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It was about 5:30 in the afternoon. The maternity ward was quiet, except for the footsteps of doctors going back and forth from room to room and the low voice of the receptionist who was on the phone. In the waiting area, sat three young adults. To the far left, sat a twenty year old girl with long curly red hair, wearing a gold colored tube top and black leggings. In the middle sat a seventeen year old, muscular boy with longish blond hair in a red soccer jersey and blue jeans . At the end sat a black haired fifteen year old boy in a green hoodie and gray skinny jeans.
"How long has it been since we've been in the same room together?" Thor mused. He placed his arms around both of them.
"How's college?" He asked Angela. She did not answer him. He turned towards his brother.
"How's school?" He asked Loki.
"Why would you care?" Loki responded cooly.
"We don't have to pretend to be a big happy family," Angela said. "We happen to have the same blood running through our veins, and we're awaiting the arrival of sibling who hopefully will grow up to have some common sense and leave."
They sat in silence for a few minutes and stared out at the corridor. A nurse wheeling a cart passed by. An announcement went over the intercom. The receptionist had hung up on the phone and went back to paperwork.
"I don't know what scars me for life more," Loki piped up. "The fact that mom and dad still have sex. Or that mom is currently pushing a watermelon sized baby--"
"As a person with a vagina, I suggest you zip your lips before I do it for you," Angela hissed at him.
"But you have to admit it's something you don't want to think about," Loki said. "But it's the truth! Mom and dad somehow found a way to get busy and it completely slipped past us!"
"You are so gross!" Thor snapped at Loki.
"You think they'd even think about having a baby, they'd take us into consideration," Angela added. "When that baby turns twenty, I'll be forty. Do you know how awkward it is to tell people that yes, I'm twenty and in college, and my parents are having a baby? I could pass as mom for christ's sake!"
"You think it's hard? High school is worse!" Thor exclaimed. "They'll laugh at you behind your back!"
"Well at least it's normal for there to be a fifteen year age gap at most," Angela shot back. "So suck it up!"
"Where do you think they'll put the baby?" Loki wondered out loud.
"Hopefully not my room," Angela answered.
"Well you're not around. It only makes sense for the baby to sleep there."
"The baby is not getting my room!" Angela exclaimed. "It'll probably sleep with mom or dad. Or maybe they'll cram it into yours'."
"No! No! And no!" Thor shouted. "Do you know how much shit I put with sharing with him?"
"Well at least I'm not a slob!" Loki interjected.
"You go through my stuff! And take things!"
"I'll tell dad that you were drunk the other night!" Loki threatened Thor.
"Was not!"
"I saw you! You were puking your guts all over the azaleas. You thought no one would see you come home. But I did!"
"Oh yeah? I'll tell him that you were the one who stole the Smiths' lawn flamingos."
"First of all. They weren't lawn flamingos. They were lawn egrets. If you don't think that's the most pretentious thing you ever heard of then I don't know what is," Loki explained.
"Well what have the Smiths' ever done to you?" Angela tried to figure out his reasoning. "And why would you steal something so stupid as lawn flamingos when you can take something useful like money "
"Angela!" Thor exclaimed.
"They're a big pile of dicks and they totally deserve it. It's hilarious." Loki chuckled.
"Well you don't steal " Thor haughtily told him.
Loki narrowed his eyes.
"Don't get all high and mighty with me! You're the one at post game parties getting drunk off your ass," Loki said in a low voice. "And I know they also involve a shit ton of weed and a shit ton of molly. So if you think you can open your mouth and spew your little self righteous word vomit don't you even try.
There was another tense pause. Finally, Angela stood up.
"I want pizza. I'm not eating that hospital crap," she muttered as she got out her cellphone. She glanced over at the desk to make sure the receptionist wasn't looking. The hospital had a strict no cell phone policy.
"I want bacon on mine," Loki called out.
"They don't offer bacon," Angela was dialing the number.
"Fine, sausage then," Loki shrugged.
"Pizza with sausage. That's the only thing we can agree on," Thor sighed.
After Angela placed the order, she went back to her seat.
"I ordered a pie for the three of us. If dad somehow pops up and is hungry, he'll have to manage on his own."
"Where is dad anyway?" Thor asked. "I haven't seen him."
"Probably getting wasted," Loki huffed. "I could just see him at some bar, having beer after beer, after beer. And the phone will ring and he won't pick up. No. A strip club; that's where he'll be. Maybe he'll give us two siblings for the price of one."
"Dad wouldn't do that!" Thor protested.
"Where have you been all these years? Dad's a dick ," Angela pointed out. "He's cheated on mom again and again and it's only now that he comes back to her with his tail between his legs because he's getting old and knows that no one except her will sleep with him! Sometimes I've wondered how they managed to stay together."
"You got it wrong. Mom's a dick," Loki corrected her. "Dad's a c-"
"Listen! I know you two hate dad but you can't go off like that!" Thor angrily interrupted.
"Well you're the one dad actually likes! " Loki shot back. "You're the good son! Mr. star athlete and all-american to the core! Doesn't matter that I do better in school than you! Brawn's the only thing that's important to him! That's all he ever wants from his kids! Not me! Not some adopted emo troublemaker who in his eyes is a disgrace to this family!"
"Well maybe if you weren't such an attention whore people would actually like you!" Thor had stood up and towered over Loki.
"Shut up!" Loki cried.
He lunged at Thor. Angela quickly got up and moved in between them.
"You two stop it!" She shouted as she put her hands out. "You guys can be such babies!"
"He started it!" Thor shouted.
"He started it by just existing!" Loki retorted.
