"Hebben we aanwijzingen?"
"Alleen het wapen."
"Is dat alles?"
Is that it?
She sat back into the couch cushions satisfied, she understood that part.
Zach held her not-even-sore-anymore wrist and turned it over, inspecting it, like Brayden had when she first came into the living room.
The Dutch detective show he loved so much was playing and only one person in the room was paying attention to it, and she didn't even understand it.
Brynn narrowed her eyes at the television screen, doing her best to ignore Zach's prodding fingers, and analysed the scene like the detective-man was doing. She didn't understand.
"I don't understand, I thought the sister was killed," she turned to Zach, lips pursed confusedly. "Why is the brother dead?"
Zach looked up from her wrist, a crease forming momentarily between his eyebrows before he looked at the television.
"Maar wie kan het dan gedaan hebben?" the detective-man said. Zach's eyebrows unfurled in understanding, "the sister did it."
Brynn gasped softly, "but she loved him!"
Zach's eyes softened and he grinned, "you'll have to keep watching to find out more." He gently put down her hand after inspecting
Callan's work, seemingly satisfied, whilst Brynn winced. She only knew that because she asked Brayden before when Zach left the room to get his own coca cola. She didn't think she could keep up anymore.
However, she did try. Her focus never strayed from the big television screen, except maybe the occasional peek at the twinkly lights that adorned the massive Christmas tree that was in front of the even bigger living room windows. The sight always made her stomach twist in excitement. Christmas was next week.
Nothing surpassed the amount of elation that Brynn held within her when she thought about the Christmas holidays here, with her family.
With Milo, weeks off for the Christmas holiday meant nothing but torment. Weeks, days, hours and seconds of harrowing torture that seemed to never end.
And she remembered the worst of it; it wasn't the hours of verbal abuse, nor the hours and hours of finger crawling actions. It was the silence that encased the entire house when Milo had passed out in his room, or in the living room. A cold, empty silence that made everything in Milo's house scarier.
Looking at the sparkling lights, a particularly bright one beamed into her eyes, and she was brought back to her first Christmas with Milo.
Sat in his living room in the pitch black, in front of the run down chimney waiting for the Father Christmas to come because she had been so good this year and she so wanted her mum back.
She missed her cuddles, she missed her kisses and she missed her laugh that used to take up every crevice of their home each and everyday. The voice that used to wake her up, the sneaky smile she gave when they'd share a sugary treat in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, the fingers that used to trace the palms of her hands when she couldn't sleep.
Milo's fingers weren't like her mum's fingers.
She remembered pulling her tattered pyjama bottoms that she'd grown out of a few months ago down, trying to make them reach her ice cold heels. She hoped that she'd get bigger pyjamas for Christmas.
Although she was okay with just getting her mum.
And she waited and waited ages and ages, until sunlight beamed through the crooked, stained blinds and hit her eyes. She had shot up, letting go of the bottom of her pants in favor of grasping the carpeted floor to help herself up.
She remembered looking around the room eagerly, only to be met with an empty couch, and she remembered running as fast as her legs could to the kitchen, expecting her mum to be cooking a Christmas breakfast like every Christmas morning. And she remembered startling to a stop when all she saw was a leaden kitchen, countertops deprived of food, of life.
Because her mum wasn't here. Because she wasn't good enough this year to have her back.
The twinkling light faded for a moment and Brynn blinked. The show was still playing, but she paid it no mind as she looked around this living room. A living room that had a Christmas tree, one of several in this house.
Couches that had people in it, Brayden and Zach. Her brothers. She also heard clattering echo from the other side of their home from the kitchen.
This Christmas was going to be better.
Because it felt so full of... of love.
Brynn wanted a Christmas that felt like there was some semblance of love in the air again. It had been so long. She craved it.
Her lips upturned as she saw Zach mouth a line from the show and Brayden sneak another sip of his coca-cola because he thought nobody was watching.
Then her stomach felt like it had untwisted and she breathed out softly. Only seconds later it made another twist, but not a vicious one.
She looked down confused. It did it again. But this time a small noise came out. Was it a period symptom?
