Claire would be lying if she didn’t admit that Riley sprinting away with Kylie in his arms caused an eruption of jealousy to go off inside of her. It was like he had completely forgot she had existed. While they were siblings, she couldn’t shake the feeling off. It was the reason she had bolted home, changed into a cute outfit, made herself more presentable, and came back to Riley’s house. What better way to watch over her boyfriend than visiting his home? It was about time she met his family too.

After she arrived, Claire wasted no time making herself feel at home. While Riley watched over his sister, she made herself busy by cleaning the house. Starting with the kitchen, she didn’t finish until everything was sparkling clean. The house was quite lovely, not as big as Claire’s but it breathed with life. Unlike hers, there were signs of life everywhere. From leftover dishes to stinky socks, it felt like a home. Claire’s parents made sure there wasn’t a single spot of dirt or dust anywhere. Someone walking into might even think it was brand new.

Next, Claire started to cook up a storm within the kitchen. After rummaging through their various ingredients, she settled with making one of her mother’s favorites, lasagna with cheesy bread and corn on the side. The rich, creamy scent of it cooking filled the hallways of the Reese’s home. Thanks to Claire’s dedication for the cooking club in high school, her cooking skills were on point. Tonight’s dinner would be delicious.

Parading to Kylie’s room, where she assumed Riley was still at, Claire politely knocked on the door twice. “Oh Riley! Dinner’s almost ready. I hope you don’t mind, I cooked some lasagna. Maybe take a break and come eat? Love you.”

She passed by several family photos on her way back, many of which were their parents. A wave of sadness passed over her. It had been a month since they had died, a tragedy she very well remembered. The whole town had gone in mourning, including her family. They never personally knew the Reeses but a death within the town was a big thing and something the whole town showed their support and sympathy for. Claire couldn’t fathom how she would react should her parents leave her life. Death was a terrifying thing, something she thought about all the time. Riley had Claire now though, and she would make it her dying mission to make sure he enjoyed every moment of their time together.

Making her way to Olivia’s room, Claire wanted to see if she could have a little helper. It was always nice having help when setting the table. Whenever Claire visited her cousin’s house, they would always work together and usually sing as they did so. It was fun, a time she always cherished. “Hey Olivia, I hope you’re not sleeping in there! I’m getting ready to set the table and I would love some little hands to help!”

---

@lovely complex @Emma@Viciousmarrow

_{Collab with @karamonnom and @Saint Girralo}
As James finished his burger, he picked up his napkin and wiped his face clean of any food remnants. As he waited to his friend to finish, he pulled out his phone and checked movie times. The theater was in the mall and he wanted to see a movie that came out a few week back, Deadpool. Maybe Nathan would go to see the movie with him, as he felt it would be way too depressing to see the movie alone. He had heard good things about the movie. Glancing back to his friend, James picked at the fries on his plate, and took a sip of the Sprite in his cup. “Hey Nathan, do you want to go see Deadpool? There's a showing at the theater in about twenty minutes, so we could easily make it, and I've heard a lot of good things about it, plus I have the time.” James said as he finished the last of his fries off, taking his trash and quickly throwing it out.
~
Nathan finished up his sandwich and fries. It was pretty satisfying for what it costed. Then James brought up seeing Deadpool. He didn’t think it was James’ kind of movie but he had personally wanted to see it. “I’m down for that,” he said while folding the wrapper into a neat square. “Aren’t you worried it might be too mushy for us?” he joked with the faux-romantic comedy ads that the Deadpool franchise had put out in mind.

He got up and threw away his trash as well. “Let’s go grab our tickets,” he said.
~
As James watched Nathan finish up, and cleaning up his trash, he heard Nathan respond to his question. “I’m down for that,” “Aren’t you worried it might be too mushy for us?” He rolled his eyes at that statement, his mind going back to some of the commercials he had seen. While they had been a bit mushy, he knew enough about the Deadpool franchise to know that was a joke through and through. He loved the Marvel movies in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe series, even though he only had caught them on the movie channels when he was at home, and though Deadpool wasn't exactly part of that series, he knew that it would be good. He was excited when he had heard about the movie, and now he was getting a chance to actually see it.

When Nathan finally said, “Let’s go grab our tickets,”, James began making his way to the movie theater in the mall.
~
Time skip
~
As they exited the theater, Nathan raised his arms high above his head to stretch. “That movie was awesome,” he said. “Even all the spoilers in the world couldn’t have ruined that movie.”

He turned to his friend and asked, “So what did you think? Did you like it?”
~
Nathan was right, spoilers or not, it was a great movie and well worth the money. “Yeah, it was great. How many times did Ajax ask…” “Shut up some of us want to see the movie too!” Someone in the crowd outside the theatre interrupted James. “So too mushy?” James decided to shoot back at Nathan as a joke. “You know it's still pretty early, is there anything you have in mind to do before I head home. Actually, one moment, before I forget.” James said as he pulled out his phone and soaked up his teacher for his Wednesday class. “Hello Professor Allen, it's James… No I'm fine, but I'll need to take the day off tomorrow to handle business at the diner. Apparently there were issues today and I need to make sure it was just a fluke… Thank you, I'll see you next week. Goodbye.”
~
“Mushy from all the blood and guts,” Nathan returned jokingly. Then James began to talk to his professor about a day off. “Huh. What happened earlier today must really be bad,”

While his friend was still on the phone, he spotted two random cute girls. One of them was a petite brunette while the other was a hot blond with a nice rack. As soon as James hung up the phone, Nathan grabbed him and dragged him over to the girls. ”Hello ladies. My friend and I would love to treat you both to a drink. Right, James?” He smiled his classic goofy smile.

The brunette giggled while the blonde rolled her eyes unamused. “Don’t you have something better to do? Like get crushed by a gigantic rock and die?”
~
“I'm sorry about my friend here. By the way Nathan you can let go of my arm, I'm not going anywhere now. Wow, Nathan. Just because you see two very beautiful women, doesn't mean you have to run up to them and drag me along with you. My name is James by the way, Miss?” James apologised to the two poor ladies that Nathan probably just scared. Nathan would have to learn to control himself if he wanted any chance of getting a date. But these two were probably out of the question now unless James did some serious patchwork to fix the damage Nathan did.
~
“I’m Vanessa and my giggly friend here is Rachel,” the blonde said. “You’re kind of cute, but you should really put your friend here on a leash.”

“Well…” the brunette who was apparently Rachel, spoke up. “I think he’s sweet…”

Nathan’s smile grew even wider, and it didn’t seem like that could be possible. “Why thank you, Rachel. So why don’t we all hang out? It’d be fun.” He turned to James as if to say to him, “This might actually work!” His excitement cannot be contained.
~
James smiled as the blonde who was supposedly Vanessa suggested putting Nathan on a leash. “I think we tried that one time, Vanessa. It didn't go so well for the leash. So what do you say the two of you, one night and if you don't have fun, you never have to hear from us again.” James suggested, which also meant that Nathan would have to behave himself if he wanted a chance of a second date with either of them. This was probably the best and cruelest thing he could have done for Nathan, but since James wasn't exactly planning on a second date yet, he wasn't going to be upset.
~
Vanessa shrugged. “I guess it couldn’t hurt. But either of you tries something stupid I’ll beat you up,” she warned them.

She was a huge contrast to Rachel who was nothing but smiles. “It sounds like a lot of fun! Can we go to that one karaoke place? I love karaoke!”

Nathan was cheering in the inside. “Woohoo!” he thought to himself. “I can’t believe that worked!”

He wrapped an arm around the cute brunette who blushed in response. “Whatever you want, cutie,” he said. “Everyone okay with that?”

“Well if Rachel wants to go…” said Vanessa, half-heartedly. She didn’t seem to enjoy karaoke that much or maybe she was too embarrassed to sing in front of people. Regardless, she couldn’t deny her best friend of the chance to enjoy themselves. Plus, one of them was kind of her type. It wouldn’t be that bad…
~
James smiled softly. He wasn't into karaoke. He wasn't that confident that he could even sing well enough not to get booed off stage. “Hey if you guys want to sing, go ahead. I'll watch and not go and embarrass myself. Make sure no one sneaks off with any of your stuff.” He offered, hoping desperately that once they get there that Nathan wouldn't force him onto the stage to sing. He was pretty sure that would end the date they seemed to miraculously get very quickly, and while he wasn't interested in a second date, at the moment at the very least, he wasn't going to intentionally sabotage this first one. Nathan definitely had found some really cute ones, and was about to take the lead, when he heard a commotion near the fountain where a girl was knocked in. “What the heck? Is that?” James looked over and saw his neighbor from across the street soaking wet. “Hey!” James shouted over the crowd as he made his way toward his soaked neighbor. “Hey are you alright? You just moved in across the street, right? My name is James. You want my jacket till you can get home and get something dry on?” He offered, his jacket already in hand. “Sorry Nathan, might have to bail on this one after all. You two seem very nice, Vanessa and you Rachel, and I hope you don't hold this against me. But I'd like make sure my neighbor gets home alright.”
~
“Noooooo Jamesssssssssss,” Nathan moaned in his head. But he knew it was no use anyways. James was a good guy and that was just how he was. “Ah… okay then…See you later then,” he sighed.

Vanessa was clearly annoyed that James wasn’t going to be there but she had already agreed to going and Rachel was really looking forward to it. But there was one thing she could do first. “Wait, James. Here’s my number,” she said while scribbling on a napkin she had in her purse. “We should hang out…”

Rachel giggled at the sight of her friend who she had never seen give out her number before. “Bye James! See you next time!” she waved goodbye. “Now let’s go! Last one there has to pay for all the drinks!”

@Athinar

It was like watching a spider sit at the middle of its web, really. Enticing and you really couldn’t see the strands of the web unless you were really watching out for them. It would be easy to turn and walk away. So many excuses could be made to escape but...this could be interesting to say the least. Looking over his shoulder he feigned a slightly pained look. “You know I really should finish with the last of my cleaning…”

Flicking a look back at her he mirrored her earlier look of going over him; only he shot it back at her. “Although I guess that I do need to figure out the plan for the barbecue since I do want to have that pretty quick here.” With one last feigned glance of his shoulder across the street he finally turned back to Ms. Noll. “Alright, with one condition. You know my name so now I’d like to know yours” Jerry flashed her a smile as he stepped up towards the door way.

Right into the spider’s web it was. At least he was going in knowing what he was getting into.

@Athinar

The walk home was brutal. Olivia’s feet were killing her, she was pretty sure she now had at least three blisters on her left foot, and she was freezing thanks to jumping over a fence and landing in a mud puddle. It took her over two hours to get home, even with the short cuts through the McDougal’s corn field, and old man Colin’s huge pear orchard. Her cell phone had died hours ago, so calling for a ride was not happening. Millington was exactly eight miles long, from one edge of town to the other, a fifteen minute car ride and that was it, you had seen all of Millington. But walking and driving through were two different things. Olivia had discovered that her tiny town was actually pretty big, once you had walked over six miles of it. By the time she actually got into town, she didn’t even think to walk into any of the stores and call one of her siblings who could drive. She just kept walking and that’s when Mrs. Temple, her old fourth grade teacher, slowed her car down and offered pitiful Olivia a ride home. She was so thankful, that she didn’t have to walk the last mile to her house.

Three minutes later Mrs. Temple dropped Olivia off in front of her house and said goodnight. Opening the front door she crept quietly into the house and all the way into her room. Passing by Zoey who was watching T.V. and chatting on the phone. Standing in her room she plopped down onto the floor and took her shoes off, which were caked in dry mud. She looked behind her dreading having to wash up a trail of muddy foot prints, but thankfully she had left no trail. She was just happy to be off her feet, and her legs ached from her long journey. She had not gone to ballet practice since her parents died, so it was a given that she would not be in the spring production of swan lake. The weird thing was that it didn’t really bother her, normally she was all about ballet, and trying to get one of the lead parts, but as of late she didn’t really see any point to it all. She massaged her feet as she sat in the middle of her room. She tossed her dirty coat into the Landry basket, and just tried to relax.

She crawled around the room on her knees as to not use her poor tired feet. Going over to the wall she plugged her phone so it could charge, and then opened Spotify on her laptop. She clicked shuffle play, and Ugly Truth by Lauren Aquilina came on. She had the volume up loud enough to not be able to hear the goings on of the rest of the house, and she sang quietly along with lyrics. She noticed that the letter she wrote Zoey was still on her pillow. Embarrassed, Olivia scooted over in the computer chair and took the letter back. She stuffed it in her muddy shoes, and tossed them under the bed. She remembered Sophia saying something about having her homework done, but all of her stuff was still in her locker at school. She decided that was a good enough excuse to not do any studying at all. Looking down at her grass stained, dirt covered pants she begrudgingly stood up and went into the closet. She changed into some light grey sweatpants, a blue loose fitting tee shirt, and an old zip up hoodie that had once been Sophia’s before it was handed down to Zoey and now was Olivia’s. She slipped on her warm soft slippers, and sat back down at the desks.

She unbraided her hair, and bushed through her long brown hair with her fingers. She listened to her music, and was still humming along to each song that came on. Let Me In by Zee Avi played calmly through her room. Unloading her sketchbook and pencils from her purse she flipped through her artwork. Dreamy cheerful drawings of trees, birds, and people filled most of the pages. The newer drawings were quite different: drawings of the graveyard, unhappy faces, skeletons, and dying plants littered the last nine or so pages of her sketchbook. She heard a knock on her door, and so she clicked her music off. Hoping no one heard her singing; she opened the door, and nodded to Claire. She followed Claire down stairs to help set the table. The little hands comment made Olivia suspect that Claire saw her as a child rather then the adult she felt like she was. The smell of lasagna was mouthwatering, but she mentally chastised herself, and calculated how many bites of the cheesy goodness she could have.

She placed the nice tablemats down, followed by her mom’s favorite set of dinner plates. They were white with a pretty yellow floral pattern, and had been a birthday present from all the kids to their mom about 6 years ago. She opened the silverware drawer and counted out the forks and knifes. “Sophia has a date tonight, so I don’t think she’ll be eating with us. Is everyone else home?” She asked Claire wondering how many places to set at the table. Olivia liked Claire, and thought she was good for Riley. She reminded Olivia a little of herself with the whole overachiever thing…at least how Olivia use to be. She heard a knock at the front door, and assumed Zoey would get it, but she seemed way to involved with the movie she was watching that she waved for someone else to get it. Olivia rolled her eyes and was just about to scurry over to the front door, but Sophia got there first. Standing on her tiptoes across the room, Olivia tried to get a look at Sophia's date, before she went back to helping Claire.

Putting in her last blue contact, Nana stared into the mirror of the vanity at the light complexion of her face. Her ebony hair tightly braided and her green eyes hidden under sea blue. At the moment, the mother wore black yoga pants, a white tank, and a maroon hoodie over it, like she was about to go on a jog. A knock was heard on the outside of her bedroom door.

"Come in!" The mother softly yelled as she stood up and patiently waited.

