26.

Hayes' eyes twinkled at the sight of her eldest brother, perched against the car door with his arms crossed in his naturally intimidating pose. Well, intimidating to anyone who wasn't his adorable little sister, of course.

He seemed to be in the midst of a conversation with another one of her favorite siblings. Hehe, who was she kidding, they were all her favorite.

Both still in their respective work attire, probably just as eager as she was to get home and begin the weekend. Austin must have picked up Dakota somewhere along his way to the school to get her. Fridays were special because Coach Colton and his boys' basketball team didn't have practice so Austin was on pick-up duty.

It was certainly weird for Hayes to be somewhere without stupid Glennard by her side.

She missed him for these two hours they had been apart, even though these past two days they have been getting on each others nerves. Then again, what else did everyone expect when there were two hyperactive kids who had no outlet for their energy because they were grounded.

Which meant that this weekend would be interesting, because technically, she and Glen were grounded until Monday. But at least she could serve her punishment from the comfort of her bed rather than the stiff desks at school.

Hayes had big plans to sleep the hours away.

Although there was one teensy tiny obstacle remaining before that could happen.

Need a hint?

Lotte.

"Bye Hayes! Try not to get in trouble this weekend so you can actually play in the games, will ya?" Rosie jokingly glared at Hayes as they reached the end of the sidewalk. Rosie's car was parked on the other side of the lot from where Hayes' brothers waited.

"Don't worry, I learned my lesson," Hayes reassured her, shooting her a thumbs up. Yesterday was absolutely pure torture having to sit on the bench for the entire basketball game.

Yep, that's right! Thursday had been the opening games of the basketball season and Glen and Hayes were not allowed to play. Austin was sure to enforce this by making sure they remained in their school uniforms, not even letting them dress out in the sports uniform. It definitely was a tease, they for sure saw what they were missing out on.

But at least both the girls' and boys' teams won. Coach Colton was pumped and treated his siblings to a late-night ice cream celebration.

The girls waved goodbye to each other before going their separate ways.

As she crossed the parking lot, Hayes caught Austin's attention almost immediately. It sure made her feel loved when a smile broke out on his face just at the sight of his little sister.

Hayes found herself with a little skip in her step as she got closer. Now, this was the life worth living.

"I hate being grounded," Hayes whined aloud, causing Dakota to spin around at the sound of her voice. A smirk made its way onto his face at her annoyance.

"That's sort of the point," Austin laughed, dropping his crossed arms to envelope her into a hug. "I missed you, Sunshine."

Hayes felt his lips kiss the top of her head, her lips twitching up in her own smile.

"Missed you more," she mumbled against his shirt. The fabric felt cool against her forehead, making her sigh as she rubbed her head back and forth.

"What are you doing, little weirdo?" Austin chuckled, running his hand over her messy ponytail.

Hayes grinned up at him, ignoring his question, "are we getting pizza? I'm starving!" She began to bounce on the balls of her feet, full of excitement. She had a lot of energy stored in her petite body. Austin placed his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down.

It had no affect on the girl.

It was Friday!

"She's like the fucking Energizer Bunny."

Hayes looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at Dakota. "Yeah, well that's what you get."

"What the hell did I do?" Dakota scowled at her.

"You were born." Hayes snapped back without thinking.

Both of her brothers' eyebrows rose at her sassiness. They were speechless, to be honest.

But as soon as the words left her mouth, Hayes had major regret. She began to panic as her smile dropped. Her heart rate jumped up real quick as she started to backpedal with her words. "I didn't mean it, Dakota! I swear, I'm sorry don't listen to me. I'm stupid. I was just kidding, please." Why doesn't she ever think before she speaks anymore?

Hayes broke out of Austin's hold and practically tackled Dakota, wrapping her arms around him in as tight a hug as she could manage. "Don't hate me, I'm sorry," she repeated over and over again, so quickly that he didn't even really know what she was saying.

