Cry Until You Bleed

46- Brothers

"How nice of you," Niles chuckles and I just know that he just rolled his eyes at me.

"I know, I'm a saint," I joke. "I'll talk to you later, Niles."

"Yeah, bye, Ana," He says into the phone.

"Bye, Niles," I reply before hanging up the phone and hurrying towards the visitors room because if it is my family, I'm very excited to see them. I haven't seen them in a few months, since they haven't visited since the first month that I was here but I'm still not 100% sure that it's them considering I don't see why they wouldn't have told me that they were coming. However, Mandy said 'visitors' as in plural and I don't know any other plural group of people that would want to come visit me so I'm just assuming that it's them.

When I turn into the visitors' room, it's pretty crowded with other families but I'm quick to spot Penn and Sienna sitting at a small table in the far corner of the room. I notice that my dad isn't with them so I remind myself to ask him about that later. However, right now, I see my brother and I've missed him so much so I hurry towards him and barrel into his arms like a high-speed bullet.

"Penn!" I cheer with my chin digging into his shoulder and then I begin to fire questions at him at a rapid speed. "What are you guys doing here? Is Dad here? Is something wrong?"

"Slow down, kiddo," Penn laughs before we both sit down again at the table. "We're here because Sienna had to go visit Stella in New York so I decided to tag along so that we could stop by here too and say hi to you. Dad is not here because, like I just mentioned, this was originally a trip to see Stella so that'd be really weird, if he came too. And no, nothing is wrong."

"Okay, well that's good," I decide. "Hello, Sienna."

"Hey, Ana. How are you doing?" My brother's girlfriend asks me with a warm smile.

I shrug. "I'm okay, I guess. Given the circumstances, of course. How are you guys doing?"

"Well, school's started up again so we've both been pretty busy," Penn tells me.

"How are your classes?" I continue to keep the conversation off of me because that's my main goal here, to not talk about me so much and to just catch up with how my brother is doing.

"Most of them are pretty okay. My logic professor is kind of a dick but that's to be expected considering you always need just one dick professor or everything is just out of balance," He explains jokingly. "But I started looking at grad schools and I'll have to start applying to those soon."

"Look at you, being all proactive and planning ahead for a future," I pretend to tease him and then lean over and pinch his cheek for added effect but he just swats my hand away and it makes me laugh a little bit. "Seriously though, that's pretty cool, Penn. Grad school and everything. You're going to be such a smarty pants."

"What are you talking about?" He scoffs. "I already am smart."

"Sure you are, buddy," I assure him sarcastically. "But anyway, aren't you guys thinking about going to Seattle after Sienna graduates? So how are you going to go to grad school if you're only going to be here for two more years after you graduate?"

"I'm going to take two years here and then transfer to Seattle after that," Penn explains. "But that's enough about me. How are you?"

"Nothing has changed with me," I tell him with a boring little shrug.

"How's Niles?" Sienna asks me and I can sense an annoyed expression flash over my brother's face but I just ignore it because I'm tired of debating with him about it and I know that he's tired of it too. I know that he still doesn't agree with my friendship with Niles but at least now he's stopped fighting it.