Floating in the Abyss ✔️

Chapter 56

"Where are my grandbabies?" A voice yelled from downstairs.

"Nana! C'mon Ash!" Austin jumped up excitedly. I had to say, I was kind of nervous.

I followed him downstairs, where we could hear Nana fussing over each boy.

"There's Austin." Said Ryan, pointing. I lingered back slightly, but Nick appeared behind me and shoved me forwards.

"No time to be shy here." He smirked. Nick surprised me when he did things like that. Nana was too busy encasing Austin in a hug to see me at the moment, whilst Grandpa was civilly talking to Ryan and River.

"Ashlyn! My sweet granddaughter." She gasped with delight, rushing over to hug me. I was tense to start with but relaxed quickly in her gentle embrace. She smelt like flowers and was nice and warm. "You're so beautiful." She put her hand on my cheek as the boys watched. I felt awkward yet appreciated at the same time. "You most certainly got the better twin genes." She said, not lowering her volume at all.

"Nana!" Austin huffed.

"Aw, it's okay, you're still a pretty boy Austin." The older boys snickered at her affection. Austin grinned with the compliment. I could tell already that they all loved her a lot.

"Hello, my girl." Grandpa said, giving me a hug. He was strong and lean, and looked a lot like Dad, just older, of course.

"Everyone sit down and fill me in. It's been forever since I've last had some quality time with my grandbabies."

We all took seats and listened as she asked questions about us all. I loved that she called me her granddaughter, even though she'd never met me before, and I was only related to her through marriage. Family was definitely more than a blood bond.

She asked about Nick and his university studies. Turns out this is his last year in University before he can go into practice. He has exams in a few weeks and then he's done for good.

River and Ryan also have exams in a few weeks, and then they were graduating. It was kind of sad to me that I would only spend a few weeks going to the same school as them, but I told myself that they weren't going anywhere, and would still be around to hang out with me.

Jonah talked about sports, and Austin did the same. She asked about Sean too, even though he wasn't here.

"What've you been up to, Ash?" She asked. Grandpa had dozed off in his chair.

"Not much." I smiled. "Dad's been teaching me how to swim and I started trying to skateboard with Austin a while ago."

"That's wonderful! These boys haven't been annoying you too much I hope?"

"Nope." I thought about it. "Although Nick is always grumpy." I smirked at him, finally being able to get him back for shoving me earlier, when I was nervous. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Yes, he's always been a bit like that. Not the most pleasant of people." She grinned. "But his Nana still loves him. Oh, I remember those days when he used to just run around in his little underpants, pretending he was superman."

"Nana." He grumbled.

"You were so cute!"

"I'm done here." He stood up and gruffly walked off, leaving everyone here to laugh.

"He's just tightly wound that's all." She told me. "So, Jonah, I hear you have a very special lady friend." She wiggled her eyebrows. I was sitting next to Austin and avoided his gaze as he tried to eye me. Jonah didn't have much to say about her, so Nana moved onto the next topic.

"And we have the twins turning 16 soon!" I'd never been referred to as one of the twins. It kind of felt weird although it felt nice that I was part of something like that.

"40 something days to go!" Austin exclaimed.

"What date?" I whispered to him, having forgotten.

"November 16th."

We spent the afternoon catching up with Nana. Grandpa slept most of the time, which suited Nana just fine because she didn't have to share the attention. When it was finally dinner time, River and Jonah went to go pick it up and we kept chatting.

I really liked spending time with Nana. She was funny and quick with everything she said, holding nothing back. I liked how she didn't make it awkward or ask me any strange questions to make me uncomfortable. I was really looking forward to being able to spend time with her when mum and dad were busy in Vancouver.

Just as Austin had mentioned earlier, Nana profusely complained about half of the food. Too salty, to sweet, not hot enough, too hot. She meant it with a light heart, but it sure did get annoying after a while.

We had ice cream for dessert and even though it gave me what River called a brain freeze, it tasted so good I just kept shovelling it in.

"Can I have more?" I asked Nick, who was serving it. Mum and Dad had gone for a walk. I think they liked to leave Nana to it when she was here, and just take a step back.

"No, Ash, you've already had some."

"Nick please." I begged.

"What do I get out of it?"

"Nothing. You're just doing it because you love me." I grinned.

"Don't be so sure."

"So you don't love me?" I pouted. He chuckled but didn't respond. I sat my bowl down and hugged him tight.

"Let go Ash. I've got things to do!" He protested, trying to unravel my arms from his waist. I knew he could have done it easily if he'd really tried. He was fit and muscly, and I was weak and light, but he didn't really try very hard.

"I'll let go if you give me more ice cream." I was learning their ways. Most of the time, if one of them didn't get what they wanted first try, they worked around it until they did. I was improving, but they were still the masters.

"Nice try."

"Ew, why are you hugging him? I want hugs." Ryan made a disgusted face, coming and pulling me off Nick and lifting me up.

"I want more ice cream." I whined quietly to him.

"Just know, I would have given it to you." He hugged me, ignoring Nick's glares. Interested Ryan was back again. Sometimes he liked having me around, other times, not so much. It was okay though, there was always someone else to hang out with.

"Let's watch a movie kids!" Nana called out.

"When is she going to understand that I am not a child." Nick grumbled, following us into the lounge. Ryan was still carrying me, so I tucked in with him as they turned on a movie. I was tired and had very little interest in watching something right now, so I rested my head on Ryan's chest and let myself drift off to sleep.