→ Sometimes you don't realize how many people care

→ Please see how much I love you

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voice fills the room, my missing 'n' making Caden coo as he stops rocking Aiden for a minute to look in my direction.

"Yes, Mase?"

"Can I have dinn-"

The doorbell chimed a short tune, cutting my question off. Caden held up his pointer finger, indicating to wait a second, before putting Aiden down in his high chair, the one a slight too big for him, and pacing towards the door. Unlocking all the locks, he opened the door narrowly to see an old man swaying, holding the door frame for support.

"Did ya miss me, slut's son?" he slurred, leaning forward.

'What's a slut,' my mind jumbled in a sea of several thoughts.

Caden protectively crossed his arms over his chest and pushed the door even more so the opening was so tiny it barely existed. Confusion filled my tiny eyes as I squinted, trying to find out who had made my loving big brother so mad. Eli holds his plastic toy cars to his chest tightly, as if he was protecting them from any harm and jumps up, walking over to me to place a comforting hand on my shoulder.

Aiden struggles to get out of his high chair, finally pushing the colorful buttons that let him jump out. He waddles over near Caden and latches his pinky onto Caden's, his other hand waddling by his side.

"Well well well, and who do we have here," the man said, squatting down to meet Aiden's level. Losing his balance slightly, he falls hitting the mat, making Aiden giggle. Though not being much older than Aiden, I understood that this was most definitely not a giggling situation. I face palmed at my brother's actions. Caden tensed further, his shoulder blade pushing back as he pushed Aiden behind him. Eli gripped my shoulder a tad harder.

"Get out of here," Caden growled, his voice low and menacing and I whimpered.

Eli dropped his cars with a 'thump' as they hit the carpet floor and wrapped his arms around my shoulder protectively.

"What? Who do you think you are, you-" Eli covered my ears, blocking out the loud screams of the man. Ones that I later learned consisted of much swearing. I grabbed his hands trying to peel them off, curious to learn what was going on, but Eli just held on tighter.

Caden slammed the door shut a second later, his scowl deepening. His shoulders shook as he let out a shuddering breath and Aiden wrapped his chubby hands around Caden's leg.

A minute of dark silence later, Caden faced us again, leaning against the door and Eli finally removed his hands from my ears.

"Okay so who wants dinner?"

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All through my childhood, I never felt as if I was missing out by not having parents, besides the usual snarky comments. My brothers always protected me and I took the role of protecting Aiden and we all stayed with each other through thick and thin. Despite our usual sibling quarrels, we cared for each other, Caden taking in the role of a father for every one of us.

I vaguely recall asking Caden one night, a few years ago, whether he thought of us as a burden. I could only imagine how he would feel after being put in charge of three children at age thirteen, with no prior warning. Caden had replied saying that he didn't mind it, telling us that we were his life and he would do anything for us. We all had made our fair share of sacrifices, not being able to be reckless like usual teenagers, but Caden had made more than all of us combined. He had sacrificed his dreams to act as a father to us and had started working from a young age to take care of all of us. Caden was only thirteen years old when our mother abandoned us, leaving the state entirely, leaving him in charge of a toddler, a kindergartener, and a first grader.

When Caden first sat us all down on the couch in the family room hall, announcing that we had a sister- more specifically a step sister since we only shared the same mother- we all were in a state of numbness, not realizing the gravity of the situation. Apparently Caden had received a call from social services, telling us that our birth mother had passed away and that she had another daughter. Of all of us boys, none of us knew our birth father well besides Caden. Not including the one time we saw him drunk at our door, parents were out of the statement from the beginning. Truth to be told, I doubted that we even had the same birth father but I was never curious to learn.

No matter our parents, these boys would always be my brothers.

I remember when we first met her, how shy she was despite my talkative attitude Eli constantly scolded me for. The night we watched the horror movie, I got a glimpse of a new side of her- laying low the strong facade she always had up. And the night she broke down was by far one of the worst nights of my life.

