Pretty Boy- discontinued sorryyyy

• Chapter Twelve •

Hey y'all, I'm on a roll lol. Do you guys prefer these shorter more frequent chapters or should I try and stick to making them longer? I can never tell if I've written enough lol. ❤️❤️❤️

• • •

After Alex and I talked I quickly drifted off to sleep, exhausted from crying so much. I wake up to Alex still sitting on the edge of my bed where he was when I feel asleep.

"Where you in here this whole time?" My voice drowsy with sleep.

"I didn't want you to be alone when you woke up or anything..." I just nod. My heart warming at his genuine care. I've always had Ellie of course but I never want her to see me as weak. I want her to feel safe. Now I feel safe too.

"Hey, you wanna get out there and play a little basketball?!" Alex smiles jumping up breaking the awkwardness so easily as I laugh.

"Sure, just know you're going down."

"Yeah, yeah suuure," he waves me off with a laugh and races outside, leaving me to trail behind with a small smile fitted onto my face.

The hot sun beats down on us and I wish for it to be winter so my long sleeves at least blend in. We both quickly work up a sweat, taking turns shooting from further and further away to warm up. It feels good to have a ball in my hands again. I find it harder and harder to contain my wide grin as we continue taking shots.

"You warmed up enough hotshot?" I chuckle at the nickname and pass him the ball.

"Let's do it."

• • •

Alex barely managed to beat me, probably since it's been years since I've played. But it was beyond fun nonetheless.

"Suck it hotshot!" Alex shouts as we both collapse into the ground, "I'm so good!" I look over at him and burst out laughing, the kind I'm only used to doing with El. Alex is quick to follow in my laughter, only making me laugh harder.

"Hey Aiden?" I look over towards the voice and spot Jayden leaning against the front door.

"Yeah?" Oh no, what did I do wrong? Am I in trouble?

"Do you.. do you mind if I talk to you for a minute?"

"Uhh.." I look over to Alex who nods with a smile smile.

It's ok.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure," I quickly stand up and brush the grass off off my clothes before following Jayden inside and to the dinning room.

He leans against the wall and lets out a long sigh scaring me even more.

"I'm sorry." What?

"F-for what?"

He runs a hand through his hair and looks back at me where I can see the exhaustion from weeks without a full night sleep. "I suck at this, I don't... I don't know how to be a parent. And I certainly don't know how to keep Blake from being a dumb-ass."

"It's not your fau-"

"No it is. I'm his and everyone else's guardian I just, I don't want you to feel like you're not apart of the family. You're our brother and Ellie is our sister. No matter how much of a prick Blake is." I just nod, knowing he needs to say this for himself as much as I need to hear it.

"I'm gonna do my best I promise Aiden. I'm gonna do my best to finally be a brother to you cause I can't imagine how terrible it must of been dealing with the loss of your dad or being split up from your sister. When our parents died at least we had each other. You two were alone to grieve and I can't imagine that.." I tense at his use of the term "dad" but know he means well. He doesn't know and I don't want him to.

"Thanks Jayden, thank you."  He nods pulling me into a hesitant hug.

"Oh also," he steps back a little more relaxed after getting all that off his chest, "I already talked to Ellie about this but school will be starting in a few days- do you feel comfortable going in? I can always enroll you later or something if you need more time to adjust to living here? Or we can figure something else out if you feel uncomfortable at all?"

I hesitate. I fucking hate school. But I don't wanna be that new kid halfway through the year and have even more attention drawn to me. Plus I doubt Jayden would have any time to homeschool me.

"What's Ellie doing?"

"She's starting up with everyone else. Our school is pretty small so she'll be in the same building as you if that makes you more comfortable? The boys will be there two, even Blake cause he was held back last year..." he trails off and I just nod.

"I'll start with Ellie then." It'll suck to have Blake there too but I'll have Alex and Ellie. Hiding from it will only make things worse.

"Sounds good to me. I'll get you enrolled as a sophomore then! The kids there are," he hesitates, "they're mostly really nice. And I'm just a call away if you even need anything."

I have a feeling he knows something I don't but I don't wanna press just yet. I've dealt with shitty kids before, I can handle it.

I hope.