A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!
Chapter 12 – Mike
"Hey kids, we're home!" I shouted as Frank and I walked into the house.
I saw that Erica and Addie were sitting on the stairs as if they had planned to be some kind of welcoming committee. "Have you guys been sitting here long?" I asked them, genuinely curious and flattered at how sweet they were being towards our guest if welcoming Frank had been their reason for sitting on the staircase.
Addie answered, "Well, we got bored and Erica had the idea that you guys would appreciate having us welcome you guys back home, especially since Uncle Frank is here as a guest."
"That's so sweet of you guys," Frank said from behind me. "I really appreciate it."
Addie beamed.
"You're welcome," Erica said, as she and Addie got up and walked past Frank and I.
"Where's Phoebe?" I said to myself, as I started walking towards the kitchen, hoping that Frank was following my lead. Fortunately, I was right to think that she might be in the kitchen, as she got up from the sofa to greet us the moment we entered the room.
She and Frank hugged, so I took the opportunity to offer them both a hot drink. "Do either of you guys want a coffee or something?" I asked.
Phoebe nodded, so I started making her regular tea. "Could I have a coffee with one sugar?" Frank asked, and I nodded. "Of course," I said as I walked over to the refrigerator to get a carton of milk.
Phoebe came over to help. "Thank you so much for getting him," she said to me, as she spooned coffee granules into a clean mug.
"Anything for the family, Pheebs," I said, planting a kiss on her cheek as I walked over to the sink to fill the kettle with water to boil.
It was not long before we joined Frank on the sofa.
"Thank you so much, guys," Frank said, as I handed him his coffee.
"It's nothing, really," I said, smiling back at him. I had had slight reservations at having yet another person in the house as well as the twins, but the fact that Frank had been so consistently polite even just in the time that we had spent since picking him up had confirmed that inviting him had in fact been a good idea.
"How are my niece and nephew doing?" Frank asked.
"They're doing really good," Phoebe said, "They started 2nd grade this fall, and they're both really enjoying it. I think also having the twins here has really helped make sure they haven't been lonely, especially with Addie, because she's pretty shy, and so it's good that she's coming out of her shell a bit more with Erica."
Frank nodded. "With the twins also being here, I hope that having me here as well hasn't made things too complicated," he said, sounding sincerely as if he didn't want to be a burden towards us.
"No, no, no," I said. "It's really no extra hassle or anything." I knew that Phoebe felt the same way, especially because I knew that she was just so glad to see a member of her family that she didn't mind nearly as much about the other stuff.
"How's college going for you and the other two?" Phoebe asked Frank.
"It's going okay," Frank replied, sounding less enthused with the topic choice. "Truth be told, it's going better socially for Chandler and Leslie, as they are both in relationships at the moment. I'm enjoying the academic stuff though."
Phoebe nodded. "Reminded me of your major again," she said, looking a little flustered and a little embarrassed at the fact that she had to ask.
"I'm doing computer science," Frank said, not seeming to mind in the slightest about Phoebe asking, which I could tell Phoebe was glad about.
"You do you is all I'm going to say with that," Phoebe replied.
"You not a fan of maths and stuff, then?" Frank asked, sounding slightly amused.
"Not at all," Phoebe said, with a laugh as she scrunched up her nose in disgust.
"What did you do?" Frank asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"I didn't go to college," Phoebe said, surprising me slightly with how freely and easily she admitted it, but then again Phoebe had never been one to conform to society, certainly in the time that I had known her.
"It's certainly not for everyone," Frank shrugged.
The kitchen door opened, and Chris walked in. He made a beeline for the pantry, selecting a packet of chocolate bars and a bag of chips.
"Where do you think you're going with that?" I asked, getting up from the sofa to stop Chris walking out with the food before he could get away.
Chris looked at me sheepishly, clearly knowing that he had been caught and that there was no way that he could get out of this.
"Jack and I need brain food because playing video games is hard if you're hungry," he said, clearly trying to butter me up by bringing one pf our guests into the situation.
I looked over at Phoebe for what to do next, and she shrugged. He had won us over on this one, clearly.
"Fine," I said, "but before you go, say hello to Frank, your cousin."
Chris only seemed to notice that he was in the room after I said this, but even so he walked back over to the sofa with me.
"Hey," he said to Frank, politely enough.
"Hi," Frank said back to him. "Nice haul you got there," he added, with a grin.
Chris grinned. "You gotta do what you gotta do to stay alive," he said, earning a laugh from Frank.
Chris left to go back to Jack. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Time had flown by fast, and as I looked at Phoebe, I could tell that she was thinking along the same lines of what I was thinking.
"Shall we start making dinner?" I asked Phoebe.
"I still haven't decided what I want to make, though," Phoebe said.
I got up from the sofa and walked to the fridge to see what we had in there. There was not much that could actually be made into a meal, so I walked back over and told Phoebe this.
"I already knew that," she said. "I was planning to do a grocery shop."
"Would it help if I came along to be an extra pair of hands?" Frank asked.
Phoebe nodded, truly grateful for the offer. "That would be so good of you," she said.
"You're welcome," Frank said.
"Let's go now," Phoebe said, getting up from the sofa and walking over to the fridge where there was a fridge magnet that held a pad of paper that you could write grocery lists on it. She quickly jotted down on one of the pieces of paper the food that she wanted, and then she and Frank left the kitchen.
I sat on the sofa, just reading through a book that I had found that I had accidentally left on the coffee table a while ago. It got a bit bring after a while, so I decided to go and check up on the kids.
I figured that the girls would be more understanding if I walked in on whatever they were doing. They were in Erica's temporary room, watching some programme on Erica's MacBook.
"I just came to make sure that neither of you were dying nor wanted anything," I said.
"Yeah, we're good," Addie said. "Although Daddy, could we have something to eat?"
"Mom and Uncle Frank have just gone out to go get dinner," I said, "so not right now, sorry."
Addie looked a little frustrated at my response, but seemed to understand why I said what I said. Erica didn't seem particularly bothered by it.
A/N: I'm aware that this is massively shorter than what I usually write, but I was running out of inspiration for this particular chapter and didn't want to end up running on with some kind of sub-par thing to make up for it. As always, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!