Dakota's arms stayed frozen by his side as he let her stew in guilt for a moment. Nothing like giving someone their own dose of medicine right back.

"Alright alright, you two. Kiss and make up already," Austin intervened when he saw the tiniest smirk reappear on Dakota's face. Austin was ready to get a move on, opening the back door for Hayes to eventually climb in.

A laugh threatened to escape Dakota so he tried to cover it with a cough, but Hayes figured it out. "You're mean," Hayes whined, letting go of him and punching him in the chest.

"Karma's a bitch, lil bunny." He teased, trying to grab her arms but she was fighting back like a quick little ninja. Her punches didn't hurt but she was strong for her size. Dakota was impressed.

"Don't call me that," Hayes' nose wrinkled in distaste, putting extra 'umph' into her punch.

"I'll call you whatever I want," Dakota retorted, successfully wrapping his arm around her neck so her face was dangerously close to his armpit.

His smelly armpit.

"Oh freak, you're so gross! Let me go." Hayes couldn't get out of his choke hold. Well they say desperate times called for desperate measures.  "Austin!"

"That's enough, Kota."

"Fine," Dakota relented, immediately pinching Hayes' side before releasing her. Their faces were flushed from the thrill and had identical smiles, until Hayes purposefully stomped on his foot.

Dakota glared at her, making her clamber quickly into the car. It was a designated safe zone, for now at least.

"Fucking evil bunny," Dakota grumbled, needing to have the last word as Austin shut the car door behind her.

From safely inside the car, Hayes stuck her tongue out at Dakota again. Austin shook his head at her and clapped Dakota on the shoulder, distracting him before he could retaliate.

"Let it go, Elsa."

Austin could practically feel Dakota rolling his eyes at him as he walked around the car to get in the driver's seat. Dakota had shot gun.

"Dude, rule 101 of driving someone's car, put the chair back to how you found it," Austin said, fixing the driver's seat. His long legs needed the space.

"Oh fuck off, you're not that much taller then me," Dakota rolled his eyes once again. He knew Austin was just messing with him though.

"Stop cursing," Austin stated, an automatic response from him now since his brothers didn't seem to listen. Namely Dakota, but the words slipped from all of them from time to time.

"If I slap your head, will your eyes get stuck like that?" Hayes popped up between their seats. There was no middle seat in the middle row so she propped her elbows on the top of the front seats, her butt in the air.

Dakota turned his head to stare her down, making sure he had her full attention before he rolled his eyes... again.

She couldn't decide if he was in one of his grumpy or playful moods. They both kind of appeared the same to her.

Austin laughed at them, "Sit back, baby. Put your seatbelt on."

Hayes obeyed, buckling up before scooting closer to their seats again. She braced herself against the passenger seat as she leaned her head forward.  "We are getting pizza tonight, right?" Girl of simple pleasure, pizza was the only thing on her mind.

"Going to pick it up now," Austin answered, focusing on backing out of the parking spot. He winked at her before he turned back around to drive forward.

"Can we get ice cream, too?" Hayes asked, putting her hands together in prayer. "Pleaseeeee?"

"Not tonight."

"But it's right next to the pizza place!"

"No."

"But why not?" The whine was back.

"We have ice cream at home."

"But Austin, it's not the same."

"He said fucking no." Dakota said harshly, making Hayes freeze. She wasn't sure when exactly she pushed Dakota's buttons too far. Definitely in his grumpy mood.

She searched for Austin's calming blue eyes in the rearview mirror before following his gaze down towards Dakota's clenched fists. Oops, she done it now.

"Sorry," Hayes mumbled, the fire taken out from underneath her. She leaned back in her seat, feeling a sudden coldness wash over her as she pulled her legs up to her chest. If she made herself as small as possible, she could stay out of harm's way.

The car remained in an semi-uncomfortable silence for a minute or two before Austin spoke again. "Sunshine, switch to the other seat for me."

