Brynn walked back into the living room, glass still in hand. The newspapers and magazines were now nowhere to be seen, Aubrey and Penny having previously shoved them into the bin next to the couch.

She placed her half-empty glass on the side table and sat back down with them. "It doesn't bother me guys." Lie.

"It'd be fine if it did, Brynn," Aubrey pointed out, "honestly some people can be so nosy."

"Didn't you just ask me what it was like living with my brothers?"

"That's different."

"Hmm," Brynn held back a grin. Her first sleepover was going well. Actually really well, which she did not expect at all.

And for the rest of the night, she managed to get her anxiety levels down, only to have them rocket up again when she was about to fall asleep.

What if she did something to embarrass herself in her sleep? Like have a nightmare or sleep talk.

She was in the middle of the two mattresses, dozing off to the Harry Potter they were watching. The second she started dozing, her anxiety spiked and she was wide awake, thinking about all the things she could possibly do to avoid any uncomfortable situations.

She could stay awake all night. Or she could shove a pillow on her face so nobody would hear her. There were so many options.

"If you hear any growling in the night, don't panic it's just Aubrey snoring," Penny sleepily informed into her pillow to Brynn. She was on Brynn's left, about two feet away trying to stay awake to finish the movie.

"And if you smell anything funky, it's just Penny's morning breath," Aubrey retorted on the other side of Brynn just as sleepy; it was past one am after all.

Brynn snorted into her pillow, smiling slightly. Penny tried to kick Aubrey's shin but ended up kicking Brynn's instead. Brynn didn't really feel it under the soft covers but nonetheless said, "ow," simply.

"Damn sorry, was aiming for Aubrey."

"I presumed."

"Well, I bet you feel pretty stupid right now, don't you Pen?"

"Shut up."

Most of that entire conversation wouldn't have been audible to a spectator, only to the three girls speaking. Mainly because their faces were pushed into their pillows and the majority of their words were drowsy mumbles.

They were the final words of the night. After they were spoken, the girls rather quickly fell into deep sleeps.

And Brynn didn't wake up once during the night. Only in the morning, where she woke in a rather awkward position.

She lay on her mattress only slightly on her side, leaning more to Penny's side. Penny was upside down on her bed, facing the wrong way with her sock covered feet on the top of Brynn's head, tangled a bit in her hair.

Aubrey, herself, was in a similar position to Brynn. Sideways on her mattress but her head lay on Brynn's stomach and her hands were gripping Brynn's loose leggings by the knees in a vice grip.

The latter chuckled and tried to shimmy her grip from her pants off before she pulled them down by accident. She ended up shuffling too much because Penny got agitated and pushed her foot into Brynn's face. "Hush."

Brynn grimaced and spun her face away, "gross, get it away."

Penny smirked and moved herself further down to push her foot into Brynn's face again. "What, this?"

Brynn backed up, her head coming off the mattress slightly, "yes, that."

Penny retracted her foot to do the same to Aubrey, who didn't move. She furrowed her eyebrows, thoroughly confused as to why she wasn't annoying Aubrey as she intended to.

Brynn was confused too, utterly amazed at how she hadn't woken up yet.

Six seconds later however, Aubrey woke with a start, grimacing at the foot on her face. "Gross."

The rest of the morning was a lazy morning. They didn't move whatsoever except to turn the TV back on.

After a while, Brynn started to feel a little homesick, which was stupid to her. She was hardly gone for a whole day. And she wasn't a baby who needed to be with her brothers all the time.

There was just a feeling she'd get when she was at home. One of comfort and one of which she could never find anywhere else.

So after Aubrey's dad had offered them waffles for breakfast, which they thanked him for and Brynn ate very little of, she sat with her phone in her hands debating what to do.

She didn't want to text Zayne. Even though she knew he said she could text anytime to pick her up, she also assumed that that was just something grown-ups said. And besides, she could only message Zayne in extreme emergencies. Despite how much she wanted to be home, this wasn't an extreme emergency.

She didn't know if she could message another brother, they weren't really talking to her. But she really wanted to be home.

She opened Callan's contact up and her thumb hovered over the 'message' button. In her mind, if she did it really fast then threw her phone face down on the bed, them technically it didn't happen.

So that's what she did. Quickly tapping the message button and typing the message faster than she's ever done before, she held her breath.

