Briana Miller

Chapter 3

They explained everything to them as they ate their pizzas. Briana chewed on her cupcakes happily while sitting on Naomi's lap without a care in the world.

"So, how about you tell them your name?" Naomi reminded her.

"Briana Miller." She said.

"And how old are you, Briana?" Declan asked

"I am four." She said.

"Like Tobias?" Jordan joked to which no one laughed.

"She is four, Jordan. She isn't supposed to read or understand a "Divergent" reference." Naomi sighed.

"No? What do you read then?" Jordan asked.

"My daddy used to read me princess stories." She said finishing her cupcake. "Like Cinderella and Belle."

"Oh yeah? Who's your favorite one?" Jordan seemed excited.

"I love Cinderella." She said clapping her hands.

"The one who wears glass slippers?" Jordan asked and everyone looked at him weirdly.

"What? I love Disney." He said in a 'duh' tone.

" 'Course you do." They all muttered.

"Yeah. Isn't she beautiful? With her blue dress." Jordan nodded in agreement. "Daddy said, she dances with the prince. He said I am a princess too." She said.

"Wait, used to?" Declan asked.

"She doesn't have parents," Bennett said.

"I have!" She protested. "They just died okay? They are just stars now." She seemed irritated. Silence fell. Naomi felt her heart shatter.

"Of course! I forgot. My bad. Sorry" Bennett said quickly, slapping himself on the head slightly.

"It's ok." She smiled.

"Your daddy was right. You really are a princess." Declan smiled sadly.

"A beautiful one at that" Jordan added and she blushed.

"Thank you." She mumbled and everyone in the room felt a sudden connection with the little four years old.

****

Time passed like a blur with Briana. They spent the whole day playing with her. She kept them amusing with her cute questions as they cradled her. It was almost evening and they were sitting on the floor in the living room.

"...and that's how I got out of my house without my mum noticing." Jordan finished his 'daunting' experience of how he sneaked outside his house after breaking his mom's favorite vase.

The girl, who was sitting on Jordan's lap, watched him with her big brown eyes that were filled with astonishment, as he explained the whole story like he was a mixture of Batman, Superman, and Spiderman.

"Why would you teach a four-year-old how to sneak outside of a house? You are going to give her a permanent trauma." Declan furrowed his eyebrows.

"No, I won't! But she needs to know the legend whose lap she is sitting on." Pride dripped from his words and they all rolled their eyes.

Declan picked up Briana from his lap and place her on his.

"Now, how about I tell you when I first punched this legend whose lap you were sitting on, my lil strawberry" He started telling her the story and she giggled every time an embarrassing incident came up.

Naomi looked at Bennett who was leaning against the couch and sitting with his left leg bent and his right leg stretched ahead. His left hand dangled above his left knee. He stared at them with an expression that seemed like adoration to her.

"Bennett?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you so much for bringing her here." He looked at her.

"You already said that how many time are you going to repeat? He smiled slightly.

"It's just...She is so sweet. Can you imagine she already lost her parents?" His smile fell at that.

"And she still doesn't know what that means. It pains me the most." She said.

"No matter how hard it is, she'll get used to it eventually. She will barely remember them at one point and it's the harsh truth." He said sighing.

"You make it sound harsher." She pursed her lips.

"I am sorry." He paused. "You know, I grew up in the harshest way possible and it kind of took my ability to feel. I wasn't always like that." He said.

"Like what, Bennett?" She pressed.

"Like how I am now." He said.

"You are not like anything!" She protested.

"You are capable of feeling. You spend your money without a word just to fulfill our wishes, you help your friends, you support them, you stand beside them when there is no one and you are telling me you don't feel? Because trust me, Bennett, only the people who feel for others are capable of doing that." She said and Bennett just stared at her.

And just like a competition, they kept staring at each other until,

"Hey, Jordan! I think they are gonna hug again." Briana spoke up pointing her finger at them and they immediately broke their gaze.

"Again? They did it before?" Declan asked in surprise.

"Oh boy!" They both said together.

"When she saved me, he almost squeezed me with her. I couldn't breath." She gasped slightly as if to show them how she felt. Jordan smirked.

"Again, he was talking and she..." she paused to collect her words. "...again hugged him and squeezed me again." She finished throwing her arms up.

"THEY SQUEEZED YOU AGAIN!" Jordan gasped and she nodded. "How dare they squeeze you?" Jordan showed some fake anger. "They should get a room, don't you think?" He asked her.

"What are you teaching her, Jordan?" Bennett said hotly.

"Yeah, ...we should lock them in a room to punish them." She said thoughtfully.

"We should definitely do that!" Declan said, overjoyed.

Naomi hid her face in her palms in embarrassment. Bennett cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Hey, Briana! It's time to sleep. Let's go." Bennett said, quickly standing up.

"Yup!" Naomi stood up too. "You're going to sleep in my room with me, ok baby?" She grabbed her hand and headed towards her room. Bennett followed her to get into his own room.

"Hey, are you guys going to sleep together?" Declan shouted at them.

"If you do, please don't squeeze the poor child," Jordan said as they saw them disappearing into their respective room slamming the door shut.

Jordan and Declan burst out laughing.