~
"Some people make your laugh a little louder. Your smile a little brighter. And your life a little better."
~
"Jacob Grant Richardson! Put me down right now!" Kara screeches the next day.
I laugh as Jake takes a running leap off the dock with Kara slung over his shoulder.
All you hear is a loud shriek before a loud splash.
"She's actually gonna kill him." Alex acknowledges and I laugh.
"Lets pray for the fallen." Austin says, looking down at the ground.
Alex laughs next to me, tightening his arm around me.
"Although that does look fun..." Austin starts. I don't have enough time to react before Austin scoops me up into his arms. My heart almost lurches out of my heart as he starts running towards the lake.
"Austin I swear if yo-" I didn't get a chance to finish the threat before he threw me into the lake as well.
The warm Texas water submerges my body for a few moments before I come back up sputtering.
"Austin Levi Miller! I am going to kill you!" I yell, swimming towards the dock. All he does is laugh and I look over at Alex to see him laughing too.
I'm going to kill both of them.
I hoist myself up on the dock before taking off running in Austin's direction, causing him to take off running as well. Compared to the football players around me, I'm not considered as fast, but I definitely can tackle someone.
As soon as I catch up to Austin, I jump and we both go down, Austin letting out an 'oomph' sound.
"Damn Em, you should've been drafted for the team..." He pouts, rubbing his shoulder.
I dust myself off, proud of my achievement, and walk back to Alex. I think he expects me to walk back into his arms, since he has his arms widespread, but instead I hit him on his shoulder.
"Ow! Damn girl!" He says, rubbing his shoulder as well.
"That was for not doing anything about that whole situation." I say sassily, walking straight past him to Sierra and Chase. They were lounging around on the picnic table that was outside right next to Travis who was sunbathing.
"Hey chica, is Austin dead yet?" She asks, nodding behind me at Austin still on the ground.
"Not yet." I say smiling.
"Pity." She says, rolling her eyes playfully.
I plop down next to them, letting out a content sigh. This break has been just what I needed, minus yesterday's events. I was half expecting Alex to sneak into my room last night, but much to my disappointment he didn't.
He's probably just trying to be a gentleman after all that was revealed and all that happened yesterday. I wouldn't have minded cuddling with him though.
What a shame.
"Hey girly." Kara says, sitting next to me, bumping my shoulder.
"Hey." I respond, smiling. The smile falters a little bit as I realize she and Jake sort of disappeared during that whole situation. "Where did you go?"
Her smile gives it away and I realize her hair looks a little messed up, more so than just getting thrown in the lake.
"Ew! Gross." I say, trying to get the image of my best friend and my brother having sex out of my head.
"Espera un minuto...he threw you into the lake and you rewarded him with sex?" Sierra says incredulously.
"Sierra would've annihilated me." Chase mutters.
"Damn right I would."
"Sierra, I'm not as violent as you." Kara scoffs.
"I'm not violent!" She defends.
"Baby, as much as I love you, you are very violent." Chase says, wrapping an arm around her.
"Whatever." She mumbles, but she knows we're right.
"Hey! We should play a game!" Austin yells, coming over to where all of us are sitting, Alex and Jake following.
Alex takes a seat next to me and pulls out his phone, frowning for a second before responding to whoever it was.
"Everything okay?" I ask him, causing him to look at me. He quickly puts a smile on his face and nods.
"Yeah, everything is fine."
Weird.
"I'm down to play a game." Chase says, causing the rest of us to agree. Looking around, I realize that Dwight isn't around.
"Where's Dwight?" I ask, and the gang shrugs. "I'll be right back."
I get up and walk inside, seeing if he's in there. I'm relieved when I see him sitting on the couch, FaceTiming his little sister.
"Isn't it so cute bubba?!" I hear her excitedly say through the phone. "That's you and that's me and that's mommy!"
I see Dwight smile and his whole demeanor grow soft. As long as I've known him, I only see his demeanor grow soft around three people: his mom, his little sister, and me.
He notices that I'm in here, and beckons me over to him.
"Hey little Lee, guess who wants to say hi." He says, causing her to scream a "Who?!"
"Hi Annalee." I say, waving at her adorable self.
