Abigail Higgins ||Grown Ups||

Chapter Four

(That's the costume she's gonna wear to the party ^)

"Abby! Get out here!" My dad called. Almost immediately the door was shut again.

I frowned saying to myself, "Hello my darling Abby, how was your day?' 'Oh, wonderful father, how was yours?'" I walked to my front door, pulling it open and walking out onto my front porch.

I stopped to comprehend the scene before me. The police were uncuffing Braden. Where has he been? What did he do?

"Hey, uh, officers, you guys wanna stick around and have a drink with me, hang out a little bit?" My father's voice faded at the end.

"You're afraid of us leaving you alone with your son, aren't you?" One of them said.

"My son....are you kidding me? I don't care-"

"Boo!" Braden yelled.

Dad jumped into the police officers arms. "He's got a knife!" 

I bowed my head in embarrassment. "What's going on?" I asked completely done with life.

The officer not holding my dad said, "We caught your brother with a couple cans of spray paint." His hands were on his hips.

"And you caught him using them?"

"He didn't look like he was up to anything good."

"So, you don't know if he used them or not?" I said, crossing my arms.

"Uh.....they were empty?"

"If you didn't catch him using the spray paint, then you shouldn't have cuffed him." I said, walking down and trying to pry my dad off the huge police officer. He reluctantly let go and I steered him back inside. "Let's go, dad."

~~~~~~

After I convinced my father that I wouldn't let Braden kill him, I went outside to talk to my delinquent brother. 

He was sitting on a bench, sharpening a wooden stick with a knife. I sat down beside him, pushing a strand of blonde hair from my face.

We sat in silence for a second, before I lifted my head and said, "We were looking everywhere for you when you disappeared." Braden showed no indication that he heard me.

"Did you use the spray paint?" I asked. Still no answer. I looked away. "It's okay if you did, really." 

He stopped sharpening his stick and turned to me.

I laughed, "I mean, if you heard what dad and his friends used to do, you'd probably think you could get away with anything." I let out a snort. Braden cracked the smallest smile.

"Is that a smile I see? Is big bad Braden smiling?" I teased him. The smile vanished. "Oh, come on! Don't be like that." I poked him. He glared at me. I could only pray he wouldn't use his knife on me. "Don't you dare look at me like that, mister. I'll just keep doing it." I tapped his nose. "Boop." I started to laugh again, unable to hold in my snorts.

I heard Braden laugh to my right. "It's a miracle. He can laugh." I leaned closer. "Do you want to hear embarrassing stories of my younger self? I'm warning you, they're epic cringe worthy."

~~~~~~

I was in my room reading when I heard dad talking from my open window. 

"Look, man. I know deadbeat dads always have lame excuses why they don't see their kids but I didn't know you existed till about a week ago, which is actually a fantastic excuse. So can you cut me some slack?"