FADED RED (Book 2 of The Red Series)

Chapter 3 - Grow Up

Kyle's POV

Though the day was long, I didn't find it dull at all. I got to be with my family and the most importantly, the love of my life today. Now the night has come, and it's now the time for me to put my children under the blanket. Kennedy and Katherine are already curled up on their own beds while Keaton is having a little bit of trouble here. He's refusing to go to the dreamland. I submit to his demand of storytelling that takes ages because he still has some energy left in his eyes. Finally, when I'm about to finish The Red Riding Hood story, Keaton shuts his eyes. I put him back to his cradle and tip toe myself out of his room.

"That's so her!" Lara's dying from her own laughter.
Her voice triggers me to walk up to Keith's bedroom. I take a peek into his room to see that my son is impersonating Angelica from Rugrats, I think. They both look so happy together. My lovely bride to be is holding her stomach because she can't contain her laughter while my handsome son is keeping his best to make her laugh. I want to disturb them so much because I'm supposed to be the one who makes her laugh, but I cage that thought and proceed to climb down the stairs instead.
"Where's Lara?" My mom welcomes me to the first floor with a question.
"She's upstairs with Keith." I slur into the kitchen.
"Her father just took her grandparents back home." My dad informs me. "He said that you should send her home before midnight."
I mirror my dad's chuckle, "Will do."
"You've grown!" My mom gives me a quick pet on the head.
"What?" I turn around to see the water in her eyes.
"You let them talk on their own." My mom jumps on the stool.
Winn/ Faded Red/ 13
I snort, "What? I always let them talk."
"Yeah, right!" My dad disagrees with me.
"What?"
My mom adds, "You always found a reason to take her away from him."
"You're so needy." My dad roasts me.
"They're friends. You should be glad that she's actually close with all of your children." My mom takes on my dad's side.
"What are you guys talking about?" Ethan walks into the kitchen with his beloved wife, Lily.
"Your brother's grown." My dad tells him.
Ethan gives my front a dead look, "It got bigger?"
"Ethan!" Lily swats Ethan's arm.
"Thank you." I thank Lily.
"How did you do it?" Lily's laughing at my face.
"Ugh!" I lost faith in this family for their dry jokes.
"Seriously, how?" Ethan continues his curiosity.
My mom who is tired of this silly joke covers her face with her hands while the rest of them are still laughing. I don't know how to stop this because even I walk away, they will still pursue me to continue this, so my triumph card is to bring up Valentina who's sleeping peacefully on the couch.
"If you guys keep laughing like this, you'll wake Valentina!" I shoot my shot.
"Okay." Ethan finally closes his mouth. "What's this all about though? I'm lost."
"Your brother finally stop being annoying." My dad's still trying to stop his laughter.
"Really?" Lily can't believe that.
"Yeah, he didn't bother to steal Lara away from Keith earlier." My dad explains.
"Wow! That's a progress!" Ethan claps his hands.
"Shut up!" I separate his two clapping hands.
"I think you really need to walk it off, man!" Lily sounds her insight. "She needs to socialize too."

