Early the next morning, Dak's mother had given the boys a ride to school. Repeatedly she'd 'quietly' asked Dak if they were dating, to which Dak would reply with an angry, yet hushed:
"Lynn! You're embarrassing me!" He slipped farther down into his seat, hoping to disappear. Kendall, and Dak's brother Drew, laughed at Mrs. Zevon's hopeless confusion about why her son was so acting this way. Dak covered his face with his hands, and shot out of the car as soon as they stopped in front of the school.
"Thank you for the ride, Mrs. Zevon." Kendall jumped over the front seat after Drew, looking over to find Dak waiting at the school's entrance.
"You're very welcome, sweetie." She pulled out two bags and leaned close to hand them to him. "I packed you a lunch too."
Kendall smiled, and tucked them both into his bag. "Thanks again." She smiled back, and drove off once he closed the door.
"Thank god she's gone."
"Be happy you have her, dude." Dak sighed. He'd definitely forgotten who he was talking to for a minute. "Even if she's had issues."
"Yeah, she's trying." He gripped the straps of his backpack and Kendall pulled out his lunch. "She made these?"
"I guess so. She gave 'em to me after you ran off." He nudged him and Dak laughed, taking the brown bag and stuffing it into his backpack.
"So," Kendall started, waiting for Dak's focus to return to him. "You call your mom by her first name?"
"Well, yeah. She always had us call her Lynn. She never really wanted to be a mother before."
"And you call your aunt and uncle-"
"My parents." He chuckled at Kendall confused face and continued. "It gets confusing, I know. My aunt and uncle have basically been my parents since I was young, so it just became easier to introduce them that way. I got used to it."
"I get it. So I should call your mom Lynn? Mrs. Zevon? Or should I just start calling her mom, because I'm pretty sure she's convinced that we're getting married." Dak's face flushed and he laughed.
"I'm so sorry about that. It's part of her rehab, I guess. Something about not filtering thoughts and emotions?"
"It's okay. I thought it was funny. You turned at least thirty different shades of red." Dak shoved him and he laughed a little harder.
"I'm already embarrassed, no need to rub it in."
The school day flew by fairly quickly, and to Kendall's surprise James' presence had been minimal. Of course, he was there in class, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else.
The band buzzed through practice, basically coordinating on whatever song came to mind.
"We should play-" Kendall was interrupted by a knock on the door. When he turned, he saw James and Jett lingering in the doorway. "What do you want?"
"To not be here in the dust ridden room with you freaks." James hit his stomach and said something to him that got him to go away.
"Really, what do you want? We have to practice."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Mom wants you home, right now." James swatted at Jett's hands that had slipped around his waist, with a disgusted sigh. "She said it's important."
"Well, I'll be home after practice. She knows that."
"Yeah, well no fooling around with your-" He scanned the room, shooting Dak a glare and waved sarcastically in his direction, before looking back to Kendall. "-boyfriend or whatever. Straight home."
James swatted Jett's hands away once more before turning to leave the room. Kendall couldn't help but wonder if he'd have to say goodbye to his new friends tomorrow. It had been a little over two weeks, his usual allotted time in a foster home. Maybe Brooke had cracked and given up.
When Kendall got home, he dropped his bag near the door. He scanned the halls for anyone, finally coming across Brooke in the kitchen.
"Oh, you're home!" She got up from her seat and rushed to hug him. "I have something to tell you. You should sit down."
She led the blonde over to a chair and sat him down. Kendall had an uneasy feeling coming into this conversation, but now especially, he knew that something was really wrong. No one ever tells you to sit somewhere when they have good news.
"What's wrong?"
"Mrs. Foster called this morning, and we-"
"It's okay if you're sending me back. I'm used to it." She shook her head and sighed, reaching forward to grab his hands.
"She told me that your-" She paused for a minute. He assumed she was trying to figure out how to say it, whatever 'it' was, without hurting him. "Katie ran off, and they can't find her."
Kendall took a few breaths in, blinking and licking his lips, unable to move. He jerked his hands away from Brooke's and shoved them into the pockets of his hoodie before walking out of the room.
"Kendall, sweetie, please don't-" Before she could finish, she heard the front door slam. What a great way to start what would've been Kendall's first Family Friday night.
"Kendall?" Lucy repeatedly called his name before she realized that he wasn't going to respond. Kendall had spent the weekend alone, in the park. He got up and wandered to school just in time for the last period of the day, and skipped band practice to sit in the quad. "What the fuck's wrong with you man? You wander into school at 1:45, looking like shit and then just skip practice to sit out here?"
Dak shoots Lucy and glare, and Jo walks over and leans against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him.
"Something's wrong." Dak takes the other side, hesitantly slipping an arm over his shoulder. "Tell us?"
