Almost Home

Ch. 5 - Udderly Embarrassing

Josh Forbes//Zach Roerig

"Henry, let go!"

"You'll ruin my new shirt!"

"Your shirt is hideous anyways, Sarah!"

"Mom!"

"You're such a crybaby, Becca!"

"Hey, where is the remote?"

I walk into the Forbe's living room a bit cautiously. Once the kids notice me, the whole room falls silent. Henry makes the first move, attacking me with a hug. Many, many tiny hugs follow.

Will is the last one to make his way over, his arms open. "Come here, you know this is one of my favorite past-times."

"If only I had a bottle of milk to defend myself," I laugh and dodge the hug jokingly.

"Way to control the kids, boys," Julie mutters.

"We did control them," Josh argues. "If Edward hadn't changed the channel then Lauren wouldn't have thrown the pillow that hit Henry and ultimately started the chaos."

"Where were you two?" Will asks, placing Henry on his lap.

"We went swimming at the lake."

I wave my swimsuit in the air to exaggerate the point. Josh and Will share that same boyish look- the one when they found out my dress was see-through. "Without us?"

Julie throws a pillow at her brother. "If you keep this up, I'll tell mom you broke the window."

"I didn't even break it! That was Will!"

"Actually," Will intervenes, "you ducked when I threw the bat."

"Naturally!" Josh yells at his friend.

"You could've caught it," Will mumbles.

"It was a bat, Will!"

Julie rolls her eyes and tugs on my arm to lead us out of the living room. "This house is a circus. It must be nice being the only child."

"I guess," I say as we walk into Julie's room. "I mean, there are times when I wish I had siblings."

"Why is that?" she asks, plopping down on her bed.

"Because siblings will always be there for you. They're your family. It's an unconditional love."

She nods. "Yeah, I guess I take that for granted sometimes."

"And I take a quiet house for granted plenty of times," I laugh.

"But you have your boyfriend to keep you company," she says with a suggestive eyebrow dance. "Tell me more about him."

"Well, we've known each other our whole lives. He was like how Will is for you, practically a brother."

She shudders. "Ew, I just imagined myself kissing Will."

I laugh, "that's how I was with Cody! But then one day he admitted to having feelings for me and then we ended up dating the next week somehow. I don't know. It was weird at first, but I really do love him."

"Aw, that's cute," she says. "Do you miss him?"

I shrug and nod at the same time. "Yeah, I do. Back home we talk almost every night on the phone for hours. But now we're both so busy and the time difference throws things off. I don't know, it's just hard."

Mrs. Forbes walks into the room just then, a smile on her face. "Hi there, Valerie, are you staying for dinner?"

"Oh, I would, but I promised my grandma I'd help on the farm before sunset. Thank you though."