Entering the door, a woman with striking orange hair and warm, chocolate eyes entered the room with Jude in her arms, his body resting on her right hip. Her outfit was simple but her body was like that of a model, which made any of her ensembles look high fashion.

"Jude, why not give mommy kisses before she leaves?" The other woman's voice was silvery, like a sweet melody that could put anyone's mind at peace.

"Okay, Auntie Rosey!" Letting the child down, the woman called 'Rosey' lovingly watched as Jude ran to his mother to give her a warm hug, "Don't come home too late, I'll miss you mommy!" Burying her face in her son's hair, Nana whispered, "I'll miss you too. You be a good boy, okay? Don't give Auntie a hard time."

"I'm always~ a good boy!" Jude replied. Letting out a light giggle, she kissed her son's forehead and then let him run back to his number one babysitter.

"Hey Jude, why don't you get ready for bathtime?" A big grin fell on the little boy's face and he went racing out of his mother's room.

"BATHTIME!!!!"

"You're too good to me, Prim. Why do you like me so much?" They stared at each other briefly, both having great respect for the other. The woman teasingly rolled her eyes and made her way to the mother. Turning Nana's body to face the Vanity mirror once more, the woman hugged her and the two, attractive females stared at themselves, their eyes both showing wisdom beyond their years, "You're like me, that's why. We're fighters and won't take anyone's shit." Sticking out her tongue, Primrose brought Nana back down to sit and coolly said, "Let me do your make up for tonight." Not waiting for the mother's response, the orange-haired beauty used Nana's face as a canvas and elegantly painted it. This wasn't the first time this has happened. It was obvious the Raven was fully comfortable around this woman and didn't argue.

While Primrose worked on Nana's eyes, the mother chuckled, "Today has been such a strange day for me. I met two guys and I don't know what went over me but one has my number now and the other actually came into my house." With intrigue in her eyes, Prim purred, "Look at you! It's about damn time. My baby girl needs some attention!"

The mother wanted to narrow her eyes but was incapable of doing so at this moment, so she sighed instead, "I'll tell you more tonight when I get back, I'm running a bit late. I should be on the road already... Traffic is going to be terrible." She paused for a moment to concentrate on not blinking her eyes and then suggestively murmured, "You know, Danny misses you."

Finishing making her friend's eyes pop, Primrose grabbed a light pink lipstick and traced it on the mother's lips, "Ha! Danny misses all his Stars after they leave. Lucky for me, he didn't lose too much." A serious expression fell on Prim's face as she put the cap on the lipstick back on, "Be careful Nana. Danny is possessive. When you do decide to quit, make sure he has another... Jewel to keep his playground pleasant."

"Auntieeeee! I'M READYYYY!"

Both women smiled at each other.

"Remember to add a coat of lipgloss on your lips, and knock em dead~" Nana watched as her friend left the room. Standing up, she put her hoodie on and black shades. Before she applied lipgloss on, she muttered to herself, "I always do."

"Oh my god! 15 minutes late. Mora is gonna kill me." After parallel parking her black Chevrolet Traverse 2lt fwd across the street from the Honey Pot. Incognito Nana jumped out of her car and ran across the street, there was a long line already... It made sense since the Strip club opened from 7PM to 2:30AM. Thankfully, most of the men were chatting so they didn't notice the petite woman saunter into the alleyway and enter through the side door. Not bothering to take in her second job's atmosphere, the mother scurried into the locker room and sneakingly entered Morgana's office.

"You're late, Mimi." The stern looking woman, with her long braids and bohemian aura lowly commented. The way she held herself revealed that this woman had great power in this underworld playground and was the person who slapped sense into her underlings.

"I know, I know. Let me change real quick and then you can do my hair." Nana said apologetically.

"No need. Your outfit is over there hanging up." With that, Nana spent the next moments changing in the room as the woman patiently waited for the Stripper to sit down before her. As Nana slipped on a white frilled dress that would change color depending on the lights that surrounded her and ultra tall, thin (clear and 8 inch) heeled, crystal platform shoes that sparkled purple. After she finished getting dressed, the mother sat in the older woman's office chair and began putting on her wig cap that looked like a flesh color stocking.

Morgana brought a delicate, lace-front purple synthetic wig with black roots and a ponytail extension on it to the Jewel and placed it on the young woman's head. Letting some of Nana's bangs come out of her tight braid, the manager continued to perfect the Star's look. After a shit ton of putting pins in her hair to secure it, the older woman parted Nana's bangs and intertwined the ebony hair with the purple strands giving the overall look a more natural effect. The end result was balanced, proportional, and quite voluminous. (Yes, Nana was fully capable of dancing with a wig on-- not once has it fallen off her, thanks to Mora.)

"Aye, Amethyst, you'll knock 'em dead tonight! Before you go to the VIP section, there's someone you'll have to meet. She'll be stationed in one of the cages tonight. I expect you to make her feel at home!" A new persona fell over Nana, as she twirled in her full nightlife getup.

Most Strippers at the Honey Pot start off with sweet and delicious names like: Cinnamon, Sugar, or Candy. If they ever prove their 'Stardom', meaning if they consistently bring in a large clientele, they get gifted a Jewel name. Currently, Nana was the only Jewel. Primrose was Ruby but she retired not too long ago. Thanks to Nana keeping Danny entertained, Primrose could escape. Oddly enough, within the first month the Raven started working at the Honey Pot, she proved her worth. Her and Prim were quite the dynamic duo. There's no doubt men missed those days. However, they still had Amethyst, so they would survive! It was truly hard to make the Big Boss intrigued like they did together and like Nana continues to do. The thing he loved about Nana was her pure talent on the stage and her fearlessness when she spoke to him. When she presented herself, she unveiled a masterpiece, showing that she was completely attuned with her body and her movements. Her act was mysterious and full of passion... this made every man want her for themselves.

"Is she here? I'd love to show her around before the crowd gets rowdy." Nana's tone had changed into this provocative and smoky siren.

"Check in with Danny."
Behind the downstairs Bar was Danny's office, Amethyst acknowledged the customers she glided passed with an alluring smile or a wink.



As the MC, who was also Primrose's younger brother, trailed on, Nana entered her Boss's office and closed the door behind her. The heartbreaker Owner stared out his window smoking a cigarette.

"Hey Danny, so the new girl...?"

The stormy-eyed man leered at his Jewel as he took a nice long drag of his smoke. He gestured for his prized possession to come closer, as he responded, "Strawberry is giving her a tour. I do want you to give some tips to the new girl before she gets thrown to the wolves." Without a doubt, her dominant boss was a bewitching creature that lured in precious, young women.

Accustomed to this by now, Mimi (Amethyst's nickname) strutted to her boss with an unbreakable confidence and pride. With a (misleading) sultry tone, she let her blue stare meet with her boss' gray eyes, "Those wolves are the least of her worries." Blowing the smoke out the open window, he chuckled at his daring Stripper, whose eyes drew him in. Leaning in, he went by the woman's left ear and whispered, "This wolf wants one thing... but..." Gradually, he brought his face inches away from her's, his gray eyes looking at the creature before him hungrily. Coolly, he muttered, "I can't have her." He took in his Jewel's violet perfume and then straightened up to get a nice look of her gorgeous body, "If you have time later, give me another visit."

Nodding obediently, Mimi teasingly blew a kiss at her boss and left his domain.

'Where is that bubbly Asian...' The purple beauty searched for the pink attraction named: Strawberry. The VIP second-floor opened at 8PM so Nana had time before she had to please the high paying customers.


At the Honey Pot, we strongly suggest Strippers keep their personal lives away from their job. Some strippers, but not all, keep their identities to themselves with only Danny and Mora knowing who they actually are. It's your decision how you want to present yourself so long as you make the clients thirsty!

_{Collab with @Athinar}

Infuriatingly, Claire decided to come back to their house like a lost puppy dog. The girl was apparently as dense as a brick wall when it came to hints. The fact that Riley left his girlfriend unattended as she scoured their house like it was her own was aggravating beyond belief, but she tried to understand considering their sister had just passed out. Kylie had woken up briefly after they got to the house and laid her down, mumbling incoherent words. Something about Sophia’s ass looking “tight.” After that, the elder sibling decided that Kylie would be just fine and a hospital visit was unnecessary. Kylie was clearly acting like herself. She left Riley in charge of watching over her just in case something happened, instructing him to call her immediately if anything should happen. It didn’t matter if she was on a date, her family would come first. Always.

With her brother’s reassurance, Sophia decided to take leave from Kylie’s room and start getting ready for her date. A date! Finally! It had been so long since her last real date. The fact that it was with Anthony, the guy that she had been checking out for quite some time, made butterflies flutter around in her stomach. At least Sophia hadn’t lost all of her appeal, despite all those pounds that she had apparently gained according to her family. Jerks.

Entering her room, Sophia found a letter lying on the ground addressed to her. Picking it up she immediately recognized the handwriting as her little sister Olivia’s. Her heart dropped at the sight, scared that perhaps this was some sort of run away letter. With everything that was happening lately, she honestly wouldn’t have blamed Olivia. It was all so overwhelming.

Gingerly she opened the letter and sat on the edge of her bed to read it. She frowned as she read it, her heart hurting from her sister’s words. Olivia obviously knew that Sophia was not pleased with her, but hearing that from her sister who had always been such an angel was a little painful. Olivia wasn’t used to being in trouble. Sighing, she set the letter on her dresser and grabbed a pen off of her night stand. After tearing off the bottom of the unused paper from Olivia’s note, she quickly she wrote a reply,

“Dear Ollie,

Tomorrow is a new day, please don’t be too upset with yourself. We all make mistakes. I love you so much. <3 :)

Love, Sophi.”

Sophia folded the note with Olivia’s name on it, stepped out of her room, and stuck it under Olivia and Zoey’s door. If she knew Olivia, talking about the issue head on right now would make her cry. A serious talk would have to wait until later, but hopefully the note would make her feel a little bit better for the night. Maybe this weekend was due for some quality sister time. Not the pot smoking kind. Nonetheless, Sophia currently a date to get ready for.

_@Emma

Nearly two hours later Sophia was finally finished getting ready. Her outfit wasn’t exactly the fanciest, but she didn’t want to overdo it on the first date. Plus, those black leggings really showed off her “tight ass” that Kylie liked to point out. She had to show off the assets, obviously.

Running down the stairs, Sophia decided to wait in the living room. However, she was stopped dead in her tracks as the smell of lasagna wafted into her nose. Slowly, Sophia walked towards the kitchen to see Claire beginning to take dinner out of the oven and Olivia setting the table. Sophia immediately shot a look of disgust, staring at Claire. Who did this girl think she was? Entering their house, cleaning it, and now cooking them dinner. If she was trying to enter the family as their new “mother”, then she was sorely mistaken. The spot wasn’t in need of replacing.

“Hi Claire.” She made herself known, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room with her arms crossed. She was a viper waiting to strike. “I appreciate the cooking, but… haven’t you only been dating Riley, like.. a week?” She inquired, her voice cold as stone and clearly unimpressed. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t saunter around my house like you own the damn place.” She glared, “You’re overstepping your boundaries.”

_@BlueAjah

Hearing the knock at the door, Sophia instantly spun around and hurried to the door. Claire didn’t matter anymore. She would be dealt with later. Flinging open the door, Sophia grinned as she met face to face with her knight in shining armor. Mood immediately uplifted! He looked so dashing! God, she felt under dressed now. “Anthony!” She greeted happily, deciding to step out of the house and close the door behind her. It was better if he didn’t meet her family for now, or that annoying leech lingering in their kitchen. “I’m glad you didn’t decide to ditch me.” She giggled as she poked fun at him, beginning to walk down the steps with him to his car.

Anthony’s eyes widened as Sophi appeared in the doorway before him. She looked gorgeous! However, he noticed an adorable sight behind her, a girl standing on her tiptoes, staring into his face. Giving her a little wave, he leaned in, and asked Sophi, ”So who’s the adorable little girl looking at me?”

"Oh, that was my little sister." She continued to lead the way to the car. She didn't want to introduce him to her family at all. Not now.

Walking beside her, he laughed and shook his head, a twinkle in his eye.

”I wouldn’t miss this for anything, Sophi.” Approaching the car, he opened the passenger door, and said, ”I was really looking forward to this, after all.” And he was, giddy excitement having overridden most of his thoughts over the course of the day.

How many people would get the chance to go on a date with the girl they had been thinking about for a while? Probably quite a few, if they acted like adults, and talked about it, but Anthony didn’t even think about this. He was too excited. He didn’t even see himself as some sort of ‘knight’, he was simply excited.

“Oh, you’re so sweet. Thank you!” She couldn’t stop smiling as she climbed into his car. There were still guys who held doors for women?! His car wasn’t the nicest, she had to admit, but it was better than picking her up on a tandem bike. That had happened to her once before. As Anthony got into the car, Sophia settled in and put on her seat belt. God forbid he drove like a crazy person. Another date of hers thought drifting around corners would be a good way to impress her right off the bat. Instead, she was terrified as he nearly ran over innocent pedestrians in a school zone. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day. You really turned my day around, thank you.” She said sincerely, lightly smiling at him as Anthony began to drive off. “And I’ve had one hell of a day.” She laughed even though she was completely serious.

Anthony closed the door behind Sophi, and walked around the front, back to the driver’s seat. Pulling his keys out, he opened his own door, and got in, starting the car. A softly playing radio station was currently broadcasting a song by Muse, Renegade, by the sound of it, although it was too soft to really follow.

Anthony began to shift out of park, when he suddenly realized that his seat belt wasn’t buckled. Quickly doing so, pulling it down across his chest, he pulled out normally. He didn’t want Sophi to think less of him just because of his driving, so he calmly (on the outside) made his way to the East Side of town, where Gio’s was located. ”I can relate, believe me.There have been weeks where I... “ Anthony began to drift off, smile slipping, as flashes of blonde began to enter his vision, memories beginning to return. His quatrefoil tattoo began to itch, and he smiled awkwardly, saying, ”However, let’s not dwell on the bad stuff tonight.”

”I absolutely love Giovanni’s, by the way. Haven’t had the chance to eat there in a while! So thanks for giving me an excuse to go! “ Anthony kept smiling, and continued, ”Oh, and did you know? Loretta Jason and Daniel Bradford are both at the Underground tonight, one after the other, after the regular stand up! And the tickets I got are for both of them!” Anthony was pretty excited, almost as much as he was to go on this date in the first place, to see the comedienne and comedian. They were both nationally-recognized, but for different areas of comedy. Jason was famous for her stand-up, wisecracking personality, and involvement of the audience. Bradford was a critically acclaimed musician, as well as a comedian, and Anthony even had his first album on his phone. Tonight’s tickets would’ve been expensive, but Anthony had gotten them pretty cheap from a guy who had the same major as him at the University, and worked at the Underground as a tech.

As they passed through the increasingly opulent neighborhoods, Anthony’s face somehow became even more bright as they talked, and his eyes had a childlike sparkle to them. It was almost as if the shadow that had passed over him a few minutes ago was completely gone.

