End Game

Sleep Is For The Weak

Author's note:

There's a chapter before this one. I posted them at the same time. This is just in case someone missed it 😊

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Laura's birthday was right around the corner and Olivia was already in multitask mode, trying to get everything done for the party her and Jordan had decided to throw her. Amidst all the chaos they knew that their mother needed some light.

She paced around the house while on the phone with a few vendors, coordinating everything until Jordan got off from practice. For some reason everyone else was busy, leaving her to tend to the party planning details alone.

Laura came downstairs looking tired, even though she was supposed to have had a long night of sleep. After mustering the courage to smile for her mother, to reassure her despite her exhausted appearance, Olivia sat up straight. She hated seeing her this way.

"How was your night?" She asked.

Laura chuckled a bit as she took a sit on one of the high chairs behind the kitchen island.

"As bad as I look... I had nightmares."

"What about?" Olivia tried.

"I don't really want to talk about it... All I can say is that they looked way too real... Waking up to an empty bed everyday is hard enough, but now it follows me in my sleep."

Olivia gave her a tight-lip smile, sympathizing with her mom's feelings. She was far from being out of the woods either, but at least she had Spencer and Jordan to talk to whenever she felt like she was having a crisis. Her mom's strongest anchor was her dad.

He was her best friend, her protector, her confidente. And now he was gone.

"Do you want anything in particular for breakfast? I'll make it for you." Olivia offered.

"Baby... If there's one thing you didn't take from your dad, it's his cooking skills. I've already had an intoxicating night, so let's not push it through the day." She said, laughing in the process.

Olivia didn't have time to be offended because she was too happy to hear her mother laughing. It had been too long.

"Well, Mrs not-a-chef-either, I'll just make you coffee. How does that sound?"

Olivia moved around the kitchen when Jordan and Spencer walked in, looking sweaty and exhausted.

"Hey, boys!" Laura said, greeting them with a smile.

"Hey, Mom! How are you?"

Jordan walked over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm good. How was practice?"

"Exhausting. Coach Kenny is not letting us forget the past few weeks of missed practices." Spencer explained.

Jordan and Spencer were on an intensive program with Coach Kenny to get the team back in shape, after the weeks of people leaving, coming back, trying to stop the football program and so on. With the boys' recent lack of commitment, he put a lot of pressure on them to do their job as leaders.

Which meant less time to do anything else.

"Don't push yourselves too much, or else you'll break." Laura said, grabbing her cup of coffee from Olivia.

She thanked her daughter and retired herself to her room to get some work done. With Coop helping her at the office, she didn't have to physically go up there for now. She still needed time.