Lauren and Landon were walking from school when she saw an unrecognized car in the driveway. She knew it wasn't her mom's or her dad's. And it definitely wasn't Emileigh's because she didn't have a car.
"Something wrong?" Landon asked beside her.
"There's a car in the drive way which I don't recognize." she answered.
"Maybe it's someone from Santa Barbara?"
"No I don't think so. It would say Santa Barbara on the license plate, and it doesn't. I think it says Pittsburgh."
"You want to go and stop by?"
"No, I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yup."
They walked past Lauren's house and they started towards Landon's house. As soon as they had passed, the door opened and someone came out of the house. Landon had a feeling that someone was following them.
"Lauren!" a male voice was heard behind them.
Lauren turned back immediately at the mention of her name. As soon as she turned the three sixty degrees, Lauren froze.
"Come on, baby girl. Aren't you happy to see me?" he said to her, opening his arms to give her a hug.
Lauren remained frozen. It took everything in her to not cry. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Standing in front of her was the man who had been there since she was born, the one who had helped her through the heartbreak, the one who had just left her like she was nothing to him.
Lauren walked up to him and made the motion of giving him a hug, but at the last moment, she slapped him hard and walked away. She waited until she was inside Landon's house to cry. She hadn't expected Brett to be there. She hadn't expected him to be back at all.
"Lauren...explain to me what happened. It's the only way that I'll understand." Landon said gently.
"That's--my--brother." she said in between sobs.
Landon wrapped her up in his arms before asking her, "Brett?"
"Yeah. He wasn't supposed to ever come back. He was supposed to stay away. He just left."
"But he came back to see you. It should mean something."
"He left me, Landon. He left me as if I were nothing to him. As if I was some person he didn't know, someone he had just seen once or twice. He broke my heart when he left. I don't ever want to see him again. Not after what he did to me.
Family is supposed to stay together. Family is supposed to support each other, never turn their backs on you. They're the only ones that stay when everyone else has left you. And Brett, he---he turned his back on me, and he did what family is never supposed to do. He broke away, he lost my trust."
With that Lauren ran upstairs to Landon's room. She launched herself on the bed and there she let herself cry for everything.
Landon let her go, but it hurt him to see her like that. It was as if he was connected to her and he felt Lauren's pain. He knew that Brett had left her and he knew how much he meant to her before he left, but Landon knew that Lauren still loved him. He meant the same to her maybe even more. She was just hurt that he never wrote to her or told her about her whereabouts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brett stood there rubbing his cheek. That was definitely not the reaction he had expected, especially from his baby sister. He thought that she would have been extremely happy to see him, but the slap in the face was an obvious sign that she wasn't happy to see him. He returned to the house and Kyle was standing in the living room.
"So?" he asked.
"She slapped me across the face ridiculously hard."
Kyle chuckled. "I would have done the same. She was the most affected Brett. You just left like she was nothing to you. What did you expect? She's hurt."
"Who's that kid she's with?"
"Someone better than you that's for sure."
"Dad, please. I'm trying to talk."
"I tried to talk to you long ago. You didn't listen then. You think that didn't hurt, eh? You're crazy if you think that we would receive you with open arms. How do you think we felt Brett? How dare you come back as if nothing happened."
"Dad, I thought about all of you every second of the day. I really did. I thought each and every day about you, Mom and Lauren."
"Nice way of showing it."
"Dad, please give me a chance."
"You never thought about chances when you just left like you had no family here."
"I went into the military. Then I went to live in Pennsylvania. I'm living there and studying with the money the military is giving me. I'm done with school, and since I went to the military first I don't have to go back unless I want to."
"That's good for you."
"Dad, please. Would you listen to me?"
"I won't do anything." he said and he walked out the door, past Brett, past everything. Brett followed his dad out, yelling after him, "Dad, Dad. Please just listen to me."
Kyle pivoted on his right foot. "I'm. Not. Listening. To. A. Word. You. Say." With each word, Kyle poked Brett's chest hard. He didn't want to hear any of Brett's words. Kyle rushed off towards the house, leaving Brett behind, not caring what would happen.
Brett sat down in the grass of the park. He knew that he wasn't going to receive a welcome back party but he never expected their reactions to be so lacking of love. He was thinking that they would be extremely happy, that they would open there arms to him and welcome him back into their lives as if nothing had happened.
But he was hoping about the easy way. Brett hadn't thought about all the negative effects that his departure had left on them. He definitely expected her to be happy to see him. It wasn't the slap that hurt the most, it was her reaction, her words after the slap and the fact that she ran away from him. It was supposed to be the opposite.
All of these years, he thought that he had made the right decision, but now after seeing the way he had hurt them, it made hi realize that maybe leaving in the way he did was the worst thing he could have done.
Lauren was everything to him. They had been super close when they were younger and the day he left, Lauren probably took that as a sign that he didn't love her.
He got up and punched the tree closest to him and he screamed as loud as he could. There was no way he was going to get his family back the easy way.
~~~~~~~~
"Lauren, I think you need to go talk to your brother." Landon advised her.
"He left me, Landon. He left me without saying good-bye, without thinking of what we would feel." Landon answered.
"Everyone makes mistakes, Lauren. His was thinking that it would be easier the way he did it."
"Why are you so understanding? I hate it when you say things that make sense because I know you're right. I know that maybe that might be true, but he did it anyway."
"Lauren, think of it this way. What if it had been you? What would you be feeling if your younger sibling slapped you and ran away from you as if you were a monster?"
Lauren looked at him. He was definitely right. "But I can't do it."
"You're dying to go talk to him, Lauren. I can feel it."
"Landon-"
"Go do it. Go find him. Talk to him. Because if you can't get along with your family, your own blood, who else will you be able to get along with? Who else will you be able to count on?"
"Damn it, Landon. I love and hate that you're right."
Lauren walked out of the room after giving Landon a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks once again." she whispered.
She went out the door and she found Brett across the street just lying there. Panic coursed through her body at once and she ran towards him at full speed. She knelt down next to him and she shook him lightly. "Brett?"
Brett slowly opened his eyes slowly and moved his head towards her voice. "Baby girl?"
"Yeah." Tears started running down her cheeks.
Brett sat up almost immediately and engulfed her in a hug, and tears started to fall down his own cheeks as he said, "I'm so sorry. I'm so so so damn sorry. I didn't realize that I was hurting you this much in the process."
"I missed you so much. I was worried about you. You never once sent a letter or anything."
"I know. I know. And I'm sorry but I need to know that you still love me."
"Of course I still love you. I was mad at you and I felt hurt that you would leave, but I didn't ever stop loving you. You're my brother, my best friend, my accomplice, my everything. I will never stop loving my older brother, the one who helped me when I thought it was the end of the world."
"Why did you come back?"
"There's this guy named Landon who made me understand."
"OMG. Is my little sister falling in love?"
She rolled her eyes, but she was serious when she answered. "I don't know."
Brett gasped. "You like him?"
She nodded. Brett practically tackled her to the floor. "I've got to meet him."
"He's blind." she blurted out.
"Does that make a difference?"
She smiled and said, "Nope. But my mom has been treating me like I'm not her daughter because of it."
"I know. We already talked. My dad is pretty upset. He doesn't even want to see me."
"We need to get Landon to talk to him. It's the only way. Trust me."
Lauren went for Landon and went to her house. There Landon and Kyle talked. Lauren and Brett hoped that it would work.