Almost.

“Wow, really?!” She bursted with excitement. Daniel Bradford was a heartthrob! Musicians were to die for, let alone one’s who had a great sense of humor. “This is going to be a great night.” She cooed, her voice having a slight temptress-like tone. Looking out the window, she took note of all the houses they passed by. Each more extravagant than the last. “Maybe someday…” She thought, looking at the porch of what appeared like a mansion. Her mind wandered back to one of her ex boyfriends, Chris Warren. He lived out here on the east side of town, only a few streets away from where they were now. Her parents had loved him, and her mother joked that Sophia had “caught a rich one.” They had ended on good terms, but unfortunately Chris wasn’t the one for her. If only she had stayed with Chris instead of finding the boyfriend after him. He was a nightmare in comparison.

Eventually Anthony pulled into a nearby parking lot. As Anthony opened the door for her, she got out of the car and adjusted her sweater dress and checked her hair briefly in the car's reflection. All set, she walked up to her knight and stood by his side. “Ready?” She smiled, looping her arm with his. The restaurant wasn’t far, only a small walk up the hill and down an alleyway of buildings. Giovanni’s could be easily missed if you didn’t know where to look. “The alley is a bit creepy if you ask me. Keep me safe?” She grinned and looked up at him with her big blue eyes. In truth she was unafraid, but what better excuse to get close to him? His cologne was intoxicating.

As Anthony looked at the same houses, his thoughts turned to Bend, rather than rich women in palatial mansions. He had lived in a house such as these, once. When his father was alive.

When they were happy.

”I really do hope so,” Anthony replied to Sophi’s statement, winking at her. ”I’d hate for all of this tedious planning to go to waste.”

When they arrived at the parking lot, Anthony got out of the car, and ran his fingers through his hair as he stood up, using his reflection in the car window as a mirror. Walking around the car, he opened her door, and waited for her to stand up fully, before he closed the door and locked the car, funny little beep ringing out in the packed parking lot.

In response to her question, Anthony nodded, and said, ”Of course!” He was more than ready for this! He was born for this! There was no possible way he wasn’t ready for this!

….

Right?

Sophi startling him out of his brief drifting off, Anthony accepted her arm without question. ”Don’t worry, Sophi, I’ll protect you from all of those muggers, hoodlums, and thieves that live around here. Suuuuch a disreputable neighborhood.”

Her eyes were the deepest blue he had ever seen, Anthony thought, and her perfume was enticing, drawing him in. Of course, that just might be Sophi herself, because god damn she looked good in this light. His steely eyes meeting hers, he felt like he had to say… something, anything.

”You know, on a clear night like tonight, the moonlight really makes your eyes shine.” Continuing, he said. ”I mean, really, they’re like stars. And I think that’s beautiful.”

Sophia blushed, which was something she was not used to doing. Normally it was her making other people blush. “Th-thank you… ” She looked away from him, smiling. “Just get us a seat, you sweet talker you..” She jabbed at him with another joke as they walked into the restaurant and the hostess greeted them.

“Good evening! Welcome to Giovani’s. Table for two?”

Anthony nodded, smiling. ”Yes, I have a reservation for a one Anthony Noll and Sophia Reese.”

After a bit of scrolling, the hostess found them on the list, and smiled. “Right this way, sir, ma’am.”

Sophia followed the hostess arm in arm with Anthony, looking around at all the different food people had on their table. It all looked so mouth watering! Expensive, too.

“Here we are. Your waiter will be Jeff. He’ll be around to take your order shortly. Have a great night!”

Sophia nodded in response and took a seat at the two person table next to a window overlooking the city. The view was breathtaking and certainly made the view they boasted about at the diner look like garbage.

“Do you have any recommendations?” She asked, picking up her menu and scanning it with her eyes. Suddenly a thought accorded to her and she pulled her menu away to look at him, “Anthony is an Italian name, isn’t it? Do you prefer to go by Tony? Tony is a great name, I think. Like Tony Stark!” She laughed, grinning at him. “Tony Stark is hilarious in the Avengers movies. He reminds me of myself a little bit.” She looked back at her menu, her eyes pulled towards the “alcoholic beverage” section.

Anthony picked up his menu as well, looking over what his options were. ”Well, I always do enjoy their Chicken Alfredo, but if that’s not your cup of tea, I would recommend the Baked Lasagna. Sounds odd, but tastes magnificent.” Listening to Sophia with a smile, he said,

”Yes, Anthony is an Italian name. My father was almost all Italian. And-”

Tony

Another voice, not Sophi’s, but still recognizably female, whispered in Anthony’s ear. Flashes of blonde broke into his vision, and two dots of emerald green appeared as well. Breaking out into a cold sweat, Anthony’s hands began to shake.

”N-no, I d-don’t go by th-th-that name. Wh-why do y-you ask?” Noticeably stuttering, he looked down at the table, ashamed and confused at himself. ”Please, may I be excused for a moment?”

Sophia frowned, confused by Anthony’s clearly unpleasant reaction. “Oh, yes of course.” She watched him as he stood and left the table. “What did I say?” She thought, staring at her menu now. Anthony had been obviously uncomfortable, but for what reason she had no clue. “Way to go, Soph.” She sighed to herself, looking up as the waiter appeared.

“Good evening miss! Can I get you anything to drink?”

Sophia nodded and pointed to the menu, “Can I get a glass of your Merlot wine?” The waiter nodded and asked for her ID. Showing it, Sophia looked over at Anthony’s empty chair. “I guess you can get him a water for now. I’m not really sure what he’d like to drink.”

“No problem. I’ll be right back with that Merlot!”

Stumbling to the men’s bathroom, he passed the attendant who stood near the door with a plate of those little mints, and made his way to a sink, staring into the bowl.

Turning it on, Anthony cupped his hands, and splashed his face with water. Turning it off, he looked at himself in the mirror. What he saw there was not anything that would be possible. A face, a woman’s, instead of his own.

She had blonde hair, porcelain skin, and the deepest emerald eyes you would ever see in your life. She had a placid, calm look on her face, but somehow that made it worse for Anthony. Turning away from the mirror, Anthony opened up a stall door, and sat on the edge of the toilet, cupping his head in his hands, covering his face.

Even though his eyes were closed, flashes of color, blonde, green, and white, still raced through his vision, eyelids be damned. Suddenly, a face coalesced from the blackness, and with it, came a name.

Leah.

At the very thought of that person, Anthony just about threw up, gagging, but not getting beyond dry heaves. He still couldn’t recall who she was, or what she had done, but… there was something there, and she was the one who called him Tony. She was the only one who had called him Tony.

Standing up, and using the mirror to fix himself, and make himself presentable again, he exited the bathroom, smile on his face again. He wouldn’t ruin this for Sophi. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did.

When he reached the table again, he sat down, as if nothing had happened, but said, ”I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me… that, please. I… have bad experiences with that name....” Of course, he didn’t tell her what those were, because he didn’t know what they were.

Swirling the wine in her glass, Sophia stared at the menu looking for an appetizing meal until Anthony broke her focus. Looking up, she halfheartedly smiled at him. “Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t know...” Her smile faded. Apparently Anthony had some real emotional baggage to deal with. That was unfortunate. Then again, who was she to talk? Taking a sip of her wine, she continued looking at the menu for a few more minutes.

“So! Are you two ready to order? And can I get your drink, sir?”

Sophia looked up at the waiter and set down her glass, “I’m ready…” Her eyes met Anthony’s. “How about you?”

Anthony cursed himself, internally. He shouldn’t have shown anything. But… that name. Why did it bother him so much? Anthony smiled as if nothing was wrong, (which, was, of course, a lie,) and said, ”Yes, I’m ready.” Looking up at the waiter, he set the menu back down. ”I would like a scotch, and baked lasagna, please.”

“And I’ll take the chicken Marsala, please. Thank you.”

When the man had left, Anthony turned back to Sophia. ”Listen, you couldn’t have known. It’s no one’s fault but my own. Please, don’t get that look on your face. I couldn’t bear if I was the cause of it.” The problem was, with Anthony, he really couldn’t. ”So let’s just enjoy ourselves, okay?” And so he lied, pretending that everything was alright, pushing everything deep down inside, like he always did. Wait, what? Where’d that thought come from-

Sophia scanned his eyes thoughtfully, wondering what had happened in his past to make him hate the name Tony. “Okay. Thank you. You’re a sweetheart.” She smiled, grabbing her wine again. The aura around Anthony was awfully tense, so she decided to change the subject. “So, tell me about yourself.” She sipped at her wine again. God damn delicious. “Do you have any family around here?”

Before Anthony could get a word out, Sophia’s phone began ringing from her purse, breaking her attention. Immediately she grabbed her purse and rummaged around for her phone. Was it Riley? What was wrong? Was everything okay?! As soon as she got her fingers on the smart phone and read Riley’s name she looked up at Anthony, “I’m sorry, I have to take this. Be right back.” Without hesitation she hurried to the front door, stepping outside to the brisk air of the night.

“Hello?” She answered, staring down the alleyway as she waited for a reply. Instead, she only heard rustling and the muffled voices of Riley and Kylie.

“...A big, massive one! Like ‘Wow, that’s huge’! The ideal girth! Seriously!”

“Seems like the ground is a common theme today.”

“Riley? Kylie? Hello!!”

“Looks like you’re on top of me now.”

“RILEY!”

“What the hell are they doing?!” Sophia ended the call and immediately called for an Uber driver. Riley had clearly butt dialed her, but whatever was going on in the background did not sound good… or appropriate. That was Kylie’s voice, right? Not Claire’s? She wasn’t sure which she would have preferred. Either of them made her want to shiver in disgust. She had to get out of here and make sure everything was okay back at the house.

Still, she couldn’t just leave Anthony here with the tab. Instead, Sophia rushed back to their table and slapped a fifty dollar bill on the table. “I am SO sorry, Anthony, but I really have to go. There’s something going on with my family. I’m so so so sorry. Have dinner on me, at least.” She gave him an apologetic look, not daring to ask him to call her later. No doubt he wouldn’t want to talk to her again… Before he had the chance to offer her a ride back she turned and hurried out of the restaurant. “Date ruined.” She didn’t want to sit in the agonizing car ride with him trying to explain her dysfunctional family. Hopefully he understood, but somehow she doubted it. Work sure would be awkward if he still decided to come into the diner after this…

Luckily an Uber driver had been close by, so within a few minutes she was in the car and telling the driver to hightail it to her address. Was this what it felt like to be a mother? Cancelling all plans around your family at any given moment in time? Great…

_{Collab with @lovely complex}

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”I’ll always be there for you, Kylie. Because I can’t help but be madly in love with you.” Riley whispered his honey sweet words into his sister’s ear, caressing her cheek with an immaculate hand. The twins were clothed in noble regalia, and they reclined in a bed of the most exquisite taste within a grand chamber, decorated with illustrious artwork from famous video games. Kylie sported a long, pink Renaissance-style dress where her brother was clad in a blue and gray cavalier’s outfit. At his side, a rapier hung, waiting to vanquish the foes that dared to threaten their bliss.

However, their clothes certainly began to drop away when Riley passionately reached in and kissed his sister’s tender lips with a lover’s zeal. Flustered and wordlessly, Kylie embraced her twin’s affection, losing herself to his whims. She let him take control and devour her innocence. Whatever he wanted from her was his to take. So long as he was with her, she felt the overwhelming ache of joy. After all, what could possibly best the feeling of consummating your love with the heart of your heart?

’How do girls like this shit…’ Riley stared at his twin’s computer frustrated as he read the text on the screen of the game ‘Boyfriend Maker’:


He learned quickly that his character was a video game obsessed otaku, who was still very much a virgin. ’Well at least this kid has time to go to college…’ The young male looked at his options and noticed Kylie had made progress with this charming red haired male whose face read lady killer all over it. Her nickname for him was Prince.

’Maybe I should talk to him...shouldn’t be hard...’ He clicked on the guy and started a conversation with him. Looking at his options, Riley assumed this guy was a bit down so he decided to ask if he was alright.


’UH.’ Yes. Click.


’OH NO.’ Nervously, the male twin looked through his options, contemplating the best route, and decided to give the guy a present for forgiveness.


Veins began popping out of Riley’s neck.This game was the worst. Why didn’t this guy accept his kindness?! What a damn prick.


With an angry tone, Riley growled loudly, ”THIS FUCKING ASSHOLE.” Oh how he hated this game and was just about to rage quit...

Lured on by her wet dream, Kylie’s hand was snaking down her abdomen beneath her clothing. Unfortunately, the stimulated woman was immediately shaken from her sensual trance when the voice of her brother bounded throughout her room. Her face went crimson, snapping her hand back to her side lest her brother be in for an awkward treat. How long had he been in here?!

Flicking her sapphire eyes to the computer desk, she spied her brother playing - Oh no! Not that game! Like a bolt of lighting, she erupted from the comfort of her bed to Riley’s side, hovering behind him with wide eyes. Her brother was playing her favorite dating sim and was attempting to woo the avatar of… himself. Somehow, her dunce of a twin didn’t figure that out. Moreover, he was completely failing to seduce the person that was modeled after him. ”Holy shit, you can’t even get with Prince? That’s really sad.” she laughed nervously at her brother, trying to act as naturally as possible so he wouldn’t question her about this game.

Her lithe fingers reached over Riley’s form and took over the keyboard. A few shortcuts and she was back at her previous save point. ”Watch and learn, bro. You obviously know nothing about virtual men.” she commented with much enthusiasm. In a fraction of the time it had taken Riley to wallow in soul crushing defeat, she made all the right decisions: Prince’s ego was bolstered by her avatar’s comments about his abs and a great gift of the latest Sanic the Porcupine game. Suddenly, before the siblings’ eyes, a very graphic nude scene appeared on the screen that depicted Prince and Kylie’s avatar, which looked just like her, effectuating their love for one another. Realizing what she had just done, she quickly covered the screen. ”Wait, you shouldn’t be seeing this!!” she cried before Alt-F4ing out of the game.

”Jeez Kye! It’s okay, I’ve had sex before.” The man had no idea why his sister was freaking out when the cutscene started playing. The nude got him excited! ’Dammit. I can never have nice things.’. He was a bit jealous she got to the sex scene before him but at last, video games were not for him.

”Don’t click on these folders here either!” Putting her hand on his on the mouse, Kylie scrolled over several folders, labelled Ginger Romantica, Soap Box Derby, and Fireside Chats. The poor girl was getting very anxious now. If he opened up any of those folders, there would be a whole host of questions he’d be asking, such as “Why do you have pictures of me naked?” and “Why do you have pictures of Sophia naked?!”. If her family found out about this… She didn’t want to know the repercussions.

His sister was only making his curiosity worse, the Fox was extremely intrigued now. He needed to open at least ONE of these folders. Based on how she titled the folders, Riley assumed ‘Ginger Romantica’ held her ideal guy in it. Maybe he could be her wingman, you know? Twin duo gettin’ some BOOTY. ’Wait…’

Absolutely not. He needed to find out her type to prevent such a man near his sister. Her type was probably a lame ass jerk that just wanted to have sex with her. From the title… she probably liked red heads. Nothing wrong with keeping their genes strong in the family, but he needed to know how exactly this ‘dream’ man looked like.

