As soon as Dad had shifted the car into park, Jeremiah and Jonathan were out of the car and racing up the driveway to the front door, currently sitting slightly ajar. I was slower in pressing my fingers down to release my seatbelt, and though I prompted my father to follow in my brother and his friend's footsteps with my pathetic attempt at a smile, he only sat with his back tense in the driver's seat.

I could feel how much he wanted to question my mental state; I had from the second I'd met his eyes outside the airport. What I hadn't felt until this very second was the uncertainty. He obviously wanted to ask what was going on, why I'd insisted on my fashion choices in this weather. But the monumental amount of tension between us after seven years of no communication left him only forcing a tight-lipped smile and stepping outside of the car.

I joined him outside, not sure what to expect as I trailed along behind him like a lost child on our way up the concrete path leading to the front door of the house. Shouting erupted the moment I stepped past the threshold and on to the welcome mat in front of the door. It didn't take long for the owner of the voice to retreat from where he was screaming from the top of the staircase.

The perpetrator didn't give me a chance to even try and figure out which of the boys it was, but shot down the stairs at lightning speed and scooped me up in his arms the moment he reached Dad and me in front of the door. Both scared and confused, I jumped back, shifting my body to the left, away from the boy as I eyed him warily.

He, unlike Johnny, was short and thin. He wasn't much taller than me, his arms a little out of proportion to his body, but the warm, welcoming brown eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses held a familiarity, as if he was sure of who I was. It wasn't until he lifted his right hand and I saw the red and white birthmark on his wrist that I realized who had just blindsided and sideswiped me in one go.

"Shane?"

He grinned as realization dawned on me, and I saw hints of Johnny in that perfect smile. As children, the boys couldn't have looked more different. Shane had been blonde as a child, his hair a mess of curls, but with age not only had his hair darkened, but the curls had straightened out. He, like his older brother, looked nothing like the ten-year-old I'd left seven years ago.

"Ads!" he exclaimed, looking as if he wanted to hug me again. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just happy to have you back here. All the alpha male energy in this house is exhausting."

Despite my heart still racing and my fight or flight to activated, a smile tugged at the right side of my mouth.

"You can say that again!" a beautifully melodic agreement came from the kitchen.

I averted my gaze from Shane, but in doing so, my eyes fell on the mess that was the living room to his back.

The entire floor was a mess of disheveled blankets, empty wrappers, and pillows. The couch had crumbs and empty soda cans discarded along every inch of it. They hadn't left the coffee table out of the hurricane of destruction, as there were three pizza boxes spun in various directions on top of old placemats looking in desperate need of replacement.

The house definitely looked as though it were run by teenage boys.

"Addison." the quiet, soft greeting brought me out of my head and I looked to the dining room where Elise had parked herself behind one of the kitchen chairs, hands gripping the top as she smiled.

She held no resemblance to the stepmother I vaguely remembered helicoptering around most of my childhood. Hair that had once mirrored her sons, dark and luscious waves down her back, was now in a bottle blonde pixie cut that shaped the her foxlike features perfectly. It wasn't her appearance that had my eyes prickling with tears, but the way her eyes fell from my face to my attire, then returned with understanding. "Would you look at you. So beautiful and grown up."

Most girls would have smiled giddily and thanked her profusely over the sweet compliment, but I couldn't stop my body's involuntary flinch as a reaction to the words. She noticed, but something caught her attention over my head and she snapped her finger and snapped a very stern, "Jere!"

I threw a quick look over my shoulder to find Jeremiah frozen mid step, his right foot still a few inches in the air, the left flat against the tile. Seeing he wasn't about to escape Elise, he rested his foot down against the floor and spun so he was staring directly at her. Luckily, he'd thrown on a loose fitting plain gray shirt, but it made a very concerning tearing sound when he crossed his arms over his chest. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"I spoke with Principal Owens and Coach Stevens this morning. I want to make it clear we're not having a repeat of last year. Understand?"

I felt as if I were invading a personal moment but couldn't find it in me to move aside so they could discuss it further. Jere, having heard something he didn't like, frowned, his shoulders tensing slightly as he nodded, "Yes, Ma'am."

I looked between the two of them, confused as to why she was speaking to him as if he were another one of her boys, but she spoke up again before I could try and figure it out.

"Oh, and make sure if the boys don't, that you make sure Addison isn't all alone Monday."

"Yes, Ma'am."

She noticeably relaxed and added, "Go get Jon and Gabe and you all need to clean that living room."

This time he didn't respond but offered me a quick smile and wink on his way back down the hall.

Once I was sure he was out of hearing range, I looked to my stepmother. "Can I shower?"

Every inch of my body was drenched with sweat and I had no doubt it was going to start seeping through the thick fabric at any moment.

A quick flip of a switch turned the stern mother into a friendly hand as she rested hers on the small of my back and led me down the hall, right past the stairs Shane had rushed down.

"Yes, of course. You can use the one in the master bedroom. Your father won't mind." she chuckled softly. "Those boys share the one upstairs and are absolute heathens. I would never wish for any girl to have to step foot in there."

