Maddie gave a laugh at Zach’s comparison of their sister to a tree stump. “No worries. I didn’t have any solid plans on not being around, anyway.” Even if she had indulged in a bit of recklessness a few months back. The incident with the Smasher had made her all the more paranoid about going beyond Sing Sing’s walls. Thankfully, though, Brandon had kept his promise and no one knew about that particular day. If her siblings found out, well… she just never planned on them finding out.
“Don’t feel too proud; Dillon still has you beat on getting the most eyerolls from me. You’re still second place.” She pouted her lip out like it was really a shame that he was second place in that race. “And I really don’t envy the person who has to monitor these violent displays. So the monitor should be careful.” She crossed her arms and nodded, a teasing warning.
Having her brother call the rocker out just made it that much harder for Maddie to stop laughing. Charlie or anyone else likely would’ve tried to talk Zach out of fighting a guy who was bothering them, but not Maddie. Sometimes the only way to get somebody to pay attention to a warning was to beat it into them. An unpopular opinion and one she probably would’ve changed if she ever had to actually watch her brother dole out an ass-kicking, but the opinion currently stood and she was tired of being ogled by gross people. “Not enough old ladies around for him to put his moves on, so he’s gotta improvise.”
“Two medical people in the family is enough,” was her argument to the constant hints that she could help out in the infirmary. “Sick people are gross. Bloody people with their guts hanging out of them are gross.” She shuddered at the thought. “If you want company there, you could always ask Charlie. I think she’s been thinking about getting back into that.” That still struck her as strange; Charlie had spent so much time trying to avoid infirmary work, but now she was starting to regain interest in it.
“Yes, nicknames.” Maddie made a grumbling noise in her throat when Zach lowered the notebook but didn’t give it back to her. She grabbed the end closest to her and tugged. “Don’t you want to save the surprise for when people start using that nickname for you, Nosy?”
“Sounds more like you’re just walking around talking to people.” And she was the expert on that, since she did it a lot. “If they’re not stuck in the infirmary, I doubt those former patients have anything life-threatening.”