Christian and Dominic don't approve." I reminded him grimly.

"And in case you haven't noticed little girl." My brother began his smirk blooming. "They aren't really here."

"And in case you haven't noticed big brother," I gave him a fake smile. "I am not the one to disobey."

"Look at you being all boring." Aiden snorted. "Life is not meant to be crammed with rules, it's meant to break them."

"Rules keep an order," I told him.

"Fine." He simply shrugged his expression turning sour. "I just didn't want to drink alone on my birthday."

"I thought you weren't five," I muttered dryly.

"Whatever," Aiden muttered lowly under his breath making me feel rather guilty.

I looked at my brother feeling torn between being my disciplined self and celebrating with Aiden for once.

I mean one glass won't hurt, right?

I bit my lips.

Dominic and Christian would be furious but one look at my sullen brother and I groaned under my breath as I took the glass.

Damn him for making me feel guilty!

I took a big gulp and the liquid burned down my throat a few cold drops sliding down my chin.

I gasped as soon as I gulped it down.

"It's spicy." I coughed while Aiden smirked.

"It's Vodka, what did you expect?"

"Certainly not that." I wheezed massaging my throat.

"Well?" My brother filled another glass and my eyes widened.

"Wait you don't expect me to actually finish this, do you?!"

My brother looked at me and glared.

"You have to," Aiden ordered stubbornly.

"Are you crazy?!" I hissed appalled.

I had agreed to have one glass not multiple!

"You go out of your way to please Dom and Christian." He argued reproachfully. "Now you have to do something for me."

"Aiden don't be childish!" I snapped disbelievingly. "You are all equally important to me."

"Alright then." My brother said grabbing the glass and refilling it.

"Prove it."

He said as he thrust the glass back into my small hands.

"Aiden this is stupid," I whispered desperately trying to knock some sense into my reckless brother. "You're going to land us both in big trouble."

"You're not a child and neither am I." Aiden shrugged as he folded his arms like a child anyways. "We can drink. Dominic and Christian don't have a say in that."

"But I have never really drunk so much alcohol in one go!" I said uncertainly.

"Well, there's a first time for everything."

My brother winked as he drowned the contents of the glass all in one go.

He did have a point.

I swallowed before I closed my eyes and copied my brother's action.

I groaned and wheezed while Aiden chuckled thoroughly enjoying my struggles.

"See it's not so bad." He insisted and before I knew it that one glass turned into four and to say that I was drunk would be a modest understatement.

I felt like I wasn't seated on the chair anymore, my body feeling light as a feather and let's not even talk about my state of mind.

I was giggling for no apparent reason while Aiden chuckled from beside me as he swallowed his sixth.

"You know you're the biggest pain in the ass, I have ever met." I stabbed his beefy arm with my finger.

"Right back at you." He said.

A weighty silence enveloped us as we stared at each other with drunken intensity before both of us burst off into maniacal laughter.

"This is great!" I grinned like a fool as I wiped away the tears from my delirious giggle. "I can't believe I've never tried this before!"

"I told you," Aiden nodded his head as though we were having a serious discussion. "Being drunk is great."

"That reminds me. I haven't said it yet." I suddenly remembered.

I turned staggeringly as I wriggled my chair towards my brother, then giving him the goofiest grin I could manage,

"Happy Birthday Aiden."

My brother smiled genuinely, the warmness of his smile making me emotional all of a sudden.

I have never felt this close to Aiden in a very long time and feeling brave all of a sudden I threw my arms around his broad shoulders.

"You make a decent brother," I grumbled when he hugged me too.

My brother patted my back.

"You make a decent sister too."

Loud chatter met our ears interrupting our drunken bonding moment.

The door opened and my two brothers walked in on our awkward embrace.

Oh...

"What the-" Christian swore as he saw us, the glasses and two empty bottles of vodka.

..crap.

"You've got to be kidding me," Dominic rasped as he immediately closed his eyes in frustration.

"What the hell Aiden?!" Christian yelled his face turning red. "What did you do?!"

My third elder brother slowly extracted me from his arms and seated me on the arm of his chair as he smiled at our two elder brothers.

"Sorry, but we started without you." Aiden grinned foolishly.

Christian looked as if he was about to hurl the candle stand at his head while Dominic looked frustrated enough to simply butcher Aiden, dispose of his mutilated body and get it over with.

"I leave you unsupervised for a small span of time and you get Sage drunk?"

Dominic looked torn between wrath and disbelief.

I grinned innocently at Christian who grabbed me and hoisted me up and I instantly grabbed his shirt.

"Hi Chris!" I giggled like a schoolgirl.

"Oh no." My brother moaned in horror as he glanced at the bottles. "How many did you have?"

"Oh, just about four concentrated glasses." I shrugged nonchalantly but looking at my brother's aghast face started giggling.

Christian and Dominic shared a long tired look.

We all knew this was going to be a Birthday worth remembering.

I don't know how long it took for the sudden boost of energy that urged me to pull crazy stunts, to die down but the intense headache that bulldozed over me was the first of three reasons that convinced me to never drink like that again.

Dominic's endless lecture and Christians anger being the other two.

I groaned as I sipped on some water while Aiden who hadn't stopped grumbling about being grounded sat in the chair beside me to share the shame.

"Was it that bad?" He asked and both my elder brothers winced.

I could recall nothing of last night but apparently, I had thrown a tantrum.

I had called Dominic an overbearing jerk and I think I threw the remaining contents of my vodka on him, I had asked Christian a bunch of riddles and refused to let him skip any until he had the correct answer then I think I threw up on his shoes too.

Aiden, on the other hand, had climbed up on the table and started singing, refusing to come down and let me tell you the youngest of my three brothers has the voice of a wailing banshee.

So at the end of Aiden's fantastic birthday, Christian and Dominic sat across us with a migraine, sipping on the vodka we had been unable to finish while Aiden and I shot them apologetic looks.