”Kylie… this folder wouldn’t have pictures of… someone you like, would it?” Her hand was on top of his, while he mostly had control over the mouse. Beginning to drag the mouse toward the folder: Ginger Romantica, the devious twin stared at the screen with complete and utter focus. The Fox was set on a mission, to protect his sister from this wretched fool she was into! Or could be into! There was no way in hell he’d let someone tap his twin.

Kylie freaked out when her brother tried to click on that folder, the one that contained her personal stash of Riley in the flesh. Pushing all of her weight onto the back of the computer chair, she sent him and the seat tumbling to the ground. To keep him on the floor, she immediately leaped onto his stomach. ”Riley, seriously! There’s just dicks in there! A big, massive one! Like ‘Wow, that’s huge’! The ideal girth! Seriously!” she lied to him frantically, holding him down with the strongest grip she could muster.

Falling backward, Riley stared at the ceiling, ”Seems like the ground is a common theme today.” The man didn’t realize his phone had buttdial his older sister. The next thing he knew Kylie was straddled on his chest, peering down at him with a lot of angst. His mind was flooded with ‘too much information’ when his twin explained how that folder had penises stored in it. However, even with all this information being laid out before him, he couldn’t help but teasingly snicker, ”Looks like you’re on top of me now.”

The twins froze when they heard two light knocks on the door, “Oh Riley! Dinner’s almost ready. I hope you don’t mind, I cooked some lasagna. Maybe take a break and come eat? Love you.”

With Kylie still very much on top of him, her netherpart not too far from his face, Riley cooly yelled, ”Sure thing, babe! Thanks. Hugs and kisses.” The brother went back to teasing mode and stuck his tongue out at his twin, not bothering to fight her off of him.

While Riley was unknowingly spewing filthy comments to her, Kylie’s face seemed to turn redder than a tomato. ”You’re such a fucking dirty boy.” she teased him back, suddenly bouncing on his chest to crush the air out of his lungs. Finished with her brother, she finally laid off him and leapt up to her feet. ”Don’t get any ideas, Riley. Plus you should be with your girly friend anyway.” Kylie remarked as she exited the room and headed downstairs.

Without much of a grand entrance, she sat herself at the table as far away from Olivia as she could manage. She took fork and knife in her hands, and the redhead slowly twirled them between her fingers, taking only a moment to glower at her youngest sister. She hadn’t been able to read the note Olivia had left on her bed earlier, so there was still a feeling of animosity towards the poor girl. Her gaze turned to Claire though, quite intently rushing her with silent eyes The food smelt wonderful, but that didn’t mean it was going to taste great. Hopefully that bitch was as good of a cook as she made herself out to be though.

His twin trusted him far more than she probably should have. As she strutted out, the Fox picked himself up and strolled to her gaming computer. With an evil grin, he dug in his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. Like a ninja, he quickly transferred the folders onto his drive and put it back in his pocket for future use. There was no way in hell Riley would let this opportunity go to waste. He hadn’t realized he left her desktop flap, that covered her USB drive ports and CD-DVD player, slightly ajar.

After having picked up her chair, Riley shoved his hands in his pockets, whistled a little tune, and left the room.

Going down stairs, he wafted in the glorious food. Hearing his little sister’s question, the man called out, ”Of course I’m home!” Entering the kitchen, he saw that dinner was made and the table was set. A single tear trailed down Riley’s cheek, ”My little bear outdid herself. Thanks for helping her Ollie.” Riley had yet to read the letter Olivia had left for him, having not gone in his room yet. Taking a seat beside Ollie, he gave his baby sister a kiss on a cheek and told her he loved her (having not forgotten the events of this morning). Childishly grinning, the man waited patiently for everyone, who was here, to come join them.

_{@Emma@The Muse@BlueAjah}

Collab With @Saint Girralo

8:35 PM

James had just gotten their neighbor, Maddie Noll, home and decided not to bother waiting for his jacket. It wasn't overly cold to him, and he lived just across the street from Maddie. He quickly walked across the street and unlocked the front door of the house and pulled it open. As he entered the house the smell of a delicious meal entered his nose, and made him regret eating earlier. He walked through the kitchen almost completely ignoring the people in there, simply saying, “Hi. Already ate, cya.” he opened the basement door and quickly proceeded to his room, closing the door behind him. Somehow he wasn't as burnt out as he was expecting to be after a day as long as his, though he hadn't had work so that was probably his saving grace for the day. He logged into his computer and went to one of his favorite websites, Fanfiction.net, and checked to see if any of the followed stories had been updated, but nope nada. He pulled the book he has been reading off of the nightstand, the DaVinci Code, a favorite of his. That is when he noticed the letter Olivia had placed on his bed. As he reads the sweet and heartfelt letter from Olivia he notices from the corner of his eye that his closet was open a crack. Given he is usually diligent about locking it, he is surprised, but he still finishes reading the letter. Upon finishing it, he walks over to the closet, and finds that one of the drawers was open slightly, and upon closer examination his green cable knit sweater, the one he has caught Olivia wearing a few times in the past, wasn't quite folded how he does it. Fear and anxiety and anger flood into his mind, as he struggled to remain rational. Walking as calmly as possible up the stairs, James opened the door to the basement and asked, anxiety clearly present on the edge of his voice, “Ollie, can I talk to you for a moment.” With that he went back downstairs into his room.
~

Olivia just kept setting the table with her head down as if she didn’t hear Sophia being unbelievably rude to Claire.She was trying her best to stay out of that madness. She had no idea why her sisters disliked Claire so much. Sure the way she made herself at home was kind of weird, but Olivia had assumed that Riley gave her the go ahead or something. From what she knew, Claire hadn't done anything wrong, and had only been nice, if not overly nice.

Placing the last fork onto the table, dinner was officially ready to eat. Sophia headed out the door with her date, who Olivia only caught a quick glimpse of before Sophia rushed him away. And then Claire went to get the others for dinner. Zoey plopped down at her usual spot at the table, as Olivia went to the sink to fill a pitcher with ice water, and lemon slices. Placing it on the table she, then took a seat.

Kylie came in, and Olivia did not miss the angry glare in her direction, and she totally understood what Kylie was trying to get at by sitting at the other end of the table as far from Olivia as possible. Apparently the letter had no effect on Kylie at all. Everyone had been home long enough, that she just assumed everyone had read their letter.

Riley came in, and sat next to her at the table. The kiss on the cheek and the affirmation that he still loved her was refreshing compared to Kylie’s pissy face. She passed the bowl of corn to Riley, after placing a bit on her own plate, and that's when she noticed his cut up hands. “What the heck happened to your hands Rye?” Olivia said looking concerned. It looked like he had been punching a brick wall.

She took the smallest portion of lasagna she could get away with, and then waited for everyone else to finish putting food on their plate. As everyone began eating, Riley and Claire just kept on making googly eyes at each other. Olivia cut her food in ittie bittie pieces, to look more occupied. She took a bite of corn, drank a whole glass of ice water, and then started pushing around the food on her plate to make it look like she had eaten most of it.

James came in looking anxious for some unknown reason, and when he asked to talk to Olivia, she became nervous. She wondered what this was about. Excusing herself from the table she made her way to James’s room. As she walked down the stairs to the basement, dread took over her emotions, had he found her diary and read it, did he know? Was she in trouble for not getting home before her curfew? Was this about this mornings craziness? She followed him into his room. “What’s wrong James?” She asked hesitantly. ~

James was sitting on the edge of his bed when Olivia came downstairs to talk to him. As he looked up, and saw Olivia, he said, “First of all, I saw your letter. If it were possible to have a monkey do the job, I don't think we would have tried bringing Kylie in today. So give yourself some credit for doing a better job than her and a monkey. And as for the rest of it, those things happened. And it was almost me who came to pick you up. I was at the house that night when you called mom and dad, and I was still up and when they said they were heading to pick you up, I offered to go in their place. It could have been me in the car at the time of the crash, but things happened. It's not your fault. It was those kids who were driving drunk.” He raised his hand as if to say stop, a small quirk of his if he feels he is getting off track. “You were in my closet earlier… You left one of my drawers open. The one with the green cable knit sweater. Is that all you found? And please don't lie to me.” James asks nervously. ~

Olivia sat down next to James and listened to him. The thing about Kylie being worse than a monkey when it came to work almost made her smile. But as the conversation took a turn to the more depressing topics of her letter Ollie just looked down at her knees and fidgeted with the ends of her hair. When he mentioned that he had almost been the one to pick her up that night, she snapped her head up to look straight at him. A mix of terror, and surprise in her eyes. If James had been the one in the car, if he had died that night…? She was thankful that he had not come, but with this revelation a renewed loathing about herself washed over her.

When he mentioned the drawers, and his closet, Olivia looked over to the closet and remember all the weird stuff she had found. Her first thought was to lie, but she quickly changed her mind and looked James in the eye. “Sorry…” she paused for a second. “I just wanted to borrow the sweater. I opened basically all the drawers.” She said honestly to him. Waiting for a reprimand of some sort, and possibly an explanation about the stuff she found. ~

James visibly winced as his youngest sister freely admitted to having opened all the drawers in his closet. Dammit, she definitely saw all of it. He pushed himself further onto his bed and brought his knees to his chest, almost subconsciously, as though it would protect him from what was about to come. His eyes somewhat glazed over as fear just kinda took over. She saw everything and probably thinks him a freak after all, or worse might even be scared of him. Seriously, that's what you think she thinks, after reading her letter that says flat out that she’ll love you no matter what. At least give her the chance to prove it. “So… You saw all of it?” James decided to ask, clearly scared that Olivia might still react badly. ~

”Yeah…” Olivia said uncertain of what else to say. She could see that James was visibly shaken for some strange reason. As to why she had no idea, and so she tilted her head in confusion. She had not come to any conclusion about the woman's clothing and other items she had found in his closet. She hadn't had time to let her imagination run wild with it. But she wondered why James seemed so scared. ”I’m sorry. I know you don’t like people going through your stuff. I just wanted to wear that sweater and um well I don’t really get it, but are you ok?” She said all this quickly with the words pouring out of her mouth. She was worried since his reaction was not at all what she expected. ~

James was hesitant when he realized that Ollie wasn't calling him a freak or a pervert or anything of the sort… Yet at least. He looked over at her and thought about what he would say. How could he explain it? “Yes… No… I don't know… I'm honestly unsure. It's pretty hard to go and explain.” he sighed, nervous about what he was saying. “I didn't understand what was causing my depression until about three years ago. I just found the answer out of nowhere online, and ever since then I've been doing a lot better. And it all makes sense to me. I… I wasn't supposed to be born a boy… I'm transgender. And it has been causing so much pain being stuck as I am, I just want to cry sometimes and… It takes so much energy out of me.” He blurted out, then immediately ducking his head down out of fear of a negative reaction, ready to hide.~

Olivia furrowed her brows. She had so many questions. James wasn’t suppose to be a born a boy? Transgender was something she had heard of thanks to her facebook newsfeed talking about that one celebrity girl who came out as transgender, and got surgery and a new name to be a man. It was all anyone talked about for months early last year, and practically all the magazines and news channels had an opinion to share. But James, a girl? “Do mom and dad know? Does anyone know? Are you going to turn into a girl, like all the way? Wait does that mean you like boys or girls? Why didn’t yo…” She stopped herself from babbling out a bunch of questions, and just looked at James, her older brother, she really looked at him for the first time.

He seemed so scared, about his confession. Looking back she could see little things that stood out, that made sense with what he was saying, but she had always thought that maybe he was secretly gay. Olivia sighed and scooted closer to James. She wrapped her arms around him. “Jamie you’ll be ok. Ok? I’m sorry I had no idea about any of this. And all because I went through your stuff without asking, it's like I forced you to tell me. I’m so sorry.” She said quietly to him. She let go and rested her head on his shoulder. ”Thank you for telling me. I love you Jamie...always...” She said calmly smiling at him trying to reassure him. She would accept James no matter what, that was for sure, and in all actuality she just wanted James to be as happy as he could be. A tear escaped from her watery eyes and she sighed. ”But now I really have too many sisters. Olivia said to him trying to make the tense energy in the room lighten. Hoping to make him smile. ~

“Yes, yes you do have too many sisters.” James practically giggled. But then he grew somber, and fear set in again. How would the others react? Especially Riley, he’ll probably feel like he has been betrayed, thinking that there was another boy in the family, only to find out that he was supposed to be a she. James brought Olivia closer and hugged her back, and whispered in her ear, as a few tears broke free. “Thank you.” James sighed as he thought about the questions she asked. As James pulled back, he wiped a few tears away from his eyes. “Mom and Dad knew, they helped me get some of it, and with their help, I was going to tell you all at the end of the semester. You're the only one who knows... I think. I still like girls, though there may be one exception… But he's just a friend and completely oblivious. And yes, I plan on getting surgery to correct… That.” A few more tears break free as he lets his mind focus on how badly he is sure the others will react. “I'll be okay, I… I just don't know if I can tell the others yet. I'm not sure they'll understand. I'm sure you have questions, and I'll try to answer them if I can.” James offered, trying to change the subject slightly.
~

She sat quietly with him for a few moments trying to decide what to say, what to ask. ”I think even if they don’t understand, they will still accept and love you no matter what. Whether you are our brother or sister.” Olivia said truthfully. She could not imagine anyone in their family hating James or persecuting him for being who he was. But she also could not even imagine what James was going through, or what he would have to endure as a transgender person. ”I won’t say anything to anyone unless you tell me to.” She said slowly as she tried to picture James as a woman. ”So do I still call you James? Or are you going to change your name to something else? What do you do if you want kids...cause with like the surgery and all I assume...um. You're not going to like completely change right? You’ll still be the James I know but like with a girl body?” She asked hoping this didn't mean James had been hiding his true self, true personality from her her whole life. ~

James smiled when Ollie reassured him that the others would love and accept him… Even when he finishes transitioning. Told you so. It feels nice to have someone supporting you again, doesn't it? James nodded on the inside. Then he listened as Olivia began asking questions about the situation. Questions that were expected. He exhaled and focused. “Thank you for promising not to tell anyone. Okay… For now, yeah you can keep calling me James, but eventually I will be changing my name. I haven't made a definite decision yet, but I keep coming back to the name Jessica Alice. What do you think? Kids… More likely than not I'll end up adopting when I'm ready. There are other things I could do if I want kids of my own, actually related to me… As for me changing. No, I won't change much… I'll be happier, more comfortable with myself, but no, I won't be very different. It’ll still be me. Yeah, It’ll pretty much just be me with a girl body.” James tried to explain.~

Olivia listened intently. Nodding along to what he was saying. ”Jessica Alice Reese...it is pretty. And it still your same initials, so it's kind of clever too. Did you pick Alice because it was Grandma’s name?” She asked smiling at him. As long as James was always going to be James she was fine with anything. ”You are lucky that you won’t have a period. It sucks.” Olivia said remembering getting hers for the first time last year. Strange as it was Olivia was totally comfortable with the idea of having James as a sister rather than a brother. ”I know what it’s like to have a big secret. You are really brave Jamie.” Olivia said proudly. ~

James hadn't quite thought of that. He hadn't come up with Alice because it was their grandmother’s name, but it was one more reason to choose it. “No actually. The name just kinda came to me and it felt right, but it is part of the reason I keep coming back to it.” And then Olivia had brought up the fact that he was “lucky” he would never have a period, that he would never get the experience of carrying a child and giving birth, something that he knew he would never get the chance of doing, but it would be something he’d sacrifice a lot for. He wanted to be a mother at some point. He seemed to deflated slightly at that reminder, but perked back up and smiled at Olivia when she called him brave. “Thanks Ollie. I know it's not something that'll be easy to get used to, but I really do appreciate knowing you have my back. I'm glad I have you as a sister. I love you so much. If you want to, when it's just the two of us, for now, if you want to call me Jessica or whatever, it's okay by me.” ~

”I love you to Jessie!” Olivia said happily jumping off the bed. She turned around to face him. You know when you called me down here, I was kind of freaking out. I thought I was in trouble or something.” She said flipping her long hair over her shoulder. Olivia had more questions, and she wanted to just keep talking to Jess all night. She had not felt this connected to anyone in a long time. Not since she lost her friends and parents. Today had be a wreck, but it seemed to be ending better. ~

Humming to a soft tune as she prepared to serve dinner, Claire couldn’t be more proud of her job well done. She certainly outdid herself tonight. Dinner would be quite lovely and memorable. She glanced over to check on Olivia, who was happily setting the table. Smiling, she felt proud to be Riley’s girlfriend. Not only was he wonderful but she couldn’t help but fall in love with his family. She almost envied the amount of siblings he had.