"Huh?" Hayes turned away from the window where she'd been staring out of, having been afraid of making accidental eye contact with Dakota.

"Switch seats, please." Perfect timing as the car reached a red stop light.

Hayes frowned in confusion at the random request but when she leaned closer for more explanation, she could see Dakota's hands still clenched.

"Hayes."

"Okay," Hayes muttered, taking off her seatbelt for a quick second so she could hop over. She now sat behind Austin's seat and had the perfect view to see Dakota's rigid body.

Had she really made him that angry?

She didn't have much time to ponder about it because they soon arrived to the pizza restaurant. Ripping her gaze from Dakota's still stature, she watched Austin leave the car running as he got out, opening Hayes' door so she could get out as well.

Guess she was going inside with him.

"Lock the doors." Austin told Dakota before he shut the door. He cupped the back of Hayes' neck and guided her through the parking lot, watching out for the cars.

"What'd I do?" Hayes asked quietly, wringing her hands together.

"Nothing, Sunshine," Austin replied, holding the door open for her to go in first. At her disbelieving face, Austin tugged gently on her ponytail. "I'll explain in a second."

She followed him to the counter to pick up their order. It wasn't ready quite yet so they found a seat on one of the benches that lined the lobby window.

Hayes sat crisscross apple sauce and leaned her head against Austin's shoulder. "Sorry for being annoying," she apologized. "I didn't mean to make him mad. I'll be quiet, promise."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Austin said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "We all have our moments, that's all. Dakota was having a little moment."

"So it is my fault." Hayes chewed her lip, saddened.

"No, baby." Austin sighed, "There's more to the story here that you don't know. Dakota has been wanting to practice driving, so he drove me to come pick you up and that took a lot of strength from him."

"Dakota drove?" Hayes didn't bother trying to hide the skepticism in her voice. She was under the impression he hated cars just as much as she did. Though, now that she thought about it, he had mentioned in a passing comment about driving just the other day.

"Yeah, he did. And he did a good job, too. But now the adrenaline has worn off and he had to face his demons again."

"So I made it worse," Hayes finished his thought. She twisted her lips to the side, "but how exactly did I do that?"

Austin didn't reply right away, watching other customers walk around the place as he thought about his next words. "How much of the car accident do you remember?" He asked curiously, cautiously. He didn't want to trigger her nightmares.

Hayes did a half-shoulder shrug, "Not much. Little bits I guess," she picked at a random scratch on her leg, to distract from her racing heart. It was a sign that let Austin know she was anxious about the topic.  "It's the sounds that I remember most. Just very loud noise." Her body senses now on high alert, Hayes winced when someone laughed loudly in the restaurant.

Austin rubbed his hand up and down on her arm, feeling the goosebumps that marked her skin and bent down to kiss her head.

"Well, you were still a baby but Kota was older when it happened so he remembers it well, and relives it in his dreams frequently."

"I know. He told me," Hayes said softly, remembering their heart-to-heart just two nights ago. The next morning she had woken up in her bed, though the last thing she remembered was watching Die Hard.

"So, you could understand now that when we were in the car just now, his brain was already going a million miles a minute from the stress it was just under and I think he got caught in a little bit of a flashback."

Hayes's heart dropped to her stomach, "What do you mean?"

"From what Dakota remembers, Jane was taking you guys to get ice cream that night," Austin explained gently, "He said you absolutely demanded some ice cream when you picked him up from practice. You and your ice cream," He chuckled lightly as his knuckles gently rubbed against her cheek when he noticed some tears. She didn't even know she was crying and roughly rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.

"Is that why you asked me to move over?" Hayes asked, trying to figure out how all the pieces fit in the puzzle.

"Your car seat was behind the passenger seat. I think it was all too similar for him." Austin replied, making Hayes turn her head so her forehead pressed against him. She pinched her eyes shut, frustrated with herself. "It's not your fault, it was just the perfect storm that happened, is all. Dakota is okay," Austin tried to reassure her. "He's tough to break."