"Emma!!!" She squeals, doing a little clap.
She's literally the cutest kid ever.
"Hi, how are you?"
"Good! Look what I drawed! There's me and bubba, and there's mommy!" She says, repeating what she just told Dwight.
"You're such a good drawer!" I tell her, causing her face to light up.
"Annalee! Can I have my phone back please?" I hear Ms. Aria say, her gentle voice coming through the phone.
"Sure mommy! Look it's Emma!" Annalee says, and suddenly the phone shows Ms. Aria.
"Hey Emma!" She says, waving slightly with a smile.
Jake and I have always been extremely close with Dwight's family, Ms. Aria acting as another motherly figure in my life.
"Hi!" I say back, smiling.
"We need to have you and Jake over soon!"
"Of course!" I tell her.
"Okay, well y'all go have fun!" She says, bidding goodbye before hanging up.
"I can't get over how cute your sister is." I tell him, sitting on the couch next to him.
"Yeah, I don't know where she gets it from." He says, smiling.
"You're such a softie for her." I say, playfully hitting his arm.
"I can't help it! She has me wrapped around her finger." He says, laughing.
"It's adorable if that helps." I say, smiling at him.
"Whatever." He says rolling his eyes. "Hey, how are you today?"
I look down at the ground and sigh. It would be so much easier to be able to flip a switch in just one day and suddenly be fine.
"I will be okay one day." I say, but I don't know if it's him I'm trying to convince, or myself.
"Yes you will. You're strong Em." He says with a slight smile.
I just smile back and change the subject.
"Come outside, Austin wants to play a game."
"That's dangerous." He says, looking outside at our group wearily.
"Right? Come on." I say, taking his hand and dragging him with me.
When we get back to the back patio, I take a seat next to Alex who puts his arm around me. He has on a smile, but he seems tense, leading me to believe something is wrong.
"So what are we playing?" I ask, looking at Austin and trying to ignore the feeling I'm getting.
"Truth or dare!" He says excitedly. A huge grin on his face.
This is not going to end well.
The gang gathers around in a circle, Alex next to me with an arm around me, while Austin goes to get an empty bottle to play with.
"Alright since I suggested it, I'll spin first and we'll go from there." Austin says and we all agree with him.
He spins the bottle and it turns widely before it eventually pointing at Kara.
"Truth or dare?" Austin asks a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"There's no way I'm taking a dare from you, truth." Kara says looking at Austin wearily.
"Aw Kara you're no fun..." he pouts but continues anyway. "Fine, who's the last person you creeped on, on social media?"
All eyes were on Kara and she looked away before sighing.
"Tom Holland..." she muttered.
A laugh escapes from Sierra before she could help it.
"Why were you creeping on him?" She asks, more than amused.
"Because he's gorgeous and he's British." Kara says in a duh voice.
"You're saying he's hotter than me?" Jake asks from beside her, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh Jake honey, of course he is." Kara replies giving him a big smile.
I try to cover my laugh but fail.
"Babe you're killing me here." Jake says putting his hand over his heart.
"You'll live." She says, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Alright Kara, your turn." Austin says.
Kara spins the bottle and it ends up landing on Alex.
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth." He says.
She thinks for a moment before asking, "Who was the last person you texted?"
It's quiet for a moment before Alex shakes his head.
"I can't say." He says, sighing.
I turn to look at him, surprised that he's willing to give up the game just so he doesn't have to answer.
"Dang bro, who you texting that you can't tell us?" Jake asks, cocking an eyebrow.
"I just can't say at the moment." Alex says, sighing.
"Well, I get that. You wanna change the truth instead so that you don't have to be out of the game?" Sierra asks, giving him a suspicious look.
"Uh no, I'm good."
I just sit there confused.
Is it really that bad he can't tell us?
Is it another girl?
No, stop it Emma. Not every guy is like Mason.
"Why are you hiding things?" Dwight asks, looking as if he's on edge.
"Y'all leave him alone. He doesn't have to tell us if he doesn't want to. Some people like privacy." I say, rolling my eyes.
"Yeah, just because we let y'all butt into our privacy doesn't mean Alex is gonna. Alex spin the bottle." Kara says, defending Alex.