Can you come pick me up, please.

Throwing her phone on the mattress, she took a deep breath out. It was done and now she could mentally block it out for the rest of her life.

However, it couldn't be mentally blocked as not even five seconds after sending the message, she got one back.

On my way x

She wanted to cry in relief, maybe he wasn't mad.

She started packing up and and tidying the room a little bit. She went to the smaller living room on the other side of the house where she was told Aubrey's parents were chilling.

Bracing herself she opened the mahogany door and sure enough they were sat on the couch close to each other, watching some reality show, 'The Real Housewives of something..."

They noticed her the second her figure was in view of the door. Ray paused the TV, smiling, "hey Brynn, you okay?"

The girl was kind of nervous around him, he was nice, she just didn't really like older males- well apart from her brothers. They were always an exception.

Georgie could tell the girl was nervous, but she was in no place to question it. Instead, she sat up fully and smiled at her, "did you sleep alright, honey?"

Once again, the nickname didn't feel as nice as when her brothers said it, but the woman was so sweet that it felt nice.

She mustered up an answer to the woman, "yes thank you. You have a beautiful home." The older woman smiled as did the man. "I just wanted to say thank you for having me, my brothers on his way." The two grown-ups gulped.

"Well, it's no problem, Brynn. You're welcome anytime," Ray assured and straightened his back a bit already regretting the question he was about to ask.

"Would you like us to wait for him with you?" Both the grown-ups tensed lightly. The girl was so sweet, but by god they did not want to be near a Verlice brother, no matter which one it was.

"No it's fine," Brynn sensed they were a little nervous at the thought of waiting for Callan, "Aubrey and Penny said they'd wait with me by the window so it's fine." The grown-ups let out subtle breaths.

"Thank you again for having me," Brynn thanked them once again, because really, they were a lovely couple.

"Like we said, anytime honey," Georgie smiled. Brynn returned a small smile and left the room, closing the door behind her, and went to the living where Aubrey and Penny were finished cleaning up.

"My mum's coming too, so do you want to wait outside?" Penny asked slinging her own bag over her shoulder. Brynn nodded, "yeah, okay," going over to where her shoes were by the couch and slipping them on.

Aubrey unlocked the front door and the three walked outside. They were all still in their pyjamas and trainers minus Aubrey who chose to wear fluffy slippers.

They walked down the gravelly path and stood by the gate, making idle conversation. As they made said idle conversation, something shiny caught Brynn's eye from the floor. There was something shimmery under the right side bushes, which she just had to get a better look at.

She bent her knees to pick it up and once it was in her grasp, she made it her life mission to inspect every detail of it.

It was incredibly bumpy around the edges and was a pretty pale yellow. It had miniscule black dots dotted around the rock freely yet seemed so intricately placed. There was the occasional silver shimmer from more perfectly placed dots which looked to be glitter.

"Can I keep this, please?" she asked out of nowhere to Aubrey.

Aubrey looked at what she was holding, thinking it looked pretty nice, "sure. We don't have a use for it."

Brynn smiled at her, "thanks." She didn't have pockets so she resulted in slipping it into her left jumper sleeve for safety. She loved it already.

For Zach.

Not even forty seconds into joining their conversation, Callan pulled up right outside the house, the car not fully in park as he got out. He was in a white button up, the top two buttons undone, black dress pants and shoes. His cuffs were rolled up to his elbows and he had matching shaded glasses to Zayne. He was also driving his pristine white mercedes.

Brynn wondered if it was sibling thing and if it was, would she ever get her own pair? That'd be so cool.

Aubrey and Penny words froze as they watched Callan get out and slammed the driver door, observing the surroundings around him.

Brynn said her goodbyes and opened the gate, making her way towards the passenger side of the car which was facing the pavement.

She opened the door, careful of the rock in her sleeve, and placed her bag on the floor, sitting on the plush seat. Callan remained looking around for a few more seconds before he, too got in.

He placed his right hand on the wheel and began to drive away. Brynn started to get anxious. He hadn't said a word to her, nor did he seem happy right now.

Once he'd turned streets, he took his sunglasses off and slipped them on his shirt, turning to Brynn was a grin and interested eyes, "so how was your first sleepover?"

Brynn flushed a little; at the bright attitude Callan was giving her and the indication that he knew it was her first sleepover. Which was embarrassing. She was twelve, she should have had at least one sleepover by now.