"He's probably mad with me."

"Nah," Austin chuckled at her. "He's more mad at himself than anything for losing control. He doesn't like feeling weak. You know this."

"Austin, your order is ready," the pizza girl announced, putting the three boxes on the counter.

Austin patted Hayes' knee before standing up and tugging her up too. "Come on Sunshine, don't think too hard about it. Don't let yourself get caught up in the past. Think about the now and how we got all this pizza to chow down."

Hayes gave a tiny, wobbly smile, accepting his change of subject, "Good, 'cause I'm starving."

"Me too."

————

"I have a history test on Wednesday, can you help me study this weekend?"

Colton briefly glanced up at Glen who was seated across from him at the kitchen table before quickly scribbling his teacher comment on the assignment he was grading. Finished, he laid the green pen down to give Glen his full attention. "Yeah, sure. What are you guys covering?"

"Hell if I know," Glen tapped his pen against the edge of the table, "It's suppose to be World History but the teacher is all over the place."

"Who do you have?"

"Mrs. Jasper." Glen held displeasure in his voice.

"Ah, that explains it. She's a weird one. But sure, I'll help you out. You're in luck because I'm a self-proclaimed history buff."

"Oh perfect. So you can just take the test for me, right? Thanks Cole, I love you brother."

"Not a chance," Colton laughed, making Glen groan. "We'll study it on Sunday, I have the whole day free."

The rest of Colton's response died out at the sound of someone knocking on the front door. The brothers instinctually frowned at each other, neither were expecting anyone at this hour. The pizza delivery service, AKA Austin, had a key to the house so he wouldn't knock either.

"Somebody's at the door!" Francis yelled from the family room. Him and Emerson were playing video games, the sound of the television just loud enough to continually punish Glen since he couldn't join them. Funny thing was, Emerson shouldn't have been playing either since video games weren't exactly on the concussion protocol. But without Austin home to enforce the rules... everything was fair game.

"Yeah, don't worry. You stay there, I'll get it!" Colton shouted back at Francis. What good was Francis if he wasn't going to answer the door. "Lazy ass," Colton muttered, standing up.

"Who is it?" Glen asked curiously.

"Don't know." Colton walked to the foyer and peeked through the peep hole. "Oh for fuck's sake." he huffed under his breath. Why couldn't she listen for once?

Mindful of his little brother watching from around the corner, Colton counted to ten in his head before opening the door, "You're early."

————

"This fucking sucks," Francis grumbled as he tried to stab an ant with a leaf. He was sitting on the porch steps, frustrated but not able to do anything about it. Which was why the poor ant was scurrying around for its life. Dead, dead, dead.

His besties were also stuck with him; Emerson leaned against the railing to scour the street and Glen was pacing back and forth in the driveway.

Just 10 minutes ago they had all been inside, patiently awaiting for pizza to arrive when someone else knocked on the front door. Someone who wasn't expected for another 2 hours.

"Austin's here." Emerson suddenly announced, standing up straight. He watched the car pull into the driveway behind Colton's car.

Someone else was parked in his usual spot.

In all honesty, Francis had been looking forward to Friday night, to finally have everyone together, minus Baker of course, for the air to be cleared.

But the tiny sliver of hope that was left in his heart for their sister dissolved when she arrived two hours early.

Now, all that remained was annoyance.

Two hours wouldn't have been a big deal in any other situation but at this point, she was showing no respect or willingness to work with the brothers.

Which meant the stone wall that protected his heart had fully hardened. She had no more chances.

Taking a page out of Dakota's vocabulary, he simply had no more fucks to give.

Car doors slamming shut made Francis abandon his samurai leaf and hop to his feet. His lanky legs quickly closed the distance to where his brothers huddled together at the trunk of Austin's car. Emerson's voice carried as he was already complaining.

