Where It Ends

13 | escalating

A FEW DAYS WENT BY, AND IT WAS THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD. Dax actually made me go to school everyday, which wasn't the best, but at least I had Theo, his friends, and Leilani. They all made school somewhat tolerable, a surprising feat considering how much I usually disliked it. I still called Nik and TJ every day. I didn't realize how inseparable I was from the guys until I was... well, separated from them.

But my brothers have been nice too. Things have been calmer after my talk with Dax, and luckily for me, none of my other brothers brought it up. I did get some sad glances which made me feel slightly uncomfortable, and even Sam was a fraction of a percent nicer to me. I think the news about Whitney's addiction hit Zeke the hardest. I only saw him once in the past few days, and it was after he came back to the house at midnight with a disheveled mess of hair and a bloody nose. I offered him an ice pack, which he hesitantly accepted.

He must fight at Siegel's too, I thought.

I wondered if the two of us had been there the same night before, completely unaware of each other's presence. The fact that all this time my biological brothers had only been living half an hour away from me was absurd. I still didn't really know them that well yet, but a part of me couldn't help but resent Whitney for hiding them from me, for not even caring enough to tell me that they existed. Guilt settled in my stomach for thinking about her like that. A part of me still missed her horribly, even after everything. I wondered if that would ever end.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on my bedroom door. "Hey, Evie," Eli said as he opened it. "Time for dinner."

"I'll be there in a sec!" I said, realizing that I was zoned out for so long that I hadn't even finished my math homework yet.

"Actually, can we talk for a second?" he asked, his tone serious. I put my pencil down, facing him. He wore a sad, solemn expression that made my heart drop.

"We're planning on having Mom's funeral in a few days, and we wanted to give you a heads up," he said softly. A wave of sadness went through my chest, but I pushed it away as quickly as it came and nodded. I just wanted all the hurt and pain to go away with a wave of a hand, but I knew that wouldn't happen. In the meantime though, I could ignore it... or at least try to.

"'Kay," I whispered. As much as I hid the sadness on my face, he could definitely still sense it.

"I made hibachi for dinner," he said in a quiet, sing-song voice to cheer me up. I laughed softly and followed him to the dinner table, only to halt in my tracks when I saw Miles sitting next to Zeke... right across from my spot.

"I will never get used to this," I muttered, shaking my head as I sat down. Miles just snorted and took a bite of his food.

"So, how did you two meet again?" Zeke asked, confused.

"We went to the same elementary school," Miles butted in before I could tell them the full story. I just rolled my eyes in response.

"Three words: Toy Story Lunchbox," I chuckled as Zeke just looked at us, confused.

"You are never going to let that go, are you?" he groaned with his head in his hands.

"Nope," I said, satisfied, taking a bite of my own hibachi after Eli set my plate down. But something was off.

That's when I remembered— Benji wasn't here tonight. He was helping to host some sort of surfing event, which was wild to me since it was October in Washington. It felt weird that he wasn't here. It seemed like he was always the first one at the table so he could start scarfing down Eli's cooking as soon as possible. Not that anyone could blame him, considering Eli's cooking even rivaled Ma and Pa's.