It wouldn't stop, no matter how hard she pressed down on it. In fact, that seemed to make it louder.
Neither Brayden or Zach looked over though, which meant that it couldn't have been as noisy as she was imagining it to be.
After some point, she thought she figured out what it could be.
Standing up, Brynn walked around the couch, pausing when Zach paused the show almost immediately. "Where are you going?" he asked.
The confused looks on both their faces were so similar, Brynn couldn't tell the difference between them for a moment. Her breath hitched barely and she twisted her hands behind her back and rubbed her socked left foot over her right one.
"I was going to get a snack," and she didn't know why she was going to get one now.
Both Brayden's and Zach's eyes widened a little before they looked at each other for a brief moment. Then Zach stood, "yeah, yes- of course. Me too."
He had a grin on his face that looked like it was being suppressed and so did Brayden for some reason. She furrowed her eyebrows and followed Zach out of the living room.
She was sure she was hungry anyway. The rumbles hadn't subsided yet. She didn't know if it was hunger though.
Nevertheless, she trailed after Zach, a bit faster when she saw that it was Callan making the soft racket in the kitchen.
Her brothers sometimes had private chefs come in to do their meals. Brynn had seen them before and they were really good even if she didn't understand why they did it and not her.
Callan dismissed them all last week except the head chef- Omar- but said the rest will be back for Christmas, which Brynn didn't understand because surely they had families of their own to share Christmas with?
She also secretly thought that Callan dismissed most of them because he liked cooking instead, perhaps found it stress-relieving. Brynn usually found him by the stove, with something or other in a pan when he hadn't had a good day.
When she and Zach walked in, it was as if Callan had superhuman senses, straight away he knew they were there even though Brynn swore her feet made no noise.
"Hey, hun, is everything okay?" he turned down the stove and turned around properly. Omar didn't react like he did, he was very concentrated in the kitchen, but he did smile sometimes.
Brynn smiled and hummed, passing Zach at the island and then the island itself, to the fridge, "just a little hungry." She let her hand settle on the fridge door handle, but didn't open it, letting her sock clad toes roll over each other.
Callan looked like Zach and Brayden did not just a minute ago, Brynn furrowed her eyebrows. He turned the stove all the way off, the smoke from the delicious smelling food dissipating quickly, and glanced at Zach, who leaned on the marble counter on his elbows.
She looked between her two older brothers, scrunching her toes up hard. "But I can- I can wait until dinner, it's not urgent or- or anything," she said quietly, loosening her fingers around the handle.
Callan moved away from the stove almost immediately, towards her and the fridge. "No, no. Please help yourself, dinner won't be for another half an hour."
Brynn stopped loosening her fingers from around the handle, only the tips brushing it as she gave Callan an unsure once over. She gave Zach one too, just in case, and Omar, but he was concentrated on the oven.
When she saw no concealed intentions, she nodded, "o-okay then."
Turning back to the fridge, she held the handles in her hands properly this time. "Thank you."
She heard Callan take a breath in, and go back to the stove, but she didn't feel like he was fully focusing on the food. Unlike her, who was very focused on food at this moment. Opening the fridge felt overwhelming. A plethora of food was inside and Brynn didn't know where to start. She didn't even recognise the majority of them.
She was unsure of how long she stood there, hesitant, before she felt someone come up behind her and tensed. A muscled arm went over her shoulder, reaching for one of the fridge drawers.
Brynn didn't know if it was odd that she could identify her brothers by their arms. But it felt so very obvious that this must be Zach's arm. It was a bit clumsier than, say, Callan's would have been.
He retrieved a container of something red and she heard him speak down at her from over her head. "Why don't we have some watermelon? That's always my favourite when I don't know exactly what I want to eat."
Brynn perked up, Zach's favourite?
Nodding, she looked up at him shyly, "okay, yes please." He smiled down at her.
Walking over to the island, she took a seat at the end, watching as Zach reached into one of the higher cupboards to take two marble bowls out with one hand, the watermelon container in the other. Then, he pulled a large spoon and two small spoons out from one of the drawers near Omar, closing it with his hip.