I give her a thankful grin while Alex doesn't move.
"Come on Thompson, just spin it." Jake says, a teasing smirk on his face. That's how I know we're back to normal.
He nods hesitantly before spinning it, causing it to land on Jake.
"Truth or-"
"Dare." Jake says, cutting him off.
"It's about time!" Austin complains.
"Alright...I dare you to.." Alex starts and I see his gaze flicker to Jake and Austin who's sitting to the left of him.
Oh no.
"I dare you to kiss the person to your left." Alex says, a smirk on his face.
Damn, he's good.
"I am not kissing Austin." Jake says, shaking his head.
"Come on Jakey, are you really going to let them win?" Austin says in a singsong voice.
"I am not kissing you." Jake states again.
"Then you're out of the game." Travis informs him, causing him to sigh loudly.
"Thompson you suck." Jake says, glaring over at a smirking Alex.
"Austin if a tongue even touches me I'm going to actually hit you with a shovel and throw you in the lake."
"I love when you talk dirty to me." Austin says, winking.
"Just kill him now." Travis says, a bit too enthusiastically.
Jake hesitantly moves closer to Austin, who puckers his lips jokingly. Jake rolls his eyes and quickly gives him a peck on the lips before pulling away and dramatically wiping his mouth of Austin germs.
"He looked like he enjoyed it more than when he kisses me." Kara teases, causing Jake to roll his eyes.
"I think you might have something to worry about." Sierra says, loving the entire show.
"Would you two just shut the hell up already." Jake says exasperatedly.
"Alright let's move on!" I say, clapping my hands, in an attempt to save my twin.
Jake wastes no time in spinning the bottle, which unfortunately lands on me.
"Truth or dare little sis." He says, smiling.
I'm gonna regret this.
"Dare." I say, which causes him to smile evilly.
"I dare you to jump into the lake." Jake says.
"Take it a step further. Jump in the lake naked." Travis says, adding fuel to the fire.
"Brooooo." Kara says, letting out a low whistle.
"Well I for one am not complaining." Alex says. I make sure to nudge him in the ribs painfully before standing up.
"Wait are you actually gonna do it?!" Jake asks, standing up with the rest of the gang.
"Yeah, I'm not about to lose a dare from you." I tell him, causing Austin to cheer in the background.
"You go girl!" Austin says, causing us to laugh.
"Y'all have to stay over here." I tell them, not wanting to expose anything in front of certain people.
"How are we gonna know you did the dare fully?" Dwight asks.
"I'll be wet you idiot."
"Okay, okay." He says, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Again you guys better not look!" I say glaring at all of them, specifically the guys.
I sigh before walking towards the dock. I glance one more time behind me before taking off my oversized t-shirt and my shorts, my bikini following soon after.
Taking a deep breath, I brace myself before jumping into the lake. It's dark, which freaks me out seeing as how any type of creature could be swimming towards my naked body right now.
I hear hollering from behind me and roll my eyes before swimming towards the dock. Luckily we left a towel out here from earlier, so I quickly dry off before putting my clothes back on.
"Dang, you're braver than I thought sis." Jake says, laughing.
"You couldn't have thought of anything better?" I ask, still trying to dry my hair.
"Nope." Jake says, shaking his head with a wide grin on his face.
"Whatever." I say, sitting down by Alex again and spinning the bottle. This time it lands on Austin and I already know what he's going to pick.
"Dare." He answers immediately, looking excited.
I had to think of a good one to get back at him for dumping me in the lake earlier.
And then it hits me.
"I dare you to call your mom and tell her you accidentally got a girl pregnant." I say with a grin.
Chase seems to suddenly come alive from where he's sitting and smiles at Austin.
"Mom will literally drive up here and drown you in the lake."
Austin doesn't appear fazed, but I see him hesitantly reach for his phone and look at it for a minute before calling his mom.
"Also put her on speaker." I add.
He rolls his eyes, but does as soon as she answers.
"Well hello son, everything alright?" She says.
"No..." He says, trailing off and purposely causing his voice to break.
Austin is actually a really good actor.
