•Familia•

Chapter 29: Alex Is Back

Aaron POV
Alex has been in Canada for almost a month. I'm so used to being in the same city or house as him, that I kind of miss him. Luckily, he's coming home today. I'm supposed to pick him up from the airport in about an hour. I leave now because LA traffic is so unpredictable. One minute it could be backed up, the next minute you could be fast and furious drifting down the highway. Plus, the airport normally takes a long time.

I pull up to the airport and wait for Alex at his gate. He has his hands full with a baby carrier and Asher in one and Adrian pulling his suitcase in the other. I help him get his bags out and packed in the car.

"Welcome home" I say and give him a hug. I bend down to Adrian's level to hug him too.

"Glad to be back" Alex says and stretches. "I missed a lot"

"Yeah. Enough about what you missed, how was your trip." I ask. He buckles Adrian in. Adrian looks tired.

"It has a rough start. I had to break the news that Lauren and I aren't together."

"Wait what?! She did it tell them?" I ask shocked

"Nah. They said that they hadn't had any contact with Lauren for awhile. They had gotten in an argument with her and they didn't talk. They assumed she was coming with me when I contacted them so they weren't worried."

"I bet they were worried when you told them"

"They were ready to call the police" Alex responds. "I told them I had already tried that. I told them everything that happened. They apologized to me. They kept saying that they don't know what got into her. I told them that it wasn't their fault and we moved on. The rest of the trip was good. Adrian got a little upset looking at the pictures of Lauren. Asher really wanted to keep going out in the snow. We toured some places and it looked like Greg and Gail were happy to see us. They were really sad about Lauren at first but they kept having good memories because they saw her in Adrian." He says. I notice that he's stopped calling Lauren by her nickname. That's strange. He always called her something. Obviously he stopped calling her baby, bae, honey, or anything like that but he's always called her a nickname, even when they weren't dating. It was always Laur or something like that. It showed affection. Now he says her name with no feeling behind it. It sounds hollow but stands out in his sentence. It's almost like he's blocking out the feeling behind. It bothers me for some reason.

"At least they know now" I say. I take a peak in the backseat through my mirror. Both kids are fast asleep in the back. "Are you hungry?" I ask

"Very but I'm not trying to gain a dad bod. I didn't work out at all while I was in Canada. I'm not trying to let myself go" He says

"One cheeseburger won't hurt, plus I'm trying to get it all in right now. I have to go on a special diet and workout before we start filming. I already know it's going to be torture."

"Don't worry, I'll eat your share of cheeseburgers for you"

"Thanks Alex, you never fail to make me feel better" I say sarcastically and roll my eyes

"Don't worry, it's your winning season. I promise you it'll all be worth it" He reassures me.

"Hey, I'm older I'm supposed to be giving the advice here"

"Sometimes you gotta flip the tables. I'm feeling old and wise today"

"Comes from hardships"

"We both have had our fair share of those" He says

"But we're still here"

"You know we can't go down that easily" I say and we fist bump. We turn the radio on for a little while and listen to Matt's song. We stop at In-n-Out on the way home. We checked to see if anyone at home wanted anything and they said no. I just get an order of animal style fries. Alex gets a burger, some fries, and a milkshake.

"You have no idea how good In-and-Out when you haven't had it for a month." He says through a mouthful of burger.

"Don't rub it in" I tease. He takes another bite of his burger and ignores me. I didn't want to get to serious but I need to talk to him about telling mom and dad.

"Alex?"

"Hmmmm" he says

"Since you've told Lauren parents, don't you think you should tell ours?" I ask. He looks up at me.

"It's difficult. They know I was in the hospital for something but they don't know what for. They were already worried so much about me then and I don't t want them to worry anymore."

"But you know they're going to find out eventually. It's better if you tell them that's if they find out and they're upset that you don't feel comfortable to open up to them. That puts a strain on your relationship with them when it doesn't have to."

"You're right and you ruined my wisdom moment. Mom and Dad need to know." He sighs

"Didn't you upload a video about?"

"Yeah, Wait that means that they don't watch my videos. I have a bone to pick with them now" he says. I roll my eyes and laugh a little bit. I'm glad he's back because a month without his childish funny ways. The old Alex seems like he's back. Smiling, funny, and carefree. That's the Alex that I know and I love. My brothers happiness always affects mine and without him I wouldn't be here now. Having this conversation with him and and him being gone has really made me realize that and I'm glad I did. I don't know what I would do without him.