I took that screenshot because I saw it and all I could think was that Sebastian looked like a mom with her kids who don't want to be there. Emerson and Remington being said kids. It made me laugh.

"Hey!" I said as I jumped the last three stairs.
"Hey!"
"I totally lost track of time so lunch isn't ready." She shrugged and gave me a kiss.
"That's okay. I'll help." She dropped her purse on the couch and grabbed my hand. She pulled me into the kitchen and opened the fridge. "What were planning on making?"
"I dunno. Eggs or something."
"Eggs work. Grab a pan." She pulled the carton of eggs out of the fridge as well as the block of cheddar cheese. "Do you have an onion? Or a green pepper?"
"Possibly an onion, but unless Emerson bought a green pepper, which I highly doubt, we don't have one."
"Hmm." She rummaged through the crisper drawers before coming up with a piece of an onion in a baggie and half a green pepper.
"You were wrong." I stuck my tongue out at her and pulled a frying pan out of the cupboard.
"You two disgust me." Emerson said. I looked over my shoulder and saw him sitting on the floor, drawing, and Cherry laying on her stomach beside him coloring in a coloring book.
"Fuck you." I pulled plates and cups from the cupboards and set them on the table. There were no forks in the drawer so I opened the dishwasher and discovered that it was full and dirty. "Oh come on!"
"What?" Monica asked. I ignored her and stood in front of Emerson's open door with my hands on my hips.
"You didn't run the dishwasher."
"Oops?"
"You're kp after lunch." I walked back over to the dishwasher and pulled out a bunch of forks.
"Whatever." I started washing the forks.
"So, Mon, I kinda sorta did something about an hour and a half ago." She stopped mid-chop and turned to look at me. Emerson snickered.
"Shut up." I snapped at him. He rolled his eyes.
"What?" Monica asked.
"A friend of Jess Meyers called earlier and she had an eleven year old girl who needs a place to stay." Monica sighed.
"Rem, we're leaving for Houston in three days."
"I know. It's really bad timing, but I couldn't say no." She sighed again.
"Is she here?"
"Yeah. Upstairs."
"Okay." She went back to chopping onion.
"Okay? Just like that? Everything's fine?" She giggled and backs at me.
"Yeah."
"Oh. Okay." She leaned over and gave me a kiss.
"Love you."
"Love you too." She finished with the onions and started cracking eggs into a bowl while the onions and peppers hissed in the frying pan.
"I'm gonna go get Alana. I'll be right back."
"Sure. Emerson, you eating with us?"
"No. I'm meeting Shy for lunch." I left the kitchen and climbed the stairs two at a time. I knocked on the door to Cherry's room. I pushed the door open. Alana was laying on her mattress with a pair of earbuds in. She looked over at me. The sleeves of her sweater had slid up and I could see white bandages wrapped around her forearms. She pulled one of her earbuds out.
"Lunch is almost ready."
"Oh." She sat up and stretched before pulling the sleeves of her sweater down.
"What were you listening to?"
"YungBlud." I nodded.
"Cool. What else do you listen to?"
"Uh, Idkhow.(I didn't want to spell it out 😂) The Young Veins, Gerard Way, My Chem, Sleeping With Sirens, BVB and Andy Black."
"Who's you're favorite?"
"Andy. By a long shot."
"Really?" She nodded. "Did you know I'm in a band?" She shook her head. "Well we opened for Andy on the Homecoming Tour three years ago."
"Really?!" Her eyes got wide and she almost fell down the staircase.
"Yep."
"What're you called?"
"Remington." I said, trying to be all funny.
"I meant your band."
"Oh." I said, like a didn't know. "Palaye Royale." She nodded and pulled a pen from her sweater pocket. She scribbled palay royale on her hand.
"There's an e on the end of Palaye." She fixed it and put the pen back in her pocket.
"Lunch!" Monica yelled.
"Coming!" I jumped the last three steps and almost fell over. Alana giggled.
"Graceful."
"Thank you." I said with a bow. She followed me into the kitchen. Monica was stirring the eggs, Emerson was heading out the backdoor and Cherry was sitting at the table drinking chocolate milk.
"Alana this Monica, my fiancé. Mon, this is Alana."
"Nice to meet you, sweetie." Alana nodded and took a seat beside Cherry.
"What you name?" Cherry asked her, accidentally spitting chocolate milk across the table. Kids can be gross. Remember that before you have any. I mean, I love her to death, but she can still be gross. I smiled.
"Alana." Alana said, softly.
"Uh-Ana?" Cherry asked.
"Sure." Alana said with a smile. Cherry nodded and went back to her drink. Monica dishes up the eggs and the two of us joined the girls at the table. While I sat there with the three of them I couldn't remember a time when I'd been happier. We were like this little imperfect family. I loved it and I never wanted to lose it. I very quickly discovered Cherry didn't like eggs. She put some in her mouth and immediately spit them back out. She had a peanut butter sandwich instead.