"What's wrong honey?"
"You're going to have to sit down for this one mom."
"Alright...?"
"So...um I don't know how to tell you this but I-"
"Austin Levi Miller, if you tell me you knocked up a girl I'm going to slap you into the next year!" She says, cutting him off.
Austin visibly gulps and I see Chase holding in his laughter.
"That's the thing mom, you're accusing the wrong son." Austin starts, and I see Chase instantly sober up.
He begins to signal for Austin to stop, but he smirks and continues.
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Emily asks.
"Chase mom. It was Chase." Austin says, and suddenly the line hangs up.
"What is the matter with you?!" Chase yells.
Suddenly Chase's phone is ringing and he sighs before answering it.
"Hey mo-"
"Chase Elliot Miller! I raised you better than this! Was it Sierra? Dear God... put her on the phone right now. In fact, get home right this instant!" We hear her yell over the phone as Chase winces from her yelling.
"Mom! It was a dare!" Chase says, and I hear the fear in his voice.
Leave it to Austin to cause a death in his family.
"Excuse me?" She says, and Chase puts her on speaker phone.
"Austin screwed up the dare. No one is pregnant." Chase says, sighing.
"I'm gonna kill him."
"Did you really think I would do that?" Chase asks, chuckling.
"I don't know! It could have happened!" She says, and you can hear the frustration in her voice. "I'm going to murder your brother."
"It was Emma's idea!" Austin yells.
"Austin!" I yell, slapping his shoulder.
I dared him to do it, not to throw Chase under the bus!
"Don't you blame sweet Emma for your idiotic self son! You just wait till you get home."
Austin gulps, causing us to laugh.
"I'll talk to you later mom." Chase says before hanging up the phone.
"This is my last night with y'all. Please remember me for the great and funny person that I was." Austin says, being dramatic as usual.
"Te voy a matar antes que tu mamá!" Sierra yells in Spanish.
"Uh what?" Austin asks sheepishly.
"She said she's going to kill you before mom does. You better run dude." Chase says, causing Austin to jump up and run as Sierra begins chasing him.
"He's such an idiot." Travis says, rolling his eyes. "That was a good dare though Em, now Mrs. Emily is gonna kill him and finally get him out of my life."
"You know you love him." Kara says, smiling.
"Yeah, I guess. Don't ever tell him that though." He says, smiling too.
"Well, I'm gonna go to bed. This game has been fun and all, but I don't want to risk another death tonight." Dwight says, standing up.
"Yeah, I'm done for the night too." Kara says, yawning. She stands and Jake follows her.
"Goodnight you two. Remember there's other people in this house." Travis says, pointing at Jake and Kara.
Jake rolls his eyes as Kara's face turns red, causing us to laugh.
"You ready for bed too?" Alex asks me once they leave.
"I could stay up for a while longer." I tell him, smiling.
"Then come on, I wanna show you something." He says, standing up and reaching out his hand.
He leads me to the back of the lake house, where there's a hill leading to a garage like area. There's a white boat sitting in one of the garages that's just floating in the water.
"Are we going to take this out?" I ask excitedly.
"Yeah, come on." He says, smiling and helping me into the boat.
He unties it from the thing that it's tied on and sits in the driver's seat.
"So how did you learn how to drive this?" I ask him as he starts to drive it.
"My dad used to take us out on this almost every time we came here for the summers. When I got older, he just taught me and eventually I learned. When I was old enough, I got a license to be able to drive it legally." He explains.
I nod and lean back, letting the feel of the wind in my face relax me. I love the lake and going out on the boat.
"So does your family ever go out on the lake?" He asks, looking over at me.
"We went a lot to this one when I was younger and the earlier years of high school. We haven't been in a long time though. After everything went down, we didn't do very much as a family."
"That's sad." He says, a frown on his face.
"Yeah, a lot of that was my fault." I tell him, sighing.
"I'm sure that's not true." He assures me.
But he's very wrong.
"No, it is. I didn't do much of anything, except laying in bed." I tell him. He gives me a small smile.
"Hey, don't dwell in the past. You have a whole future to make new memories." He tells me, stopping the boat. "But, we're here."
