Sullivan Family: BOOK 2

XVI

"Get up! Wake up!" Levi's energetic voice greets me too early in the morning. I halfheartedly growl at him to let him know I'm not in the mood to be woken up bright and early on a PD day. It's a week day! Why in the world would I wake up early? "Wake up, wake up! Let's go to Mo-zay-ick-ahs!"

"No." I roll over, tucking my blankets in. He rips them off. I growl again and start throwing my pillows over my body, which is now cold.

"C'mon, your mo-zay-ick-ah is waiting!" Levi cajoles, tossing my pillows off me, too.

"I don't have one!" I snap, rolling off my bed to find a hoodie.

"What if that's Zayn's last name?" Levi innocently asks as I scrounge around for a hoodie, finding none that interest me today. Emmett's crewnecks don't have hoods and Ian must have given Manny back all the hoodies I stole. I look at Levi with puppy dog eyes. He rolls his eyes. "Only if you get up now. The youngers are still sleeping. Odin okayed it with me to take you out for the day, let you try to get your mind off everything."

"That's suspiciously nice of him." I frown, climbing up while stretching.

"Meh." Levi shrugs. He got a haircut recently. His dark blond hair looks brown with how close it is to his scalp. "They all have basketball and Em has a job, so they all get out of the house. You're the only rapunzel... but not for today."

"You know who rapunzel is?" I ask, laughing when his cheeks turn a light shade of red.

"That's what you took outta that?" He grumbles, chucking my few pillows speedily at me. One knocks me in the face, one misses and I actually manage to punch one out of the way.

"Just let me brush my hair and teeth." I yawn and fan at my face. "How early is it anyways?"

"Six. Give or take."

"What – did – you – just – say?" I grind out, my nostrils flaring. Then, I throw all my pillows back at him, greatly irritated when he dodges all three.

"Jeez Louise, you wanna spend some quality time with your fav bro, or not?" Levi asks, a smirk playing on his lips. He is already dressed for the brisk morning with a jean jacket, toque and work gloves.

"Not when I could be getting beauty sleep..." I complain, narrowing my eyes on him.

"Pfft. You and beauty don't go together." Levi rejoins, laughing when my narrowed eyes widen in disbelief.

"You and beauty don't go together!" I retort lamely, using his taunt. While I was sleeping last night, someone went to great lengths to clean my side of the room. All my clothes, ahem, Manny and Emmett's clothes that I claimed as my own, are sharply folded and neatly stacked on top of my dresser. When I look to 'my' half of my bedroom, the floor is clean of hair ties and chocolate wrappers that I definitely did not sneak after bribing my friends to buy them for me. The most glaring object missing: Ian's mattress.

"He left." Levi says softly. His jaw clenches and he looks away, his fingers flexing. Tears brim in my eyes.

"But–but–but I was just getting to know him!" I cry, chewing down on my thumb. Levi shrugs and pats his thighs, shrugging again and throwing his hands in the air.

"He left you something under all your clothes." Levi says, his easy going grin reappearing. "In the hopes that you would put them all away."

"Did he carry me to bed, too?" I ask as I make my way to my dresser. Last night, I'd fallen asleep in the closet. I was briefly woken up when someone picked me up, but I lazily went back to sleep, content to be babied again.

"Nah," Levi replies as I start putting t-shirts in their respective drawer. "Odin did."

"Oh." I say for lack of anything better. Hints of Ivan and Ian's argument surface, but I quickly drive the painful memory away. That was their problem and they need to work it out. What I know is good enough for me: both Ivan and Ian love me and treat me like I am something to be cherished. They just showed it in different ways.