He placed the items on the island, scooping watermelon into both bowls and placing the one with more in it in front of Brynn, as well as a small spoon. She picked up the small spoon, sizing the watermelon up. She hadn't tried this before.
It didn't look scary, it looked... nice.
Zach had already started on his bowl and Brynn pretended that he wasn't waiting for her to start it too, taking her time and tapping a particularly big piece with her spoon. Then she pressed harder with the spoon, dividing that piece into something more manageable.
Once she'd tried it, she didn't stop until she finished it. Even scooping some of the flavourful water that resided at the bottom when all of the pieces had gone.
The rumbling in her stomach subsided as she looked down at the bowl remains- which wasn't much really.
Zach had already finished his and was asking if she wanted any more. She shook her head, that felt like a bit too much.
Sucking her lip in, still tasting the watermelon, she picked the bowl up only for it to be take off her by Zach. He took both bowls and placed them in the sink, lightly rinsing them, earning a 'tch' from Callan who was chopping vegetables next to Omar now.
"Do you want any help with dinner, Callan?" she asked, sliding off the stool and coming over. If she asked Omar, he'd smile, usually whilst cutting something expertly, and give her a task like taste testing the sauce before he served it.
But Brynn liked helping more than that and Callan was most likely to let her.
Callan's eyes, focused on the pepper he was cutting, softened briefly before they moved over to the many pots and pans that covered the stove.
"Well, I suppose you could manage stirring," he jested, earning a grin from Brynn.
He leaned over and took the lid off of one of the pots that wasn't over a blaze, handing her a wooden spoon. "Not too fast, okay lovely?"
Brynn nodded, taking the wooden spoon. She could do that.
Meticulously, she stirred the sauce around the pot, not stopping even for a second, until Callan had to use it.
She watched as he and Omar put together the dinner, helping them place each plate on the dining room table and then carrying a big jug of juice with two careful hands and placing it on the middle of the table.
After carrying the juice, she came back into the kitchen to Callan with his sweater sleeves rolled up as he used a tool to take the cork off a bottle of wine.
He poured three glasses, passing one to Brynn and holding the other two himself. Brynn furrowed her eyebrows, looking down at the glass.
Callan let out a deep chuckle, "not until you're thirty, sweetheart." He sounded quite serious actually. "For Brayden," he clarified.
Brynn let out a soft "oh", trailing after him into the dining room.
Callan placed the two wine glasses he had in front of his place and then Zayne's. Brynn did the same with Brayden's.
Everybody was in attendance for dinner and Brynn was hyper aware of Zayne's presence.
She wondered if he got the letter she had slipped underneath his office door. If he hadn't and she panicking for no reason. If he had, but he ignored it or... or ripped it up or something.
A lot of her meal was left behind, Brynn far too busy giving subtle glances at Zayne to her left. He had finished his meal and was sat back in his seat with his glass of wine in hand as he watched the rest of them talk.
Callan collected the dishes in, pursing his lips at Brynn's half full plate. He leaned down quietly. "I will put it in the microwave, in case you feel like some more later."
Brynn flushed and shuffled on the spot in her seat, "thank you."
Callan leaned forward to give a soft kiss to her temple, reaching for the plate. Brynn bit her lip hard. "Could..."
Callan stilled his fingers from where they had slipped underneath the dish, looking at her. Brynn observed the table to make sure nobody was listening before she leaned further into him, "could I have some watermelon, please?"
Callan pulled back to look her in he face fully, grinning. Before he could reply, somebody else did.
"An excellent idea," Zayne swirled the remaining wine in his glass around once and finished the rest of it off. "I shall have some too."
"Me too," Zach said. Brynn's face turned red.
"Omar," Zayne called. Brynn heard footsteps come from the kitchen and Omar showed up in the doorway.
"Yes, sir?"
Zayne tilted his wine glass so it was in view of Omar. The latter nodded once, "right away, sir."
He left, coming back with the bottle of wine Callan had before and poured it into Zayne's glass that he was still holding.
Once he'd topped Callan's up, he asked, "is there anything else I can get for you this evening?"
