Make No Apologies

Chapter 5

Author's Note: So here is Chapter 5. I loved writing this chapter and you will see why. Hope you like it! Let me know what you think :D

Chapter 5

“Arabella, wake up.” My eyes flew open as a result from being violently shaken by Aurora. “We were only in the car for thirty minutes and you managed to fall asleep. Did you not sleep at all last night?” I blinked my eyes repeatedly trying to focus them.

“No I did, I just got tired. I'm awake now.” I unbuckled my seat belt and crawled from the car, and made my way up to my front door.  No one was outside besides Aurora and I. She followed me to the door. “Where's Hayden?”

“He's already inside with Landon.” I swiftly opened the door, the hinges creaking, and found my mom walking out of the living room with a pair of suitcases. “Where are you going off to?”

“The company is sending me out on another business trip,” she clued me in with a smile. She avoided holding any eye contact for too long. Something she did when she didn’t want to be questioned. But I never gave into that.

“Again? Where to this time?” My mom was a CEO for a big shoe company by the name ofHyper-Links. From time to time her job called for her to be sent away for a week or more at a time to conferences and other business related deals. This was just another one of those times. But every time she did leave it felt like she would rather do something for her work than for her children. I knew it probably wasn't like that, but it was how I felt.

“New York. We are trying to expand our sales over on the east coast. This is going to be a big break for us, Arabella.” She gingerly pulled her coat on over her loosely curled hair.

It was funny how when she said us, it included my brother and me with the company. As if there wasn't a distinct difference between children and work. “That's great, Mom. How long is this one?”

“Just two weeks honey. The second I get back, we'll celebrate.” Celebrate for the company, I mentally told myself.

“Sounds great.” My mother pulled me into a hug and then pecked a kiss onto my forehead. “See you when I get back.”

“Okay. Bye.” She grabbed her bags and quickly scurried out to her car. I waved to her and watched as she backed out of the driveway and drove away. I was used to this.

“What do you want to do, Arabella?” I looked behind me at Aurora and thought about her question trying to conjure up an answer as to what we could do with the rest of the afternoon.

“Let's eat something. I'm starved.”

Aurora skipped into the kitchen with a grin upon her lips. “What are we going to have?” I followed her, but instead of skipping like she did, I walked, like a normal person.

“Sandwiches.” I started to pull the ingredients from the refrigerator.

“Oh.” Her smiled immediately dissolved from her face.

I giggled at her sudden change in expression. “Well if you don't want that, see what you want from the refrigerator. I'm going to go see if the guys are hungry.”

Aurora didn't answer me back, she was too preoccupied with trying to find something to eat. I traveled up the staircase and knocked on my brother's door. “Come in.” I did as he said and found Landon and my brother sitting at the computer ichatting someone. “What are y'all doing?”

“FacetimeingTiffany.” Landon was the one to speak. He didn’t look away from the computer screen.

“Why?” She was so fake. But she was pretty and that was all guys cared about.

“Well, I'm not really the one chatting. Your brother here is.” Landon turned  and shot a preverted smile to Hayden. As if just realizing I was standing in the door, Hayden said, “What did you need, Sis?”

“Um...Aurora and me were wondering if y'all wanted some sandwiches or something.”

Landon got up from his seat next to Hayden and started walking in my direction. “I would love that.” He walked right past me and started down the hallway. “Man, your mood changed quickly,” I muttered to myself.

He must have heard me because the next thing out of his mouth was. “I was just dealing with some stuff earlier, but I decided to forget about it for now.”

“Oh,” was all I could come up with in response.

Around 11 pm, Aurora was still up running around my room. “Aurora, I can't wait to see you when the coffee wears off.”

“I had that coffee more than 12 hours ago, the effects from it have already been long gone. This is just how I am. Hyper.” She started jumping up and down on my bed, causing me to feel a little sick.

“Okay. Well then what do you want to do?” I pulled her down to my level by her arm.

“I don't know. Let's go see if Landon and your brother are sleeping.” She stopped bobbing around.

“Okay. Come on.” We glided out of my room and into the hallway to Hayden's door. “Wait. I have a better idea. Follow me.” I led Aurora downstairs and out to our pool house. The stars were reaching down to the Earth in a silent lullaby. The crickets were singing along with the silence in an orchestra of solitude. Aurora broke the wonderful sound. “What are we doing?” she whispered to me.

“You'll see. Grab one of the water guns over there.” I pointed her in the right direction.

“What are we going to do with these?” She eyed the gun while flipping it over repeatedly in her palms.

“Just fill it up with water so we can get back inside. Hurry up.” I pushed the plug of my water gun down and shook to make sure there were no leaks. Everything looked to be in good shape. Aurora did the same as me and shot me a look as if I were crazy.  “I'm not going to ask anymore questions.”

“Good. Now just follow my lead.”

“Okay.” We jogged back through the slide doors and up the stairs to my brother's closed door. “On the count of three I am going to open the door and we are going to fire. Got it?”

“Why are we doing this again? I mean I have no problem spraying guys with water guns but why are we doing it?”

“Stop talking. Just do. Ready?” Aurora nodded and I swung the bedroom door open, taking Hayden and Landon off guard. “Pay back time!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

My first shot hit Hayden in his chest. “What the....” His eyes were wide. He took his pillow from under his head and started to shield himself with it. As if that would defend him. My next shot made it into his mouth. “Bull's eye,” I muttered to myself.

“What are you doing?” Landon shouted at Aurora, who had just sprayed water at him repeatedly. He tried to take the gun from Aurora and when he did, he aimed it at me. His shot got me in the leg. “Hey!” I started shooting all I could at him until my water gun grew empty. “Crap.” I turned around and ran from the room, just to be followed by Landon and his almost empty gun. “Arabella! Why are you running?”

When I got down to the kitchen I got the hose sprayer from the sink and aimed it at him. “Your water supply is almost out, but I have an endless one.” I held down the lever and pointed it at him. In a matter of minutes he was soaked. Instead of trying to retrieve the hose from me, he fell to the floor in laughter. I couldn't stop from doing the same so I collapsed to the ground along side him. “You really outsmarted me, Limerson.”

“Of course I did. I'm me.” He pushed my shoulder back playfully and meet his eyes with mine. “I'll get you back, you know? So be prepared.,” he said with a look that showed he meant it.

“Always am.” Landon and I fought to catch our breathe as we continued to laugh on the kitchen floor. It felt good. I hadn’t laughed like this is a good while.

Author's Note: So there was chapter 5. Leave a COMMENT below and VOTE. ...that goes for you too silent readers :)... Thanks you for reading! Until next update, bye :D