⌜ chapter twelve ⌟

"Hey." Jack gets Letty's attention, and she turns to look at him. "I finally finished copying down the information from your dad's journal. Where do you want me to put it?"

"Leave it on my dresser. I'm about to go in there, I'll put it away." She tells him, and he nods before heading back toward the bedrooms.

Shawn walks out then and jumps on the couch, making himself comfortable as he lounges across it. He's flipping through a magazine as Letty makes herself a sandwich, and a few minutes later, they hear some sort of weird crash followed by Jack's scream.

"What the hell?" Letty looks over at the younger boy as she turns around.

"Oh, yeah." Shawn looks up from the page that he was looking at. "Hey, the super told me to tell you that the people above us let their bathtub overflow, and whatever you do—"

"Don't poke the big bubble on my ceiling?" Jack walks out, his light blue shirt significantly darker now than it was when he was out there talking to Letty before.

"Yeah. You got the message?"

"Yeah. Just now." He nods as Letty purses her lips. "My whole room's flooded, and there's a half of a bathtub hanging over my bed."

"Stay in my room." He goes back to reading his magazine.

"Have fun with that." Letty says sarcastically. "Shawn never cleans his room."

The brunette's sitting on the couch later, while Shawn and Jack go to the younger boy's room, and the door suddenly bursts open as Cory makes his way inside. She barely glances at him as he walks past her and the door swings shut again.

"Did you know that Shawn has a pig in his room?" Jack asks when he walks back into the living room.

"Yeah, I know about him." The teenage girl nods as she looks over at her roommate. "His name's Little Cory. You didn't know about your brother's pig?"

"No!" He looks at her like she's nuts, and then his eyebrows furrow. "Those two have a weird relationship." He says, and she nods.

"Yeah. Tell me about it." She agrees as she looks back at the tv. "Nothing about them has made sense to me their entire lives."

The next day, Letty's in the living room with her boyfriend, and he's telling about the trip that he just went on with Cory and their dad. Cory's been having a hard time because he wants a relationship with Mr. Matthews like Eric has, but the boys are so different that their relationships with their father are so different from one another.

The three of them went to bond by going skydiving together. It's something that Eric and their dad have talked about doing numerous times, but hadn't done yet. Mr. Matthews brought Cory along to show him that they can have a relationship that involves sports like he has with Eric, since his relationship with Cory is more centered around talking about the things that they have in common.

"He jumped out of the plane, Letty." Eric says as he turns to face her; she's standing in their kitchen, leaning against the counter. "I know that I'm not as smart as Cory, but he jumped out of a plane because talking to me isn't as bad as falling out of the sky."

"Eric, talking to you is not bad." She argues as she walks over to him, and he sits on the arm of the couch. "Your relationships are just different because you and Cory are so different."

"No." He shakes his head as she stands between his legs, and he rests his hands on her hips. "He jumped out of a plane rather than talk to me. Then, when he hit the ground, he started running."

"Baby, you gotta talk to him." The brunette says, placing her hands on either side of his face. "He loves you, you know that. But the only way that any of this is going to get resolved, is if you sit down and talk about it. Tell him how you feel."

"What if things only get worse?"

"They won't." She shakes her head. "Not if you're honest with him. You just have to try."

"Talking to you is easier." He says as he pulls her closer to him, and she smiles as she leans down and presses her lips against his.

"Maybe. But it won't help the situation this time." She tells him as she rests her forehead against his, and he sighs. "And I'll be here when you get back." She promises, and a small smile tugs at his lips as he looks up at her.

—

"He talks in his sleep." Jack angrily complains as he makes his way over to Letty in their living room.

"When did I become a therapist?" The brunette questions as she glances up at him from her drawing; she's sitting on the couch with her feet pulled up onto the cushion and the sketchpad resting in her lap.

"He was talking about eggs, and if you rub 'em together, they'll spark. Then his head caught on fire, and he wanted someone to put it out?" He sounds confused — understandably so — as he tells her what he's been having to deal with at night.

"Well, did you — put out the fire?" She asks, and he turns to glare at her. The teenage girl smiles up at him innocently, knowing full-well that the fire was only in Shawn's dream.

