Isabella

Chapter 18

A/N - It's 1am, I'm feeling generous, and Feelinggxx convinced me to <3

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"Darlin'", I hadn't heard that in a while. I only had one leg out of Xander's car and Ezra was already standing right in front of me, holding the door open with one hand and extending the other towards me.

I still hadn't gotten used to the growing physical contact he was giving me.

"Mr Reyes", I greeted him, taking his hand and letting him pull me out of the car, "sleep well?".

"Six hours", he nodded and I grinned, "still want a coffee though".

"Ask and you shall receive", I reached back into the car for my bag and looked at the twins in the front seat; Xander had a cigarette in between his pursed lips and Xav was fiddling with his radio, "later idiots".

"Behave", Xander warned and I scoffed.

"Says the one smoking", he turned to me with a grin before sticking up a peace sign.

"Have a good day Izzy", Xav spoke without turning around; he'd been...quieter this past week. It was officially the 15th of December, ten days till Christmas and eight days since we saw Chase again, I couldn't wait.

"You too", I smiled, closing the door and turning back to Ezra who took my hand once again and started to lead us inside.

"Hands apart!", really Xander? Ezra chuckled and let my hand drop, I rolled my eyes and flipped my brother off...asshole.

Xander

Protection.

Defined as 'the action of protecting' - pretty fucking shit definition if you ask me.

But, it was the one thing I'd offer to my sister until the day I died; and that was a promise.

Watching her scurry off into school with Ezra made my chest tight and my fists clench, but he made her happy, so I had to direct that anger at something else. Or someone else. And apparently today that lucky person was my twin brother.

"Stop fucking touching my shit", I slapped his hand from the buttons on my radio and he rolled his eyes, I took a drag of my cigarette and blew the cloud of smoke out of the window away from him before glancing back, "what's up with you? Barely heard your annoying-ass voice today".

"Shut up", he scoffed, "nothin'".

"Bullshit", I took another drag, "bullshit and you know it".

Blowing the smoke at his face this time he groaned, flapping his hands to get rid of it in a hurry; he hated smoke, he hated drugs, he hated medication - alcohol was his thing.

"You know what's bullshit Ander?", I hated when he called me that, "we're being forced to go about our daily lives when he could be on the streets any day now". My fingers tightened around the cigarette and I crushed it in my hand, dashing the shit out of the window.

Idiot put me off my smoke.

"You think I'm happy about it? Cuz I'm not", I scoffed, "you think I haven't been up these past few nights dreading what's gonna fucking happen when he comes face to face with her?".

"Don't say that", he shook his head and I chuckled.

"It's gonna fucking happen Xav, face it", I shut off the engine, "he's gonna find us, he's gonna find her, and he's gonna fuck us up even more this time around, it's inevitable".

And with that, I climbed out of the vehicle and slammed my door shut - got me thinking about that shit at this hour of the morning...

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