Homebound (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 33

"So how long will they be in prison?" Millie asks through the phone. After packing up our stuff in the hotel, we left almost immediately because we agreed that we wanted to be home as soon as possible. Javi took Lukas' car while Lukas and I were in mine, most of the ride silent since I've been in my head, thinking about all that's happened. But the last hour of the ride, Millie called me since Edwin, her father, had made her stay home from school and ended up telling her about the trial.

She called me as soon as she found out and for the past hour, I've been answering all the questions she has. I let out a sigh, running a hand through my hair.  "I'm not sure yet. They have a sentencing hearing in a couple months and we'll find out then. It'll most likely be for life."

"For life?" Millie whispers and I can imagine her wide eyes and her hands running through her hair. She's obviously been stressing about this and hearing all that happened from Edwin must've stressed her out even more. I know that I would be frazzled if I was her and was at home the day that my parents – who I recently found out are actually my kidnappers – were having their trial.

"Yeah, but that's good," I remind her in a soft smile, running my free hand up-and-down my sweatpants since it has become significantly sweatier since we started talking. "we want them to stay away, so we don't have to see them again, right?"

Millie pauses for a second to let out a calming exhale. "Yeah, you're right, but I'm still... I'm sad."

I glance over to Lukas to see a sympathetic look on his face, obviously because he can hear my sister on the other end of the line. He peers over at me for a second and gives me a soft smile before focusing back on the road. I look back down at my lap and play with a stray string that's sticking out of my cloth pants, trying to figure out what to say. After a few minutes, she says my name to get my attention and I put my head back against the seat with a sigh. "I'm upset about it too and that's alright. We'll probably be angry and sad about it for a while and there's nothing wrong about it."

I can feel Lukas looking at me, but I don't pay him any attention as Millie hums in agreement. "Well... what do we do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"They're gone. What do we do now? Like, what happens now?" She whispers.

"Um," I whisper, clearing my throat. "well, we're going to keep doing what we've been doing. We'll stay with our families and we'll talk on the phone with Sammy and Evie whenever we get the chance. We'll see each other when we can and we'll just figure things out as we go."

"Sammy asked me a question a few days ago," she whispers and I can hear the pain in her voice almost instantly. All I want to do is make her feel better, but with being hours away, that's not entirely possible since. I want to give her the biggest hug and tell her that everything will be okay. Along with Sammy and Evie.

"What question?"

"Well, she said that since we're not biologically related and I know that we're not related by adoption, so we're not technically siblings. What does that make us?" She says and an ache goes through my chest as my heart breaks at her words. Tears sting my eyes and I put my head in my hands and lean against my knees as I pull myself together for a few moments to answer her.

"It doesn't matter if we're not siblings by blood or adoption, okay? We grew up together and that makes us siblings. You, Sammy, and Evie will always be my sisters and nothing, not even the distance, is going to change that, alright? I'll talk to Sammy when I can and I'll tell her the same thing," I inform her in a soft voice.

"Okay," she whispers, sounding just as emotional as I am.

When I look up again, I see that we're in our neighborhood and I let out a sigh. "I have to go, Millie, but I'll call you later. I'll talk to Sammy, so don't worry about her. Everything's going to be alright."