Julie and the Phantoms: The (unofficial) second Chapter

Part 15

Alex POV

We pull up in front of my house and I shake Nick a little bit. "hey, buddy we're home." He starts to wake up a little bit. "Okay, let's see how much we can move in tonight, but you guys have school tomorrow morning so we can't stay up too late. We all nod our heads. All three of us grab our overnight bags that we had packed at Mom's house and set them down in our rooms. When I walk into my room I see two beds. Nick shows up at the door shortly after. "I guess we're going to be roommates for longer than just a weekend." He says setting his bag down on the bed across from mine. He sits down and pauses for a minute. "You okay Nick?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." I nod my head as he follows me back upstairs to get another load of stuff. We didn't take everything from our rooms at our mom's house, we only took what we wanted to keep with us since we won't get to see her as much. Nick brought the most because He was fully moving in with us. We get upstairs and are greeted by a six-year-old running full force at us. "Alex!" She yells as she jumps into my arms. I catch her and spin her around. She laughs and looks next to me. Her eyes get wide. "NICKY!"
"Addi!" He says as I hand her off to him so I can grab more boxes. He sets her on his hip and walks over to the couch. He sets her down and she jumps back on him wrapping her arms around his neck. "I missed you, Nicky." She says "I missed you too Addi." Mom walks around the corner and into the living room. "Nick. I'm so glad to have you here."
"Thanks for letting me stay here Kylee."
"Of course Nick. You know you can call me mom." He shakes his head. "Not yet." He replies. She hugs him and kisses the top of his head. "I'm just happy that I have all my Babies under the same roof again, at least for a few hours." She ruffles his hair. He smiles at the sentiment. We get a lot moved in before Arianna has to leave. She is in college and came home just to watch me play, well, and to help Mom move. She lives about two hours away from us. We watch her leave and head back inside. We finish bringing in the last few boxes at around 10 pm. Addi went to bed a few hours ago, but Nick and I decided to stay up and finish. We bring in the last box and decided to head for bed. I lay down and hear the sound of soft crying across the room. "Nick, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" I ask sitting up and turning on a light. He rolls over to face me, it looks like he'd been crying for a while. I go sit on the floor next to his bed. "What are you doing? Did you want to make fun of me?"
"Make fun of you? Why would I make fun of you?"
"Because you always do."
"What do you mean?"
"Like, every time you come over even when we were little, you always beat me at everything, every video game, every board game, and every card game, I could never win. Then when Dad got remarried, I decided to live with Mom and Carter, and you decided to live with Dad and Kylee. I finally didn't have to be competitive at home anymore. Everywhere else I was still Alex's little brother, but at home, I could finally be Nick. Then when Carter got a new job and I had to choose to move towns or move in with Dad, I decided to stay rather than try to restart through high school. Everything I do is compared to you. It's hard to live up to it. I always feel so little when I'm around you. I just feel like a little kid." I sigh "Well, I didn't know you felt that way."
"Yeah, cause that would actually require you to want to be a part of my life."
"You mentioned that earlier, can we talk about that for a minute?"
"What about it?"
"Why do you think that I don't want you in my life."
"Well, you don't really make an effort. I mean you didn't live with me, and you don't talk to me at school. We kinda run with different crowds. You don't exactly make an effort to be a part of my life."
"Okay little brother, how can I be a part of your life. Who do you want me to be in your life?"
"I've survived fine without you. Why would you want to come into it now?"
"I want to be a good brother. I've realized I failed at that, and I want to do better." He looks at me for a minute trying to determine if I was being genuine or if this was just temporary. "I guess I just want to know your there, I don't want to be treated like a little kid."
"So you don't want me to poke at your sides and tickle you," I say while I poke at his sides to make him laugh. "Alex stop it," he says through his laughter. I pause for a minute and feel my face drop when I remember why we didn't get along. I see a little kid, little Nick, He's standing in the driveway crying. "Alex... I don't want you to go." He says starting to cry. "Why are you leaving me?"
"Hey, I know you don't understand right now, but I need to go, okay buddy." He nods his head I climb into a truck, I see My Dad next to me. "I know it's hard leaving your Mom and Brother, but I really think tour going to like the new house." I nod my head. "It didn't feel like I had much of a choice." We pull down the street and I can't help to cry. I see Nick still standing in the driveway waving goodbye, I wave to him in the rearview mirror. I remember pulling up to the house where Arianna is inside. "Alex!" I grab onto my sister, never wanting to let her go. I see Kylee walk around the corner carrying a toddler. "Owix!" the toddler yells reaching her arms out to me. I take her from Kylee's arms. Kylee gives me a hug. "Hi, Kylee," I say looking down feeling like this home will only be temporary. "Alex look at me." She says I look up as Arianna takes Addison from my arms and carried her away. Kylee wraps me up in her arms. "Alex, I love you like your my own." this comment made me break down. "Why doesn't he love me? What's wrong with me?"
"Nothings wrong with you Alex. We love you no matter what." I feel myself get pulled back to reality with Nick staring at me. "Alex? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah... Umm... Yeah, I'm fine. We need to get to bed, we have school in the morning." I say brushing his hair out of his face. "Alex? Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, just a bad memory."
"Was it a memory of Carter?"
"What?"
"Was it when Carter kicked you out?"
"Nick, what are you talking about?"
"I found out that it wasn't your decision to leave. That's why I live here now too."
"What do you mean?"
"Carter and I got into a fight a few weeks ago. I was planning on moving with them before the fight. Then he told me 'Maybe I should have kicked you out with your brother.' I can't even remember what the fight was about, in that minute I hated him."
"Nick you can't hate him, he still helped raise you."
"Yeah, but he kicked you out and made it look like you left us. I guess I'm not mad at you for being in my life, I'm mad at myself for not wanting you in it." Nick sits up in bed and starts to look down. I wrap my arms around him, "Don't blame yourself. I'm not mad at you."
"But you should be!"
"Shhhhh, Calm down. I'm not mad at you, there is no way you could have known. I wanted you to stay with mom, that's what you needed. You knew Mom and Carter, you weren't ready to move nine hours away to live with Dad. It was three more years before we actually moved back to this area. You needed to stay here, that's what was best for you." He nods his head. "I missed you so much, Alex."
"I missed you too Nick. But now we don't need to be worried about that anymore. Your living here, you're stuck with me." I say poking his sides trying to get him off of me. He finally lets go of me and lays back down. "Okay, now I'm serious you need to get to bed." He laughs a little bit "Goodnight Alex."
"Goodnight Nicky."