But a huge part of her was so happy. Callan was speaking to her!

Callan himself felt guilt stab into heart like thousands of prickly needles. His little sister should not be so happy to have something such as a simple conversation with one of her brothers. Something she should always have. And that's their fault for being silent bastards for most of the week.

"Yeah it was great. We watched like a million movies and I'm pretty sure there was like a millions pounds worth of sweets everywhere. Her parents were so cool too," she said, rather happy they were speaking again now.

"Yeah?" Callan asked. Not as cool as us though.

He blocked out his bitter thoughts to continue their conversation which was going well. "We were thinking of having a pool day, today? It being a sunny and Saturday and all," he informed. "Well, except Zayne who's handling some," his hand tightened on the wheel, "business."

She chose not to ask, he was probably stuck at his office or something with mountains of paperwork. He couldn't enjoy a nice Saturday at home, which made Brynn feel awful.

And then there was another issue. She couldn't swim. She never learnt how to and at the age where she was supposed to, her mum was gone. And if Milo took her, he would have tried to drown her, she assumed so.

"Uhm," she had to think of a way to get out of this, "I might just stay in the library, if that's alright?"

Callan felt the most dejected he'd ever felt, not that he'd show his sister that. "Oh, that's fine. Just come down when you feel like it, yeah?"

"Sure," Brynn didn't really have any intention of doing that, or to go near the pool. Imagine finding out that your twelve year old sister couldn't swim. What would her brothers do?

Callan pulled up to their homes' garage much too fast for his liking and before he could start another topic of conversation to keep talking to Brynn, she had already got out the car.

Out the car, through the garage door, through the entrance hall, up the right side staircase, down the necessary hallways to get to her desired location: the library.

The library was a large room with cut in two by floors. The bottom floor was rows of books on mainly educational subjects and non-fiction. In the far left hand corner was the cosy chair with the lamp that Brynn often liked to sit in when reading serious books.

On the right side, though, was a gold metallic spiral staircase leading up to the seconds floor. Brynn's favourite floor. The fictional and fantasy floor.

The floor where Brynn could lose herself no matter what time of day it was and no matter how bad her anxiety was.

Her personal favourite was at the very front of the floor. There was a semi-large rounded window which had a flawless view of the forest surrounding the property and the sky. It was amazing to sit by during the rain. To the right side of the window was the David Walliams' section, holding every book he'd ever made, including original copies. And to the left was the same, only with Roald Dahl books.

She went to her spot to find her window seat wasn't so plain anymore. Instead of the hard windowsill she'd sit on, it was highly cushioned. There was a light pink cushioned mattress on it, cut down to fit the size and on the right were three pillows perfectly placed.

The two at the back were matching ones, with two clouds attached to a full rainbow and the one in front of them was light grey with white fluffy letters which read: *they're. idiot.

Her shocked mouth upturned reading it. Her eyes roamed around to the other side which had a pile of two soft-looking blankets, one white and one light pink, both neatly folded. Around the rounded edges of the window were pale white fairy lights with hearts.

"We thought you'd like something more comfortable to sit on."

Ignoring her momentarily stopping heart, she whipped her head around to see Zach stood there, leaning against the David Walliams' shelves.

He was wearing hawaiian swim shorts, covered in colourful designs, which came down to his knees; he also wore a thin white t-shirt with his arms crossed over it.

He looked at the jumper that was draped over her smaller frame, something missable in his eyes then looked back at her face.

Brynn was shocked- not believing she deserved such a thoughtful things after all they've done for her and for the fact that Zach was also speaking to her.

"Thank you." Was all she could say. Because she felt like the gift could make her tear up at any given moment. Her brothers were so cool for this.

Then she remembered another thing she had for Zach. Quickly shrugging it down her sleeve, so it fell into her left palm, she came towards him holding out the item.

"This made me think of you," she said, not sure what Zach would think of it or what he would do to it. Really, she hoped he'd get a good look at it to see if he thought it looked as cool as she did.

Zach's face softened, uncrossing his arms and lifting himself off the shelf he leant on. He got closer and got a good look at it, tentatively bringing his hand up to take it out of his sister's palm.

It looked cool.

"I love it."

