Identical

Chapter 18

A/N: This chapter is going to switch between Owen and Danny, which I know is different from the usual. Thanks for reading!

Danny

I could still hear Brayden and everyone else yelling, but I couldn't go back, not after what I did. Brayden said it wasn't my fault, but he doesn't know. No one does.

I just ran past Willow Street, about 4 blocks from Brayden's house. I wasn't sprinting anymore, but I was still running. I stopped at the end of the street to catch my breath. I should've said good bye to Zach, I thought to myself. 

Zach, my younger brother who I couldn't protect from our father. He's only 9 and he didn't get any childhood whatsoever. Carly, my older sister who got verbally abused by that man and I couldn't protect her either. Maybe dad was right, I thought to myself, I'm not a good enough brother. If I hadn't found out about  him none of this would've happened.

I found out about Easton by accident. I wasn't even looking for him, because I didn't know he existed. Mom and dad tried to hide him so we would never find out. When I confronted mom about him, she told me the truth. 

"Easton is your older brother," she had said through some tears, "I wanted to keep him, but your father and I weren't mature enough to handle him."

They had given him up for adoption, but he found them and they secretly kept in touch. I opened one of the letters from him by accident and he said that he wanted to meet us, all of us. Dad had seen me with the letter and that was the first time he ever hit me. He told me not to tell anyone, not even mom.

"Are you going to meet him?" I had asked him after he hit me.

"That's none of your concern," he had said back, "As far as you know, he doesn't exist."

But dad didn't know that I kept the envelope. Dad didn't know that I  wrote him a letter, asking to meet him. Dad didn't know that he said yes and that I was going to meet him tonight. 

In fact, I see him waiting for me across the street at The Lakeside Diner. Time to meet my big brother Easton.

Owen

"Did you see where he went?" I asked Brayden for about the 10th time.

"No, Owen! I've already told you this!" he snapped at me.

"Do you know where he would've gone?" Hattie asked no one in particular.

"No, but we've got to check the whole city," Carly said.

"Agreed," Olive said, "I'll get Ethan and his brother to help too."

"Great," I said as she went off to call him.

"We need to split into teams," Brayden said, "I'll go with Hattie in her car. Owen. Carly, and Zach can go in mine, and Olive can ride with Ethan and Andy."

"Sounds good," Olive said, "They're on their way."

"Alright, we should head out now then," I said to Carly.

"Okay. Come on Zach!" Carly said.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"To find Danny," I said walking towards the door with Carly and Zach in tow.

"Where's Danny at?" he asked.

"That's what we're going to find out," Carly said when we were outside.

"Okay," he said shrugging like it's no big deal.

We got in Brayden's car and started towards the south end of town in silence. Carly was driving and Zach was in the back seat humming slightly. I told Carly we should head towards Willow Street, since it was the last street technically in town and we'll start from there. She only nodded and started down that way.