Serendipity ○ All 14

13. Brandon

A week had passed since Lawson's birthday party, and he was starting to notice how the guys were starting to fold back into themselves. He had no idea what happened, but he planned to confront North about it after their team meeting.

Brandon walked into the dining room and sat down at the table next to his brother.

"They will be here in a minute," Corey told him. "I think Owen and Axel called this meeting to decide whether or not we want to stay."

Brandon hummed in understanding and leaned back in his chair. "If we had this meeting a week ago, I would have been sure everyone would vote in favor, but now I'm not so sure."

"What makes you say that?"

"Everyone's been in a shitty mood ever since Lawson's party." Brandon looked out the dining room window and towards Addie's house. He hadn't seen much of her lately. She seemed to be avoiding them.

Corey nodded in agreement. "I think the cold shoulder we're getting from Addie may have something to do with it."

"Really?" Brandon asked in surprise. That was interesting. He knew that they had become fast friends with her, but not that close.

"Yeah. Apparantly she's keeping her distance because Sang and Kayli keep being confrontational any time she comes near us."

Brandon felt anger stir in his chest. Of course Kayli would be involved somehow. "I don't think Addie would allow them to scare her off."

"Me neither," Corey said in agreement. "Maybe she's just pulling back because she doesn't want to cause us any problems."

After thinking it through, Brandon would have to agree. If he were in her position, he would have done the same. He would have felt like he was ruining relationships that were built long before they had met. It didn't mean she was doing anything wrong, though.

If anything, Sang and Kayli were to blame for running off the people who had made them feel so welcome.

"It's time to end things with Kayli for real this time." Brandon looked over at his twin seriously.

Corey sunk in the chair, looking faintly regretful, but accepting at the same time. "I know," he whispered. "I've known it for a while now."

"We'll do it together," Brandon said with resolve dominating his tone.

"Together," Axel's voice sounded as he walked in the room with Raven and Marc on his heals. Nothing more was said. They knew what they had to do.

Everyone piled into the room and settled in their chairs. Brandon noted the lack of Sang, Kayli and Jessica, but didn't bring it up.

"We've been in New Haven for two weeks," Owen said as he started the meeting. "I believe it's time to decide if we want to make our stay permanent."

The meeting consisted of listing all of the pros and cons of staying with the rest of the survivors. By the end of it, there weren't many cons. They brought up the idea of checking out the other community of survivors down south, but ultimately voted that they would stay.

Brandon felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. Now that he knew they wouldn't be moving off somewhere else, he felt free to become more attached to the town and the survivors.

"Now onto our next order of business," Axel started reluctantly. "We need to decide what to do with the girls. I assume Jessica will be staying with us, but now that we know we're staying, we need to move Sang and Kayli somewhere else."

North growled lowly and clenched his fists. "We can't just tell them to leave. They're still our responsibility for fucks sake."

"No, they're not." Brandon shook his head resolutely. "We may feel like it because of our history with them, but we can't dedicate our lives to looking after them. We ended the relationships for a reason."