"And all that talking was between his snores."

"I don't know what to tell you, Jackie." The brunette shrugs. "Sharing a room with him is a temporary thing. You're just gonna have to deal with it until the super takes care of your ceiling."

Later in the day, Letty hears the two Hunter brothers arguing in Shawn's room. "You come in here! You criticize my room! You spook my pig! And you turn off my light!" The younger boy's yelling at Jack.

The teenage girl runs into Shawn's room, and she sees that Shawn has his brother in a headlock, but the older of the two quickly gets out of it and wraps his arms around him to pin his arms down.

"Hey! Hey, hey! Knock it off!" She yells as she gets between them, quickly separating the angry brothers. "What the hell has gotten into everyone lately?" She looks from Jack to Shawn as she stays in between them.

"I like the way I live!" Shawn yells, though he's not exactly talking to her. "I wasn't born with my life on a silver spoon."

"Hey, I like the way I was brought up!" The older boy argues.

"I like the way I was brought up!"

"Knock it off!" Letty yells at them. "You two are idiots. This is not about a messy room or the fact that Shawn sleep-talks."

"What?" Jack questions as he turns his attention to her.

"You're different, by a hell of a lot. But you're brothers, and brothers fight." She tells them. "I mean, believe me, this is not the first time I've walked in on something like this."

"Just think, all those years we didn't know each other, we could've been beating the crap out of each other." He laughs as he looks at his younger brother.

Shawn then moves past Letty and tackles Jack, and the brunette shakes her head. "Well, that was my knowledge. Jack, don't hurt him." She says, and then walks out of the room, leaving them to wrestle all they want. As long as no one gets seriously hurt, she really doesn't care what they do to each other.

Later that night, the Hunter boys and Letty go to catch a movie — one that she really wasn't too pleased with. The brothers want to get dinner from Chubbie's afterward, but Letty tells them that she's gonna head home instead. Eric went to an art museum with Cory and their dad, but he should be back at the apartment by now, so she wants to spend some time alone with him before the others get back as well.

Shawn makes a gagging noise, saying that she and her boyfriend sicken him, and the brunette chuckles as they go their separate ways. As she walks up outside of their apartment complex not long after, she sees Hope, so she quickly runs over and jumps, pushing down slightly on her best friend's shoulders.

Hope smirks as she looks at Letty, shaking her head. "You are such a child." She heard her running up behind her, and knew it was her friend — it's not the first time that Letty's done it.

"Yes, ma'am." She nods, a smile plastered on her face.

"Someone's in a good mood."

"It's been a good day." Letty says as they make their way over to the elevator. "Well, you know, after Shawn and Jack stopped trying to kill each other, that is."

"What's wrong with them?" She asks, pushing the 3 in the elevator.

"They're brothers...and idiots."

"Oh." She nods. "So, any late night plans with your boy-toy?"

"Hopefully he's already in bed, and I can cuddle up with him and talk for awhile." Letty smiles, and her friend chuckles.

"You two are so adorable it's puke-inducing."

"That seems to be the consensus, but I don't care. I love him."

"What you guys have is rare and beautiful. I envy you."

"You'll find someone who treats you as well as Eric treats me." She tells her.

"Someday." She nods as she looks down.

The two brunettes get off the elevator, and Letty quickly gets Hope's attention before she can walk down the hallway to her own apartment. The older girl turns, brows raised as she waits for her to continue. "You have tomorrow morning off, right?" Letty asks.

"Mhm."

"See if we can leave the girls with Jason for a couple hours. I wanna have a friend-date, get breakfast." She says, and Hope smiles.

"I'll ask him when I go inside. He never goes to bed before I'm home." She tells her, causing both girls to chuckle.

"Okay, perfect. Night."

"Night." Hope turns, a smile still on her face as she then heads down the hallway.

Letty opens the door to her apartment and sees Eric standing in the kitchen. "Hey." The brunette smiles as she shrugs out of her jacket. "How was the museum?" She asks, hanging it by the door.

"What is this?" He questions, and she turns to see her father's journal in his hand. Her heart sinks as her gaze meets his; she can see the confusion and fear in his eyes.