A nice change

Week Three of Bastards T.V. went to the store to get milk and never came home

Life had been looking up for the group, or Red Hair Cult as they liked to call themselves (even though Shadow's hair dye had already washed out a week or two before this chapter takes place.) The Cult had gone from two cousins and the new kids into a fully functioning group that made stupid jokes and were starting to be comfortable jokingly making fun of each other. This was pretty obvious seeing that shy, self conscious Alva started jokingly calling Autumn 'Dum' and Shadow 'Shade' as nicknames. Viola had also started to feel comfortable with admitting the Cult was her first real life friend group. Autumn started to let Viola and Alva read a few of her stories. And Shadow, well Shadow always acted like an open book. They preferred adults and Autumn as company usually, but they kind of enjoyed spending time with their new friends. They weren't like other kids, Alva thought deeply about things and wanted to rebel as much as Autumn did, but were also really anxious at the same time. Sure the traits were conflicting, but once Alva was comfortable you could clearly see her drive and passion. It was just as fun to be around as Autumn. Viola was a deep thinker, something serious was always behind her eyes, but somehow she could balance that with just being a carefree kid. Shadow wanted to know how they did it.

They hoped to maybe learn more (but mainly just spend more time with their friends) at the sleep over they were supposed to have in the next day.

  Only, good things never last. The sleep over was supposed to happen at Emerson's house again for tradition's sake. Whenever the company Remington and Sebastian worked for needed them to go on a business trip for days or even weeks at a time, Autumn and Shadow got to stay with Emerson. The general consensus was that Emerson, while being an independent adult who could take care of his own child, he was an awful uncle. Awful meaning amazing in this situation. He let Shadow and Autumn stay up as late as they wanted to, even on school nights, he bought Autumn her weight in Pixie Sticks when she learned how to play a song Emerson and Remington had written as kids on the piano, and encouraged Shadow to beat up a cardboard box to get their anger out over their inability to focus while doing math homework. While they were slightly nervous by how having Alva and Viola over during that would effect things (although Viola wouldn't be there the entire time), but that wasn't why things were going downhill. No, actually they were looking foreword to spending so much time with the others. What they were upset about, was something that happened every time. Something they should have predicted would happen again.

"Sebastian I'm sick and tired of you doing this every time!!!"

"Well maybe if you would just listen to me w-!"

"No I want listen to YOU to listen to ME for once when I say something about what I'M not comfortable with!"

"Well maybe you should have thought about that before you agreed t-!"

That was the most of what Shadow caught before they had climbed out of the bathroom window. Usually they associated breaking rules with Autumn, but this time they felt it was necessary to get away from the inevitable force of nature: Sebastian and Remington fighting. Why? They didn't know why the brothers always argued, but why they felt like sneaking out this time was the right decision? Maybe it's because they had been too happy for to long. It wasn't as easy to start a play argument with Autumn when there's two other people in the conversation. Their whole live the cousins had seen their guardians getting into screaming matches, it seemed like a good way to blow off steam. Remington and Sebastian got into fights all the time and they still had a good relationship. It just made sense. A lot more then never telling people how you feel. That's what they always thought. Just say what you mean and it will be okay. If they don't like what you have to say, they aren't worth sparing the feelings of. But then Viola and Alva came. Viola could say how she felt without starting a fight and Autumn and Shadow had to stop when they started yelling because it freaked Alva out. The dynamic had changed. They hadn't fought Autumn in a while. So maybe that's why hearing Remington and Sebastian fighting made them run away this one time. Who knows?

They hadn't really thought about where they were going before they left, but their feet decided to just give out on them when the walked around the front of the house. They just broke down and sat down in front of the door and thought about whether they should just stay there or run away to the desert. They wished they could just text Emerson but he was supposed to be spending the day showing Viola and Alva how draw and doing other artsy stuff with them. They didn't want to cut into Alva's father/friend bonding time. They also didn't want to go into the desert alone for common fears of death. They might be able to sneak back in and act like nothing happened, but the whole point was to get away from them. So it seemed like the best course of action would be to sit there and wait for Autumn to get off her call with her mom and text them. But someone else arrived first...