the Reckless and the Brave (Sequel to Scream, to be Heard)

Music City Radio

My phone started blowing up the song Raise Your Glass by P!nk, which was my ringtone. I pressed the answer button without looking, since I didn't feel like opening my eyes. "Hello?" I said.

"Hey, Heather. This is Timmy from 107.5 the River," the voice said.

"Hi," I replied.

"So many of our listeners have asked if while you were in Nashville if you would be doing an interview or takeover with us, your brother as well, and we were just wondering if that would be alright with you," Timmy said. I nodded.

"Yeah, that would be great. What time?" I said.

"Is noon tomorrow alright with you?"

"Um, yeah that's fine. I'll be there." I then hung up as Alex walked out of the bathroom in his blue swim trunks. "We're doing a radio interview with the River tomorrow at noon," I said, getting up and higging him. He kissed my forehead before getting a pool towel from the rack in the bathroom.

"That's fine. I'm going to the pool," he said.

"Hold on, I'll come too," I said, grabbing my bikini from my suitcase and changing quickly, then pulling on a black crop top over the black and white Glamour Kills bikini and flip-flops, then walked back to where Alex was sitting. "You're fat," I said as we boarded the elevator. A couple that was in there as well looked at us.

"Well love you too, sister. The key word being sister. Meaning, as I have custody of you, I have full power to dunk you in the pool as many times as I want," he said. I poked his belly button.

"Yeah, right. You can barely lift the dogs," I replied. He grabbed my waist and lifted me up, taking a big breath. Then he put me back down with a victorious look.

"Yeah, I'm also 25. You're 14. Meaning, I can therefore lift you with no problem," he said as the elevator opened. Annoyed, I rolled my eyes and followed him to the pool, diving in after Alex was on the other side. I swam up behind him and jumped on his back, making him gasp and turn around. He then dunked me into the water and I rose up after shaking the water from my hair. We swam around for about an hour or so before we decided to go get food, and changed into actual clothes, and found a place in East Nashville called the Pied Piper, and went there. I got the Smurfberry Crunch ice cream, which tasted like blueberries with Nerds, so that was pretty good. I tasted Alex's Trailer Trash, which was a bunch of different candies mixed with vanilla ice cream. I liked it okay, but it wasn't the best I'd ever tried. Then we went to a park called Shelby Bottoms and walked the trail before going to eat dinner at iHop and then to the hotel again. "You're going to bed," Alex said as I was about to go get something from the snack machine.

"Why? It's just ten," I said.

"Yeah, but you have an interview tomorrow," he said. "And you don't want to be tired for a radio interview." I sighed and tried to go out the door but he blocked me.

"Alex, let me through before I share the picture of you peeing on Santa when you were nine," I said, pulling it up on my phone. He sighed.

"Not the picture!" I was about to press share before he let me through, earning him a hug. "You have five minutes before I call the cops to get you back in here!" He called. I rolled my eyes and walked down the hallway, got a Kit-Kat from the snack machine, and walked back to the room.

"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" I asked, opening the Kit-Kat. Alex heard the crunch, and like the commercials, jumped up, and grabbed it from my hand and swallowing it in one bite. I jumped and almost dropped the wrapper. "Alex, what the hell?" I said, surprised.

"Watch your language!" He yelled at me, pointing at my face with his ugly finger. I shoved it away, rolling my eyes.

"Uh-huh. Like you don't say a thousand times worse," I said, taking the basketball shorts and red t-shirt I used for Pj's. Then I walked over to Alex's suitcase and threw everything out on the floor until I found his favorite hoodie and pulled it over my head, then flopped on my bed. He muttered a few thousand rude words while shoving everything back into the suitcase. Then he flopped down next to me. "Get off the bed, idiot." I pushed him off the bed and onto the floor, where he bumped his head on the nightstand and stood back up clutching his head. "Aww, I'm sorry. Is little Lexie hurt?" I said.