piece by piece~j.d

~57~

Aubrey made her way back to the family house, after babysitting the night before and the boys having their game in the afternoon, she finally found the time to go and see her brother who she was sure was struggling on the inside. She felt bad that she didn't go straight away but she also knew that he needed some time to process his own thoughts before people pushed ideas into it.

"Is Baz home?" Aubrey asked her mum who opened the door for her, Sinead nodded her head, the smile that she sent Aubrey's way falling into the tiniest hint of a frown. "Do you think he'd want to talk to me?"

"Definitely, I think he's doing okay but he really needs a hug from you." Sinead confirmed and motioned for her sighted to come inside. "He's in his room, take him some water when you go up."

"Okay." Aubrey quickly passed the kitchen to grab a bottle of wanted from the fridge before climbing the stairs and knocking gently on Bailey's door. Normally she'd walk in without knocking, but she figured she should take the more delicate approach at a time like this. "Baz, can I come in?"

"You will anyway." Came the response after a small pause of silence. "Hurry up."

"Hey, how are you?" Aubrey asked, he was lying on his bed throwing a tennis ball up and down catching it, his eyes not moving to look at Aubrey's as they stayed focused on the task at hand.

"I'm good, you don't have to be delicate with me. It is what it is." Bailey said, catching the ball and throwing it to Aubrey who only just reacted quickly enough to catch it instead of being in the head by it.

"I know that, just wanted to check on you. I'm not going to bully you if you're too upset." Aubrey explained, taking a seat on the edge of the bed beside her younger brother. "Is there anything you want me to do?"

"While you're here you can do my washing for me if you want, I told mum I was heartbroken but she said that it wouldn't effect my washing skills." Bailey said, pulling out his best puppy eyes that usually Aubrey would ignore but she couldn't help herself after knowing the week that he had been having. "And you can make me french toast like we used to have as kids." He added as an afterthought, his eyes lighting up at the idea of the snack.

"Give me like twenty minutes and I'll be back with food for us to eat while we talk about life." Aubrey said, not even bothering to try and get out of the tasks that she had been given. "Don't go leaving the house before we finish our brunch plans."

"I'll be in bed waiting, don't worry about me moving a muscle." Bailey replied, catching the ball when it was thrown back in his direction by Aubrey who left the room to prepare.

~~~

"What're you doing, you don't live here?" Sinead questioned as she watched her daughter cutting up french toast. Aubrey had made the toast for both her and Bailey as per the request.

"Decided that I'd make Baz a pick me up while I'm over, and want to spend time with him and reminisce over the past." Aubrey explained, pouring the little square pieces into a larger bowl that they would be able to eat out of.

"Okay, thank you for being such a good big sister," Sinead placed a kiss to Aubrey's forehead and walked away to tend to the washing that she thought would be finished soon.

"Baz?" Aubrey called as she walked into his room, this time without knocking. "I have our food for us." She said and jumped onto the bed to get comfortable. "Just the way we like it."

"You're the best Aubs, just so you know." He smiled taking a few pieces of the toast and chucking them into his mouth. "Is it bad that I don't have the energy to play today?"

"Of course it's not unusual, sometimes people need time to get over who they have lost especially when its the person that you rely on and spend a lot of time with. Tara was your person and its okay to be upset." Aubrey assured her brother. "Just don't let it get in the way of your career, footy is what you love and I know that she was as well but footy is also your future and she's not anymore. Take it from me though, it's never to late to get back with your ex if you want to. Plus you'll be fine when the adrenaline starts building."

"You're right. I'm going to play well." He said, sounding as determined as ever cracking his knuckles, in turn making Aubrey cringe at the sound.

"You do that little brother, I'll be watching." Aubrey said ruffling his mullet. "I'm proud of you regardless."

~~~

Chloe yawned as she took a seat beside Aubrey, a couple of the girls hadn't seen each other in a while and Aubrey had missed the no fucks given attitude of Chloe. They were all meeting at Chloe and Pat's to spend some time together, minus Tara of course.

"I can't believe we won't be hanging out with Tara anymore. I loved that girl." Chloe sighed, dropping a malteaser into her mouth. "But oh well, life goes on."

"You can hang out with her if you want." Aubrey said. "I can't though, Bailey would hate it if I hung out with his ex."

"He hung out with yours." She pointed out.

"Yeah but that's different, he knew Josh before I did and that was always going to be the situation if we broke up and we knew that from the start. I met Tara because of him, now we just wait until he gets a new girlfriend. Shouldn't be too long, that boy can't be alone for five minutes. I obviously love him to death but he loves having someone to rely on." Aubrey said, she wondered who the next girlfriend would be and if she would like them as much as she liked Tara.

"Or he might take some time to himself." Ebony suggested as her and Mila walked in side by side, sitting on the seats opposite Chloe and Aubrey.

"Clearly you don't know him very well, its okay though. He'll grow out of it eventually." Mila said. "No harm in living it up while you're young, rather get with people when you're single rather then when you're married."

"True. Everything going well with Jamarra?" Aubrey asked, loving the way that the smile on Mila's face grew when she simply thought about he boyfriend.

"It's going well, some people think that the age difference is weird but I just try and block them out, people will always try and be all up in your business when they don't know you at all." Mila said, it had gotten difficult at times as she accumulated mean messages that she knew were meant to cut her down, but with Jamarra by her side keeping her going strong, it didn't even feel that bad.

"Look at you all being happy, you gotta help me be happy." Ebony pouted referring to the fact that Mila had Jamarra, Aubrey had Josh and Chloe was with Pat. "You're making me a big jealous."

"You'll find someone, I'm sure there's a single guy walking around the club who would fall in love with you instantly."  

i knew i smelt a lockdown coming, fingers crossed it is only a week
also does anyone else hate captioning instagram posts? that's just awkward