Family Is Forever

48

"Bayley you up? Pamela will be here in a bit to come get you"

Bayley pulled her eyes away from the mirror she was looking in and slowly moved to the door of her room to open it, revealing Stephanie standing there. The woman looked tired, her hair was up in a messy bun and she had bags under her already puffy eyes and she wore baggy clothes that made her look smaller than usual. It had been a week since Becky left and there was an obvious hole in the family. Stephanie had fallen a part the day Becky left and Sasha definitely wasn't helping. She and Stephanie got into a really heated argument and the two currently weren't on speaking terms. Not without arguing at least. While Charlotte hid her sadness behind cooking and Hunter focused on work as he tried to keep a positive attitude for the family, but Bayley had seen him downstairs crying on the couch at 2 in the morning. So she knew he was hurting on the inside too.

"Yeah...I'm up." Bayley answered softly causing her mother to give her a small smile. Everything about Stephanie seemed different, lighter almost and not in a peaceful kind of way, more like she was walking on eggshells.

"Good well, Pamela will be here in ten minutes" Stephanie stated again.

Bayley nodded and looked back at her messy room and scratched the back of her head before looking back at her mother, "I just gotta change and grab my guitar and then I'll be ready"

"Okay...and try to get some food. Charlotte's been cooking since 7" Stephanie said before slowly raising her hand to the side of Bayley's face, carefully running her fingers on her cheek, "and I noticed you haven't been eating and I-"

"I'm fine" Bayley said as she brushed off her mother's hand, not wanting to have the conversation, "I'm just not hungry"

"You've been not hungry for a week," Stephanie said in a low tone causing Bayley to sigh, "Just...please...eat something...for me"

Bayley sighed again but nodded, "A-alright. I'll eat...can I get ready now?"

Stephanie nodded and walked off leaving Bayley to get ready for her work at the homeless shelter. Stephanie and Hunter wanted them to keep their routine so Bayley still got to volunteer and sing at the shelter. Bayley looked around at her messy room, the floor was covered in dirty clothes, papers and books from school and her songs and her sheets from her bed spilled over the bed and covered the ground as well. The girl slowly got dressed in a black button up shirt and jeans before she moved to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Once Bayley was ready for the day she walked back into her room to grab her guitar before heading downstairs to the kitchen. Sasha was sitting at the island counter doing homework while she talked on the phone, probably with Finn, while Charlotte was plating a stack of blueberry pancakes. The blonde stopped quickly when she saw Bayley standing at the entrance of the kitchen before she gave a light smile, "Hey Bayley...you hungry?"

Bayley frowned at the plate of food but nodded her head none-the-less. She sat her guitar down against the wall before walking over to the counter to take the plate from Charlotte. Sasha looked over at her as she sat down beside her and gave her a small head nod in acknowledgement before she went back to her conversation, "No. Finn I already told you...ye-yes I did that...I still got 4. How the hell did you get 25!? I'm not yelling"

"You are yelling," Charlotte said after hearing her sister's end of the conversation only to have Sasha flip her off before she went back to her work. Charlotte rolled her eyes at Sasha before looking back to Bayley who was picking at her pancakes, "Do you not want blueberry? I made some plain ones too because Sasha doesn't like fruit in her pancakes"

Bayley quickly shook her head, "No...uh no this is fine...thank you"

Charlotte continued to stare at Bayley making the girl feel a little self conscious before she took a small bite of the pancakes. Once she took a few more Charlotte stopped staring at her and turned back to the stove. Bayley watched her for a second, taking in the blonde's well kept appearance. The blonde's hair was straightened neatly down her back and she wore a white turtle neck with a pair of light blue, high waisted jeans. Bayley almost felt envious of her sister's ability to keep her calm composure, but that feeling suddenly faded when she looked to the right of the blonde to see a set of chocolate chip pancakes placed neatly on a pate beside her. Bayley frowned as she realized that the late was for Becky. The redhead was the only one who ate those because she hated blueberries.