Day and Night

Ch. 4 Little House

"I love this place,

But it's haunted without you.

My tired heart

is beating so slow"

                            -Amanda Seyfried *Little House*

Chapter 4

“Dinner, guys!” Mads calls from in the kitchen. Wesley stands up from the couch and I reach my hand out for him to pull me up, which he does with an eye roll.

Dace and Keaton are coming down the stairs when we walk by and I take the opportunity to reach out and ruffle my brother’s hair. He gives me a dirty look and pushes me away before disappearing into the dining room.

Unfortunately it has been raining all day long and we have been stuck inside instead of enjoying the beach just outside. I got bored really fast and made all the boys and Mads play a bunch of games. I found some board games in a closet upstairs that the owners of the cottage must have left here and after much convincing on my part I finally got the others to join in.

We played some card games, but I’m too impatient and don’t like to sit still for so long, so I always lose those. After that I set up a game of twister, which I always win at no matter what even though the way we play is a lot harder than the actual version. It was too easy the normal way, so we added new things like having to place your left ear on red while putting your nose on blue or other things that are kind of impossible. It was fun while it lasted, but eventually that got old, too.

Dace and Keaton disappeared upstairs, probably to get out of playing any more games, but instead of Wesley going with like I thought he would, he stayed with me. We didn’t really do much, but it was nice that he didn’t leave me alone. I would have gone insane from boredom.

“So, Ivy. I was thinking that we could go into town to shop or something tomorrow. It has been awhile since we spent any quality time together,” Mads says as we all sit down to eat.

“Sounds good,” I reply with a smile in her direction.

“How come you never want to spend quality time with me?” Wesley asks her, eyebrows raised.

“Don’t be jealous,” she teases, knowing that he doesn’t really care. “I just need to spend some time with my goddaughter.”

“But don’t you want to know what’s going on in my life?” he asks, widening his eyes at her like a little boy.

“I already know. You’re face is as open as a book, it is so obvious what you are thinking. And don’t worry you’ll always be my little boy!” she tells him and ruffles his hair affectionately. Then she turns to Dace with a smile on her face. “Dace, on the other hand, is impossible to figure out. He never lets on to what he is thinking.”

She is one hundred percent right about that one. I’ve known Dace for years and I can’t figure him out. Sometimes I’m not sure if he can even figure himself out.

I notice Keaton has his eyes down, an odd expression on his face. I can see the sadness on his face and I know that he is thinking about our own mom. It’s hard not to think about her at times like this when Mads and the other boys’ strong relationship is so obvious. It kills me that Keaton doesn’t have someone to look out for him in the way that Mads does for Dace and Wesley. I know that she would do the same for him and practically considers him a son anyway, but it’s not really the same. There are some things you just can’t replace and our mom was definitely one of them.

I want to reach out and comfort him, but I know that he wouldn’t appreciate it with the others here. So, instead I do the next best thing and distract everyone so that they won’t notice something is wrong.