Brynn didn't expect him to look pointedly at her. For the first time that night, he was looking at her and she wasn't sure what to make of his expression.
Omar followed his expectant line of sight to her, and smiled, "Miss Verlice, is there anything I can get for you?"
It didn't feel right. She squirmed in her seat, she'd told him to call her Brynn so many times before.
Her hands tightened on the edges of her seat as she looked from Omar to Zayne, silently begging Zayne to ask instead.
He didn't.
Zayne remained looking sapiently at her, tipping the wine glass to his lips, before placing it back down onto the table.
Was this because of the letter? Was he mad?
"Watermelon, please, Omar," Zach cut in. looking pointedly back at Zayne, but in a more confused manner. "For the table"
"Of course, Mr Verlice," Omar nodded and went to the kitchen to prepare it.
Brynn watched Zayne, hands twisting in her lap as she took in his blank expression. Nothing.
And for a second, Brynn almost thought she saw something there, but it was gone as he promptly adverted his gaze to Callan to discuss something with him which Brynn couldn't hear.
Had she done something wrong?
She sniffed mutely, the watermelon not tasting as good as it had with Zach.
When she excused herself, she left through the kitchen way, making sure to thank Omar as she passed, the man already finished with the cleaning up. He wished her good night.
At first, she didn't want it to be bed time yet, but the more Brynn walked into the foyer, the more she felt ready for bed. She had wanted to watch more television with Zach and Brayden and maybe even Zaiden if he accepted the invitation.
As she walked past the colossal Christmas tree in the foyer, she took a moment to admire it from its roots to the very top, as she did every time she walked past it.
Every inch of it was fawned over as she ascended the staircase. Brynn never wanted it to leave. The glimmering decorations on it had her mesmerised for what felt like hours most days.
Most days anyway. For now, she just felt like going to bed.
She brushed her teeth lethargically, making her way underneath the thick quilt and pulling it up to her nose.
The side lamp stayed on most nights, mostly to illuminate the doorway of the walk in closet. Even though Brynn always made sure it was tightly shut every morning and night, it felt safer with the light on.
After twenty minutes of forcefully pushing her eyelids closed, she felt her head sink further into the pillow, the softness of it caressing her face as she snuffled into it.
She really, really hasn't meant to anger Zayne with the letter. She should've waited. Or better yet, not given it to him at all.
Pulling the duvet half way up her nose, she plunged herself farther into the cushiony pillow.
She was almost completely positive that this was how she stayed for hours, not even her heavy eyelids succeeding in shutting the rest of her body off.
Her stomach started making that rumbling sound again in the middle of the night. 12:56am to be exist, as the bedside clock stated.
And now Brynn was almost completely positive that that meant hunger as well, as the last one had before.
She recalled Callan saying he would leave the rest of her dinner in the microwave in case she wanted it later. He always said this at mealtimes, but never before had Brynn actually wanted it later.
For the first time, she wanted the rest of it.
To reach the microwave, Brynn had to pull one of the stools out from under the island, careful not to let it scrape against the marble flooring and not let it make a clanging noise when it was placed down.
The stool was almost as shaky as her legs were standing on it, though she managed to get the cold plate out and onto the counter successfully.
It took her some time, spinning the fork tediously between her fingers and tapping the backs of her feet against the chair anxiously whilst she looked down at the half empty plate until eventually, after taking an unneeded glance around the kitchen and dining room area, she tucked in, eating slowly. It tasted as good cold as it did warm.
She mostly kept to finishing the sauce, but more of it was gone by two am than it had been around dinner time.
Brynn looked around the kitchen and dining room area again, as if expecting to see that approving smile off Callan but it was completely empty. And she was exhausted.
Yawning, the girl leaned her cheek against the palm of her left hand. The cool surface of her palm balanced out the heat that overcame her face when she thought about how proud Callan would be. She smiled softly, her head sinking down onto the counter, suddenly finding it much easier to go to sleep after eating more.
The even cooler surface of the marble counter didn't shock her out of sleep as much as she thought it would. Her eyes fluttered shut, feeling content and safe.
