Kelly grabbed her bag and went upstairs.
Kirsten moved so that she stood in front of Sandy, they had to talk about this.
"For a moment I thought you were going to kick her out", she finally said, looking down
"No, I would never do that. I'm just glad she's ok", Sandy responded, looking at his wife.
"Oh, Sandy, I am too." , Kirsten said as she put her arms around him.
"Yeah, I know. Did you tell her about Ryan?"
"Oh no. I forgot. We had so much fun, just talking. It felt like the old times." , Kirsten closed her eyes. How would Kelly react when she found out that there was a , to her, strange boy living in their poolhouse?
"Where were she when you found her? Had she come to the house or…", Sandy asked.
"I came home and saw something lying outside our frontdoor. It was her, she was passed out. I tried to call you but you were in a meeting so I ran into Taryn and Charlie and they helped me get her inside"
"That was nice of them" Sandy said absently, his mind somewhere else.
"Sandy? Hello?" , Kirsten noticed his absence." What are you thinking about? Sandy!"
" Uhm, what honey?" Sandy looked a bit confused, Kirsten couldn't help but laugh at him.
" I said 'what are you thinking about'? It was a question" Kirsten teased.
"Oh, right. I just wondered, why were she passed out?"
Kirsten hesitated.
"She has a bruise under her left eye, so when she woke up I asked her about it , and she saidthat when she told her so called friends that she was going to leave them, they … punched her.She managed to get away, but when she came here, nobody were home, so she passed out." Kirsten said all this very quickly, she didn't want Sandy to get angry. Too late.
"They beat her up?" Sandy was furious.
"Sandy, don't overreact. They were probably both drunk and high" Kirsten tried to calm him down. "The importance is that she's back, and it's soon Chrismukkah. And tonight we are going to have a nice family dinner."
"I'm sorry honey. I'm just worried about her. What if they would come back?"
"Then we call the police. I'm worried too, but we're here to help her."
Sandy pulled her closer to him, and put his hands on her back. He kissed her.
"I guess we have to buy more christmas presents." Sandy smiled. Kirsten smiled back at him.
"Actually, I already got her one, just in case she would come home during the hoilday."
"Oh, honey!" Sandy laughed a littled and looked at his beautiful wife.
"What ?" she said with an innocent smile and kissed him.
They pulled away when they heard the front door opening and the boys voices floating through the house.
"Are we gonna tell them or shall we let them find out by themselves?", Sandy asked, smiling.
"By themselves" Kirsten said as the boys entered the kitchen
"Hey. What's going on?" Seth didn't wait for his parents to answer, instead he continued talking to Ryan about his girlproblems.
"Hey guys. We thought we'd go out and eat dinner tonight. All… of us." Sandy had been close to say 'All five of us' but he didn't want to ruin the supprise.
"Ok." Seth simply said.
Kirsten could hear Kelly coming down the stairs and quickly said: "We have a little supprise"
"Uhu.What is it?", Seth was reading a comicbook as he answered.
Kelly entered the kitchen.
"Hey" she said, her voice made Seth look up. His eyes widened at the sight of his sister.
"Oh my god! Kelly"
He ran over to her and hugged her tight. "It's so great to see you.What are you doing here?"
"It's great to see you too. I'm here to stay."she smiled at him.
"You're staying? That's great. I've missed you"
"You did?" Kelly teased, they had had their fights . " I've missed you too. Who is this?" she added, looking at Ryan.
"Er…Kelly, we forgot to tell you. This is Ryan. He…he lives here now." Kirsten explained. "Ryan, this is our daughter, Kelly."
Kelly and Ryan looked both very supprised by these news. Ryan had no idea Seth had a sister, she, appearantly, had no idea about him being there.
"Oh, he does?" Kelly felt anger rising inside her. Had her parents adopted a new kid to replace her? Had they thought she weren't coming back.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you, sweetie" Kirsten saw Kelly was shocked by this.
"It's…it's ok." Kelly stammered, still looking suspicously at Ryan.
"Right, lets go and have dinner" Sandy suggested , he didn't want this to get more awkward than it already was.
"Great" Seth said happily, he didn't notice the tension between Kelly and Ryan. "Come on Kel"
"Finally", Kelly thought as they arrived to the house after that horrible family dinner. Sandy and Kirsten had made nice tries to a nice, family conversation, but they barely got response.
Sandy and Kirsten said 'Good night' and went upstairs. When the got to they room, Sandy closed the door and said: "Well, it could have worked"
"But it didn't", Kirsten filled in.
"They just need some time to get used to this" he said as he walked up behind Kirsten, who was taking her earrings of, and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Yeah, I guess" She turned around and kissed her husband passionatly.
Kelly hadn't slept well. She looked at her watch, 05.14 am. Crap.
She got up and went downstairs. She made herself a bagel with creamcheese and sat down at the kitchen island.
The door to the backyard opened and Ryan entered the kitchen. He stopped when he saw her.
"Come on in" she said.
"Can I join you for a bagel?" he asked.
"Sure. Maybe we can talk. Who are you and why are you here? I just need to know." Kelly gestured for him to sit down next to her. He took his bagel and sat down. 'She has every right to know why I'm here', he thought. And he started his story with:
"My brother and I stole a car…"
