I woke up from the sound of the front door closing, slightly confused and then realized I had fallen asleep beside Ty.

I could hear his light snoring, and was happy that he had found sleep. Things were much simpler when you were unaware.

The sound of a car engine running got me out of bed.

Anthony must be leaving. Dad was alone again. I should go see him.

I slipped out of Ty's bed and then made my way towards Dad's study.

The light was still on, escaping from a thin open crack, so I knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hey kid, you should be sleeping," he trailed, sitting behind his desk, the bottle of Jack on it, and with less alcohol in it then the last time I had seen it.

"You too Dad," I whispered and walked up to him, to hug him.

"Stop worrying about your old man kid," my father smiled lightly, patting my arm wrapped around his neck.

"But my old man needs to know his kids care about him, and that they're here for him, no matter what," I breathed, smelling his familiar after shave.

That was a comforting smell. One that brought memories back of me, still a little kid, not even going to school yet, sitting in the bathroom counter, looking at my dad shaving, his expression as concentrated as mine before he tapped the tip of my nose with his finger, leaving shaving cream on it.

When you were young, you had stages. Ones where your mom is your favourite and ones where your dad was. And when you were young your parents were often your heroes. Sure, there were exceptions, but it was that way for me.

My dad was this all perfect model for me when I was a kid. Of course when you grew up, you realized your parents weren't perfect, but my dad was still my model, my dad was the anchor of our family, and without him, everything would be shattered. 

My mother had abandoned us. I had to accept it, we all had too. At first everything had felt like a bad dream, and I kept thinking that everything would get back to normal the next day, that my mother would come back to her senses, but at one point you realized that things weren't going back to the way they had been. 

Everything wouldn't be the same again. Because she had left, and this fact could never be denied. And right now I knew that I didn't want my mother to come back.

We would be better off without her. We were better off without her.

I just needed Dad to accept this too.

"You know dad, we can be happy without her. We can still make a life without her, we can go on without her. We don't need her. It would have been nice if things had just stayed the same, but things change. It's the way life works. We have to change with them. We can't live in the past. Living is a present thing, it's not a future thing and it's definitely not a past thing," I whispered to my father, still hugging him around the neck.

"When did you get so wise kid," my father chuckled and then squeezed me around the waist.

"I'm just trying to follow my father footsteps."

"Oh, your old man isn't wise, but your old man loves you, and he loves your brother too. And your sister, even though he doesn't always understands her. And your mom, but he knows what's good for him now, and she isn't."

"Talking about yourself at the third tense?" I asked, teasingly.

"'Makes me sound wiser," my father chuckled and I let go of him.

"Go to sleep, Dad."

"Alright," he said, and then got up and walked out with me.

"Goodnight Dad."

"Goodnight Lexi," my father smiled lightly and then closed the door of his room behind him.

Instead of going back to Ty's room, I went to the bathroom in mine first, to pee, and then when I walked out and towards my door, I saw the light of my phone flashing.

I picked it up and I sighed when I saw the number of unread text messages : 23.

Dear god.

And they were all from Blake.

Freak.

But that still made me smile a little.

I was getting a little tired and just read the last one received.

It said Okay now if you don't answer I will have to go with the "You got attacked by mutant potatoes" theory and I'm going to be forced to come over!

I had received it thirty minutes ago.

Oh god, was he going to show up at my window now, naked?

I called him.

"I knew it! It's the hobbits that kidnapped you, right? And now they want a ransom. Should have stuck with that one," Blake said, without a hello or anything.

"Are you always this stupid at night Blake?" I snorted.

"Nope, I'm just stupid when people don't answer my crazy fan texts."

"I told you I had family things to deal with when I left," I trailed, and my thoughts went back to my dad and my brother.

"Yeah well, you could have answered the first five messages that were still coherent, and tell me everything was alright and I didn't need to come kill the Russian mafia's man trying to get the secret of the Caramilk out of you," Blake said in a serious tone.

Without really wanting to, I started to laugh. As idiotic as his remarks were, they made me laugh, they made me forget about my sulkiness.

The boy had a gift. I had to give that much to him. He knew how to make me laugh.

"Well, I'm alive and well, as you can see, so no need to worry anymore," I answered him.

"Are you sure I can trust that? As far as I'm concerned you're an alien that took Lexi's form and is trying to make me believe it's her," Blake told me.

"How imaginative Blake," I snorted.

"I'm serious. Hey, what's the nickname I give you all the time?" Blake suddenly asked.

How odd?

"Pumpkin?" I said, more like a question than a statement.

Where was he going with this?

"Alright, either it's really you or you're really good at your job, alien," Blake stated.

"Blake you need to sleep, you aren't being coherent anymore," I laughed.

"Can't, I have to solve that big conspiracy thingy," Blake said and then yawned. "Yeah, I'm not coherent anymore. I said thingy. I don't say thingy. You say thingy," Blake laughed.

"Yeah, go to sleep, this calling each other at night can't become a habit of ours," I chuckled.

"Aw, really?" he whined on the other side of the line.

"Really," I answered firmly.

"Fine. I'll show up at someone else's window naked," Blake sighed.

"Dumbass," I laughed.

"Thanks!"

"Goodnight Blake."

"Goodnight Lexi, and you can dream about me all you want tonight," Blake said, and I could clearly see the smirk he must be doing right now in my head.

"Dumbass," I chuckled and closed my phone.

And just like that, I didn't feel so much like crap anymore.

Smiling a little, I walked back to Tyler's room, and then wrapped my arms around his waist again, and saw that he had tears in his eyes.

He was crying while sleeping.

And so I fell asleep thinking about the fact that not everything was alright.

___________

Hello my little Pumpkins. This was still depressing. Ugh. At least we got a bit of Blake at the end. And also, if you've read The Smirking Jerk, know you know what those 23 texts messages were. XD

If you have any questions you'd like me to answer, you can leave them here.

Otherwise, the live reading shall be at 11AM EST on Sunday June 27th, on my instagram at instagram.com/kaygiard.

See you guys tomorrow! :D