"You know what I can't wait to go back to college!" Angela spat at them. Her arms started to shake as they drew in closer to each other. "Because I am not gonna miss this! "
"Hey kids!"
The three siblings froze and turned around to see that the receptionist at the desk was addressing them.
"Keep the crap down! This is a hospital!" The receptionist hollered.
Thor, Loki, and Angela returned to their seats. They sat in silence for a long uncomfortable five minutes.
"Sorry," Thor breathed.
"Same," Loki said flatly.
"Good," Angela said.
More time passed. They continued to avoid each other. Boredom crept on them. Angela read and reread the information posters on the wall. Loki shredded pages from one of the magazines on the holding table. And Thor looked down at his fingers and counted them again and again and again.
"I'm. Bored." Loki drew out his words as he said them.
"And?" Thor asked.
"We should do something," he suggested.
"Like what?"
"Let's play never have I ever," Loki said.
"Why would I play never have I ever with my little brother who probably hasn't even had a first kiss?" Angela said doubtfully.
"I have!"
"Really?"
"I can back him up. I was there," Thor jumped in.
"Really?" Angela was surprised. "What happened?"
Loki let out a chuckle.
"Remember the woman who lived next door?" He started.
"The creepy one that worked with dad?" Angela said.
"Remember her niece?"
"Equally as creepy."
"Hey!" Loki exclaimed. "You want this story or not?"
"We hung out all the time and one day, we were in the living room playing video games. Somehow, we start talking about how many kids in our grade have already had their first kiss. Turns out, she didn't. Neither did I. So we're like: you're my friend. I kinda like you. I trust you; let's have our first kiss together. So we lean in and you know, we kissed. Then he walks in," Loki pointed at Thor.
"He had his lips puckered up like a pufferfish and his eyes were wide open!" Thor exclaimed. "She pulled away and slapped him so hard that his face turned red!"
"I was twelve!" Loki defended himself. "What kind of a twelve year old knows how to kiss?"
"True," Angela nodded.
"They moved away soon after," Loki sighed. "Leah was the first real friend I ever had. Sometimes I wonder what happened to her."
"Kinda sounds like my first kiss, but different," Angela said.
"Tell us," Thor said.
"It was the summer before the sixth grade at that camp I went to in New York. Her name was Gamora. She was my first crush."
"First crush? You got lucky," Thor said.
"So one night, a group of us went to one of the abandoned cabins to play truth or dare. This is a bunch of eleven and twelve year olds, so it was super tame. The craziest thing that happened was that Peter ate a worm for his dare, but that's another story. So it's my turn and I choose dare. And the kid who was coming up with stuff, Rocky, suddenly gets that cheeky smirk on his face and tells me:
" 'I dare you to kiss somebody. On the mouth' "
Thor and Loki let out oohs.
"That was everyone else's reactions too. So they're all like, she's totally gonna kiss Peter, 'cause all the girls except me had the biggest crush on him. And Peter was sitting next to Gamora 'cause even though he'd never say it, he liked her too. So I pass him and sit right in front of Gamora. I move in and planted my lips right on hers'. Everybody screamed. And little eleven year old me was in heaven!" Angela laughed.
"We were nothing more than friends though," she continued. "Kids are clueless when it coming to finding out who has a crush on them. Camp ended and I went back home. We stayed in touch through email for about a year. God. Email. Remember when that was the thing? We grew apart and that was the end."
"Thor's was Sif!" Loki nudged him.
"I know that," Angela said. "But I never knew exactly what happened. It was a middle school thing right?"
"Seventh grade dance," Thor mumbled. "Don't want to talk about it."
"Come on. It's not fair if you don't go."
Thor sighed.
"I had this big plan to kiss her at the end of the night. Stupid thing really."
"That's not stupid. That's actually kinda sweet," Angela said.
"Remember she lived close to middle school? So what I wanted to do was walk her home and give her a kiss. Like on TV. But everyone knew that I liked her. And this was middle school. Middle schoolers are probably the biggest assholes you'll ever meet. So we're dancing right? We found love is playing and Fandral comes up and pushes me into her. And our lips met. And it hurt."
"Ouch!" Loki and Angela sympathetically exclaimed.
"We pretended it never happened," Thor said. "It took a year for me to get the guts to ask her out again. We lasted for two months."
"You think our new brother or sister is gonna end up having a first kiss story like ours' in the future?" Angela mused.
"I hope not too soon! It'd be kinda weird for a baby to kiss someone," Thor said.
"Dearest brother or sister, your first kiss was at nine months," Loki started with a dramatic flair. "You were facing a playmate when you suddenly bopped noses. There was drool everywhere."
They laughed.
************************************************
It was about 8:00. A box of empty pizza lay on the floor. The three siblings hovered over the table, playing poker. Loki had managed to sneak in into one of the supply closets from one of the lower floors and get a deck.
"You cheated!" Thor accused Loki.
"Did not!"
"Yes you did!" Angela backed Thor up. "I saw you!"
"You always cheat!"
"And? I win," Loki winked.
Thor snorted. Angela started to shuffle the cards.
A nurse approached them.
"Are you the Odinson kids?" She asked.
"Yep," Thor answered.
"Congratulations! You have a sister!"
"A sister?"
The surprised looks on their faces turned into ones of joy.
"A sister! Finally!" Angela exclaimed.
Thor and Loki laughed.
"Oh my god! A sister!" Loki grinned.
"We have a sister!" Thor was nearly crying.
"Would you like to go meet her?"
"Absolutely!"
In less than a second they were up and heading down the hallway. Thor and Loki had their arms around Angela. The three of them chatted as they turned the corner and were out of sight.