We stood outside our house, as mr bells car pulled up beside us. Cory and Beth both jumped out from the back, whilst mr bell and Mrs Carter both got some bags out of the boot.
"We're always gonna be here, if you need us" mr bell announced to us all, handing out our bags to each of us. "Thanks sir" Cory replied, giving him a smile.
"Do you want us to walk up with you?" Mrs Carter asked softly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Nah we'll be alright" I answered, nodding at her reassuringly.
"Thanks for having us" Beth stated. "Our pleasure" Mandy told her gently, as we all walked up to the door and walked in, as it was unlocked.
Our dad was standing in the doorway of the kitchen at the end of the hall. He was smiling awkwardly, not exactly knowing where to stand or how to hold himself.
"Hi kids" he eventually said. "Alright dad" Cory spoke first, giving him a fist bump. Our dad chuckled awakardly and spudded his fist back.
"Should I make us some tea?" Beth asked, trying to get things going again. Kevin's face lit up slightly, and nodded appreciatively.
"That'd be great beths" he stated, and went through to the living room and sat down on the sofa, sitting up nice and straight as Cory and I both went and sat next to him.
Jordan sat perched on the arm of the sofa, looking around, at the newly cleaned room. That was one of the things people had helped dad with, trying to make the place cleaner and more live-able, and it was definitely a huge improvement.
After a while, Beth walked in with a tray full of drinks. She handed out a cup of tea to both Cory and our dad, and chucked jordan and I a can of Coke each.
She went and sat down on a chair our dad had brought in from the kitchen, and sat facing us all, on the other side of the coffee table, with her own mug of tea.
"Thanks love" our dad said. "So how have you all been?"
"All Good, Yeah, how about you" Cory answered, being his usual chatty self. "I've been getting help. And I've changed. I've changed for all of you" our dad informed us, looking at each of us, as he talked.
"Good. Thanks dad" Beth replied, smiling softly at him, just reassuring him that she forgives him. I guess I did too, and obviously I'm going to give him a chance now that he had apparently changed.
"I'm gonna make pasta for tea, Cory you could help if you want, your good at cooking, ain't ya" our dad announced. "Yeah I ain't bad" Cory agreed, pretty smugly.
"What do you wanna do till tea" I questioned, as I was just sitting there almost bored. "Telly" Jordan stated, but Beth interuppted. "No, let's get the monopoly board out, that'll be fun" she insisted.
• • •
We were already 30 minutes into the game, and we had only just sorted out the money argument, after both my brothers argued the other one had more.
So far Beth was winning obviously, as that was the reason she chose the game, cos she was good at it. Our dad seemed to just be happy we were all getting along, which I found pretty cute, watching him be happy.
"Oi that's my property" I directed to Cory, who was trying to go past it without me noticing. "Is it" he said, sounding shocked. Beth laughed, as I forced him to pay up most of his money for my property.
"Jordan if you stop buying all the property's you land on, you'd have more than £10." Beth instructed, but he just rolled his eyes, as she did definitely think we were all idiots when it came to this game.
As we continued to play, Cory had spent the most of the time in prison, as he kept getting bad luck, and picking up the go to prison cards. Beth had pretty much made jordan bankrupt so he had knocked all the board pieces off, in a sulk. And once we had finally set it back up again, dinner was ready.
• • •
We all sat in front of the tv as we ate, and to be fair to Cory and our dad, it was pretty nice. I wasn't sure if our dad was given cooking classes, or if Cory had just done most of it, but it was a hell of a lot nicer than normal.
The night had been nice, with all of us sitting in the living room watching a random film they had picked on Netflix, I wasn't paying much attention to it when they picked it, but we were all getting on. But the best thing was that our dad seemed to be on top form. Not angry, not upset, not drunk. Just happy.