TANGLED PLANS

Epilogue

Seven Months Later

My older brother and his best friend are graduating today. It has been an emotional day for me. The boys don't really care, but I do. They are both excited to be done with high school and heading off to university in our town. Brayden and Max got accepted to the most popular college here in our hometown, so they decided to go.

I'm happy for them; really, I'm very happy for them. But then I think about the fact that I was still going to be down here while they were gone. Both of them would be leaving me.

I wipe away another secretive tear as Brayden and Max share a story with each other. I'm sitting on the couch, and Max sits right beside me, so close that he is basically behind me. Max places a hand around my waist and presses his mouth on the back of my head as he muffles laughter. Brayden had just shared a story about how Max had run across the field one day and fallen on his face.

The boys were having a fun time as they shared memories of their high school years. I laugh slightly at the memory as well, even though it happened before I came to high school, so I wasn't there for it. Brayden laughs harder when he adds to the part where Max had gotten up and started to walk as if nothing happened.

"Max was good at doing that," Brayden says with a laugh. "He was good at pretending that everything was all right."

My heart clenched at the mention of Max pretending. Brayden wasn't saying it now, but I knew that when he said that he was talking about everything that had gone down the first month of school. Max had lost his mom to her own selfishness and hadn't returned to him. I'm frowning, but Max doesn't recognize the double meaning in the sentence.

He pulls away from behind me and leans forward. "It had hurt, you know. My chin throbbed in pain for the better part of an hour, Max says with a frown then. I look up at the clock overhead, and my eyes widen once I read it.

graduation," "Oh guys, there's only an hour left to get to the school for graduation," I tell them with urgency, but the boys only stare at me. Right, an hour was a lot. I stand up from my spot, letting Max's hand drop from my lap, and I put my hand in my hair. "I have to go get ready," I say, and then look over at the guys as I study their approaches.

Turning my nose up at them, I say, "You guys should go get ready as well."

"What do you mean by that, sweetheart?" Max asks as he stands up from his spot, his body coming close to mine. There's lightness to his brown eyes when he asks, "You saying I stink?"

I scrunch my nose up at him and say, "I don't know. Are you saying that?"

"Daisy," Max says with a click of his tongue, and I laugh when he throws his arms over my shoulder and brings me close to him. "Tell me I stink."

"You don't," I shriek into his chest, and he laughs as he pulls away from the hug. He presses a kiss on my head and then drops a hand from my shoulder as he turns us toward my brother. "I'll have to get home to get ready as well. I'll meet you guys at school with my dad."

Brayden nods at that and then says, "Same, my dad will be here."

"You know the both of us won't have our mom's there," Max says with a little frown. Brayden nods and then says, "I still have the envelope I have to open from mom."

"She wrote something for you?" I ask Brayden, as this is news to me.

Brayden nods, his blue eyes watering for a second at the mention of our mom. "Dad gave it to me this morning; he said that mom told him to give it to me during my graduation day."

I frown, pulling my hands closer to myself, and say, "Do you think she gave me one?"

"Definitely. She loved us and wanted to make sure she said something on our naughty days," Brayden answers, and my frown deepens. I didn't know how I felt about reading words from my mother a year from now. I didn't know if I would be able to hold myself together.