ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｈｉｒｔｙ－ｔｈｒｅｅ

When the Balms get to their destination they are all bombarded with bodies: little kids, teenagers, and parents. Mikey tiredly hugged whoever hugged him and walked to the room his siblings and he shared, a bigger guest room that was decorated to the top with Christmas decorations. It was like a Christmas bomb blew up in there; there were tinsel, small Christmas trees, lights, and fake presents.

Mikey dropped himself on the nearest bed and closed his eyes once again, it was only closer to nine a.m. and he'd like to sleep in more. Max followed him and spread out on the other bed in the room. The twenty-one year old fell asleep with the side of his face shoved into the red pillow, his one hand tucked under the pillow and his other under his head.

He was woken up by a little kid coming in and pushing on his calf. His hair was in all directions when he turned to look at them and their wide smile. They made no sense when they talked, but the more Mikey woke up the more sense they made.

"Can you come play with us?" They asked with puppy eyes and inside Mikey was groaning, but sat up anyway. He followed them to the living room, playing with his phone in his pocket as he followed. There were most of the adults sitting in there talking, and Mikey bypassed then to get to the toy room where the other kids were.

He was happy there was another older kid sitting in there and sat beside them. They nodded at him and Mikey gave them a tired smile, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the crust in the corner and to wake up.

As the children set up the game of Monopoly Mikey checked his phone to see if Jasper texted. Mikey had texted him saying they had arrived when he woke up the first time, and it was still silent between them. It was fine since Mikey knew Jasper would sleep until something woke him up.

"So," the other kid—one of his uncles' kids—said while nudging Mikey's arm. "Max told some of us you were dating someone?"

Mikey's heart stopped for a second, but he acted like nothing happened. He blinked slowly, collecting what he would say, and decided to just nod as an answer. He didn't have to go in detail if he didn't want to. The cousin had a smirk on and they picked out their piece, then looked back to Mikey.

They asked nonchalantly, "who is it? Would any of us know who it is?"

"My brothers do. Some of you guys here might know, I'm not sure. I don't know if you've seen him before though."

Their eyebrows rose and Mikey picked his piece out—the thimble—and waited for any type of offensive statement from him using the pronoun 'him' for who he was dating. But, it never came. Instead the cousin gasped and pointed a finger at Mikey.

"Well shit, then I think I know who it is." When Mikey didn't give any type of reaction the cousin prodded him again. "It's gotta be the guy my brother is pretty sure you're hooking up with!"

"Your broth—" Mikey's eyebrows furrow deeply before heaven realizing who the brother is. It would be the cousin who was chill and goes to college for medicine or something. He usually talked to Jasper when the two were in the same room.

Before they could talk anymore the other younger kids stopped them from talking and forced them to start playing. They played for a little, Mikey buying properties with an idea front and center in his mind—bankrupt the kids, especially the cousin beside him. It wasn't hard for the little ones since they were the max of twelve and had no idea of strategy when it came to Monopoly, they bought random properties and never built houses or hotels on them.

In the end, Mikey had taken their money and the cousin shot him a glare. The oldest in the group shrugged complacently and stood up, looking for food. He ran into Aiden and asked him, "what is there to drink?"

Aiden looked up from his phone, text messages on the screen (Mikey peeked at who it was and was disappointed when it showed a name that wasn't Cadence). He told his brother the options—all kid friendly—and kept walking to the couch. Mikey grabbed a CapriSun and sat beside Aiden, feeling like being an annoyance to him.

He hit Aiden's arm with the intent of having him look over. He did just that and Mikey grinned.

Aiden asked, "what do you want?"

"I just want to talk."

With rolled eyes, the younger Balm put his phone down and faced his brother. Mikey's eyes were trained on him and watching his reaction as he inquired, "are you ever going to talk to Cadence again?"

Hurt flashed over Aiden's eyes and he frowned sadly. He shrugged and sighed heavily. His hands were picking at each other, but Mikey let him be, he didn't say anything unless Aiden would. Which he ended up whispering,

"I don't know. He seems set on not talking to me."

"Did you like him a lot?" There was no teasing in Mikey's question, he was genuinely curious.

"Yeah," Aiden finally confessed and he sniffled. It didn't sound like he was going to cry, but Mikey made the decision to be there if he did.

Remembering back to his warning to the boy when he first met Cadence, Mikey reiterated it. "You know I'm gonna hurt him the next time I see him. I really don't care if he's sixteen, I will rock his shit. I will catch a case if I have to."

"No. Don't."

"I'm gonna, Aiden. I said if he hurt you I'd hurt him, and well karma's a bitch to a bitch boy."

Aiden shook his head with a short chuckle and pushed his brother away. He didn't want Cadence to get hurt, but he was hurting himself from the worst way possible for rejection. They seemed to be on a good path: friends, flirting with each other, couple-y touching, yet when Aiden made the move to kiss him he freaked. The only thing Aiden wanted now was to go back in time and redo that moment and not kiss his friend.

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So we got some Aiden angst. I'm purposefully not giving too much detail because I'm currently writing an Aiden chapter

These weeks have been flying by. I feel like I blink and a week has gone by already. Anyway,

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