The light tap of boots entered the kitchen as Claire turned to face Riley’s older sister, Sophia. Keeping a happy face, Claire made sure to politely listen to Sophia’s requests. Was she truly upset? “Oh I’m truly sorry! I just thought you might like some help, considering how much you all have to go through. You're doing a lovely job raising everyone and I understand how hard that is. I honestly just wanted to give a helping hand around here. You deserve to take a break now and then. If you wish, I can leave the laundry for you to do! I heard you’re going on a date so why don’t you go enjoy your evening?” Claire smiled again. “I’m an only child, you see, so being around your family is just so.. Anyway, I’m very grateful. Enjoy your date!” Claire waved off as she left.

A soft ding went off in the kitchen, indicating the cheesy bread was complete. Clapping her hands together, Claire sighed and wiped off the small amount of sweat building up along her brow. She carried the platter containing the cooled off lasagna and placed it in the middle of the table. After setting out the cheesy bread and corn on the table as well, Claire sat beside Riley and finally relaxed. “Dig in, everyone! I hope you all like it.”

As she began cutting through her lasagna, Riley’s brother, Riley, called for Olivia. Raising her eyebrow, she looked at Riley for some hopeful answers. Dinner with the family was supposed to be sacred, not some silly idea you skip. “Come back soon!” She called after her. Glancing back at Riley, she smiled and let her hair fall a little in front of her eye. “Do you like it?”

@The Muse @Emma @lovely complex @Viciousmarrow

"I really really really really really really like you.
And I want you, do you want me, do you want me, too?
I really really really really really really like you.
And I want you, do you want me, do you want me, too?"

Nathan smiled as he listened to Rachel sing. She wasn't the best singer but she had a cute, cheerful voice. On the other hand, Vanessa seemed to be sulking on one of the seats. Nathan took a seat beside her and started to do his best in cheering her up. "Hey, I'm sorry James couldn't come and you're stuck here with me," he said.

She glared at him at first for invading her space but her expression softened when she heard what he had to say. "It's fine. You and Rachel are having a good time," she muttered unconvincingly. "Was that girl of any importance to him? Do you think they'll fall in love like in some cheesy chick flick or something?"

Nathan began to laugh much to the offense of the blonde. "What's so funny, huh?"

"No... no... Okay, hold up," he said, in between laughs. He tried to compose himself before he continued talking. After taking a few deep breaths, he began to speak again. "James isn't the type of guy who would do that... Besides he keeps going on and on about how he's too busy to get a girlfriend with his family's diner and college. So I don't think the girl is your problem. It's more of convincing James to actually go out and trust me, it's no easy task."

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or not," Vanessa sighed, though she was a bit relieved to hear that James wasn't seeing anyone.

"Well, I'll tell you this. You seem like a cool girl that might be able to get James out of his rut so I'll try to help you out."

"Why?"

Before Nathan could answer, Rachel's song had ended so he applauded her performance. The brunette smiled and walked over towards them. She grabbed Nathan's hand and dragged him to the "stage". "I picked a duet for us, is that okay?" she smiled.

"Whatever you want, sweetie," he smiled back. He glanced over at the screen to see what song she has chosen. "Marvin Gaye" that one duet with What's his face and All about that Bass lady. "Uh... interesting song choice," he thought to himself. He did his best to sing along to the words on the screen though he was a bit off. Rachel didn't seem to mind though.



"What's with these lyrics?"

After the duet, Rachel had went back to singing by herself. Nathan felt a bit drained, not realizing how tiring karaoke could be. He returned to the seat next to Vanessa and joked, "Your friend is more energetic than the Energizer bunny."

"Yeah... So what about the whole James thing?" she asked, not able to shake her mind off that yet.

"What about the 'whole James thing'?"

"You'll help me out? Why?"

"Because you're alright and I want someone to help James have fun and relax."

"So it doesn't matter who it is as long as some girl is all lovey dovey with your friend?"

"Well, not any girl... I'm just saying that it'd be nice for him to have someone make sure he's doing alright."

"Why don't you do it then?"

"No, I don't think I would have as much influence to him as a g-.... Wait a second... Maybe I..."

"What?"

Nathan shook his head furiously and tried to chuckle it off. "Hey Rach! Vanessa wants to sing now!" he called out once the last song was over. Rachel was absolutely delighted and quickly dragged her friend to the front to sing "Hello" by Adele. Nathan relaxed into his seat and thought it over. Maybe there was something he could do after all...

@The Muse@Emma

On her run, Tara passed by a familiar face. Of course, he was in a car and she was running, so she didn’t notice him at first. That is, until a loud honk nearly made her jump out of her skin. Looking over, she saw Chris from high school. She didn’t have many classes with him, obviously because he was a senior while she was a freshman. But Home Ec class sure had been fun. There may have been an age gap, but that didn’t stop the young girl from providing a little entertainment and a bit of flirting. Connections are key in life. Back then, it didn’t hurt to be on good terms with a senior.

Tara waved to the handsome man, almost not noticing the younger boy with him. They looked very similar. Must be siblings or cousins. Then the light turned green, so they sped off to wherever they were going.



Upon arriving home, Tara took a quick shower. The feeling of nasty sweat and dirt washing off of her felt heavenly. Afterwords she decided to put on a bit of makeup in order to look nice for her first day. She also put on a high casual outfit since her boss said they’d have a uniform for her to wear when she got there. Luckily, the red eyed girl had much of this planned out already, so she slipped on a pair of shades, and was out the door by 6:30.

Tara slipped through the back door of her work without getting noticed. Her first obstacle was done. Now time to not be socially awkward. The raven haired girl walked to the only place she knew where was, her boss’s office. Walking in with relaxed confidence, she immediately saw two people who looked as though they were in the middle of a conversation. “Hey, Morgana, I’m ready to get started as soon as possible, just tell me what to do.” A smug smirk across her face.

Straightening up and turning to face her, the one sitting behind a desk began speaking. “Next time please knock before entering. Also, before you even think about getting started, you’ll need to be informed as to how this place runs. Strawberry here will show around,” The woman with long brown braids motioned to the vividly pink haired girl. “And once Amethyst gets here, you’ll meet her. She’s one of our best strippers.”

Then Morgana gave a dismissive wave to the other two. “Come on, I’ll show you around the building first.” Strawberry said, wrapping an arm around Tara’s shoulders and steering her to the door.

@lovely complex

_{Collab with @lovely complex}

By now Strawberry had finished giving the new girl a tour, just in time for Amethyst to approach her with two alcoholic beverages in hand.
”The one place where drinking on the job is okay.” The mysterious woman evaluated the newbie as she handed her a Long Island Ice Tea, ”Just don’t get shit faced.” Her electric blue eyes intimidatingly watched the girl as she clanked glasses with her. Within seconds, the purple haired woman brought the glass to her soft lips and was already half way through her drink, ”You can call me Mimi. That or Amethyst. Drinking occasionally will help your nerves and loosen you up.” More customers were trailing into the club, ”I can’t stay for too long but I can give you some pointers, I guess.” Protocol had it where one of the ‘Stars’ gave newcomers some advice, Mimi was currently the only Jewel. Strawberry might climb the ladder soon, there were rumors going around throughout the playground.

The Stripper just wanted to drink and get to work. Twirling the liquid in her glass, she smirked, ”Reputation is key. Create a ‘sweet’ persona no one will forget, make yourself… worth our time.” The last part of her words were enunciated and said slower to emphasize that this industry was not easy. Being a body was one thing, but having people see you more than just a piece of meat, that was another. Luckily, this girl was only getting involved in stripping so it wouldn’t break her, completely. Unless… she let the wolves of the underworld get to her.

Gesturing at the cage that the new girl would work at for the next couple of months, Mimi pointed out, ”That’ll be your cage for the first half of your shift, then you’ll have a chance to win some clients over. You won’t be allowed on stage until Danny thinks you’re ready and of course, you get a routine approved by yours truly~”

Her eyes looked passed the girl and saw Danny, leaning on the wall by DJ Predator, who went over the set list. Lifting up her glass, she acknowledged his stare and gave her boss a little wink.

”Don’t ever go to him. If he needs you, he’ll find you. His ‘blood’ is… well, I’ll let you find that out on your own. You’ll learn the ins and outs, the who’s and what’s, soon enough.” Taking another sip of her drink, the honey voiced woman purred on, ”If I were you, I wouldn’t share my name with anyone. Not even little ol’ me. Unless... you don’t mind your two worlds colliding.” Leaning in, Mimi kissed the new girl’s cheek, leaving her pink lipstick mark on her pale skin, ”Now if you’ll excuse me, I have clients to please. You should hurry and get dressed, we opened thirty minutes ago.” And with that the Jewel strutted off and went upstairs to her domain: the VIP section.
_{@Knight of Doom}

---

---

---

---

”Where’s my future wifey at?!” a grinning purple haired man shouted as he threw the doors to the Honey Pot open. He wore expensive Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses and a glowing cigarette rested between his lips, despite the fact it was midnight and the sign at the front of the club clearly said “No Smoking”. Several men followed behind his swaggering gait, dressed almost as lavishly as their boss. Like him, each of them had their hair dyed a different color from the other.

”Birthday boy in the house! Ay, Joey!” the packleader called, flagging down the familiar bartender as he sauntered through the Honey Pot. ”Let’s get some juice!” Joey quickly went to work, dropping what he was doing and ignoring the other patron’s orders for now. Everybody knew it was a terrible idea to keep Danny’s cousin, Wes, waiting. After all, while Danny was the technical owner, the Harmons owned Danny. Meanwhile, the Prince had his hidden eyes searching the premises for his lovely Amethyst. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to be on the main floor yet.

”Yous guys, go play. I gotta pay a visit to Danny-boy.” Wes dismissed himself from his posse when their drinks were delivered to them. Carrying a Sicilian Kiss, he went passed an Employees Only sign and strode into his cousin’s office. ”Danny! My favorite fuckin’ cousin. How you doin’?” the Underboss obnoxiously asked the dark haired owner, rudely putting his dwindled cigarette out in the ashtray in front of Danny. ”Lookin’ good, Wes. Here to see Mimi?” Wes snickered in reply and took a sip of his drink, seeing that his cousin didn’t realize what day it was. ”See her? Nah, nah… I’m here to rent her, cuz.”

Danny tilted his head at the comment and began to rap a finger against his desk. ”You know she’s not one of my candy girls.” Wes shook his head and brought up both hands. ”Nah, yous not gettin’ it. I wanna take her out on the town. I gots arrangements all set up for a beautiful dinner at Giovanni’s with my wife.” the bespeckled man explained, waving his hands around charismatically. ”I got 5k smackaroos waitin’ for you, and the same for the broad. It’s my birthday, cuz. Lemme have this.” Inhaling and running a hand through his hair, Danny pondered on the situation for a moment. ”Fine. Only because it’s your birthday. Just remember that cat has claws…”

With the business end of the deal of the night over and done with, the two men walked out of the office and back to the main floor. Wes grimaced when he realized that Amethyst had just finished performing. ”Shit. Guess I shoulda come earlier.” he mumbled to himself. ”You mind getting a drink with your pals, Wes? I gotta prep Mimi on what’s going on tonight so she doesn’t flip out.” ”Sure, whateva ya need, cuz.” Grinning and waving, the Prince walked away to rejoin his posse.

The Star of the Underworld Playground had finished her second main stage performance of the night. The midnight performance was always everyone’s favorite. Boring Danny’s customers was never on Mimi’s agenda, plus she was good at spicing things up. This performance in particular she got to play with fire.

Nana didn’t mind this feeling of attention, so long as her identity remained a mystery, she would have fun with her act. At night, Mimi was every man’s dream woman. At night, all her worries were forgotten as she showed her beauty in front of those who came into The Honey Pot. At night, she was free. Even if a client came to see someone else, his eyes would look toward the stage when Amethyst performed. She was a Jewel for a reason. Her body movements were sensual, but also filled with precision, grace, and complete understanding of her body. Her confidence shined and if a client came in not knowing her, he would leave craving her. A couple lower ranked strippers collected the money off the stage as the woman stared at the men cheering her on. Noticing a new man standing between a couple of faces Mimi knew all too well, the Naked Jewel crawled to him and grabbed his tie, pulling him closer to her. After she let her alluring eyes capture his soul, she softly whispered in his ear, ”I hope to see you again.” The sweet honey in her voice filled his ear and his face reddened shortly after.

Letting go of him, the stripper stood up and unhurriedly puckered her lips, winked, and ‘kissed’ her audience. The newcomer’s friends were extremely jealous of their friend, as they watched the woman of their dreams walk off stage and disappeared into a private room.

From behind her, she captured the scent of Danny as he put her silk robe on over her nude body, ”Looks like I missed you.”

Turning around to look up at him, she tied a loose bow around her waist and tilted her head at her boss, ”That’s too bad, this performance was definitely worth seeing.” The taller man lifted her chin up, she could see how bad he wanted to kiss her but held in his desire, like every man should, ”I’ll just get you to dance for me privately sometime.”

