RUN!

43

  Reyna's waiting outside for us. She looks like she's been run over by a bus and a train simultaneously.

"Glad you could make it," she says once she spots us. She sure sounds relieved.

"Where's your mum?" Lee asks. None of us have met Reyna's mum and we're not sure if we want to meet her.

"Inside. She's with the boys right now but I'll take her upstairs," she explains. When we're just standing like that for more than a second she drops her hands from her hips and sighs.

"Ask."

"What do you want to do with your mum?" Lee asks immediately.

"More like what's wrong with your mum? Why do you want her to watch the boys?" I fire.

"She's unpredictable and unaware of her surroundings," she answers immediately.

"She's crazy?" I shriek.

"She's a druggie. Well, she was according to her but how am I supposed to believe that? She's harmed them before and she can do it again."

"Okay. Okay. What does she want?" Lee steps closer to the house.

"She wants to stay with us. And I don't want that."

"Reyna, you've been living alone with your two brothers?" I gasp.

"Since I was 15," she challenges. "I'm not going to explain myself but believe me when I say it's better this way. I'm going to speak to her all I need is you two to take my brothers out and distract them."

"Hey, that's not what you said over the phone," I can't help but complain. She shoots me a look that says it all and I zip it.

"We'll wait outside for them," Lee tells her. She nods and goes inside to bring them.

"You've met them before right? Her brothers?" I turn to Lee.

"Yeah but they were unconscious back then," he whistles.

"This is unsettling," I say to the air mostly but he nods.

"It's not safe is it? Three kids alone?"

"I'm sure she'd cut your tongue out if she heard you calling her a kid."

"Well she is one–"

"Here they are," Reyna sings. Her twelve year old brothers are half her height and so fair skinned I'm half sure their adopted but then they raise their heads and the same golden brown eyes stare at me. "River, Rodrick, these are my friends Adonis and Min-ho. You guys are going to go do some boys stuff while I talk to mum okay?" She tells them. She's a completely different person in front of her brothers, her tone, her expressions. It's obvious she's played the role of a mother more than the role of a sister.

"She won't stay the night right?" River asks Reyna. It's more like a demand, like his life depends on in. Mother Reyna shakes her head and smiles at him. I wonder what her mum did to them that would make a twelve year old boy specifically ask for her to be gone.

Reyna hands them over to us and checks her watch.

"Bring them back by 4, she should be gone by then. I'll call you though."