Gods and Monsters

Ch. 10 Too late

"I don't think this is supposed to take this long." Aurora complained with a sigh, always the impatient one.

Sage stood behind the seven year old with a comb in his mouth, a hard hairbrush in hand and his other hand trying to hold off the section of hair. A video played on Elias' laptop of a hair tutorial of a woman doing a little girl's hair that was the same texture as the twins. Sage couldn't began to understand how the woman was doing it so effortlessly while he's been struggling for twenty minutes with the seven minute video on loop.

"Rewind it some." Sage said with the comb between his teeth.

Mia snorted and did as he said while Aurora sighed dramatically. Marlo and Elias watched in amusement as Sage tried once again to slick back her thick hair and tie it up to match the other side.

"Got it!" He shouted excitedly, spraying water and scrunching up the curls like the video did.

"Now these." Aurora sighed, holding up the pink hair things. Sage didn't know what they were called but the girls called them hair bubbles. They were easy enough to put on after Mia showed him to stick one ball through the elastic and they just stayed like that.

Aurora jumped up to go look at herself in the mirror and Sage looked at the clock seeing that it was time to go. Aurora woke him up early just for this very reason. She wanted her hair done and knew it would take him awhile.

Sage got everyone to the front door and Aurora came down the stairs with a smile, her curly pigtails bouncing. Sage was proud of himself, her baby hairs were laid down and the pigtails weren't lopsided. He did good.

"You'll never get near my head." Mia said lowly, pulling her backpack on.

Sage looked down at her with narrowed eyes "Well someone needs to before the school starts to think you aren't being taken care of."

Mia scoffed and pushed Elias out of the way to get the front door open.

On the bus, Marlo sat on his lap and rambled about the unfairness of nap time. Apparently he didn't like it and wanted his teacher to let him play with the blocks. Sage wished high schoolers got nap time, they were the ones who needed it.

"Sage?" Elias said softly, pressing his glasses up even if they were already in place.

"Yeah?" Sage looked over the twins heads at Elias who looked unsure.

"Um, your friend, Brandon... be careful around him, okay?"

"Why? Did something happen? Did he say something to you?" Sage sat up some. He wouldn't hesitate to drop any friend, even if it was his only, if his siblings were uncomfortable or didn't like them. He'd learned that people should listen more to their kids because when they don't, bad things usually happen.

"No," Elias shook his head, pushing his glasses up again. "I just...I don't think he's who you think he is." Elias whispered. Sage's brows furrowed, wondering where this was coming from. Elias has to have a reason to believe that. What wasn't he telling him?

Before he could ask, the bus stopped at their stop and Sage had to get off with the younger kids to take them to school.

The rest of the day moved along smoothly. Sage found himself observing Brandon at lunch, wondering what about him would put Elias off. It was difficult not to get distracted by his bright smiles, pretty eyes or just...him but even then he couldn't see anything. Brandon was funny, smart, his eyes didn't drift when he was talking to you or when he was listening, he never said anything mean or insulting. Sage wouldn't ignore his brother's warnings but at least for now, he wouldn't let it get in the way of this new friendship.

When third period let out, Brandon talked him into letting him drive. This gave them thirty minutes until they had to be at the elementary school and Brandon insisted on stopping by the store for snacks.

"Okay, what do seven and five year olds like?" He questioned, grabbing a bag of salt and vinegar chips and holding it up.

Sage smiled and shook his head. "Nothing sour or spicy." Sage picked up the bag of cheddar chips that were favored in their house and a jar if ranch dip.

"Guess these are all for me then." Brandon seemed happy about that and tossed his bag of chips in the basket he held and did the same with what Sage held. "Don't, my idea, I'm paying." Brandon said before Sage could protest.

Sighing in defeat, Sage helped Brandon pick out snacks for everyone. Sage was a little surprised when he asked what Elias' favorite snack was but he liked him just a little bit more because he didn't forget about the younger teen.

"Trust me, these are a godsend." Brandon said, grabbing all the bags and not giving Sage the chance to help. "I can't believe you've never had them."

"I've had the regular ones." Sage giggled, following Brandon to his car.

"But these are so much better!"

"We'll see." Sage teased.

It didn't take long to get to the elementary school and Brandon pulled up in front of it with others who were early. He dug in the bags he'd tossed in the back and opened the birthday cake Oreos he's been praising the whole time.

Holding one up in front of his mouth he instructed, "The whole thing."

Sage rolled his eyes and accepted the Oreo cookie, chewing it slowly to get the flavor. His eyes widened and he nodded his head eager for another.

"Told you." Brandon laughed, handing Sage another cookie and eating one himself.

When school let out, Sage got out the car so his siblings could see him. When they did, Marlo and Aurora attacked him with hugs and Mia acted like she'd rather do anything else but still joined the others in the group hug.

"Brandon!" Marlo pulled the car door open once he saw the other teen and crawled in to give him a hug.

"Rory, what happened to your hair?" Sage asked, hands on his hips as he looked down at the frizzy mess.

The girl giggled, "Recess!" And followed Marlo into the car and into the backseat.

When Sage got Mia in the car and finally got back in himself, Brandon was handing out birthday cake Oreos, set on making them a favorite among the Taylor siblings.

Sage directed Brandon to the park that was a little ways from home, the closer one he didn't like because it was a common place drugs were sold. This one was clean of needles and other trash.

The kids took off to the jungle gym while Sage and Brandon claimed one of the empty benches. They sat for awhile talking about random things until Marlo begged Brandon to play with them and to Sage's surprise, he joined like he'd been waiting for them to ask. It was kind of funny seeing the tall muscular boy chasing the kids and going down slides.

When Elias joined them, Brandon got the snacks from the car and let them dig through the bags but only after he had Elias try his favorite Oreos and agree that they were the best.

Sage had noticed that Elias seemed a little hesitant of Brandon. But aside from acting shy or sitting in the middle of the bench to separate the two older teens, he talked easily with him about his favorite movies or new ones he wanted to see.

Pushing Mia on the swing, Sage tried to ask his little sister again about what happened or what she had seen. She didn't answer for so long he assumed she was ignoring him.

"It doesn't matter, it's already too late." She had finally responded before hopping off the swing and running to join the others.

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