Stepping back from him, Mimi sat on one of the sofa’s and laughed, ”Come, you obviously have something to tell me.” Taking a deep breath in, Danny sat beside his precious Star and sighed, ”Wes is here.”

”Oh boy! Time to spend the rest of my shift in this lovely room catering him~”

The male’s expression stood still as he replied with a serious tone, ”Not exactly.” Narrowing her eyes, Mimi teethed, ”I’m not a cat girl, Daniel.”

”No! No this is nothing like that. Wes...” Annoyance filled his eyes, ”Really likes you. It’s his birthday and he wants to take you out to dinner. I know this is a lot to ask but both you and I know what happens when he isn’t happy. If you want I can have one of my men follow you around town or-”

Bending over, she calmed her boss’ nerves by resting her hand on his cheek, ”I get it, Danny. Don’t send one of your men, Wes wouldn’t like you watching over us.” The boss rested his hand on her’s and stared at Nana with admiration. He was a walking contradiction a soft heart with wolf like tendencies. Well, it is in his family’s blood. She continued, ”I’m a big girl. I’ll take care of it.” The stripper saw this more as a job than a date, as long as she made Wes happy without breaking her morals, the Honey Pot would be safe.

”Looks like I have to change into something sexy and you have to deal with disappointed clients.” Standing up, the woman turned to walk out of the room. Her boss grabbed her wrist gently before she could get too far, ”Nana, please be careful.”

Mora and Danny are the only two people at the Honey Pot that know Nana’s identity. Most of the time, they keep to the act and address her by ‘Mimi’ but sometimes… it may slip, for Danny at least.

---

After some time, Nana had made a phone call to Prim saying that her return might be a bit later than she expected. This may be one of the first nights Nana left the building in her nightlife persona. Mora had laid out a nice black outfit for her that spoke sophisticated and provocative. An outfit that a Underboss would be proud to see on his lady. Unfortunately, for the night… Nana had to be Wes’ “accessory” woman. The mother assumed he just wanted to win her over so he could get laid, but then again she thought every man just wanted something sexual. She was a Stripper, after all. For The Honey Pot, she would go on this midnight date with him.

Exiting the locker room, she saw the purple-haired, cheesy grinned man waiting by the bar with his posse. Taking a deep breath in, she made her way toward him with purple hair as well. The men surrounding their boss made an opening for her to walk through. Taking Wes’ shot from his hand, before he was able to drink it himself, Mimi guzzled the strong liquor down in front of his eyes, and hit the glass on the bar. Playfully licking her lips, her electric blue eyes blinked ‘innocently’.

”I’m all yours, Birthday boy.” The posse couldn’t help but give their boss props for getting one of the finest ladies in the underworld to be his woman for the night.

”So I tells ‘em ‘If you don’t gots my money by Friday, I’m gonna take this toothpick here and I’m gonna fuckin’ gouge your eyes out.’ He starts bitchin’ and cryin’ about how his daughter got cancer or somethin’. Tries to convince me to give him more time. So I grab him and-” Suddenly, Wes takes the stool next to him and knocks it over like some kind of karate martial arts master. Some of the club’s customers are a bit frightened by the scene and promptly head to the door. The Prince was cackling and grinning, entertained by the mess he made. ”WHAM! I knock him in the mouth, and he’s fuckin’ bleedin’ all over the place. I swore I broke his jaw, but lo and behold, he’s still fuckin’ talkin’. So I drag his sorry ass to the curb and-”

Wes had turned around to grab his drink off the bar, but suddenly it was snatched by the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life. She slurped down his martini in one go, and fuck if she didn’t look sexy doing it. ”Well if it ain’t the most gorgeous woman I ever seen.” Wes cooed, immediately striding forward and gently taking his Jewel by the arm. ”You and I gots a night to remember in store for us.” With that, he waved goodbye to his crew and led her out of the club to an exquisite limo waiting outside for them. The driver quickly opened a door for them, nodding to Wes and his escort.

As they got situated, the limousine's souped up engine roared to life and they took off. This was surely to be a night both of them would remember.

_{Collab with @The Muse}



“Thank you!” Sophia stepped out of the Uber ride and shut the car door, turning to face her parent’s house…. No, her house. Her heart ached at the reminder that this house had only fallen into her hands due to the death of her parents.

Taking a deep breath, she hurried to the front door. “Everything be okay, everything be okay….” She had no idea what she was about to walk into, but the phone call from Riley didn’t give her very high hopes.

She slowly opened the front door, half expecting to walk in on an orgy. Stepping inside and closing the door behind her, she only heard the sound of forks against plates and quiet chatter from the kitchen. Thank God.

Walking into the kitchen, she looked around at everyone sitting around the table. Riley, Kylie, Zoey and Claire. The little leech was sitting in the chair their father usually sat in. Sophia narrowed her eyes on the four, “Riley, you butt dialed me… Everything okay here?”

“When was that?”

She stared at him, wishing she hadn’t heard whatever was going on in the background of that phone call. Was that Kylie or was that Claire?! “It sounded like you were having a three way.” If only she had been joking. Her eyes moved to Claire in an accusing manner. Claire only looked back at her with big doe eyes. So innocent, yeah right. “I think it’s time you leave now.” She gestured to the door, stepping to the side to make a clear pathway for Claire.

Of course, Claire had to be as nice as she always was. Too nice. What was wrong with that girl? She offered to clean up the dishes first, but Sophia basically pushed her out of the door. “No, thank you, time to goooo…” She held the front door open, “See you next time… the girl’s have their homework to do.” She never wanted to see Claire in this hose again, but Riley was bound to bring her back. That, or the lost puppy dog would find a way back in.

Once Claire was gone, Sophia closed and locked the door immediately behind her. Turning back to face Riley and Kylie, she sighed and held up a hand. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Her date had turned out to be a disaster. It was mostly her fault, but for now she’d just blame Riley and his weird ass phone call. The whole day had ended up as a disaster, but luckily Sophia had a little friend waiting upstairs to cheer her up.

She walked past her siblings and began cleaning up the kitchen, wondering why Olivia and James hadn’t been at the table earlier. “I hope they ate something…”

---

Sophia stared at the back of her door as she sat on the edge of her bed, completely lost in thought with her Marilyn Monroe flask in hand. Inside was straight whiskey, warming her innards with each swig taken. Her door was barricaded with the chair from her balcony, the top of the chair lodged beneath the door handle to keep someone from coming in unwelcomed. Or at least buy her some time to pull herself together before they barged in. It would likely be Kylie, if she had to bet on someone to invade privacy first.

She had been sitting there for the past two hours or so, occasionally laying down and staring at her ceiling or scrolling through social media on her phone. After coming home from the date, everything felt dreadful and pointless. She had screwed up her first date in quite some time, and it would likely be her last for even longer. Her entire life felt like a mess that she couldn’t fix. What was she doing? What was anyone doing? She wasn’t able to keep the family together like her parents had. It didn’t seem to be in her skillset. How did they do it so effortlessly? Everything was starting to fall apart and it had only been a month. She wasn’t prepared for this kind of responsibility… everyone was depending on her and she was failing… miserably.

Tears began welling up in her eyes, so she took another drink. Sometimes alcohol made the negative thoughts melt away, and other times it made them ten times louder. Tonight it took the latter.

Her mind wandered from the date, her family, their parents, her future and then finally settled on Elliot. He was back, and she had screwed that up for herself too. He hadn’t tried to contact her after texting her from Riley’s phone and she doubted that he wanted to. Why would he after the reunion they had earlier this morning? That was completely her fault and she knew it.

Feeling awfully sorry for herself, she downed the last of what was left of the whiskey. Her second flask of the night. Her face felt hot from the alcohol and her vision was getting rather hazy, but she still played with the idea of filling it up for the third time. As she looked at the nearly empty bottle of alcohol on her dresser, a different thought came to mind. “Elliot’s parents..” They HAD to know where he was. Elliot was always in contact with his family! No doubt he told them his new address!

Scrambling, she grabbed her phone from the middle of her queen sized mattress and searched through her contacts for “Mama and Papa Longstreet.” She had kept their phone number all these years, despite their resistance to tell her where Elliot had disappeared to. Sad, she knew. Regardless of the time, Sophia pressed the call button. As it rang, she bit the bottom of her lip nervously. “Please answer, please answer, please, please, pleeeaasseee….” Her heart pounded as she waited for a voice she hadn’t heard in nearly half a decade.

“Mmm… hello?”

It was Papa Longstreet, who had obviously been woken up. Sophia let out a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice. They hadn’t changed numbers, and for some reason they picked up.

“Uhm...L-...Lawrence Longstreet?” She tried hard not to noticeably slur her words over the phone. Lawrence wasn’t exactly the fondest of alcohol and probably liked late night drunken phone calls even less.

“Yes, this is him… Do you know what hour it is? Who is this?”

He was annoyed. Sophia fidgeted on her bed, unsure of what to say exactly. She hadn’t thought up a plan ahead of time. It was amazing she had even made it this far!

“This is… this is Sophia Reese… I-I don’t know if you remember me but I use to be Elliot’s uh… uhm, friend, I guess. I’m sorry to bother you but I need to know where he is. I-I….” She quickly spewed whatever came to mind, “I know he’s back. I need his address. Please…..” Her voice trailed off for a moment, and when Lawrence followed with silence she whispered another plea. “Please.”

“Sophi?” His voice seemed to perk up, being pulled out of his stupor. “Of course I remember you, silly girl!” Sophia smiled, he had always called her a “silly girl.” It nearly made her cry to hear it again. “You know he’s back? I don’t think he’d mind then...” She could hear Mrs. Longstreet in the background asking who he was talking to, seemingly woken up as well. “Do you have a pen and paper ready? His address is…”

---

“RIGHT HERE! It’s right here!” She practically screamed in the Uber drivers ear, leaning into the front seat from the back. He cringed and side eyed her, pulling over towards the sidewalk.

“That’ll be $8.64.”

“Here, here. Hurry.” She shoved her debit card in his hand, waiting for him to slide it on his little card device. He obviously wasn’t as anxious as she was, which was frustrating. He took his god damn time. The next ice age could have happened by now! Slowest card reader in the history of ever!

“Sign he-”

“Yeah, whatever!” She scribbled her finger across the screen, signing something that didn’t even appear like a name at all. Grabbing the card back from him she stumbled out of the car and looked up at the apartment complex before her. Wow, Elliot was living in a shit hole.

Looking at a crumpled sticky note that she had been holding the whole ride over, she attempted to read her awful drunk handwriting. “Apartment 1B” “I think that says 1B?”

“One B One B One B One B One B…” She whispered it to herself as she began to navigate the complex, blue eyes scanning every door she passed as quickly as possible. She walked as fast as her legs would take her, stumbling more than a few times but never actually falling.

Suddenly the “1B” on his door stood out like the holy grail. Was that the angel choir singing or was the alcohol making her hallucinate?

Filled to the brim with nerves and excitement, Sophia dropped the crinkled sticky note and ran up to the door. Just as she was about to knock, she stopped short. Why did this seem like a bad idea now? Something in the pit of her stomach was telling her that she shouldn’t be here. She stared at the door, hand in a fist ready to knock. Her hands were shaking and her heart was pounding. “Come on Sophi…” She tried to encourage herself, but it did next to nothing. Damn it, where was her flask when she needed it?

“Okay, okay, okay…. It’s oooookay…” She whispered to herself, unaware of her surroundings. All that mattered now was her and what was behind this door. She would have looked like a crazy stalker lingering outside someone’s door should someone have heard or seen her.

After a few minutes of pep talking herself, she mustered up the courage and firmly knocked three times. This was a horrible idea! What was she doing?! What if Lawrence had lied to her and this wasn’t even Elliot’s address?! Jesus, she was going to throw up.

The thoughts all came flooding in at once, but she forced herself to wait there, teetering on her feet back and forth. As she waited, heart about to jump right out of her chest, a dog began to bark from inside. “A dog?! Elliot has a dog?” She began to wonder what kind of dog lived beyond this door, until she realized she had been standing there for a good two minutes just spacing out about all the different types of dogs.

“Maybe… he didn’t hear me… or.. the dog?” She raised her hand to knock again. “Just… for good measure.” She knocked a few more times, nerves going haywire. Why was she still here? He probably saw her through the peephole and decided he didn’t want to talk to her. As she began to turn around to leave, defeated by her own thoughts, she heard a crash from inside the apartment. She stared at the door, concerned as she heard someone curse and the dog bark more frantically. “Helloooo? Elliot?” She faced the door again, confused.

"BARKBARKBARK!!!"

Nip!

It was the bite at his heel that finally awoke Elliot from his deep sleep, and nearly earned Lizzy a kick to the face. The hell was going on? With a groan he reached forward and scratched the dog's back, trying to calm her down. The only light in the apartment came from the alarm next to his bed, sitting on a couple of yet-unpacked boxed. Midnight. She had woken him up at midnight!

"Relax girl, did a car go by or something? Don’t make the neighbors complain or I'll have to kick you out."

After getting home he had called his landlord to ask about the pet policy for the apartments. He'd have to pay another couple hundred bucks on his deposit that he didn't have, but keeping Lizzy was okay.

Okay with the landlord, anyway. It would be a quick visit for the stray if she woke him up every night.

He was just beginning to lay back down when a knock came from his door. So, the dog had heard something after all. Lizzy gave a snort as if to say (I told you so!) as he swung his leg over the bed with a groan of pain. Today had been a long day, and a midnight visitor waking him up was the cherry on top of the shit sundae it had turned out to be. Resigned to having to get out of bed he stretched, numerous purple bruises hidden by the darkness pulsing briefly with pain. He would need to get dressed, always having been the type to sleep in his underclothes.

Trying not to waste too much time, he threw on the button-down shirt he had on earlier, laying conveniently beside his bed, and began to fasten it up. Satisfied that every bruise except the one on his face was covered he then grabbed the slightly worn pair of pants from the same pile, and stood.

"Fuck!”

Almost immediately he crashed onto the floor. Right. No leg. It didn't happen to him often anymore, but on nights like this it felt like his missing leg was still there, ready to support him. The brain was weird, and phantom limb syndrome had caused more than one similar fall for him over the years. With a groan, he picked himself off the floor, dreading even more bruises gained from this day, and held the wall for support. He could fasten his prosthetic, but... Nah. Instead he grabbed one of the two crutches next to his bed and limped over to the door. Whoever woke him up was being a pain in his ass, he wanted them to know they were making a cripple stumble in the dark across his home.

He took a second to flip the lightswitch next to the door before sliding his deadbolt open. Was it Anthony on the other end? He certainly was open and friendly. Probably one of those partying types inviting him out to get drunk in the middle of the night. The idea... irritated Elliot. This is why he didn't try to make new friends if he could avoid it, all they did was bother him with nonsense like this. Thoroughly annoyed, he threw the door open and saw…

"Sophi? What the hell are you doing here? It's midnight!"

