My Overprotective Brothers

Photographs

We had just got home and the first thing I noticed was the moving trucks, all 9 of my brothers were with me, the youngest one Levi, whose only 5 years old was perched up on my hip, half asleep.

"Alright let's go boys, time to pack." I said and ushered them all in. "How about it Levi, we go pack up your stuff and then you go bother Alex while I do mine?" I asked the sleepy 5 year old, who gained the brown hair from my mother, like Jayden, Corey and myself.

"Do mine, then I go to JJ." Levi told me, he's always been attached to me and Jayden, don't know why, but we think maybe because I'm the only girl and he has no mum so I'm who he looks up to for female and I guess because Jayden's usually always with me.

"Alright bud, let's go." I agreed with him and we headed off to his room to pack his stuff up, keeping out a pair of pjs, a change of clothes for tomorrow, his toothbrush and tooth paste and his teddy bear.

1 hour later

"Come on bud, let's go find JJ." I said to Levi and picked him up, he was falling asleep as I walked, but he has to be watched at all times, so he can sleep in Jayden's bed.

I walked down the hall to my twins room which is just opposite mine and opened the door to see him finished and lounging around on his phone.

"Hey JJ, can he sleep in here with you while I pack?" I asked and Jayden nodded, waving his hand to tell me to put down our sleeping brother. "Bye Levi, bye JJ." I said and walked off to my room, this is gonna take a while.

I plugged in some music, packed while dancing around the room laughing, enjoying myself and letting the music run through my veins while belting out the lyrics. Music was in my blood, my mum loved her music, sometimes we'd all come home from school and find her singing around the kitchen along to the radio. She loved to sing, dance and act, she played her guitar and then taught me and Aiden how to play while she taught Jayden the ukulele.

We all play still, but not often, not wanting to be reminded of her, even though everywhere we look she's there and she's always at the back of our minds, never leaving.

When we lost my mum, she took my dad with her. They were attached, their hearts molding into one and when her heart stopped beating, so did his, not physically but emotionally it did.

I was always daddy and mummy's little girl, they said I was their ray of sunshine to break through the troublesome of my brothers. When my mum told me that she was pregnant again with Levi, I was first to know, she didn't know how to break it to my brothers or my dad, I was 11 years old and in that year, I learnt I had to grow up fast.

On October 4th, when I was 11 years old, turning 12 in 2 days, I lost my mum, the last thing I said was "I love you", luckily I got to say that before I was told she was hit with a speeding driver.

She had Chase, Coby and Levi in the back, all buckled up, they watched their mother die before their eyes. I was informed an hour after it happened, my mother was dead, gone from this earth.

Jayden took the news harshly than others, him and mum were in a fight before she died, he still got to say "I love you" when we left the house, but he still took it hardly because he had been fighting with her. It took me 3 days to convince him it wasn't his fault or that she was never angry with him and then he cried, I'd never seen my twin cry, but here he was balling his eyes out.

I had been for those 3 days, on my 12th birthday, I cried, I didn't talk to my friends, I only spoke to my brothers because they knew how I was feeling, especially Jayden. But I lost my world on October 4th, I lost my mummy...

2 hours later

I had just finished packing all my toiletries and all I had left was my photos and electronics, which would be easy to pack. Pulling down all my photos, there was only three left, Jayden and me with our arms wrapped around each other, the family photo one we took before mum died and the one of just me and mum.

I looked at the one of Jayden and me, his arms were wrapped around me on my waist, our sides touching while my arms were wrapped around his rib cage, my head resting where his heart would be while he stood proudly, smiles etched across our faces. We were acting like siblings, how we always acted.

The family photo was mum and dad wrapped up in each other, only staring at each other and then in the centre was me, with Chase, Coby and Levi at my feet and the elders surrounding me. I was in the middle with my 9 brothers surrounding me, as if they were protecting me from something, something that wasn't there, but might appear later in my life, but whatever the reason, they were there for me every time I needed them.

The last photo had me sitting on the blue floor of my bedroom, tears rolling down my face, staring at the photo of my mum and me, sitting on the couch next to each other and smiling broadly. Our brown hair was left natural down our backs, our chocolate brown eyes matching side by side, both of us dressed in cute red dresses, hers flowing to the floor and mine stopping just above my knee.

My legs were sitting across her lap while she had her arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer to her, as I rested my head on her shoulder. Our smiles were big and her eyes had that shine that sparkled, the love she felt for each and every one of us, mine had that twinkling look, the look I hadn't seen since she died.

It was the look that made me jump when I saw it, the look of feeling that you're loved and safe, it was how I felt with my mum, she made me feel like I belonged. She understood how I felt in this house of boys, she grew up with 5 brothers, nothing compared to the 9 I had, but she knew in a way what I was going through.

Growing up, my best friends were boys and Faith, that was it, Faith was my only girl friend. Other girls resented me or pretended to be my friends because of my brothers that they deemed hot worthy. My mum had the same as me, her best friends were all boys except that one girl best friend she had, my dad was her best friend growing up until they got to age 15 and got together.

And then they lasted so long, so in love, so in need of each other wherever they went, they were compelled to each other, they were made for each other and I noticed that as soon as I knew what love was. And that's why when we lost her, we lost my dad too, his heart left with her, leaving a part that could only hold his 10 children, but she took him with her.

Many of his workmates said he should start dating again because it's been 4 years and he always responded with the same answer "I won't love or like anyone but her. 4 years isn't enough, I will never ever ever get over her because how could you get over someone so beautiful, so caring, so amazing, so loveable, you can't. And I'm not giving her up, ever." And then he would walk off, not looking back at the stunned middle-aged men or women, because he had said all he needed to say. And I knew in that moment, that to love someone the way my dad loved my mum and she loved him, was something amazing and it was true love.

More tears fell down my face as I kept staring at my mum and me. I was identical to her in every way, to the chocolate brown eyes and brown hair, to the short stature, the petiteness of our body structure, the way our hips curved, our plump lips, high cheek bones, just everything. I was her in looks, but me in personality, just how she wanted it.

"Knock knock, Belle you done in there?" My brother Aiden asked through the door, I can always tell because of the nickname.

"Yeah I'm good AJ, I'm just looking at a photo." I called out back to him, trying to swallow my tears.

"I'm coming in Bella." Alexander called out before opening it and standing behind him were my 8 other brothers, I held out my arms to Jayden and he ran over scooping me up, rocking me back and forth on my lap while the rest of my brothers all sat around me, Levi fast asleep on Corey's lap.

And we all eventually fell asleep there, our last night spent as siblings and at about 2am, my dad crept in and fell asleep next to me and Jayden, we were a family missing an important part of it...