Marks of a Broken Tree

Part 3: Tight Places

Damon
    "HOPE! Damon HAS SOMETHING TO TELL YOU! You two have fun. I have Bria and Alex to interrogate." Lianna says leaving me alone with Thade, and a somewhat angry Hope.
    "Lia seriously?!" I turn to face her but she's long gone by the time Hope gets to us.
    "Damon this better be good." Hope snarls, clearly is pissed that we pulled her away from whatever she was doing.
    "Hope before you get mad, just hear me out. This is Thade."
    "Ok and why is he here?" She's taps her foot impatiently.
    "So...umm...about that...he's kinda...m-moving in with the rest of us..." I say nervously. Oh God she looks so mad right now, please Lord let me live another day.
    "What the hell do you mean, he's moving in with us?! How many people are you thinking of moving here? You don't even live here, it was only supposed to be a few people living here, this house isn't a mansion."
    "Ummm, Hope. Look behind you and explain what a mansion is." I say sighing, damn you Lia.
    "He can have a small room I suppose, but no more people got it?!" Hope says marching back inside the house.
    "Um I guess come in." Lia, you are so dead the next time I see you. "Hey Bria, can you show Thade to his room?" I say not waiting for her answer. I leave to go find Lia. Didn't she say she was going to integrate Bria and Alex? Going up to the attic, or better known as Lia's room. Knocking softly, I hear her voice, barely even there, yet she's still talking to someone.
    "Dad, nice to hear you too...what do you mean? No, I do not want to meet her, it's too soon." She paused, her voice was going shaky. "Dad you don't understand, I'm not coming back, not for a while...yes I'll come back for the holidays but not anytime sooner. Bye, I love you..." I hear a thud, and then sobbing.
    "Lia? Can I come in...?"

Bria
"Hey Bria, can you show Thade to his room?" Damon asked, I was about to open my mouth when I saw his back walking away from a figure standing still.
"Bria, right? I'm Thade." The figure slowly walked towards me, the height of the figure growing bigger and bigger until he finally towered over me.
"Hehe, hi let me show you around I guess." Feeling sheepish I showed Thade the general house tour, stopping in the kitchen I paused. "This is the kitchen as you can clearly see, Lia is usually the one who makes the meals, she's an excellent cook plus she makes delicious sweets. So this is your one and only warning after this you are on your own. This is her kitchen, if you leave a mess she will come after you, she may not look that scary but those kitchen knives in there are hers and she's very good at throwing them. Just keep that in mind." It's always fun to scare the newcomers, especially the cute ones.

Lianna
    I sat on the ground sobbing after the phone call with my dad. "Lia, can I come in..?" Damon's voice was a beacon, it was my one constant now in my life. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I stood up and slowly opened the door. Gaining some confidence I looked into Ry's eyes and speaking slowly I managed to say a sentence I didn't think I would ever have to say. "Damon, he remarried."
    "Your...dad...remarried?" Closing the distance between us, he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Oh Lia, I'm so sorry. I had no idea he moved on so fast. How are you holding up?'
    I couldn't speak, it was like a wall had hit me. My dad had moved on, barely weeks after he learned of mom's death. "Ry, my dad married Thade's mom. That's why she's in town, she was trying to meet me before I found out the news. Do you think Thade knows yet? Oh god I have to tell him don't I?" With tears streaming down my face, I buried my face deeper into his chest.
    "Do you want me to tell him?" Damon asked softly, as he ran his hands through my hair in a soothing motion.
    "No, I think it's best if I tell him. We're family now, so it has to be me. Besides, you still haven't really forgiven him yet."  I stood up, wiping the tears from my eyes. "I can do this, I guess I finally have a sibling."
             Walking around the house I searched for Thade, in my head I thought of all the possible ways I could bring up the fact that we're now step-siblings. None of the scenarios were good. Finding Thade in an abandoned room, where he was talking on the phone. "Yes mom, I'm still with her...no, I don't think she knows...I'm moving into the same house she lives in though, so I'm sure I can get close to her. I got to go mom. A cute girl is showing me around the new house. Bye mom, love you. Tell who knows who I hope to get to know him better." Maybe I shouldn't storm into his bedroom. I'll catch him in the kitchen, once Bria is done with him.
.    .    .
    "Thade we need to talk." I say entering the kitchen where I found Bria and Thade deep in conversation, not even acknowledging the fact I spoke, I slowly walked back upstairs.
    "So how did it go?" Damon asked eagerly, despite the fact that he and Thade were fighting, he was still happy for me. It's so sweet.
Thade
    "So you're telling me, you want to be a police officer? You'd make a good bad cop, with your anger issues." I say, lightly teasing Bria. We've been talking now for the past hour, just sitting outside underneath a beautiful, red maple tree.
    "Well at least I have an exciting career ahead of me, what do you want to be again?" Bria says laughing.
    "I want to be part of the FBI unit. Just between you and me, I've already graduated from college, I'm just here for the training" I whisper to Bria.
    "Wait so you're 23?! So why are you living with us then?" Bria hissed back at me, laughing as I laid down on the grass.
    "My mom recently married this guy, and he has a daughter who lives here. I found out that my new step-sister goes to the university here, and luckily I transferred here from the California academy. Now I just gotta find here." I explain with a sigh.
    "What's her name?" Bria asked, laying next to me her head on my chest.
    "Lianna Evans, she goes by Lia. I know that she lives here I'm just waiting for the right time to talk to her." I explain, looking up at the sky. "I think she wasn't even really told about the surprise marriage, so she might be just as shocked as I am about the whole thing."
    "Get up of your ass, go find her and talk to her." Bria asked pushing me towards the house. "I have to make a phone call, so go find Lia and talk to her she's usually a very understanding person. Just don't piss her off and you'll be fine."
    "That's really reassuring, if I piss her off I have to deal with Damon so I'm just really excited to talk to her." I say gritting my teeth, Damon still hasn't forgiven me about the whole "Madison" situation. Me suddenly being related to his girlfriend isn't going to change anything. If anything it's going to make things 10x more awkward. Sighing I head back up to the house, this was going to be a really awkward conversation. Hopefully I don't die...do I really have to tell Lia? Yes it would be wrong of me to keep something like this from my new "sister".

Lianna
Staring out the window into the meadow in the back of the house I see Thade and Bria making their way back inside, maybe I could finally split the two up for a second. It seems like they've been connected at the hip since I introduced the two of them. "Hey Damon, I'm going to go talk to Thade." I shout at the bathroom door, not really waiting around for an answer. I headed downstairs to talk to my new "brother". This is going to be such a blast. I was walking to the living room when my phone binged with a text. 
Did you seriously think you got rid of me...Ready for round two?
Goosebumps run races down my arms...this must be a joke, she died, we all saw her body. But what if it was just a stunt double? Questions circled my head, what was I supposed to do tell the group, what if it's just a joke. With shaky, and sweaty palms I started typing out a message.
Who are you?
    I'm a little hurt that you don't remember your dear old mother. If you even utter one word to your friends I'll make sure you would regret it.

It's not a joke.