Brynn gave a small smile and tried to keep conversation going before it got awkward. "Aren't you going to the pool with the others?" He was in his swimming trunks, so she assumed he was going to.

"Well you weren't there," Zach simply replied, still looking at the rock like it was the greatest thing he'd ever held in his hands. "Are you coming down?" he looked up from the rock to ask.

"I- uh" Brynn scrunched her eyes and nose up a little, "I can't really, y'know, swim?"

Zach narrowed his eyes and lowered his hand that was holding the stone. He looked thoughtful for three seconds before turning around. Brynn was slightly confused and fretted, thinking he was going to go down to the pool and tell everybody else. That was until he called out.

"Follow me."

She did as said.

She found herself stood in front of her wardrobe mirror, dressed in some clothes Zach gave her.

He cut her old pair of leggings to look like shorts and he gave her one of his thin t-shirts- so when wet, they won't be heavy.

Brynn was unsure whether or not she should actually meet Zach outside. She wanted to throw up at the sight of her exposed forearms and short yet spindly legs. There were marks everywhere. Small ones, large ones, smoke burns, puncture wounds scarred over, scratches.

She took a really shaky breath, it got caught in her throat as she hiccuped a sob. Her eyes burned with salty tears, a deep hatred rooting itself inside her for those marks on her body.

She crossed her arms over her lower stomach, both forearms gripping the other to hide the marks on them as she pulled her lips back to keep from releasing more sobs.

She heard a gentle knock on the wardrobe door. "Brynn, are you okay?" Zach's voice sounded.

He opened the door a tad to check she still wasn't changing and seeing that she wasn't he opened it fully. Brynn panicked, debating whether or not she should hide in the hanging clothes rack.

But the door was already opening and all she could do was furiously brush her eyes and cheeks whilst standing severely insecure of what Zach would see.

Zach's gaze locked in on his sisters figure hunched in on herself, his vision flashing red at the marks that laid upon her skin. Fucking bastard.

His eyes softened for her, "you okay, love?" She nodded giving an unconvincing smile and moving her right arms to wipe a stray tear falling down her rosy cheeks.

She looked back into the mirror, at some of the things she now physically detested. Then she looked back at Zach and sniffed, her unconvincing smile wider, "don't think I wanna go swimming today though."

Zach's heart ached, he walked to her, blocking her view of herself in the mirror and kneeled down.

"Did you know that Silas has a huge burn mark on his ass?" This halted Brynn's tears, she gave a wet chuckle. "What?"

Zach felt tears well up a little in his eyes, looking at his little sister's face. "Yeah," he went on. "He sat on the stove just after Callan had finished cooking on it and burned his entire left ass cheek." Brynn gave a wet huff of laughter.

"He screamed at Brayden for trying to put ice on it." She chuckled a little harder, her eyes creasing up making more tears squeeze out.

"And did you know that," he took shirt off and threw it to the right then maneuvered his left shoulder so it was closer to Brynn, "when I was thirteen, I tried juggling two knives because Ezra could do it and ended up slicing my shoulder." He traced along the noticeable long scar which was nearly entirely covered by tattoos and led from the bottom of his neck to the top of his arm as Brynn's eyes widened in silent surprise.

"Scars can mean a lot of things, my love. Stupidity, accidents and sometimes," he brought his left hand up to Brynn's right forearm where a particularly harsh scar was. His thumb gently caressed over it, "sometimes they can represent extreme bravery."

Brynn looked down to the scar he was tracing, but Zach didn't give her a chance to get a good look. He used his right hand to move her chin back up to look at him, whispering his next words so gently, "bravery of which some people could never even dream of having."

Brynn looked at him straight in the eye, detecting no lie from him. "I don't like them."

"I think you look beautiful."

"I think they're ugly."

Zach leaned his face up to press a lasting kiss to her forehead. "You are many things, sorellina, and ugly will never be one of them," he whispered into her forehead.

He lowered his face, "so don't you dare look me in the eyes and tell me you are ugly."

He looked down at where his thumb was caressing the scar on her right forearm, then he looked back into her tearful eyes. "And don't you dare tell me you don't look badass." Brynn gave a strained, wet chuckle, smiling as best she could because she meant this smile.

---

"Okay so now we're in, just keep a tight hold of my arms okay?" Zach asked as he floated in the deep, clear pool.

Brynn was trying not to panic, trying her best considering that if she got in and let go of her brother's arms she could literally die.

