Fried Burrito

t w E N t y - s I x

"So... is what you and Jace have something serious?" CJ asked once we made it home. 

We'd been sitting in silence for a while now but I think that was because we didn't know where to start between us. 

"I think so."
"You think so? You said you loved him."
"And that's true, I do. Things can just get complicated very quickly with us."
"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What are you, an FBI agent?" I asked out of annoyance. "When you're supposed to take charge of doing something, you never say anything until it's too late."
"Geez, Caden." he sighed tiredly while placing his face in his hands. 

"Why did it take so long for you to tell me what happened?"

He looked over at me and shook his head before he began.

"Do you know how hard it is to even believe what happened? Mom didn't even flinch when I told her. She'd just told me to keep it a secret and that she'd handle everything."
"Handle everything?"
"Yes, but I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner, I guess I just felt so ashamed that I wasn't able to protect you. You're my only sister and you mean the world to me. I basically died knowing that happened to you."

I didn't feel angry anymore as I watched CJ stare at his hands. He hid it because he loved me. As I recently learned, people do a lot of questionable things when they love someone. I was one of them. Hell, my mother was one of them.

"Thank you," I said after a moment of silence. "I love you for trying to protect me but you can't put that on yourself. I've been mature enough to handle myself for a while now."
"I know... I'm so sorry too. Can you forgive me?"
"We're basically twins Caleb, of course I do." 

He smiled at me before he engulfed me in a death grip I'm sure he called a hug.

"If you hide something like that from me again, I'm not even going to waste my time talking. I'll just beat you up instead."
"Yeah right," he laughed as we stepped out of the car.

"Or, I could get Jace to do it for me." I smiled.

"He wouldn't dare!"
He was definitely right, Jace wouldn't touch CJ with a long stick in an angry manner but, I wasn't going to tell him that. 

_________

The rest of the night wasn't bad at all, my brothers and I spent time trying to rebuild the bond that was almost broken because of the past. They forced me to tell them everything I knew about Jace when it came to him as a person to his family to his shoe size. 

"Alright, I think we've went over Jace's life story a million times already. Can you stop asking me all these questions?" I asked from the kitchen with my tray of snacks.

"Fine." they all agreed after a moment of silence. 

We'd went back to watching movies after I came back from the kitchen with snacks of my own. As expected, my brothers reached in and grabbed something for themselves, leaving me alone with my trusty pizza rolls. 

"What's going on in here?"questioned a voice I was not too keen on hearing. 
We tore our eyes away from the screen to see our mother standing in the door way.

"We're just watching a movie." Cameron said lazily from his seat.

"Can I join you guys?" she asked as she took a couple steps towards us.

She looked at me when she asked that but, it made me feel uncomfortable. I wanted to say no but I knew the better thing for me to do was say yes. So I did.

"Sure." 

She sat next to me and got sucked into the movie with us. I didn't realize I'd fallen asleep until I woke up with my head in her lap.