"Thank you." I whispered, setting my bag on the bed and watching intently as she crossed the room to open the door and grab a clean towel from under the sink.

Once she'd made her way back to me, she set in in my arms. "Of course, sweetie."

I hurried past her before she could try and corner me and force me to speak, pressing the door shut behind me. I pulled the sweatshirt off and set it on the edge of the corner, trying my best to avoid catching my reflection in the mirror, but I failed miserably.

At one point, I'd loved how I looked. I'd thought that it was the dream, to have boys stop and stare any time I walked by. But when it became a reality, I realized just how desperately I wanted to turn my DD cups into As and flatten my butt in any way possible. And the girl who stared back at me now was a product of the hell I'd experienced because of it.

Once lively, innocence filled blue eyes shone with agony, the fans of lashes against my sweaty, pale skin was a little unnerving. No doubt I'd been on the verge of heat stroke before stepping into the house. Though I was wearing a sports bra to try and keep my breasts pushed down, it did nothing and they ached to be released from such tight confinement. As I discarded my clothes on top of the sweatshirt, I squeezed the underwear I'd grabbed from my duffel and set it on top of the shut toilet lid and started the water. I scrubbed my lower body so hard that I accidently nicked my inner thigh with one of my jagged nails and blood started trickling down it for a millisecond before it muddled with the running water and fell to the bottom of the tub.

I had whole-heartedly expected my stepmother to give me privacy, but sliding into the underwear and stepping out with the towel wrapped around my torso, I nearly screamed when I caught sight of Elise sitting at the edge of her California King with a pair of old sweatpants in one hand and one of my dirty, old sweatshirts in the other.

"Addison, honey." she whispered, having heard my quick intake of breath. "Is this all your brought? Surely you have more in the car?"

I wrapped my arms around myself to keep the towel from coming undone and falling to the ground. "No. That's it."

There's a sad look hindering on anger as she lifted her head and met my eyes, "Didn't your mother ever take you shopping?"

The very thought of my mother walking through a mall was so comical I almost laughed. Instead, I looked over her head at the painting mounted over the headboard. It was a beautiful beach scene, a sun dipping in the horizon, reflecting on to the water.

"Where she was going to find her next fix was more important."

Not that I'd really minded. I had started to enjoy wearing sweatshirts, however old and torn they may be, when I realized they kept eyes from lingering too long. That they kept me hidden.

"Goodness, alright. Let me go talk to your father." Elise said, standing and tossing all of my clothes to the far corner of her bed. "Once we figure out dinner I'm going to take you shopping."

I nodded, knowing if I tried to protest it'd be disrespectful, and in complete honesty the clothes I'd been wearing were about as old as I was.

"I'm assuming by the sweatshirt and sweatpants in hundred-degree weather you want something roomy and flowy." she headed for the front door. "Hold on, let me go get a shirt from one of the boys."

I expected her to be gone for long time, but she popped back in a few minutes later with a shirt in hand. As she rested it in between my expectant ones, she smiled and said, "Make sure to return to sender once done."

"Whose is it?"

"Jere's." she answered without any emotion and headed for her closet. I stared at the shirt, confused as to why she couldn't have bummed one off any of my brothers, then shrugged and turned to grab my sports bra from the counter. Elise was at my side again with a couple pairs of leggings, but it wasn't until she saw my expression that I realized she understood me far more than I thought-and felt comfortable with.

"Don't worry." she said, eyes falling to my back side, then back to my own with a sad look. "The shirts long enough that it'll cover everything."

*

I sat on the arm of the beige sofa as I waited for my dad and Elise to finish their argument in their bedroom down the hall. I must have dissociated from reality for a while because I was stirred back in by the popping of a can opening. My head whipped to the left and I found one of the twins slowing to a stop as he eyed my shirt.

"Isn't that Jere's?" he asked, curiosity lighting his hazel eyes.

As weird and strange as it was, all I could do was stare with my mouth agape. I still remembered rocking these little toddlers to sleep, and the last time I'd seen them, they were rambunctious seven-year-old goofballs that lived off tormenting me.

The cheeky seven-year-old was now an entire young man, and though his older siblings didn't have it, facial hair lined his jaw and upper lip. His hair was also a thick, dark mane that mirrored what his mother's had been the last time I'd been here.

"Holy crap, Addy?" he stepped forward and examined me like a science experiment. "Is that you?"

I nodded, but didn't respond, because I was unsure of which twin it was I was speaking too.

"Jacob." he made a gesture toward himself with a quirked smile. "Just in case you needed the reminder."

I couldn't fight my thoughts and apparently the filter was out of service today because I breathed, "You look so different."

"Ha, so do you!"

"Jake, honey, please make sure Gabe cleans his side of your room. It's filthy." Elise's entrance eased the shock in both of us and he gave his mother a thumbs up and took a sip of his Coke. "And please go up there and make sure Jere and Jon aren't just messing around and playing video games and are actually clearing out the room for you sister."

He leaned forward and kissed his mother's cheek and squeezed my shoulder before he shot for the stairs and raced up them as quickly as Shane had come down them this afternoon.

Elise, taking her sons departure as our cue, finally turned to me and smiled, "You ready to go?"