What did shock her was hands lifting her up out of the seat who knows how long later. She gasped, only to be shushed and brought further into the muscled, shirtless chest.
She furrowed her eyebrows, yet her eyelids remained closed, too laden with sleep to bring themselves up. "Callan?" she muttered into the person's shoulder.
There was a long pause before a deep voice that didn't belong to Callan said, "not quite."
Brynn sighed softly, oh.
The man started making his way out the kitchen but Brynn tried to lift her head up, "no," she mumbled, "I need to wash my dish," she protested.
The man hummed and pushed her closer into his chest, completely ignoring her adamant words of doing the dishes.
She'll do them in the morning, she thought, glaring underneath her eyelids at the man.
With her eyes closed, Brynn couldn't pinpoint the exact location of where they were in the house as the man made his way through, but she felt that she was in the foyer after a minute.
It was almost like the could feel the massive tree in it. Like she could feel it's branches. She mapped its exact description from bottom to top as the man walked up the stairs. She frowned when she believed it to be out of sight.
She mumbled something and rolled her head back until eventually settling it on the man's hard shoulder again.
The latter hummed, asking her what she said.
She rubbed her cheek agilely against his shoulder. "Like that tree."
The man's steps got slower, but still continued nonetheless. "The Christmas one?"
Now it was Brynn's turn to hum, "'s big."
The girl felt the smallest rumble in the man's chest, but not one of hunger like hers did. One of extremely light chuckling. "Isn't it just," he replied.
Brynn grinned sleepily and not a moment later she felt herself being settled into those thick sheets and quilt again. She rolled over.
Safe.
They were brought up to her nose and pushed down as a way of securing them around her.
Safe.
She turned her head, enjoying the state of half-asleep, half-awake. A hand lightly brushed her hair before it was snatched away again.
"Get some sleep," the man said.
Brynn nodded, gripping the sheets to keep them close.
He walked to the door, his footsteps halting when Brynn muttered, "goodnight Ezra."
The footsteps continued two seconds after, the door closing minutely behind him.
——
At some point, she drifted off, but not completely. It felt as if she had only rested her eye for three seconds before shuffling outside her door jolted her awake.
Half asleep, she sat up, looking towards her windows to find it looked even darker than it had before she went to sleep.
Aggressively, she rubbed her eyes with a deep frown and glare at the bed sheets. She'd finally managed to drift off. Why was she awake?
The shuffling from outside her bedroom door started again. Snapping her head to it and gripping the sheets, Brynn was on high alert.
She saw shadows in the light that seeped underneath the door. It seemed to be only one person.
Rustling was heard before it appeared that the shadow kneeled down. Brynn pulled the quilt closer into her chest.
Nothing happened for a second and then a paper was slid underneath the door.
Brynn exhaled, letting go of the quilt held to her chest.
She waited until the shadow stood up and left before she scampered over on still sleepy legs towards the folded piece of paper.
Unfolding it, she breathed in sharply. The permission slip letter she gave Zayne.
Thoughts of sleep instantly cleared from her mind.
Hesitantly, she reread it, not too sure why she was doing such a thing. Perhaps to ensure that it was the exact one she gave Zayne? Or perhaps to prolong to inevitable whereby she'll have to check if Zayne actually granted her permission to go on this trip.
She reread the details of the trip on their entirety, as if she hadn't already memorised it. And she checked over the boxes that she had filled in and underlined herself whilst she was still at school.
Name: Brynn Marie Verlice
Date: 11th December
Class: Mr Laurier
I am 12/13/14/15 years old.
My parent/guardian is signing this form.
Parent/guardian's name: Zayne Verlice
Her eyes scanned over the document again and the third time, her blood froze, making her veins feel like sharp icicles grazing the inside of her skin.
My parent/guardian is signing this form.
Parent
Out loud she gasped and choked up once. Parent
Why had she underlined that?
She panicked, reading the form thrice more like that would change the answer she had put down. The answer was clearly an accident, she clearly wasn't thinking or- or she was tired when she filled it in.
How could she do this?
Is that why Zayne was looking at her oddly at dinner?
She felt sick.
Zayne.