"That's what we're here for, man." Kendall looks over at Dak and the brunette sighs, taking in his appearance. His hair tousled, eyes dull and bloodshot, tear streaks down his cheeks, dark circles forming under his eyes. "Where have you been?"
"The park."
"All weekend?" Kendall nods and Dak sighs. "Did you sleep?" He shakes his head and Dak runs a lazy hand through his friend's hair.
"James has been worried." Kendall looks up at Jo and she nods. "He went over to Dak's place twice, asking for you."
"According to what he was telling his friends, his mom's hysterical. What happened?" Kendall wiped his nose with his sleeve and pulled it back down over his hand.
"My little sister's missing." Kendall stands and brushes his pants off. "She's all I have, and she's gone." The three of them don't follow when Kendall's starts walking toward home. They figure it's best to just give him time. Afterall, there's nothing they can do.
Kendall walks into the house through the back door and kicks his shoes off. He doesn't want to talk, he doesn't want Brooke's hugs, he just wants to sleep. Forever. James walks in and drops his bag by the door, eyes bulging when he looks up.
"Where the fuck have you been?"
"Vacationing in the Bahamas." He sits on the bed, loving the warmth of the blankets on his skin, until James rips them away.
"Not funny, dickweed. You almost killed my mom." Kendall sat up, trying to pull the blankets back, but James tugged them down again. "Seriously, Kendall. You can't do shit like that and then come back and expect everything to be okay."
"Nothing's okay. In my life, nothing's ever okay!" He stands, pushing James down onto his bed. "Why would I expect something to be okay when nothing ever is?" James kicks him over, and Kendall snaps. In mere seconds they're on the floor, rolling around, throwing punches at each other.
"What are you two doing!?" Brooke grabs Kendall and Mr. Diamond pulls James out of the room. Mrs. Diamond rushes to the bathroom, throwing a box of band aids, gauze, peroxide and roll of toilet paper down on the bed. She rolls a piece of tissue into a small ball and gently stuffs it into Kendall's left nostril, letting it soak up the blood running from his nose. Kendall's mind begins to wander when she starts her speech. Something about fighting being infantile and Cro-Magnon. His thoughts turned to Katie and his eyes started to water.
"I can't believe you two would hurt each other like thi-" She stopped, and sighed, wiping a tear from his cheek before moving the peroxide soaked pad to the cut above his eyebrow. He hissed and she rubbed the back of his head.
"You know, I'll never really understand what you're going through." Kendall looked up. "Or what you've been through."
She bandaged his wound, and packed all the things back into their boxes. "You're a strong kid, Kendall. Stronger than the average teenager. I'd like to think that James is that strong, but I know he isn't. He could be, but he's never had to be . You've been through tons, and you're still a pretty cool kid."
"Thanks, Brooke." She nods, before pulling him into a hug.
"Sometimes bad things happen to great people to make them greater."
"Who said that?"
"Me." She laughs and pats him on the back. "You know, Kendall it's alright to cry. People may act like it's not, but it just means you're-"
"Human." He looks up at her and smiles. "My mom used to tell me that when my dad died."
They sit in silence for a while, with Brooke absent mindedly rocking Kendall back and forth like a child. He doesn't mind though, it makes him think more of his mother before she'd gotten sick. After a few minutes, Brooke got up to leave.
"You should get some sleep. You look tired." She kisses Kendall's forehead, and moves for the door.
"Brooke?" She turns, placing one hand on the door frame. "Why am I still here? I mean, any other family would've sent me packing days ago."
"Well usually you would've run away by now, right?" Kendall cocks his head, then nods. He would've. "What's keeping you here?"
She smiles and disappears before Kendall can think of an answer. Maybe it was the nice house. Maybe it had something to do with Dak, Jo, and Lucy. Or maybe it was because of the Diamonds themselves, James included. What was keeping him there?
On Tuesday morning, Kendall walked to Dak's house. He sat on the doorstep until the brunette walked out the door.
"Oh." Dak tripped over Kendall's sweatshirt, quickly grabbing on the railing to catch himself. "Crybaby, what're you doing here so early?" He put his hand over his heart, and took a few deep breaths before whacking Kendall's arm for laughing.
"I just thought I'd walk to school with you." Dak shrugged and threw his bag over his shoulder. "You really need to stop calling me 'Crybaby'."
"Fine, I'll just call you 'Baby' instead." Dak laughed, extremely pleased with his 'insult' until he realized why Kendall was laughing. "Kendall, that's not funny. You know what I meant."
"First inviting me back to your place, then your mom practically picking out the venue for our wedding, and now you're calling me baby? Geeze, Zevon. Buy me dinner first."
"Shut up, Kendall." The rest of the walk to school was short and quiet. When the two branched off for their lockers, Kendall shouted down the hall.
"I was serious, you know." Dak stopped, and turned around. "Buy me dinner, Zevon."
And there we go. Reviews are awesome and you guys are all super duper cool beans. :3