His free hand moved up to touch the bruise on his face involuntarily. Christ, she looked like a mess. An upset mess. As upset as she looked earlier, if not more. He still remembered how that encounter went. How in world did she know where he lived anyway? With a sigh he continued;

"Look, if you've come to hit me again I'm not really in the mood right now. Can you at least wait until the first bruise heals?"

The sound of his voice was nice to hear again, even if he was berating her. “No! Elliot, I-...” She had no idea what to say. For years she had went over what she would say to Elliot when she saw him again and it usually involved a lot of swear words. Now, however, she was completely blanking on that essay of a speech. “I’m… I’m sorry.” The anger she had felt hours ago was nowhere in sight. Instead, only loneliness and the burning desire to be with her friend again.

“Can I-” Her eyes found the black and white ball of fluff at Elliot’s side. “OHMYGOD” She gasped, immediately kneeling down to the dog's level. “It’s sscchhhooooooooo cuuuttee” Her words slurred as she stared at the dog who didn’t seem half as pleased to see her. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a dog, Elliot?” A sober mind would have told her it was because she hadn’t seen him or talked to him in years.

Her eyes began to look up at him for a response, until she noticed the crutch he was leaning on. Child-like exuberance vanished in an instant. “W’are you oh…” She blinked a few times, trying to focus her blurred vision. “o-okay?” She stood up too quickly and stumbled backwards, gripping the doorframe to keep herself from falling on her ass. “Woah!” She giggled as the world started to spin. “Who hurt you Elliot?” Her face became serious and she gripped his shoulders lightly, staring intently into his hazel eyes. She had missed those eyes so much… “YOUTWELLME” Her emotions were all over the map, and the fact that she had been drinking was painfully obvious.

At this point, having Anthony knock on his door would have been a godsend. As she bounced all over the emotional spectrum in front of him, topics changing as fast as her mood, he began to prefer their meeting earlier in the day. The slap at least had been mercifully brief before she vanished. Here he had to stand and suffer through this... drunk? Mess. At his side, Lizzy took a cursory sniff of the Sophia, before retreating slightly and glaring at the woman. Her eyes growing wide as Sophia touched Elliot, and a low [color=ac58fa][b]growl[b][/color] of jealousy escaped her throat. Elliot, for his part, hushed her with a glare and put an arm around Sophi, pulling her in while he closed the door. If anyone outside saw this it'd be even more of a headache.

Now that she was so close, the smell of alcohol filled his nose, confirming his suspicions from earlier. It was only the second time he'd seen her drunk, the first was... when they were way too young to have been drinking. A couple months before he disappeared the two snuck downstairs to where the elder Reese's had a bar set up and broke into their liquor stash. Personally, he hadn't enjoyed the experience nearly as much as Sophi did, partly because she seemed to take to drinking easier than him, and partly because she was spared punishment by her mother. Elliot, on the other hand, had not been nearly so lucky when he got home and had to face the wrath of his parents. He rarely acted out in his youth, but the few times he had were dealt with harshly.

She was annoying him, but still... her eyes were clearly full of pain, even if he didn't want to deal with this right now he couldn't just completely brush her off.

"Look, Soph…"

It was almost a pet name, he always shortened it further when they were alone together.

"Soph, nobody hurt me. Things have been this way for awhile. You could say people have a leg up over me these days."

Elliot and his smart ass sarcastic comments. Even though they had annoyed Sophia from time to time back in the day, she missed hearing them. She missed the way he called her “Soph” even more.

As he pulled her inside, Sophia looked around at his apartment. It was still rather sparse, which made her feel vaguely better. At least it didn’t seem like he had been living here for years, avoiding and ignoring her entire existence.

She met eyes with him when he began to explain the crutch. For a few moments she stared at him, unresponsive but clearly lost in her mind. “Oh…” Her eyes began to get misty and sorrow completely enveloped her face. “I didn’t know that.. things…” Her voice quivered and she took a deep breath, failing at an attempt to calm herself. It was too late now, and she was in far too deep. “Things have b-been… been this way for awhi-awhile..” Tears finally began falling and she buried her face in his chest, giving up on all attempts to stop herself.

“Why did you leave, Elliot?! Why?” Between sobs her tone sounded angry, yet she wrapped her arms around him and embraced him in a rather aggressive hug. “Why did you do that to me?!”

Why was it that every time they met things quickly seemed to spiral out of control from bad to worse? Now she was sobbing and... demanding answers. He had been full and ready to provide those for her earlier in the day but now? This was a conversation to have sober, not when she seemed so wasted she'd just forget half of it anyway. Still, he let his crutch fall and held onto her tightly as she cried. He didn't plan to give her answers, but at the very least he could try and provide some comfort.

"Look, I…"

The words caught in his throat. Just how much was he willing to admit right now? He couldn't give her nothing especially after coming all the way out here, but if he started opening up now he'd be in just as bad a shape as her in no time, and at least one of them needed to be stable right now. He leaned in and held her a bit tighter, partly to support himself.

"Soph, I wasn't brave like you then. I was a coward who ran away from his problems. I thought that I was helping you, not hurting you, but by the time I realized my mistake the damage was done. So, I ran away. I'm stronger now, and I know you can't trust me, but... I'm here, right now."

Brave, what a joke. She had been running away from her problems through the bottom of a bottle for a year. It had been a minor problem in college, but after the current events with her family it had become a major problem. Elliot probably would have been the one who knew that if he had been around, or perhaps he could have stopped this before it even became a problem.

They had been so close growing up, she knew nearly everything about him and he knew nearly everything about her. Once she had broken through his outer shell they had basically become joined at the hip; one was usually seen with the other wherever they were. Eventually Sophia had been able to convince her parents to let them have sleep overs, so even on the weekend they would be together. Many nights were spent under a blanket fort, Elliot talking about his newest book series and Sophia practicing lines from a movie she had seen earlier that week. Sometimes, if Elliot was in a good mood, he would even play along with her. Sophia would usually cast him as her male co-star in a rendition of a romantic comedy, but sometimes she would trust him with the more serious roles. He tended to make those roles into a giant sarcastic joke, though.

Thoroughly soaking his shirt with tears, Sophia wiped her eyes and looked up at him again. “I missed you…” She swayed, the entire world behind Elliot reeling. “I think I….. I think I need to l-lay down.” The alcohol was past the point of pleasure and it would soon be making her miserable if she didn’t pass out first. Alcohol could be so vengeful. Hopefully this time she wouldn’t trip or fall into something that left nasty bruises.

Elliot knew he had much more closure on the ordeal than Sophia over the years, so he let her cry. It stung, still, the emotion coming from the woman. He had deluded himself the first couple years that she and the other Reeses were somehow better off, but those delusions eventually gave way to reality: all he had done is hurt them immensely, and it wasn't something he could just apologize for and be done with it. Avoiding dealing with the consequences of his actions was the main reason he had continued to stay away from Millington after losing his leg. Pure cowardice.

"I missed you too, Soph."

It was a simple fact. Sure, he had said as much earlier in the day too, but that was as much sarcasm as truth. The two would hopefully have a lot of time to sort everything out over the next weeks and months. Until then though…

"Here, let's get you to bed. I'll sleep on the floor, it's too late for you to be going back home tonight."

He tried to pull her towards the bed as he spoke, it wasn't the easiest thing to do, leading someone while using them for support at the same time. All he had was a twin sized mattress, never intending on someone to actually spend the night. Seems like all his plans lately seemed to be laid to waste. Still, maybe Lizzy wouldn't mind being used as a pillow. He'd think of something.

“Bed…” She mumbled in agreeance, nodding. Crying sure wore a girl out quick. “I don’t want you to sh-..shleep on the flo-” Unfortunately for the both for them, Sophia hadn’t been paying the slightest bit of attention to where she was walking. Eventually her legs hit the edge of Elliot’s bed and Sophia clung to him like he was her lifeline; taking both unstable walkers down together. She squealed as they fell, but began laughing once they bounced onto the safety of his mattress. “Wheeeeeee!”

After a brief fit of giggles, Sophia adjusted herself on the bed to turn onto her side and face him. “It’s been a long time since our last sleepover.” She smiled and nestled her head into his pillow, slowly closing her eyes and reminiscing about the old days.

Panic. Elliot was never good with women, history with Sophia be damned at that moment. He scrambled, thankful that she had landed on the side against the wall, and began pushing himself away, out of the woman's grip. Stammering as he did so.

"N-nononononono. No. Soph. Sophi. Sophia. We're not kids anymore, we're adults! Adults shouldn't be sleeping together like this! The floor's comfortable enough!"

As if to prove him wrong he succeeded as the last words left his mouth, and crashed onto the floor next to the bed, heart pounding. With a yelp Lizzy, who had come over to investigate (And perhaps maul Sophi), ran over to the other side of the room and layed down with a snort of derision, thoroughly fed up with the two for the night. Elliot, for his part, didn't feel much pain and quickly picked himself up, leaning on the edge of the bed and breathing hard.

“See? Comfy, didn’t even hurt!

Instantly, Sophia pushed out her bottom lip and her eyes filled with tears all over again. “Elliot, no!” She leaned towards him, reaching out to him. In her drunken stupor she was completely oblivious to his aversion to female touch. “I don’t want you to leave.” She gently put her hand over his, hopelessly craving some sort of affection from him. “Don’t go!”

Her heart raced as she stared at him in desperation, as if her life depended entirely on his actions. She’d hate herself for this by morning, but for now Elliot was all that mattered in the world. He was it, he was what she had been waiting for all this time, he had the power to fix everything. She wouldn’t be able to stand it if he left her again, even if just to sleep somewhere else. The alcohol wasn’t mending her anymore. “Do you…” Her voice trembled, “Do you hate me that much?” Tears fell as she spoke the words that she had been wondering for five years. “What did I do?”

Clearly, she had not been dealing with this well. She had spent the better half of five years blaming herself, while putting up an angry front any time Elliot was brought up. Time and time again she had gone over a list of reasons of why Elliot might have been angry with her, but she could never wrap her head around the idea of those reasons making him take off. Why wouldn’t he have talked to her first? Or at least contacted her in some way after his disappearance?

"Hate you?"

Elliot threw back his head and laughed. What else was he supposed to do upon hearing that? The thought was absurd, he loved all the Reeses, Sophia most of all. The thought hadn't occurred to him that she would blame herself for him skipping town, and it stung, in spite of his laughter.

Shaking his head, he reached out and grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers and gave her a rare, genuine smile as he ran his free hand through her hair. Hoping to kill any such doubts all at once.

"Look, Soph, see-"

He raised their locked hands for emphasis.

"- I'm not trying to get away. You had nothing to do with me leaving, and have everything to do with why I'm back. So... Relax, you need to get some sleep. I won't let go."

A smile crept up on her face again, though the tears didn’t stop. Hearing him say that was cathartic. An enormous relief washed over her as he ran his hand through her hair. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, body and mind beginning to relax.

Opening her eyes again, she settled into his pillow and stared at their entwined hands. She began running her thumb over his hand, staying silent for a few minutes before looking up at him. “I’m glad you’re back.” Her eyes scanned his face, fixing on his cheek. “I’m sorry for… for slapping you.”

Slowly she began to fall into sleep, her eyes begging to be shut. Her grip on his hand never wavered, but no matter how many times she tried to keep her eyes open they would rebel. In the moments before succumbing to sleep, she lightly whispered, “Please don’t leave…”

Elliot simply listened as she talked, waiting for her to fully fall asleep. An apology for slapping him? As if he'd let that drop so easily. No, that would be a topic of discussion for a long time to come. He tried to listen for her breathing to tell when she had fully been captured by sleep, but the most obvious sign came from a slow, steady stream of drool from her lips. Onto his pillow.

"Lovely."

He'd need to flip that over the next day and wipe the memory from his mind. In the meantime, thoroughly convinced that he couldn’t wake her, Elliot relaxed his hold on her and and pulled away.
Or tried to.

As soon as he made the attempt her fingers clamped down, hard. Locking him into a mockery of a chinese finger trap. The harder he pulled back, the tighter her grip became.

"Jesus Christ Soph, come on..."

He whined pathetically, but of course she couldn't hear him. That had been the whole point of waiting until she'd fallen asleep. In desperation, he looked over to Lizzy, but she turned her head away the second he met her gaze.

"Traitor!"

He hissed, turning his attention back to the death grip he was now locked in. He couldn't possibly sleep like this, lying on the floor with his arm up. They'd have to amputate his hand too by the end of the night for lack of blood. Which meant…

Resigned with a sigh and a shrug, he crawled into bed next to Sophi, like the damn woman had planned from the beginning, climbing over her and pressing himself against the wall, avoiding the drool slathered pillow. He wrapped an arm around her, the damn woman was lying on top of the blankets, for warmth and as he did so her grip on his hand weakened to reasonable levels.

It didn't take long for exhaustion to bring him close to sleep. He'd already been woken up, slapped, knocked down several times, and been emotionally drained today. His body was ready to give up and submit for the night. Perhaps tomorrow would be more peaceful?

Contemplating it, he fell asleep on one final thought:

Fat fucking chance.

@Emma@The Muse@Viciousmarrow@lovely complex
6:20 AM
Since, for a change, James had managed to get a decent night's rest he got up early, with a plan to make breakfast. He got a quick shower before he got to work, quickly doing maintenance work, keeping his body shaved and otherwise well groomed. His skin was smooth again and he actually felt somewhat good, healthy even. So this is what it feels like to not have to rush out the door for class. I'm definitely taking the summer off from classes. Maybe I won't feel like shit every morning. It was about 6:48 when he pulled out some ham and diced it up, some green peppers and sliced them to small strips. He grabbed a bag of shredded cheese, and pulled out some diced tomatoes, and then began putting Bacon on the stove. He began pulling out eggs from the fridge and set them on the counter, pulling the trash can close by for ease of access. He pulled out his phone and went into the family thread. 'Everyone up! Let's go! Omelettes are on the menu for breakfast, I'm taking orders now. We have ham, Green peppers, cheese, diced tomatoes, and delicious Bacon! Who wants what?'

He was in a great mood so far, especially after how surprisingly well last night had gone, sure he had to abandon the date, but he certainly hadn't planned on going out on one last night anyway. Perhaps he'd give Vanessa a call later, and then Nathan to apologize for ditching them. And then there was the fact that Olivia, sweet little Olivia, found out his secret and he had worried over nothing. He was more than ready to take on today. As soon as Sophi gets down here, we have to talk about what the plan is for today. The diner isn't going to survive if we remain as understaffed as we are. While he waited for his siblings to give their orders and make their way downstairs, he pulled out his phone and began checking out Fanfiction.net again, looking for any updates.

Fortunately he found an update on one of the newer stories he had followed. It was a Full Metal Alchemist piece by the title of HalfMetal Heart, and while it wasn't one of the better stories he had read, it wasn't bad. He's read a lot worse too, stories so bad he was pretty sure he had lost brain cells while reading it. It is a good thing that the brain doesn't actually work that way. He snorted at the idea, as he set the phone on the counter as he tended to the succulent, divine Bacon. He'll begin putting it on a plate soon to go on the table, but until then he'd have to stand guard. He knew Sophi would come and grab some without remorse if he let her, but when he could sit down and eat, he'd enforce the same rules Riley did, especially No one touches their food until everyone is sitting. Though this might be an exception because it's not exactly easy to mass produce omelettes without using two of the burners, and omelettes are much better warm.