I look around and see we're in the middle of the lake, the only thing around is miles of water and the blanket of stars above us.
He puts down the anchor, putting us in place, and leads me over to the front of the boat where we can lay down.
We lay side by side, staring up at the sky.
"It's so beautiful here." I say after a few moments of silence.
"Right? One of my favorite things is laying in a field, or on a boat, or really just anywhere and looking up at the sky. It's so beautiful." Alex tells me.
"It really is."
A comfortable silence falls over us as we stare up at the sky full of stars. I feel Alex's hand touch mine before his fingers lace with mine. I look over and give him a small smile.
"I'm glad we came here this weekend." Alex tells me softly.
"Me too." I say, smiling as well.
'~'
"Hey chica can I talk to you for a second?" Sierra asks, pulling me to the side. It's the next day and we're all getting ready to leave to head back home.
We spent most of the day today on the lake and we had a cookout for lunch. However, now we are heading home and I've been nervous all day. We barely talked my mom and dad into letting me stay once they found out all that had happened.
But, Jake promised that he would basically be a helicopter brother over me, and he unfortunately followed through with it. I'm sure it will be fine, I'm just nervous.
"Yeah what's up?" I say, pulling myself out of my thoughts and turning my attention to Sierra.
"I'm gonna be honest with you alright so hear me out first?" She says growing more serious.
"Okay you're scaring me what is it?"
"When you were in the lake earlier, Alex had disappeared and I went inside and overheard him talking to someone. Your name came up and it sounded like he was saying 'the deal is off'" She tells me.
My heart drops, but I try to ignore it. I'm sure it's nothing.
"Maybe you heard wrong?" I ask, feeling confused. Even though we had a nice time on his boat, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about him.
"I don't think I did girly. I'm not accusing him of anything though, but I just thought I should let you know."
"Thanks Sierra..." I say. She gives me a weak grin and walks over to where Chase is loading up his truck.
I'm sure everything is fine.
Right?
I walk over to where Alex is at, aggressively packing up his truck.
He does seem on edge.
"Hey." I say, wrapping my arms around him from behind.
"Hey beautiful." He says, spinning around so he can see me.
"Are you okay? You seem on edge." I feel him freeze before looking away.
"Yeah I'm fine Em, it's nothing." He says.
But I'm not convinced.
Before I can say anything though, everyone walks out of the house and heads towards their cars.
"Y'all ready to go home?" Kara asks everyone.
"No! My mom is gonna kill me." Austin says.
That makes two of us.
"Finally." Travis mutters.
"Hey!" Austin calls, punching him in the shoulder.
"Okay! Let's go before Travis kills Austin and we end up having to dump his body in the lake." Sierra yells, climbing into Chase's truck.
I laugh slightly before climbing into Alex's truck. He follows before firing up the engine.
"Let's go home."
'~'
"Mom we're home!" Jake yells a few hours later.
I feel as if my heart is going to jump out of my chest, the fear of what my parents are going to say weighing down on me.
Jake must notice that I'm nervous because he reaches his hand down and squeezes my hand, giving me a smile when I look up.
"It's gonna be okay Em." He says, softly. "They love you."
I just nod and sigh, walking towards the kitchen.
"Oh I'm so glad you're home!" My mom says, running around the island to embrace me in an extremely tight hug.
"Mom, you're suffocating me." I say, feeling my lungs giving out.
"Oh I'm sorry!" She says, pulling away. I see tears glisten her eyes and I sigh.
"I'm okay." I tell her, looking her in the eyes.
"I've heard that before dear." She says softly. "We were obviously wrong."
"Mom, we got through this once before, we can do it again." Jake says behind me.
I give him a grateful smile and look back at my mom, who looks deep in thought.
"You know we aren't just going to pretend this didn't happen. We're going to keep a closer eye on you." She tells me and I sigh of relief.
"That's okay." I tell her with a smile.
"I love you dear." She says, pulling me in for another hug.
"I love you too mom." I say, holding her tight.
'~'
Hey guys!
We're sorry for the late update! This past week has been crazy hectic for us!
Don't forget to give your feedback! Comment or vote! It means the world to us.
~Marie Black :)