At the speed of light, she flipped the sheet over, scanning his part of the document to sign and, for the first time since she received the letter, prayed that he didn't want to sign it.
But he did.
He gave his name, he gave his signature, he gave the date and... and...
Her eyes kept scanning, trying to find the exact part of the page she was looking for. Even going as far as to hoping that Zayne didn't even bother filling in that part.
And then she saw it.
I am the Parent/guardian of Brynn Marie Verlice.
Tears built up before she could stop them, she needed to take a seat on the bench at the end of her bed as she held the paper in front of her in a suffocating grip.
——
On Sunday morning, Brynn decided to be brave.
Not speak to Zayne about her permission form mistake. But brave nonetheless.
She stood outside of the living room entryway, watching Silas from where he resided on the couch, in a jumper and baggy shorts, university work splayed out all around him.
He appeared to be juggling his homework and movie at the same time, focusing more on his textbook at the moment as he was hunched over it with a concentrated look on his face.
Brynn gulped, holding her own math textbook and hangul of pencils closer to her chest with eyes wide and unsure.
One foot was on the fluffy carpet of the living room whilst the other was on the cold marble of the hallway. Half in and half out.
She breathed in noiselessly, not letting herself be distracted by the movie playing on the television.
Silas shifted on the couch, causing Brynn's toes to curl instantly. She held her breath.
It only took her a minute afterward to risk bringing her other foot into the room quietly.
The end of Silas' pencil was bit down on for a second whilst he seemed to have trouble answering a question, before he let go and wrote the answer down. Brynn took a step closer.
She rounded couch in the stillest manner she could, like an owner trying not to scare its cat away.
She didn't think anything cared Silas though. He was brave.
Reluctantly, in spite of what her brain was telling her to do, which was go back to the safety of her room, Brynn stepped in front of him, unintentionally blocking the light so that he couldn't read his text book.
He looked up straight away with a hard glare that had Brynn taking a step back and saying, "sorry," gripping her textbook harder.
Silas' eyes narrowed, but it wasn't in a glare.
He place his pencil down on the pages of his text book and raised an eyebrow.
Brynn realised he was waiting for her to say something. She parted her mouth in an "o" shape and fumbled with her textbook to flip it around to show the maths cover on the front.
"I was just..." she looked down at the front of her textbook and then to Silas' still-waiting look.
"I was just wondering if- if- you know," she smoothed her fingers over the edges of it, "if you could help me with this homework?"
She already felt herself going to step back, entirely ready to exit the room as fast as possible before Silas moved his big folder off the space next to him.
Brynn looked confused, then he gestured to the space for her to sit in, in a way that made it seem like the action was obvious.
"Oh," Brynn breathed out, not essentially running towards the space, but not exactly walking at a leisurely, normal pace either.
She sat down, keeping some distance there, so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and smiled at him. Opening her textbook at the page she was struggling on, it rested there on her lap for a bit whilst Silas observed it.
He tutted, "I thought you weren't supposed to be doing maths until the Ms Gren situation was handled."
Brynn winced, not only at the malice in Silas' tone when he spoke the woman's name, but also because of the reminder of said situation. And because she'd been caught.
She didn't know what else Silas could help her with as he'd only ever helped her with maths homework, so it was the safest bet to getting to hang out with him.
Maybe it was stupid. She held the edges of the textbook, "uhm, well we don't have to do maths, I just thought it would help for the future." Stop talking.
"We might have to get a new teacher, so I'll still have homework," the excuse made sense in her head, but coming it, it didn't sound so secure.
She was about to close the textbook shut and leave the room and the home of embarrassment she had dug for herself, but Silas started nodding.
"That seems reasonable to me," he responded blandly, taking the textbook.
Brynn tried to suppress her grin. She really really did try to. For almost an hour she managed to, until she was doing the questions by herself after Silas had explained them to her.
She moved the textbook up to cover most of her mouth, the edges gradually upturning in a bright smile, her cheeks flushing with them.
Answering the questions, although she could barely read them with the questions being so close, she tried to will it away. Silas was still sat next to her doing his own work. She didn't want him to see how pathetic she looked.