Kylie was sound asleep at her computer desk, having fallen into a slumber at some point during the night while playing Stardew Valley, a game that was surely not going to bother her sleeping siblings. The game had bored her to tears, but she had tried to tough it out since everybody said it was a great game. Perhaps it was, but Kylie was definitely not one for farming simulators. The night before had been fairly uneventful other than her time with Riley and her ordering Chinese for herself since Claire's lasagna sucked. One bite and the redhead had felt like she wanted to puke. From there, she retreated to her room like usual and briefly scanned over Ollie's letter. Kylie wasn't sure how she should feel about it. On one hand, her sister had almost really fucked her over, and on the other, she was family and Olivia did seem apologetic. Rather than deliberate on her emotions, she jumped right into gaming from there. She'd sort out everything later.



The loud wail of the world's most annoying alarm flitted through the hallway and into her room. Grimacing, the twin opened her weary eyes and gazed at the time listed on her computer. It was 7 o'clock in the morning. Not time to wake up yet. "SOPHI! TURN OFF YOUR FUCKING ALARM! Kylie shouted before slipping out of her computer chair and into her bed. She had expected her sister to silence her alarm clock, but 10 minutes later and it was blaring. Grumbling, Kylie crawled out of her bed and made her way to the bathroom. If she couldn't sleep, she'd at least get a shower in. As she neared the door, there was no sound of water running, as far as she could tell, so Kylie assumed it was free. The twin was taking her comfortable night shirt off while she wrenched upon the door, exposing her bare chest to the sudden form of Riley. She immediately froze, practically naked in front of her brother, who was busy drying himself off. Her eyes wandered down his form, taking it in before covering herself. "R-Riley! she stammered out, her cheeks glowing red.

"Nice tits, sis! Riley replied with a grin, giving her a genuine thumbs up. At those words, Kylie awkwardly stumbled back out of the bathroom and slammed the door shut. 'Why doesn't he ever lock the door?!' she pondered while also reflecting on the compliment he gave her. Did... Did Riley think she was attractive? Her musing was ruined by the infernal racket in Sophia's room. "GOD DAMNIT, SOPHI! WAKE YOUR SKINNY ASS UP!" Throwing her shirt back on, the underweight woman marched to her sister's door and pried it open. To her surprise, her sister was nowhere to be find.

Her sapphire eyes darted around the room, spotting the balcony chair by her bed. Why exactly that was in here, Kylie had no idea. Maybe she was downstairs and couldn't hear the alarm? Sighing, the red head unplugged Sophi's stupid alarm clock. At long last! Peaceful, serene silence. The smell of food was wafting up from the kitchen, and Kylie's stomach immediately grumbled in response. If Riley was getting dried off, then that must have meant either James or Sophi was cooking for once. Her lithe body turned around at once and followed the scent downstairs.

Unfortunately, when Kylie reached the kitchen and saw what was breakfast, a pang of disappointment reverberated inside of her. Omelets. And bacon. Yuck. She loathed eggs and bacon made her sick. How could her siblings eat that trash everyday? Sighing somberly, she strutted past James and to the refrigerator, taking out her leftover Chinese and the elixir of life that was Mountain Dew. With that, she popped her sesame chicken into the microwave and cracked open her soda. "Where's Sophia? Did she go on a jog or something? 'Cause she's not in her room or in the shower..." she asked her older brother and whoever else had ventured into the kitchen before she took a swig of her refreshing beverage. It was strange not to see the eldest Reese around at this time of day...
_{@Saint Girralo@lovely complex@Emma}

Olivia went to bed around eleven last night, after talking to James for hours. She had been exhausted by the days events, long bike ride, and the 6 mile walk home, so as soon as she climbed into bed she passed out. She woke up around seven and just laid there, hoping to just fall back asleep for ten more minutes, but Sophia's alarm clock blaring down the hall was preventing that wish. Kylie thankfully did something about it, and Olivia sighed in relief, as she pulled the blankets over her head, and snuggled further into bed. She really did not want to get up, and get ready for school.

Her phone beeped annoyingly as it signaled a new text. She frowned and then rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Rolling over to check her phone, it was James asking for omelet orders. Slowly sitting up she stretched her arms into the air, her fingertips touched the ceiling. Olivia yawned as she texted James back. 'Small omelet with peppers, and tomatoes. Please and thank you.' If only it could be Saturday and she could sleep till noon. Since her hiatus from ballet a month ago, she had gotten much lazier, and spent her new endless amount of free time helping at the restaurant, taking naps, and hanging out by herself around the house. Her three hour ballet class, three times a week after school, plus six hours recital practice on Saturday had kept her rather busy.

Getting out of bed required a lot of effort on Olivia part. She had only gotten about six hours of sleep, which meant she was most likely going to fake sick at school, so she could sleep in the nurses office. She yawned wide again, and then climbed down from her bed. Remembering when her parents bought her and her sister the bunk bed seven years ago. She had been seven, and thought that being on the top bunk was the coolest thing ever. Oh how she regretted that decision now, getting in and out of the thing when you were tired was no fun, and crawling down the ladder in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom was annoying.

Walking out of her bedroom, she rubbed her eyes as she passed the second floor bathroom door. She could here the shower running so she instead went downstairs to the other bathroom, since she didn't feel like waiting patiently today. She took off her clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket. Turning on the shower to the lukewarm setting. She glanced at her body in the mirror. Over the last month, she had lost about six pounds, and it showed. She was even more bony then she originally was. She had been practicing ballet religiously since she was five so her body had always appeared skinny, long, and fit. Her dance instructor Madame Clifford had told her that she had an ideal body for ballet, a ballerina body she would say. In Ollie's own opinion all she saw in the mirror was an awkward girl, with knobby knees, no boobs, pointy elbows, and big sad brown eyes.

She stepped into the shower, and just let the water cascade over her skin. Thinking about nothing, she relaxed under the waterfall, and hummed 'Only Time' by Enya. It had been one of her moms favorite songs, and before the crash Olivia had even choreograph a dance to the song. She had meant to perform it as a surprise for her mom at the ballet recital in April. The lukewarm shower was doing nothing to wake her up, so she made the water colder. She squeezed a large amount of shampoo into her hands, and washed her hair. Using the fancy handmade bath soaps, Olivia washed away the sweat, dirt, and grime of the previous day. Long showers where one joy in life, so 30 minutes later she stepped out of the shower clean and smelling like flowers.

She wrapped herself in a big white towel and walked back upstairs to her room to get dressed. She changed into her outfit for the day. Slipping on her terracotta red skirt, a stripped shirt, and an over-sized green sweater. She flipped her hair over and wrapped it in the towel. She felt more awake now. She opened the dresser to get a pair of socks, and then opened her little music box to pocket two pills for later. She found the reply note from Sophia poking out from behind the door. Picking it up she unfolded the letter and read the short sweet note from her sister. Ollie smiled and placed the letter in her school journal.

She walked down stairs and snuck up to hug James as he flipped omelets at the stove. After getting out the plates for James, Ollie went over to the table. She smiled hesitantly at Kylie trying to gage her mood. "Morning..." Olivia said to them.

A smile stayed plastered on her face as Sophi came back from her date, obviously upset, and told Claire she needed to leave. With everything she had done, Claire was rather confused as to why she disliked her so much. Did she do something wrong? She was only trying to be nice. Perhaps the two could talk over coffee some day. She looked to Riley and smiled, giving him another kiss on the cheek. “Don’t forget about Sunday.” She whispered to him. Even after offering to do the dishes, Sophi simply hurried to get her out of the house. Sighing, she waved goodbye to everyone and thanked them for letting her stay. It was getting late and she didn’t want her parents to worry, anyway. Claire blew a loving kiss to Riley before the door was slammed right in her face.

When she returned home, the sound of her parents arguing about money again echoed through the house. Claire silently walked up the stairs to her bedroom, hoping they wouldn’t catch her eavesdropping. There were very few people she loved more than her parents but sometimes she wished she could take a break from them. It seemed all they talked about was money and while Claire knew they wouldn’t survive without it, it was extremely stressful to deal with.

---

The obnoxious sound of her loud alarm woke Claire from her slumber, a sleep full of beautiful dreams of being successful in various fields of work. A yawn escaped from her mouth as she sat up in her fluffy and pink bed. From the silence, she knew both of her parents had already left the house even though the time read 7:00 am. Being in such high careers, both of them dedicated all of their time to work. They spent more time at work then they did at home, which was fine she supposed. Claire kept busy too, always trying her best to be involved in everything. Speaking of which, she needed to dress and get ready. She had go to Psychology class at 10 and she was also scheduled for a doctor’s appointment at 1pm. On top of that, she also had promised she would volunteer for the Red Cross later in the afternoon. Busy day!

Dressing in a comfortable yet cute dress, Claire applied light makeup and made her way downstairs where she discovered they were all out of breakfast bars. Sighing heavily, she added the bars to the list on the fridge and decided it would be a coffee run today. Sometimes her parents forgot about the simple things like her favorite breakfast bars but Claire always let it slide. They were busy, after all. It was also an excuse to go to get coffee so how could she upset at that?

Unfortunately, the local coffee shop was buzzing with people and the line had at least 10 people in front of her. Today was simply not starting out well. No matter, though. Claire had relatively good patience and would gladly wait for the rush of coffee and perhaps a muffin for the effort. Smiling, she waited.

Letting the water run down his body, Riley closed his eyes and enjoyed this moment of peace. Hopefully today was going to be better than yesterday. The male twin had no idea what his older sister was talking about last night. 'It sounded like you were having a three way.' He was a little annoyed she didn't give him a chance to inquire. On top of that, she kicked his girlfriend out and then proceeded to lock herself in her room avoiding responsibility. Classic Sophia. Her date sounded like it went swimmingly. ''Maybe I'll have to tear that guy a new one.' There were somethings he would never understand, but then again... he too had his own way of dealing with things. One thing this family was piss poor at was being honest.

He would know.

Sighing and reaching to turn off the steamy water, Riley leaned his head against the shower wall as his mind thought of things beyond his family. His young life was passing him by. Shaking his head to not think about his wrongdoings, his eyes flickered open. Turning off the shower, Claire's face appeared in his fuzzy mind. He smiled, but there was this unsettling feeling in his gut. They've been dating for two weeks and yet, he couldn't possibly be sufficient enough for her. She was too good to him. Already planning a date for them on Sunday, taking care of all the arrangements, while he sat and did nothing--what kind of boyfriend was he? Reaching out the shower, he grabbed his black towel and began drying off his body. Only one other time in his life, he had a serious girlfriend. This doesn't mean he didn't try to make something work with other girls but she was out of this world. Of course, he doesn't ever talk about that chapter in his life or even... think about it. The only girl Riley has ever introduced to his family was Claire because, well, he was simply just too young at the time to introduce his first love. Now his family either thinks he's gay or just likes to look at women from afar and be a massive pervert.

If only they knew.

Stepping out of the shower, he brought the towel to his hair and began rubbing it against his head. The steam fogged up the mirror and all that could be heard was silence.

When would he have free time to do what he craved the most? The broad-shouldered man missed the scent of women, their flesh against his, the lust in their eyes, their need for him... how long has it been?

Breaking from his daze, he heard his flustered twin squeal, "R-Riley! The moments he and his twin shared yesterday flooded his mind as he looked at her plump breasts. He couldn't help but grin and make light of the situation.

"Nice tits, sis!" His eyes never left her body as she turned around and scurried away, slamming the door on her way out. He almost forgot that there was a flashdrive in the pants he wore yesterday. Maybe he'll check it out after work. It was absolutely necessary for Riley to know what her dream guy was. A brother's duty was to protect his sisters from the scum of the Earth.

After fully drying himself off and heading back into his bedroom, the man swiftly changed into some clothes. He put on the jeans he wore yesterday night, seeing how they have only been worn once, and then put on a plain teal shirt on. Tying his long sleeved stripe shirt around his waist, he thought about the homework he failed to do yesterday. He never did get the chance to do his photography assignment, perhaps he'd make time for it today. The homework assignment was 'Capture a mood within an environment'.

Grabbing his camera bag, he hung it over his neck and left the room. Riley decided to speak to Sophi in private.

Before he went to her door, he turned toward his little sister's door. He had read her letter last night and made her a little something himself. Late at night, the flamed haired man visited his old treehouse, which isn't something he did often. He didn't take the time to observe the changes to it. Instead, he pulled out a plank on the floor. The treehouse had many hidden things of Riley's past. But that is something to be discussed another time.

@Emma

Once he slipped the envelope under the door, he turned to his late parents' bedroom.

Knock. Knock.

"Sophi, can we talk about the butt dial? You never really explained what you heard." His knocks were only warnings. Opening the door, he peered in to see if his sister was there.

Nope.

Rather than close the door, he entered the room and surveyed the environment. This room was filled with bittersweet nostalgia. He use to climb on the bed and rest on his mom's chest as she read stories to him. Now this room was... losing it's importance.

His eyes glazed over as he saw his child self and his mother on the bed. Words of the past flooded his mind....

Absentmindedly running his finger on his sister's, once mother's, dresser, Riley hit a bottle, making it fall to the ground. Bending down, he picked it up and stared at the Whiskey label. His sister had interesting taste in alcohol, hard liquor by itself? Eh, she probably had something to mix it with. He figured she was loosening herself up so she could masturbate or something. Masturbation was perfectly normal. Females should do it more often and not be ashamed about it! Hell, he'd masturbate if he wasn't extremely stressed lately.

Picking the bottle up, he placed it back on the dresser and decided to go downstairs to see if Sophi was there. Making his way downstairs, he began cleaning his messages out of his phone. He stumbled upon the message Elliot told him he would send his sister.


'I mean, damn. I'm bad at texting but not THAT bad. I would have just called. She obviously missed him enough to slap the poor dude.'

Looking up from his phone, Riley realized Sophi was nowhere to be found, James was making omelettes, his twin was eating... Chinese... and drinking...mountain dew, and Ollie was waiting patiently for her food.

"Just make me whatever." Riley wasn't really picky nor that hungry at the moment, but out of respect, he'd eat his brother's food. There was like a meal or two he absolutely hated, but it wasn't omelettes... that's a discussion for another time as well.

Walking to Kylie, he snatched the soda away from her, "I can deal with the Chinese because you don't like omelettes, but not this crap." Going to the sink, he dumped the soda out and muttered to his siblings, "I think Sophi drank a bit last night, pure assumptions, mind you, but yeah, yesterday was a pretty shitty day. Eh, if you're of age, go hard or go home, am I right?" He let out a light chuckle, wondering when was the next party he'd get invited to. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Either way, have any of you seen her? She usually tells us if she has somewhere to be."

@Viciousmarrow@Saint Girralo