Here is Home • The Pack

Chapter Nine

Yay look what's back.
Chapter Nine

Preston was getting used to living with his brother again. In fact, he was kind of enjoying it.

Sure, every morning he'd go downstairs to an empty coffee pot and a half-eaten bowl of cereal left abandoned on the table that Preston had to clear up, but it could be worse. And yeah, maybe sometimes Mitch forgot to lock the front door properly, or put the cap on the toothpaste, or hang the towels up to dry after he'd had a shower, but there were worse things, and it was nice to sleep in a proper bed for once.

That being said, it wasn't like Preston didn't miss staying with the pack.

He'd become used to the business of the place; the omnipresent bickering of kids paired with Lachlan's constant smoking and Jerome's eternal expression of weariness.

It was weird to not wake up in the morning to the sound of Ruby crying and Rob swearing at her to shut up. He missed the atmosphere in the evenings, when everyone would gather around the shitty TV to watch a movie, or to play cards, or for Lachlan to read the others another chapter of the fifth Harry Potter book, because that one was their favorite.

But in fairness, Preston was there a lot of the time anyway during the day. After work he usually went back to their place, partly because it was closer, and partly because he missed it. Mitch was usually already there, hanging out and playing X-Box with Jerome.

As soon as Preston would enter the door he'd be verbally assaulted with a chorus of 'hello's from various people; the most enthusiastic of which was normally Vikk, bless him, who according to Lachlan had taken Preston's departure kind of harder than everyone else. He grew attached pretty easily.

There had been no word from their dad.

It had been just over four days since they'd left him on a bench in the next state over. Preston wasn't even sure he had even made it out of Wisconsin; not that he was particularly concerned.

In fact, Mitch seemed to be even less concerned than he did; hell, the guy was practically celebrating. He'd already fixed up the old Buick., and seemed to be taking every opportunity possible to drive it around.

Eventually even Preston had to admit, it was a nice car.

A nice car that Mitch had taken out for the morning to run an errand, so Preston was stuck at home by himself, with no means to get to the pack's house.

Which he definitely didn't want to do solely because he wanted to see Lachlan.

Definitely not.

After Lachlan's kiss on the cheek the pair had barely spoken, and Preston noticed that this was becoming a bit of a routine. They made some kind of slight change in their relationship and then Lachlan didn't speak to him for a week.

Though it wasn't really Lachlan's fault. He had seemed to be genuinely busy the entire time Preston had been over to their house. He was always rushing around making dinners, or out working, and when he had some time to himself he usually collapsed on the couch and took a nap.

Nonetheless. Preston made a vow to himself to bring it up the next time they had the chance, even if it meant he had to wake the poor guy up to do it.

A vow.

He could not back out. He had to talk to him.

But, unfortunately, it seemed that today would not be that day. Mitch was gone when he woke up a few hours ago, so Preston had absolutely no idea what time his brother would be back, meaning he would be at home alone indefinitely.