Rules for Enduring the Sweenys

Rule #8: Never Show Fear

“Owen… I dunno…” If Eli was in the right frame of mind, he would have jumped at the chance, but Dizzy’s death had clouded his bad judgment. “I just don’t wanna have to keep lying to Dizzy’s family.”

“Eli, just leave it to me. Go be with her family, just don’t say anything.” As if on cue, Eli’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered hastily. “Yeah of course… I’ll be right over… no,” he glared pointedly at Owen, “I haven’t heard anything yet… Owen and Bella just got home… no, they didn’t find anything either… okay. And… I love you too Mrs. Parker.” Eli snapped the phone shut, dropping onto the long, gray cashmere couch.

“I’ll take care of this fucker for you,” Owen growled as his brother broke out into awkward sobs.

“Just… don’t get… c-caught,” he stuttered, wiping his eyes and grabbing his jacket.

Owen watched Eli disappear into the hallway, and heard the front door slam shut seconds later. ‘Maybe,’ he thought, hearing Bella in the game room with Danny and Lucy, ‘now is the time to call Jake.’

* * *

Jake Harken rubbed his eyes tiredly as the words began to blur again. ‘Why can’t Bryce stop being a love struck douche bag and help me with this shit?’ he wondered irritably. Looking out the long window of his dorm, he couldn’t help thinking about Bella. ‘Hopefully she’s home. Ma knows how to help keep her fears at bay more than anyone else.’ Whenever the clouds grew huge and menacing, his thoughts turned to Bella. She’d always been afraid of storms, but it was much worse when she came home from god-knows-where.

He would never forget the day she turned up:

“Jake?” Anna asked from the doorway of his room.

“Hm?”

“Why don’t you go outside and get some fresh air? Maybe go to the park or something,” she suggested softly. Even Bryce and Zane had managed to go out and have fun every once in a while. But Jake only ever went out to look for her. Despite his own brothers being convinced that maybe she’d died after all, he just couldn’t believe it. ‘Bella’s always been a fighter, just like us.’ He knew she would turn up. She would come home.

Jake slowly pushed himself away from his desk and grabbed his backpack. Anna smiled triumphantly when he stopped in front of her. She wasn’t stupid; she knew he would be out looking for his little sister instead of out with friends. She pulled her son (the adoption papers had been finalized in May, even though he’d been living with her since he was eight) into a hug. “Bring her home this time,” she whispered in his ear, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. She said some variation of the same thing almost every time he left the house, which made him smile.

Anna Harken didn’t like the subdued, quiet version of Jake. She would have done anything to see him being his normal hyper, crazy self, the way he’d been over a year earlier. But, he just couldn’t seem to find who he had been before. The only thing that seemed to make him happier was smoking Marijuana and looking for her. So Anna and Thomas never bugged him about it. ‘Just don’t let the other kids find out,’ was all they said.

“I’ll find her Ma,” Jake promised, knowing she was the only one who believed him anymore.

Jake wandered around for a little while before finally ending up on the outskirts of town, near his older brother, Oliver’s, farm. He dug out his pipe and weed from his backpack, and inhaled a huge lungful of delicious smoke. His gaze was fixed on the breathtaking canyon walls that rose high above the ground. Far away, in the distance, he could hear the sounds of the city below. It wasn’t a terribly gigantic city, but it was bigger than his town.