˚* ੈ✩‧₊ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒕 ⋆ 𝒇𝒊𝒏

five

the rest of the night autumn winters was silent, besides the head nods and quiet responses. the two families had decided to host a sleepover between the youngest andrew sister and autumn winters. the andrews insisted to host the overnighting, as a thank you to the winters. this meant an entire night in the same home as billy andrews, which autumn was not looking forward too.

her kindling friendship with jane, however, was exciting. autumn had never really had a girl friend, someone to talk about "girl things" with. no matter how much she loved cole, he could never really understand her. although, jane andrews was part of the group that would always give her and cole the weird stares, as well as being the sister of that horrid boy.

jane and autumn ran upstairs to gather everything, laughing and smiling as the winters girl folded her pajamas and a dress for the next day. "oh, autumn, this is going to be so much fun! mother and father said we have no bedtime but must be quiet past eleven. billy and father must get up early to go hunting." jane squeals. thank goodness, autumn thought to herself. hopefully, billy will make himself scarce.

///

the night was filled with endless giggles, up until ten o'clock. there was a knock on jane's bedroom door. the andrews girl got up from the floor to open it, revealing an obviously irritated and tired billy. "can you two shut up?" he asks angrily. "mother said to be quiet past eleven, bills. it's ten." jane responds, sitting back on the floor next to autumn. billy took a quick glance at autumn, rolls his eyes, and sighs. "i don't care, can you two just be quiet. i don't want to lose my temper." this response surprised autumn. never had she seen billy andrews restrain a rude comment. wide eyed, she looked at jane. "he's never like that. is something wrong?" jane sighs, hesitating to talk. "you can never repeat this to anyone. promise?" she says, holding out her pinky. autumn softly wraps her own around jane's, and touches her thumb with hers. this is her pinky promise.

"billy has a hard time getting along with others, he always has. my parents have gone through multiple therapists, none of them help. he doesn't like opening up to strangers, rarely even people he's close with. he's alone in his mind. my brother really doesn't mean any harm. his mind doesn't control his actions, mother and father never really taught him how to. i think that's why he's so rude to everyone, he never necessarily learned how to be nice, besides towards prissy and i."

this all made sense to autumn. a boy who was never taught kindness, was not kind. a boy who was never taught how to express his feelings, is unable to express his feelings. although, he still doesn't have to be so horrible.