Being the Little Sister ♡ New Beginnings Spin-Off

23. Midnight Blues

Of course, the only time when you want a school day to drag on forever...it comes to an end far too soon.

I wasn't backing down though, I had made a promise to Caleb that we would tell Jackson everything and I planned to keep that promise. "Are you really sure this is a good idea?" Blair asks from the front seat of her car. Beside her was her twin sister Casey who had chosen to grace us with her presence, decisively ditching her routine make-out with the boy who shall remain nameless, to lend an ear to my plan.

Casey nudges her sister in the arm and shakes her head in disapproval, one of their main differences shining through. Casey was a romantic much like the rest of us, believing that love is the most precious thing you could share with a person while Blair enjoyed attention and the arms of random men who would give it to her. "I'm just saying" Blair adds with an eye roll. "Jax is your brother and Caleb is just a guy in a probable long list of boys you'll date. Why risk your relationship with your brother for a fling with his best friend?"

"Sis" Casey hisses. "Just because you wouldn't know love if it bit you in the ass-." And then they're off and arguing for the remainder of the drive making me wish that Hunter and Addy hadn't gotten out already.

Finally, after another six minutes of shouting, Blair pulls up to my house and I bid them a quick goodbye before hopping out.

It's not until I'm about halfway to my driveway that I notice an unrecognizable car in the driveway. It had New York plates which meant it wasn't family visiting from Philly.

The boys' car pulls up just as I'm about to reach the porch but Caleb's voice stops me. "You've gotta be kidding me" he says, staring at the car, seemingly stuck in place beside Jackson's car.

"What?" Jackson asks, hoisting his book bag onto his shoulder.

And almost as if summoned by the question, the front door opens and a woman with Caleb's eyes walks outside. I watch as she lays her eyes on him and I watch Caleb go rigid, his face paling and his eyes, not looking back at the woman but instead, finding mine.

"Well aren't you going to say hello?" The woman asks Caleb, stepping down the small staircase and brushing past me.

Caleb finally drags his eyes away from mine and settles them onto the woman. He swallows down the lump in his throat and replies, "hi mom."

"That's more like it" she drawls, pulling her son in for a hug. "Oh sweetheart, it's so good to see you" she gushes, hugging the life out of him while he stands there limply in her arms.

I wish I could hug him, comfort him somehow but with Jackson looking on with rapt attention that's going to be impossible.

So, I decide to give them some space and walk into the house where my parents are huddled together over the kitchen island. "What the hell?" I ask, unable to find anything better to say in regards to the unwelcome surprise out in our front yard. "Did you know she was coming?"

Heather Hughes, the absent mother of my boyfriend, had disappeared on a cruise after her husband left her. She was a drunk and a poor excuse of a woman who frankly, I didn't want anywhere near my boyfriend. "Of course we didn't." Dad replies. "But regardless, now that she's here-."

"What? You're kicking him out?" I ask frantically, the room beginning to spin around me. My vision begins to blur, my chest feels tight and I consciously know the spiral my body is sending itself down right now...as does my mother.

She's quick on her feet, placing both her hands on my cheeks. "Hey, hey" she whispers softly, rubbing her thumbs over my cheeks. "Breathe. Okay? In and out. Breathe with me." Slowly, I inhale and exhale in rhythm with my mom and soon enough, with a slightly fuzzy head, I can breathe again. "Good girl" she murmurs, pulling me into her arms and kissing the top of my head. "We aren't kicking him out" she assures me. "But we can't make him stay if his mother wants him back. She's his legal guardian."