Take Me There

Catching Up and Barbies

Chapter Twenty Seven

 "We have so much to talk about," Hollie murmured a few minutes later, pulling back from me and giving me a smile.

 I wiped at my eyes, glad that the whole cry fest was over now. Austin hadn't stuck around to watch, so sometime during our extremely long hug, he'd walked off to some other part of the house.

 "We do," I responded, brushing my hair behind my ear.

 She sniffed while brushing down her shirt. Whenever she looked back up at me, her eyes were swimming with a million different emotions that I couldn't read. It was almost scary how much we looked alike, though. I felt like I was looking at myself about fifteen years from now.

 "We could go grab dinner?" She asked, her voice hopeful.

 I gave her a small smile. "I don't really have that much of an appetite."

 "Me either," She said, scrunching her nose up at the suggestion. Her face suddenly softened and her eyebrows rose. "You're staying, right?"

 "If that's okay," I said, kind of nervous that she wouldn't have enough room or was uncomfortable with me staying.

 She nodded her head virgorously, her eyes filling with tears again. She brushed a piece of hair out of my face. "You can stay as long as you want, Dallis."

 "Thank you," I sighed, relief filling in the place of worry.

 She dropped her hand from my face and took a deep breath. "Why don't we get you settled?"

 "You want me to show her where she's staying?" Austin suddenly asked, his head popping around the corner of what I assumed to be the kitchen.

 Hollie eyed him. "How do you know where she's staying?"

 He shrugged, a smirk on his lips. "Since I knew she was coming, I already kind of planned where she could stay."

 "You knew?" She breathed, "And you didn't tell me?"

 He walked back into the kitchen. "It was only fair!"

 She rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to me. "Where are your things?"

 "I'll get them," Austin said, suddenly appearing back in the living room. He grabbed my bag off of the floor beside the door and headed off towards the hallway to the right.

 "You can follow him," Hollie said, "I'm just gonna go change out of these clothes."

 I nodded as she gave me a hand a squeeze before walking in the opposite direction. I followed after Austin down the short hallway with picutres lining the way. He stopped at the last door, pulling it open and revealing a set of stairs.

 "God, how many rooms is this place? It doesn't seem this big on the outside," I muttered.

 "It's only four bedrooms," He said, "This is Kendall's playroom."

 My stomach twisted at the mention of Kendall. How was she going to react to finding out that she had another sibling? Unless she didn't even know that Austin was her brother to begin with.

 "What's she like?" I asked as he opened another door that lead into an extremely pink room with slanted cielings.

 He smiled. "She's cute. You'll like her."

 "Does she know that you're her brother?"

 He shrugged, setting my bag down beside a barbie dream house. "I don't know what Hollie told her."