Neither of the three brothers had their cell phones on them when Colton practically shoved them outside and locked the door, so Austin was blindsided by their appearance.

"Woah woah woah, slow down." Austin frowned, "What's going on?"

Cognizant of their little sister's sensitivity of the situation and knowing she was lingering by the group of them, Francis stepped forward to get straight to the point. "Charlotte is inside with Colton."

Austin glanced at Lotte's car before returning his gaze on his siblings, "I see. When did she get here? And why didn't you guys tell me?"

"So here's the thing," Emerson said sheepishly, "It got a little rowdy inside so Colton sent us in the backyard and now we're locked out. And our phones are in there." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards the house.

Austin eyed Emerson for a second, making him sweat a little under the spotlight before turning his attention to his car. He opened the trunk but didn't take out the pizzas yet, buying himself time to think through his next move.

Not having much of an option, Austin turned back around to face his siblings. "If I let you in the house, what is going to happen?" It was a question more so geared at Dakota, Emerson, and Glen. A brief glimpse at Francis told Austin that he wasn't the ringleader tonight and it was already known to them that Sunshine wanted nothing to do with the meeting.

Dakota put his hands up as if denying any involvement. "Don't look at me, just gimme the pizza, you troll." He roughly pushed his way past Francis and grabbed the boxes. "Keys please," he looked expectantly at Austin who complied, dropping his keys on top of the box. "Let's go, Sunshine. I need you to open the door for me."

Hayes looked very unsure, as she hadn't shared another word with him since the restaurant. When they had gotten back in the car, Dakota had the radio playing so no one bothered to speak besides a few words passed amongst the brothers. Hayes hadn't even bothered trying to snoop on their conversation, ready to just go home. Thinking of the car crash made her feel very vulnerable and uncomfortable and she wanted to go hide under the bed covers.

"I got'chu," Francis said, picking the keys up. He looked around for one little person and when he spotted Hayes, he grabbed her arm and pulled her along with him. They followed Dakota to the door, leaving Austin to talk privately with Glen and Emerson.

Hayes looked back to see Austin ruffle Glen's hair, pulling him close as the three conversed amongst themselves.

Francis unlocked the door, keeping hold on Hayes' arm so Dakota could enter first. Hayes kept her head down as they walked into the foyer, she didn't want to take any chances of seeing Charlotte. She could hear Colton's voice flowing out of the living room.

Francis led her into the kitchen where Dakota placed the boxes on the counter. He opened one of the cabinets to grab some plates before opening the top box. It smelled good, making Hayes' stomach grumble.

A plate with a steaming piece of pizza appeared in front of her face, courtesy of Dakota's outstretched hand.

"Thank you," Hayes said, taking the plate and sitting down at the breakfast nook.

"You gonna eat it or just stare at it all night?" Francis nudged her, sitting down in the chair next to her. Not wasting another second, he already took a bite out of his own slice of pizza.

"Eat it," Hayes replied, slowly spinning the plate in a circle on the table. It wasn't that she was not hungry, because she's pretty sure the whole world heard her stomach grumble. But she didn't feel like she had an appetite any more. Knowing her sister sat in the room next door greatly suppressed her mood. Gave her the scary chills.

"Yeah? You sure about that, Sissy?" Francis asked, covering her fidgeting hand with his own.

Hayes shrugged.

"Austin's not forcing you to be in the living room. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," she responded quietly.

"Good, and I'll be right by your side."

——(the moment you've been waiting for...)——

"Hello, Lotte," Austin politely greeted his sister, taking a seat on the couch. Colton and Charlotte occupied the two arm chairs in the room, leaving the couch available for their other siblings.

He had to do a double take, because from the last time he'd seen her, which was only a week ago or so, Charlotte looked like a totally different person, and not in a good way.

She now looked sick, just above the category of only skin and bones, which was not a good sign. Quick decline of health.

Plus, Colton looked absolutely miserable right now. Austin was a little surprised to see their twin bond withheld just a tiny bit, even with their lifetime separation.