Winn/ Faded Red/ 14
"Yeah, like the other day when you send the kids to mom and dad's house to be alone with her, that ain't cool!"
"True!" Lily always sides with Ethan. "We were baking a muffin yesterday, and you stole her from me."
"Okay! Okay!" I raise my hands up in the air. "I'm still learning all of this shits!"
"You're so needy!" Ethan laughs at my face again.
Lara's POV
I can't stand the way he copies Angelica way of shouting her beloved doll, Cynthia. He knows his way to entertain me for sure. Although he was busy with his childhood crush all day long, he's back being my friend again now.
"I'm crying!" I'm begging him to stop impersonating Angelica.
"She's so annoying but cute though." Keith sits on the edge of the bed, just a few inches away from me.
His phone between us rings and shows me a pop up text from Michael.
"You're moving out?" I summary his text in a short sentence.
"Yeah." He takes his phone away from my sight.
"Why?"
"I'm just tired of driving to school. You know, two hours travel times a day..." He sighs. "I need some place closer."
"Isn't Golden Truly in Brooklyn?" I recall Michael's text a few seconds ago. "It's like thirty minutes away from your Campus."
He scratches his temple, "Still closer."
"That sucks." I drop my shoulders to the thought of losing some quality time with my best friend on a daily basis.
"Yeah." He too drops his shoulders. "But on the bright side, I could hang out with hot girls more often."
"What?" I can't help but laugh to his sudden confession.
"It's closer to frat house which means party all the time equals lots of hot girls." He's raising his eyebrows repeatedly to make me laugh even harder.
"Like the one at the party earlier who distracted you all day long." I don't know why I bring her up.
Winn/ Faded Red/ 15
"Who? Allison!? She's not a cup of tea, Red. I wouldn't call her hot." He rolls his eyes out.
"She's the one who broke your heart?" I need some confirmation about that.
Keith pauses for a split second, "She did. But basically it was just a lack of luck."
"Lack of luck?"
"We just kept missing each other. That's all." He tries to hide the pain in his eyes with a timid smile.
"She has a boyfriend now?" I knot my fingers on my laps.
"No."
"And you still want her?" I pin my eyes back at him.
"I don't know how to feel about that, Red." The way his eyes trembles defines that his sentence is not finished at all.
I nail my eyes to my fingers because I don't know how to respond to that.
"Wow!" Keith's sudden laugh startles me.
"What?"
"Your eyebrows are going crazy!" He rubs my perfectly brushed eyebrows with his thumbs.
"Stop!" I push away his thumb and try to set my eyebrows in place.
"You'll take care of the kids, right?" He traces my braid carefully.
"Of course." I nod.
"Cinderella and Snow White are going to be so jealous of my sisters."
"It's getting late." I leave his bed before the tears racing down on my face. "I probably should go home."
Keith just nods his head because he knows that I'm a little bit sad right now. My feet takes me to exit his room with as my eyes start to water. When I'm climbing down the stairs, I can hear people laughing, so I dry my own tears with the back of my hand and straighten my back to look more cheerful.
"There she is!" Ethan welcomes me with a cheeky smile on his face.
"Are you guys talking about me?" My voice cracks from the hidden tears.
"Ethan was just talking about how unlucky you are to marry a guy like me." Kyle jumps off of the stool to run to me.
"I'm so lucky to have you." I deny his statement.
Winn/ Faded Red/ 16
"You guys are a match made in heaven." Lily clasps her hands together.
"Um, I need to talk to you." Kyle takes my hand and leads me to the backyard to be away from his family.
"Baby, I can't stay the night." I have to break it to him. "My dad and my grandparents are at my house."
"Err, I'm not here to beg you to stay." He bites his lower lip.
"No?" That's weird.
"I want to, but your dad said that I should get you home before midnight." He squeezes his head with his own hands.
I take my time to look at his beautiful face and slowly launch my fingers to trace his cheek. He places his hand over mine and rubs his cheek onto the back of my hand gently. As he opens his eyes, I find myself smiling from ear to ear.
"Hayley wanted to know if she could be your bridesmaid." He marks my palm with a sweet kiss.
I take one step closer to him, "It'd be my honor."
"She wouldn't shut up about it." He laughs. "I was the best man at their wedding, but Josh and Hayley have never been the best man nor maid of honor or bridesmaid at mine. So, they were a little bit noisy about it."
"They didn't take part at your wedding?"
"I never had a wedding before." He responds.
"What are you talking about? You were once married." I look up into his eyes to find the answer.
Kyle takes a deep breath, "We got married at the City hall and never had a proper wedding after."
"Why not?"
"I don't know." He looks like a lifeless man right now.
I cup his face to cast his sorrow away, but Kyle doesn't have the strength to look at me in the eye. Maybe he feels like the most horrible person in the entire planet once again, but everything that has happened is not his fault. I still needs to find a way to tell him about that, and I know that it's not going to be an easy task to do. I force him to level my eyes, and when I finally meet those green eyes, I cheer him up with the brightest smile on my face.