His Sunflower

Chapter 26

"So this is my dad's house." I say motioning to the house in front of us. "I helped pick it out. Not to brag."

"You definitely meant to brag." Ethan laughs and takes my hand.

Ethan has been driving me to and from school ever since he got his license, and he's seen this house a fair amount, but he's never seen the inside yet.

"I did." I admit. I love the fact I helped picked out this house. I still remember the very first night we spent here together. "Come on." I pull him to the front door, and I open it.

I kick off my shoes, so Ethan copies me. "My mom's somewhere here, but she won't know we're here until we close the front door." I explain.

"How does she know?" Ethan asks closing the front door behind him.

"She can feel the vibration of the door closing." I say shrugging.

"Woah, that's crazy." Ethan whispers.

"Dude, there's no point in whispering. She's deaf, remember?"

"Oh yeah. So if I like, screamed right now, she'd never know?"

I roll my eyes. "What part of deaf don't you get?"

Ethan shrugs.

"Let's go up to my bedroom before she comes to say hi though." I say taking Ethan's hand again.

"Zoey..." I shush Ethan and take him up the stairs.

"My dad should be home in about an hour." I pull him into my bedroom, closing the bedroom door.

"Oh, sorry about the mess." I say looking around my bedroom. There's clothes thrown everywhere, dishes scattered around, and my unfinished assignments and homework papers everywhere. "I haven't cleaned up in... since mom came home."

I quickly pick up my clothes, and toss them into my closet. And stack up the dishes and put them on my desk, and then gather up my undone school.

"Are those the assignments you haven't done?" Ethan asks.

"Hahaha.... Yeah." No point in denying it, Ethan can tell whenever I lie.

"Want to work on some of it together? I've already done it so I can be some help." He suggests as he starts taking my several pillows and stuffed animals off my bed.

"Ugh... I guess. I should probably finish these sometime anyway."

Ethan nods and then straightens my sheets and blankets, and stacks my pillows and stuffed animals back on my bed. "May I sit on your bed?"

I shrug. "Sure." I know some people don't like other people sitting on their beds, but I'm not one of them. I could honestly care less.

Ethan sits himself on my bed. "Dang, your bed's comfy."

I grin. "I know!"

"Ok, what subject do you want to work on first?"

I sigh and look through all my assignments, picking the subject with the most work needed. Might as well knock out the biggest project first.

"Spanish."

I jump on my bed, and Ethan immediately pulls me onto his lap. I smile shaking my head. He's done it so much it's normal to me know. Whenever I went to his house, which was quite often, we'd always sit like this on his bed.

"You're great at Spanish so this shouldn't be too hard." Ethan says and we start working on it.

...

"Hey Zoey?!" I hear my dad yell from downstairs.

"Yeah?!" I yell back, from my comfortable spot laying on top of Ethan while we watch a movie. We were taking a break from my school.

"The twins are gonna come over for dinner! Mind taking Ethan to your grandparents and walking them over here?! I have to start dinner!"

I lean up, looking at Ethan. "Want to meet my siblings?"

"Sure." Ethan says shrugging.

"Ok!" I yell back and get off of Ethan.

"How far away is your grandparents place?" Ethan asks as he places his hand on my back as we walk downstairs.

"Only like 10-15 minutes. You don't mind walking that far so you?"

"No, not at all." Ethan says smiling at me.

We put on my shoes, and I push Ethan out of the house when I hear my mom start walking towards us.

"Zoey, stop avoiding your mom." Ethan sighs taking my hand.

"Psh, I'm not avoiding her." I lie. Who am I trying to fool? Of course I'm avoiding her.

"You're a really bad liar." Ethan snorts.

"Shut up dork."

We walk to my grandparents house, talking about the randomness things. And when we get there I walk right in, without even knocking.

"Max!! Clara!!" I yell into the house.

"Zoey?!!" Max yells and then I hear his little footsteps running to me.

He runs to me, and hugs me tightly. "Hi Zoey!! What are you doing here?!"

"Zoey!!!" Clara just then yells and then runs to me and hugs me too.

"We're going to go eat dinner with mommy and daddy!" I say, faking my happiness. The twins don't know what's going on with me, so it's best to pretend it's all ok.

"Yay!! I miss mommy so much!" Max says.

"I missed mommy more!" Clara says the throws a look at Max.

"Where's grandpa?" I ask.

"Your grandfather's out at work with an emergency case." I hear grandma say. She and I aren't on bad terms anymore, not that we ever really were.

"Oh, well dad told me to come get the twins because they were gonna eat dinner with us." I say.

"Ok. Let me give you four a ride back." Grandma says then walks off, Probably to get her car keys.

"Hi! I'm Max, who are you?" Max asks Ethan, finally realizing he's here.

"My name's Ethan. I'm Zoey's best friend." Ethan says smiling down at Max.

"Hi!! I'm Clara! Has Zoey ever talked about us?"

Ethan nods. "Of course she has. You're her siblings, she has to talk about you."

Clara squeals. "You talk about us?!"

"Yeah." I say shrugging. "I always talk about you."

"Hey Ethan? Has Zoey ever told you about our brother Matthew? He was the mostest awesome older brother ever!"

Clara places her hand on Max's shoulder. "Max, you forgot to say Matthew died."

"But why does that matter Clara? Sure he died, but he's still here. Just in our hearts. We shouldn't let his death make us sad, because he'll always be here, he's always with us. His spirit will always live on." Max says then grins at me. "Right Zoey? Matthew is always going to be alive in our hearts?"

"Oh course Max. Matthew will always be in our hearts." I say softly.

He'll always be with us. I never really lost my brother, he just went to live on in our hearts.