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Yesterday night, had been sitting on my bed studying for my algebra two test, silently cursing the inventor of algebra for adding so many different letters. Tiny whimpers and heart breaking cries erupted from the room right beside mine and I had immediately ran to investigate. I saw Caden and Eli turned the corner from their rooms the moment I stepped out of mine. A sleepy looking Aiden came from the other side, his eyebrows too furrowed in concern. Opening the door to Jessica's room, the source of the sounds, the sight that lay before my eyes almost made me break down on the spot. Jessica trashed around on the bed, her arms flailing wildly and tears running down her cheeks. Her soft yet painful cries repeating muffled words over and over again. Caden rushed to take control, running over to her bed and grabbing her arms, trying to get her out of her clear misery filled nightmare. "Daddy," she whimpered, inching out of Caden's grip. Running over to the bathroom right besides her closet, I pulled out the blue bucket we kept inside the cabinet and filled it up with water, impatiently tapping my foot. I couldn't stand to hear her heartbreaking cries and more than anything wanted to wrap my hands around her and take all her pain away. I rushed out of the bathroom and threw the water onto her bed and on her frail body, not considering anything else. And she finally snapped out of it, her body shaking in sobs but I couldn't help but think of how much she clearly would have been through.

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This little girl- my sister- suffered through so much with no one holding her hand by her side. I couldn't help but take the blame for it, but in reality- what could I have done?

I was two years older than her and Aiden, a year younger than me. But all I knew was that I managed to love this girl that I met only a week ago and I would give my entire world for her, whether she knew it or not.

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A loud knock took over the silence of my room, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Mason?" A cheerful voice called from the other side.

Eli waltzed into the room a second later, not waiting for a response. "Can I borrow your charger?" He questioned.

"Of course you can come in, thanks for asking," I scowled. Eli delivered me a cheeky smile before plopping onto my blue bedspread, the charger forgotten about.

"Whatcha looking at?" He asked, leaning over to get a glimpse of the blank english worksheet I had open on my laptop. One that had been long forgotten about while I was lost in my thoughts.

"English? You boring soul!" He gasped, way too over dramatically in my opinion.

"Oh shut up, drama king."

"Hey, hey, hey, respect your elders young man!" He taunted, wagging his finger at me.

Simultaneously, he snagged my laptop off the bed and onto his lap, making my scowl deepen. Eli was just a year older than me but he never let me forget it.

"So you came into my room, just to annoy me or do you have another purpose?"

After a moment of thought, he tapped his pointer finger against his chin before holding it up into the air. I could practically imagine a lightbulb blinking above his head, one that matched his personality perfectly, making me snicker. "Ah, I wanted to show you something I found," he claimed, twisting his head to give me a mischievous look which I returned with a blank stare.

He typed a few letters on the computer, his fingers moving at the speed of lightning. I leaned over his shoulder, attempting to get a glimpse of the result. He slapped my shoulder violently and I rubbed my shoulder. That actually hurt.

"Dude, how the heck are you so weak?" He questioned, sparing me a glance before scrolling down the mouse pad. Finally he turned the computer in my direction and I squinted to see what he had typed: Mason Jack Willens, my full name.

The first result that Eli had his mouse hovered over read 'Mason's Reading Reviews.' Eli clicked on the link and a gray designed page showed up. A dark black strip from the top of the page with white text that read 'My awesome book review.' Gold stars designed the outline of the box and a super man sticker was placed on the bottom as a logo. I vaguely recall making the page in third grade and I groan. Memories, oh memories.

Eli chuckles loudly, reading out loud the 'awesome' reviews I had written back nine years ago. I groaned again, trying to cover his loud voiced chatterbox mouth with the palm of my hand to save myself from the embarrassment.

"And the book was so so very very good and it was very very goodly wroten," Eli read out, avoiding my hand, my nine year old writing making even myself cringe.

He was never going to let this go, was he?

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