Lila ✔

9I Ticklish

We entered the house to see that Jayden and Liam had already got back. They were sitting on the couch playing on the Xbox along with Mason and Logan who were on their phones.

It felt weird to go in after my first day of school without first stopping off for our ice cream tradition, and the honeycomb flavour was the only good part of the entire day. "You good there?" Noah asked beside me, swatting my arm slightly.

I hadn't even realised I'd been staring into space with a slight frown.

"All good," I attempted to smile.

"No you're not. What's wrong?" Logan asked from the couch and I noticed he was looking at us, clearly having listened in to our conversation.

"I just miss my dad," I finally admitted. "On the first day of school he would always take me for ice cream and this is the first time in years it hasn't happened."

"Well if you want we could take you," Mason suggested, also joining in the conversation.

"Really?" I asked, my eyes lighting up.

"Sure. We can go now," Mason shrugged.

"Thank you so much!" I grinned brightly.

"No problem," Mason chuckled. He stood up and pulled his car keys out of his pocket, walking towards where I stood by the door. On the way passed he playfully ruffled my hair and I quickly slapped his hand away.

"Hey!" I whined.

He just laughed but didn't look back.

I turned my attention to the rest of my stepbrothers. "You coming?"

"We'll all come," Logan smiled and a grin broke across my face.

"Come on," Jayden groaned. "Do we have to?"

"Yes," Logan replied sternly.

"You're really saying no to ice cream?" I stared.

He let out a huff but turned off his game and stood up anyway. "Fine," Jayden grumbled, completely ignoring me.

Noah and Cole, who were still stood next to me, walked out to the car with Jayden, Liam and Logan following.

I grinned widely and quickly hurried after them, not wanting to be left behind.

I slipped into the back of Mason's car and Noah sat next to me. Cole was in the passenger seat and Mason was driving.

We drove into town in silence since Cole and Noah were both on their phones. I just stared out of the window and thought. Mainly about my dysfunctional family.

We all had our problems. My mom was a druggie and alcoholic, my dad was starting to care less and less about his daughter, I had lost my mom and was losing my dad and the boys had lost their dad, gained a dad (a pretty shitty one) and gained a stepsister who they suddenly have to look after because their stepdad couldn't do a good job. My family was broken.

After about ten minutes, we arrived at an ice cream store.

I jumped out of the car in excitement, not bothering to wait for anyone, and practically sprinted into the building.

When I entered I noticed there weren't many people there. But I didn't really care as I literally dived towards the case with all the different flavors in.

I saw from the corner of my eye my stepbrothers coming up beside me as I stared longingly at the ice cream. "What do you want?" Mason chuckled. I licked my lips and stared intently at the different options until I finally decided on one.