MONACHOPSIS- V. Hargreeves ³

006. DINER DISCUSSIONS.

"Kadence! So nice to see you. I feel like it's been forever."

"I saw you at breakfast," Kadence said, straightening up. She tried to shrug Alphonso's arm off. He kept it stubbornly there.

"Oh, yes, but God, so much has happened since then, hasn't it? I mean, it might as well have been years, especially with Loser roaming around."

Against her will, a slight chuckle slipped past Kadence's lips. Loser wasn't particularly creative, but her brother did have a way of making everything funny.

At the sound, he crowed triumphantly. "And there it is! The great Kadence Hargreeves has laughed! Victory is mine!"

"Jesus." Kadence shook her head fondly. Alphonso could be... a lot, but then again, so could she. Though he generally hung out with Jayme, there were times when he dragged Kadence along with them. Something, something about being the 'underdogs' of the group. Kadence would always point out that he was at least Number Four.

"My God, stop harassing her," Jayme grumbled. That was how she spoke—in grumbles. Oh, sure, there were moments she'd crack a smile, but they were almost as rare as days their father was proud of them. Few and far between.

Alphonso pouted. "But it's my favourite thing to do!"

"Harass Ben instead," Kadence suggested. "I'm sure he totally won't kill you."

He pretended to consider this, then shook his head. "Nah. I'd rather annoy my second favourite sister!"

"Second favourite? Wow, Alphonso. I feel so loved."

"Hey, I've got four. You should feel honoured to make the top two."

"Somehow, I doubt that matters," Jayme said. "But, um, anyway, Alphonso noticed that you were, like, totally, embarrassingly alone, and he wanted to ask you if you wanted to join us."

Alphonso glanced at her. "That's not at all how I remembered it going, but okay."

Kadence, who'd picked up enough of her sister's language to know that this had really been her idea, simply asked, "Join you in what?"

"We've got some errands to run," Jayme explained. "Alphonso wants to go to the pharmacy to get some dumb hair product, and I thought I'd come along for the snacks. I mean, it'll probably be super boring, but we could probably sneak into a movie afterward. You know, like the old days, or whatever."

A slow smile spread onto Kadence's face. She hadn't done anything like that with her siblings for literal years—they were all so caught up in their own things that they simply never thought about it. But as Jayme had said, it had occurred a lot when they were younger. At first, it had started out as snatched moments, days their father was at his nicest—though 'nicest' meant prickly as a hedgehog instead of an especially spiny cactus. Then, they'd gotten older and decided to start giving him medication to keep him suppressed. They had a lot more free days after that.

"Sure," she said, taking off her gardening gloves. "Why the hell not? We're all out of Cool Ranch Doritos, anyway."

"I think Christopher ate them all," Jayme said.

Alphonso grinned. "Ah, yes! Family time! Team JAK is back in action!"

"Team JAK?" Kadence asked.

"Jayme, Alphonso, Kadence. I mean, come on. Wasn't that obvious?"

Kadence rolled her eyes. Even so, a weight felt as if it had been lifted off her shoulders. She had something to do. She'd been invited out by the underdog team—Team JAK, apparently. Now, she wouldn't have to stay here and either garden or watch their prisoner's jaw unhinge at the sight of their bathrooms or whatever.