———

   The rest of the day went by pretty smooth. Alana stayed in her room, listening to music.
The real excitement happened at about two am. I was lying in bed with Monica, asleep. I heard our bedroom door open, which wasn't unexpected. Cherry often came in the night. She liked to make sure I was still there and sometimes she needed things. Light filtered in from the hallway. I didn't move or open my eyes.
"Deedee?"
"Ung."
"Deedee! Uh-Ana beedin'!" I rolled over to look at her.
"What?" I rubbed my face with my hand.
"Uh-Ana beedin' and cyin'." I threw the blankets off and swung my legs off the bed.
"I'm comin'." She ran out of the room. I found a pair of track pants and pulled them on before stumbling out of my room. I blinked repeatedly, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the light. The light was coming from the bathroom. I could hear crying. I stumbled to the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe. Alana was sitting on the floor, both arms still wrapped in gauze, but it was red instead of white. She was crying.
"Alana?" I asked. She jumped and looked up at me. "What happened?" My mind immediately went to self-harm.
"My stitches opened." There was hardly any white left on her gauze.
"Can I see?" I asked. She lifted the gauze off her left arm. Blood dripped off her arm onto her leg.
"Let me see if I have some gauze or something." I left the bathroom and flicked on the hallway light. I opened the closet and pulled down our first aid kit, which was actually an old insulated lunchbox. There was a handful of tiny, useless band aids, a tube of triple antibiotic ointment, cotton balls, a roll of practically useless medical tape, and an ace bandage.
"Fuck." I shuffled back to the bathroom with a couple of washcloths and the roll of medical tape. "G' me your arm." I sat down across from her. She held out her left arm. I took the gauze off and threw it out, then I placed the washcloth over the bleeding cuts and taped it on. I repeated the process with her other arm.
"Get your shoes." I said as I stood up.
"What? Why?"
"Why? Because that's not a good bandage. If the cuts were deep enough you needed stitches we need to go to the ER. Get your shoes."
"Ok." I went back to the bedroom and found a t-shirt, my glasses and my shoes. I kissed the side of Monica's head and left a note on her nightstand. I checked in on Cherry who was sitting on her bed with her lion gazing out the window.
"Uh-Ana okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah she's okay, Stargazer. I gotta go for a little bit, but I'll be back. Go back to sleep." She scrambled off the bed and wrapped her arms around my legs.
"'Ove you, Deedee!"
"Love you too, Stargazer. Back to bed."
"Otay." She climbed back on her bed, flopped over on her side with her lion in one hand and two fingers in her mouth. I smiled and then remembered Alana. I found her at the bottom of the stairs with her shoes and sweater on. I stopped at the foot of the stairs and pulled my shoes on. Then I grabbed my keys off the table by the door and gestured for Alana to walk out. She did and I locked the door behind me. I yawned and rubbed my eyes before getting in the car.
"I'm sorry." Alana whispered.
"It's okay, kiddo. Can I ask what happened?"
"I tried to move my bag." She flushed pink.
"That's not what I meant."
"I know." I didn't push it.