All That You Can't Leave Behind

The lonesome road

Jay's POV

I woke up to find Carter's side of the bed empty. I went to go check and see if she was in with the boys only to find Dysen and Declan still asleep in their cots. Walking to the living area I could begin to hear the sounds of what seemed like an old home movie. Walking into the rest of the room I found Carter wearing her old John Deere jumper, her yellow converse, and hugging Mr. Moo Moo her stuffed cow from when she was younger. She also had her pink camo John Deere blanket wrapped around her.

"Is someone feeling a little homesick?" I smirked already knowing the answer. She nodded sticking out her lip a little. I smiled and plopped down next to her on the couch wrapping my arm around her and bringing her into my side so I could cuddle her. The video she was watching which seemed to be her first visit to the zoo. Mini Carter on the screen was riding a pony with her mom walking right beside so nothing happens to her baby girl. The video went like that for a couple minutes until it cut out and came back to two little girls playing in a bin filled with grain. They were throwing handfuls of corn at each other.

"Speaking of Sophie where is our surprisingly absent houseguest?" I questioned because she had been in some sort of funk ever since she came back from buying food for Tia.

"She said something about visiting a bonbon. Honestly I have no idea what the hell she was talking about." Carter replied wistfully looking at the TV screen. I turned my head back to the TV to see that it has changed once again to look like a birthday party for one of Carter's siblings.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Annabelle, happy birthday to you Carter and her other siblings sang to her little sister. They were out behind her house sitting at a long picnic table that they had. There were balloons tied to the each end. You could see the old swing set and club house in the background of the footage. In the more quite moments you could hear the whinnies of horses and the mooing of cows. Carter had always loved living on that farm. After a while of it being on the birthday party and showing people getting rides from the horses it switched to show Carter, her siblings, and her cousins playing around in the hay loft in one of their barns. Watching this made me think that I missed out on things as a child by living in Nottingham. Looking at how Carter grew up made me start thinking about how the twins were going to grow up, what kind of school they would go to, what kind of friends they would make, what kind of people they would become.

Siva's POV

Sophie called that morning wondering where Nath was. I gathered that she was avoiding him for some reason. He had surprisingly got up early that morning to see his mom and sister. I was just finishing wrapping Nareesha's present when there was a knock on the door. On the front stoop was Sophie with an arm full of cat essentials. I arched my eyebrow at her but said nothing.

"Where's Nath's room?" She asked as she adjusted her load.

"Up the stairs and third door on the right." I pointed out to her. She headed in the direction I pointed and I followed behind her wondering what she was doing. As we got to the room there was a soft meowing behind the door.

"That bastard!" Sophie whispered. I opened the door for her since it was clear that she wasn't going to be able to open it by herself. After all the signs I wasn't surprised to see a little kitten sitting on Nathan's bed. Sophie dropped her armful of stuff to the side of the door and rushed towards the little fluff ball.

"Why does Nathan have a kitten in his bedroom?" I asked as I stroked its head as it was cradled in her arms.

"It's a 'Thank you' gift from Nathan for not being mad at him when all the drama happened." She said still looking at the kitten.

"Why are you avoiding him?" I asked adjusting myself on the bed for better kitten petting.

"I'm just a little miffed at him. I'll get over it but for the moment I don't want to see him. Plus I haven't had the chance to get to know any of you guys at all." She said finally breaking her gaze from the kitten to look at me.

Sophie's POV

"You know Nath hasn't been in a relationship for a long time and the last one he was in he got cheated on. Just give him some time and he'll shape up, he just doesn't know what he's doing right now." Siva tried to comfort me, but in the end confused me.

"We're not in any kind of relationship Seev." I explained to him. Siva just smiled and shook his head like he knew something that I didn't.

"So Max and Tom aren't Nathan's biggest fans right now?" I continued changing the subject only slightly.

"No they're mad about what he did. Tom got a bit over dramatic but that's just him and his Tom tantrums." Siva confirmed my suspicions. What Nathan did could drive the band apart. Jay certainly as hell wasn't going to be talking to him anytime soon, and what with Max and Tom made at him as well. I was beginning to just wish this whole mess would blow over already.

"I don't know how the Christmas party is going to go." Siva spoke up after a minute of just sitting there on Nathan's bed petting Bonbon in silence.

"Siva say what?" I asked turning to look at him.

"Jay and Carter invited us over for a small Christmas party. Well they invited Max, Tom, and I." Siva clarified.

"And what about Nath?" I asked feeling sorry for him.

"Carter said that it would be a bad idea to have him and Jay in the same room right now, so we weren't going to tell him." Siva explained.

"You know what? I may be mad at him right now but he is my friend too so I am going to invite him." I claimed standing up from the bed setting Bonbon back onto it.

"It'll be your funeral." Siva stated calmly.

"And it'll be a fucking fabulous one!" I smiled at him and walked out the room.