Nobody was out yet, so Zach was taking this opportunity to teach Brynn how to swim. It was just them in the pool. Brynn was sat atop the metal pool ladder at the end of the pool, the water coming up to her knees which was far enough in her opinion.

Slowly, she leaned forward to hold as much of Zach's forearms as she could in each hand. She could get her hands about halfway around his arm muscles and she gripped them for all she was worth, not giving a single chance for Satan to drag her down.

Zach entire hands held almost her entire arm which she was completely fine with. It was far more secure this way.

"Okay that's it," he urged, "now just step down until you get to the last step, okay? I've got you. Take your time."

Brynn did as told, doing it faster than she would've liked, but she didn't want to waste too much of Zach's time with this. When she was fully in, she shivered at the sudden coolness of the water.

"Don't worry, you'll warm up after a few seconds," her brother promised, moving them out into the middle a little.

Brynn's feet were now completely off the ladder and she was away from anything she could grip on for safety. All she had was Zach.

"You're doing so good, why don't you try moving your feet back and forth to start floating?"

She did as instructed, finding a little more stability.

"I'm going to let go of this arm a little," he moved his left arm- her right arm- up a few times, "alright?"

Brynn shook her head rapidly, was he insane?

Zach chuckled going to say something else but the back door slid open. Brynn's head whipped to who came out. Zaiden, wearing his black swimming trunks.

She wanted to swim out and go back inside. But she was literally learning how to swim right now, she couldn't do that.

Zaiden made his way down to them, his face expression not holding anything but his mind confused. "What're you doing?"

"Teaching our sorellina to swim," Zach stated simply. Brynn whipped her head to him with betrayed eyes. Dammit, Zach. She didn't want Zaiden knowing!

Zaiden's brows furrowed and stared down Brynn who was flailing her legs a little. His sister didn't know how to swim?

He sighed and walked closer to the pool, sitting down beside it so his lower legs were in it. He lifted himself with his muscly arms and lifted himself down into the pool.

"What're you doing?" Zach asked this time.

"You're a shit teacher, move," Zaiden simply stated, treading closer to the two.

Zach pulled an annoyed face, "what? No, you move." He used his elbow to shove his twin brother away when the latter tried to release Brynn's arms from his.

Zaiden managed to release her right arm from Zach and he looked down at it, momentarily stunned and eyes blackening when he saw the marks on them. Marks which he was sure were plastered almost everywhere on his sister's body.

Choosing not to comment on anything after the warning kick sent to him by Zach under water, he began his so called "lesson", much to Brynn's happiness.

He released her arm and used his two hands to hold under her arms. "Use your arms and move your feet to float," he ordered sternly.

Brynn's eyes widened as she did what she was told. She wasn't learning right now, she wasn't being commanded to do something and she'd damned if she didn't do as said.

Zach furrowed his eyebrows and frowned, "nicely, Zaiden."

Meanwhile, Brynn was getting the hang of this swimming thing. She was floating with little assistance, only Zaiden's hand hovering over her waist and Zach's hands hovering over her arms incase she needed to grip onto something.

"There you go!" Zach praised enthusiastically.

Zaiden placed a flat hand on her stomach and then her back, tilting her forward so her chin hovered above the water. Her eyes widened, too close to the water-

"You're okay," Zaiden stated, "just used your arms to stay up." She did just that.

Zaiden signalled for Zach to back up a little and Zach did about two feet away.

"Can you try swim to Zach for me, Brynn?" he asked, looking to where Zach was. Brynn looked at how far away he was, which seemed like a million miles, until eventually she decided to try it.

Zaiden stayed with her while she struggled her way to Zach, keeping her over the water when her chin would dip down too far under.

When she finally made it to Zach, she held his spread out arms in a vice grip whilst he cheered. "There you go." She didn't feel like she much, but she felt like she had done something. Which was always a nice feeling.

It took all but twenty two minutes for Brynn to get the hang of regular swimming. Now able to swim from one side of the pool to someone in the middle. It wasn't much, but it was more than enough for Brynn. She'd just learnt how to swim.

---



Can we appreciate this piece of artwork that damiilolaaa decided to make for me? I am in awe. I love you so much I can't even.

Thank you so much for reading and commenting and voting and just generally existing. All of you.

<3