The Secret

Water Day

                       **Elaine (Rëds) POV**
I smiled at the message matt sent me; **I love you too momma🥺🖤** I knew the message would ring throughout my head for the whole day. I knew to most people our relationship would be "strange" but for those whose relationships were similar they understood. Don and Tyler understood my love of caring for others close to me (especially my partner) because it was a love I never received and also my way of showing love/affection to my partner. I don't know if caring or acting parental to your partner is a love language but it is what it is. I was never one for "fitting in" anyway. Also I've never met a couple that didn't have one "parent" and one "kid" but I think the better explanation is that one partner is more reckless and one is more level headed. You say "parent" and all the idiots with undiagnosed "mommy/daddy" issues (maybe even both) come out of the woodwork to misinterpret other peoples relationships.-Sigh- it's so exhausting.

It was one of the greater parts of our friend group though. We had a beautiful support system and we were closer with each other more than our families (for the most part). We did appreciate those that had good parents like Max (whose mom was smart, supportive and made sure Max was safe without intruding), Tyler's parents were the one stable couple and had a beautiful marriage and great kids including Tyler, they were known in higher society for their charity and work overseas as doctors. It's why Tyler babysat so much but at least he was prepared for Max) Don, Lily, and I were on the opposite side and after the past couple of days I believed Matt was too. Dons parents were always working or setting up events with clients and making him their personal butler/server during the parties (they were real estate agents and treated their company like their son and their son like free labor. They only paid him so he wouldn't "quit the family business" for another job. Also their marriage seemed to be more of an aesthetic for them rather than an actual relationship). Lilys parents were divorced and bitter as hell on both sides. Her mom used her like a bargaining chip with her dad since the day she was born and her dad gave up on her mom when Lily hit age 5 not before emotionally neglecting her at every turn and trying to manipulate her into lying to the court so her mom would lose custody. Then there was me. My parents were the "picture perfect" couple with the "picture perfect" family/kids and that's all I'm going to say about it........for now, and if you know you know. That's why our group works we all balanced each other out and we all talked about buying a big house together and basically living a kink sitcom based life together.

"Hey Rëd" Don called out and broke my train of thought. "What's up Donatello?" I said as I smirked at him. "Very funny Rëd" he rolled his eyes and glared at me while Tyler and I burst into laughter. "Would you two shut the HELL up!" Don whisper screamed as he motioned to a sleeping Lily and Max. Tyler and I covered our mouths in an attempt to stifle our laughs. Don just glared harder and said "alright then YOU two clowns can deal with the tantrums when they wake up." That got us to shut up real quick. 

        **Fast forward to them walking home**
"So Rëd what are you going to do about Matthew?" Don asked me. Tyler and I looked at each other. We tended to leave each other's littles to each other unless it was an emergency, we were asked for input or we felt that a punishment or reaction to them was unfair or unequal to what they did. "Well I was going to-" I started to say before I was interrupted by the buzzing of my phone. I told them my parents were calling me on three way and they had to be quiet. "Hello?" I said......silence. "Hellooo?" I said again......more silence. I sighed; hung up the phone and resisted my parents on a new three way call (this time I made it). "Hey mom?" I said after she picked up. "Oh hey I-" she started. "Hold on a sec mom." I pushed add call and dialed my dads number as well. "Hey dad." I said once he finally picked up. "Hey I was just-" he started. "Hold on a second dad let me add mom to the call." I merged the calls together. "Mom? Dad?" I called out to make sure they were still there. "Yes." My mom said. "I'm here too." My dad yelled. God they were loud. "Guys you don't have to scream I can hear you." I said to them. "Well excuse us." They said together, I just shook my head. "What's up? Whyd you guys call?" I asked trying to hurry the conversation along. We'd be at my house soon and though I was praying Matt was napping like he was supposed to be I seriously doubted it. "Maybe we just missed you Elaine did you ever consider that?" My mother never missed an opportunity to scold me like I was a toddler who'd spilled juice.