Thankfully, it did go away, but only because Brynn saw lights flashing through the living room window, meaning that a car had pulled up.
Zayne was the only one out today, meaning that this was his car and he was home from work.
Brynn scrambled to get her stuff, very eager to avoid him like she had done all weekend. The permission slip incident was all she fixated on and every time she thought about it, her face scrunched up in a cringe.
Gathering her textbook and pencils, she scrambled to get up. Silas looked confused, and she said, "thank you," before he could ask anything.
She made it up the stairs just as the garage door opened and she leant against the wall, breathing heavy.
The braveness she felt mere hours ago diluted itself just that tiny bit.
——
The last week of school, Brynn discovered, was only Monday and Tuesday, which didn't make a lot of sense but Brynn didn't mind. Especially because Callan promised he'd tell her how the Monday meeting with Ms Gren when the school holidays started.
On Tuesday morning, all of the library desks were full, as were all the lunch hall tables, so Penny suggested they sit on one of the outside benches.
Lunch had only just started and Brynn was the first one there. Aubrey and Penny would be arriving soon. Aubrey had the hope that it might snow today. An acceptable assumption seeing as the outside air was so chilly, frost spread across all surfaces like bacteria.
Brynn hadn't seen snow in ages, she could only hope to be so lucky as to see it again, at school as well.
She crossed her ankles and swung them back and forth, pushing her hands underneath her thighs; she forgot the woolly gloves Callan have given her.
Her eyes caught sight of the wood ahead that surrounded the entire perimeter of the school and university, then to the rest of her surroundings. She recalled Zayne's words from days ago. The entire conversation, in fact.
"He's your bodyguard."
"Why do I have a bodyguard?"
"Why would you believe I would allow you to walk around without one?"
Walk around without one...
She paused her swinging feet and a crease formed between her brows.
Was there always someone watching her?
Shuffling her hands even further underneath her thighs, she scanned the area.
It was empty.
Her eyes found the woods ahead again and they narrowed in the slightest.
Would they show themselves if she walked into a place she knew her brothers wouldn't allow her to be in?
Would this "bodyguard" business really be true?
She hardened her face in the most hardened and aggressive way she could. She still had time before Aubrey and Penny got here.
Brynn stood up from the bench, careful of the icy granite underneath her feet. The woods felt like a longer walk away than it was, her heartbeat increasing the nearer she got as did her awareness.
The second her feet hit the frosty mud that signalled the starting point of the woods, a big hand turned her around by her shoulder.
She yelped, stuttering to a stop as her eye line met a broad, suit-covered chest.
Carlo. The man-the bodyguard.
He had a face void of emotion, an expression that could rival one of Zayne's and he had his sleek black phone to his ear.
Brynn gulped, squeezing one hand with the other. "Hello."
Carlo did not look impressed. She swallowed, the courage nowhere to be seen at a time when she truly needed it. "I'm sorry, I just-"
She was silenced, not by words, but by him bringing his phone away from his ear and holding it out for her to take.
She looked from him to the phone and then back to him, nervously. When she took it, it felt huge in her hands and bringing the device up to her ear made her feel even smaller.
It was silent on the other end for a moment, before a breath in was audible and the deep choice penetrated her eardrums.
"Are you done with your little experiment, Brynn Marie?"
Brynn's hand shook, he sounded mad.
She didn't say anything back.
"We will talk about this at home."
Zayne ended the call, causing Brynn to gulp. What was he going to do?
Was he going to ground her?
Take her phone off her?
Or just express disappointment?
She handed the phone back to Carlo with a face that she imagined expressed her guilt massively. He tucked the phone back into his suit pants pocket and gestured for Brynn to walk past him, to the school yard.
After walking back towards the bench for thirty seconds, she bit her lip and turned around, going to apologise to Carlo because she didn't want to get him in trouble.
But the yard was empty.
Carlo wasn't seen, he wasn't even heard leaving.
Brynn wrapped her arms around herself.
"I'm sorry," she said to no one.
But she knew. She knew she was heard.
——
(written from phone. proof read properly later.)
Dutch translator: merrystory_
smh anyways.
<3