"Hey Austin," Charlotte replied. Goodness, even her voice sounded weak.

Was this really the same spit-fire Lotte from Tuesday that Austin heard all about?

Austin frowned and leaned forward in his seat so he could keep his voice low. He asked Emerson and Glen to go eat some pizza first so he could talk with Charlotte for a moment. But he knew they were probably listening in.

And he couldn't not care about his sister's health. As much as he wished he could just brush her off, it wasn't in his nature. Especially not know, when he could see with his own eyes that something was obviously wrong.

"How long do you have?" He asked quietly, knowingly.

"Wow, way to make a girl feel good," Charlotte breathily laughed. She knew she didn't look so hot. Actually, she was perfectly aware she looked like complete shit.

Austin cracked a small smile at that before returning to his frown. "Charlotte, what's going on?"

"Um, well let's see," she kept her voice light to trick herself from shedding tears, "I was told my treatment wasn't working this time and that I only have a couple months left, if I'm lucky." Charlotte clasped her hands together, bringing attention to her tremor, "And since my body doesn't stay awake past 9 anymore, I figured I'd come over early to talk because I think this is important and I owe you that much, so here we are. My brothers hate me and I'm dying so I want to leave you with a positive memory of me." She broke off into a coughing fit, taking the bottle of water that Colton offered her. "Sorry for not calling ahead of time, I have chemo brain."

Austin took in this information, sitting back in his seat and ran his fingers through his hair. Now he was feeling almost as miserable as Colton probably felt, who had his face hidden in his hands. Fuck cancer.

"I see you're not acting like a bitch today," Dakota walked into the living room, leaning against the piano so he kept distance between himself and Charlotte. Legs crossed at the ankle and arms folded across his chest, he seemed to wear a permanent scowl on his face as he took in his sister's appearance.

"Dakota," Austin sent him a hard glare.

"No, no, I deserve that," Charlotte admitted, "Tuesday wasn't a good day."

More footsteps sounded in the room as Emerson and Glen took a seat on the couch next to Austin.

"Speaking of Tuesday, I think someone owes you an apology," Austin said, looking expectantly at Glen.

"Sorry," Glen's cheeks reddened at being called out, though he knew it was coming. Austin had a long talk with him yesterday about his behavior and was nice enough to remind him outside.

"No, stop," Charlotte interjected, holding her hand up to stop the brothers from interrupting her, "I think I owe you all an apology, not just from my recent behavior, but on behalf of my whole life."

"It's about damn time," Dakota said rudely.

"Kota," Colton picked his head up to glare at him, "Give it a break, will you? Let her fucking talk."

"Wow," Dakota scoffed, "She says one pity apology and suddenly everyone's on her side? Didn't realize you were all so pathetic."

"Hey. That's enough. Either shut the hell up or get out." Austin sternly ordered, "She's not here to pick a fight."

At his clear warning, Dakota backed down, muttering his thoughts silently underneath his breath. But no matter what he wanted to say, he'd never go against Austin.

"The floor is yours," Austin said to Charlotte, extending his hand out. "Whatever you want to say, go for it."

Lotte let out a shaky breath, "Should I wait for Fran and Hayes?"

"No," Emerson replied shortly. The sibling pair would not be making an appearance.

Lotte looked a little put out by that but nodded nonetheless. "Okay, well where should I start?" She glanced at Colton for guidance, having been able to find a friend in him for the time being. They reached a mutual understanding of sorts.

Colton shrugged, "From the beginning?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

^^ Hi friends, I'm baaaaack (kinda sorta). These next couple weeks are intensive so pls lower expectations (AKA probably have no expectations because I'm the definition of chaotic) on posting the next chapters, ty. you rock.

Oh yeah, hope you liked the chapter!

Oh oh yeah! Thanks for following me, that's pretty amazing too.

(ignore, 7/22/21 42.9)