"You know your mother is right Eł..... we're your parents yet you act like we mean nothing to you. I mean when's the last time you actually called us??!!" My dad added. I felt my blood boiling and my anger spiking; I guess my shitty "childhood" (if you can even call it that) wasn't reason enough they continued to gaslight me over silliness. "Dad I literally called you! Both of you. Also our time zones are hours apart that's why I've just been texting." I stated while trying my hardest not to snap. I saw Ty, Li, and Don staring at me, clearly concerned, even Max looked scared. "Well we were just checking on you. We rarely hear from you and as your parents it's our job to watch you." My dad stated proudly for some reason. Like I hadn't been watching myself and my siblings since I was 7. "Dad you know I'm in highschool right? I literally graduate next year." I said. "Don't back talk your father!" My mother snapped at me. I felt a vein bulging from the base of my neck to my forehead as I did my best not to scream and shatter my phone against the road beneath me. I just took a deep breath and reminded myself that I just had one more year before I'd be free. "Alright well this has been fun but I'll talk to you guys later." I said as I hung up, too irritated to wait for a response.

                       **Matthews POV**

I heard the door unlock and ran down the stairs knowing it was none other than— "MOMMYYYYY" I screamed as I ran and jumped into her arms. I hugged her as tight as I could, afraid that if I stopped she might just disappear. She hugged me back and I hiccuped cause she was hugging me so hard. "Mo-mommy! You squeezing me too tight!" I squeaked out as I felt my ribs snapping. She apologized and loosened her grip. "I'm sorry my sweet boy. I just missed you sooo much today." I smiled at the nickname. I usually wasn't a fan of them but with mommy they never felt more special.....or more real. I hugged her again "I WUV you sooo much mommy." And she kissed my head "I love you too little one." We then heard a loud AWWW from the living room as I saw Tyty and Donny play mocking mommy. I laughed at their silly faces, until mommy put me down and started to chase Donny and Tyty around the hosue. Tyty ran outside and mommy chased after him while Donny hid away in the kitchen. I went to the window to see mommy wrestling TyTy, she put him in a headlock and he tapped out. That could be ME wrestling mommy! I thought of a plan and went to go tell Lily and Maxie once I saw Donny go outside.

                   **Ełaine (Rëds) POV**

"Alright alright you win Rëd." Donny said as he tapped the ground. "AHHHHHHHH HELP ME" we all stopped as we heard a loud scream from in the house. Tyler and I looked at each other as we realized that was Lily screaming, Don was already to the front door while Tyler and I were still trying to figure out what in the hell was happening.......we just knew it couldn't be good. As we were racing to the door Don was already inside and we heard him screaming and........what the fuck? Was that....giggling? Tyler and I went into the house only to have buckets of water dumped on us while Lily and Matt, sigh, pelleted us with Tie dye water balloons. It took about 30 more seconds for them to run out of balloons, they'd given some to Max as well so he could support them from the side after he pulled the rope that emptied the water buckets on us. Which unfortunately for us was full of freezing water. I sent the brats to my room while Don, Tyler and I all went outside to dry off, I left towels on floor to clean up the water, luckily for us most of it was on our clothes so I only used about 2 towels. "Mannn that kid is something else huh?" Ty laughed as he towel dried his hair and ears. "Definitely took me by surprise! Who knew he had it in him?" Don chuckled. As much as I wanted to be mad and turn Matthews ass red for his little "prank" I couldn't ignore the fact that not only was it funny but it was crazy creative. Not to mention the fact that the mess was pretty minimal and we got a good laugh out of it, even Don was smiling. "You know guys. We should surprise our littles to show just how much "fun" their prank was for us." I said as an evil grin covered my previously sunken face. Don and Ty caught on immediately and rushed to enact their own plans.

While I.......I'd be dealing with Matt right here and now. The grin I had went from ear to ear and could scare the grinch himself. "You're about to get all of my attention Matthew."