Scare
"Ok… vanilla and a chocolate." Rey nodded, handing Lily and Amelia both ice-cream cones as she sat back down on the blanket which was sprawled out on the busy beach.
"Thanks." Amelia smiled, taking the vanilla.
"Why do you like vanilla? It's boring." Lily looked across at her, "You should like chocolate."
"I prefer vanilla." Amelia shrugged.
"But why?" Lily shook her head.
"We don't all like everything you like." Amelia batted as Rey looked at them both.
"Well you should." Lily said, folding her legs in a basket and enjoying her ice-cream, "Rey, didn't you get ice-cream?"
"No, I didn't feel like it." Rey told them, "Maybe later." She nodded, "You guys need more sun block on after you finish." She nodded.
"You're worse than mommy." Amelia rolled her eyes.
"Well you gotta protect your skin from the sun." Rey encouraged, "Look after it. It's important."
"I think it's too warm." Lily nodded, "I might need an umbrella."
"I don't have an umbrella." Rey laughed a little, "I'll take you both down to the water in a while, we got all day." She smiled.
It was a few months later and Rey had been growing a great relationship with her sisters. She was getting to know them and their personalities, and was getting the chance to take them on outings every now and then, to give her parents a break.
"What are you doing?" Amelia asked, watching as Rey lay down on the towel, taking her t-shirt off, of course having a bikini under it.
"I'm enjoying the sun." Rey told them.
"Looks boring." Lily scoffed, "Do you have sun block on?" She tested.
"Yes, of course I do." Rey nodded, "You guys have a ball and… a bucket and spade… go have fun in the sand." She waved her hand, "There's nothing better." She hummed as Amelia and Lily looked at one another.
Things had been going great with Rey and her parents. She was getting to know them more and more every day, and was letting them into her life. She was pleased to see they were also dating again, and were spending time together for themselves. They deserved it and it was really nice to see after all the chaos that went on with their other relationships.
"Why don't you make a sand castle with us?" Lily asked Rey.
"I will later. I'm just… I'm relaxing." Rey mumbled, pushing her sunglasses down and closing her eyes, relaxing under the hot sun. She was starting college in a few weeks and was trying to relax as much as she could before the stress of it took over her life.
"Ok." Amelia hummed, grabbing her bucket once finishing her ice-cream, turning away from Lily as she began to build up her castle. The two still weren't the best of friends, in fact, they were very far from it. They seemed to clash heads a lot but Rey knew they'd become best friends with some time.
"I've got a bigger bucket." Lily edged her way beside Amelia, wearing her little denim shorts and tank top whilst Amelia wore similar to benefit the hot weather.
"I don't care." Amelia mumbled honestly, using her spade to shovel the sand in her bucket.
"Why don't we see who can make the better sand castle?" Lily suggested.
"No." Amelia said, "Why does it always have to be a competition?" Amelia questioned as Lily looked at her and shrugged.
"I like winning things." Lily shrugged. She was a very feisty and competitive character whilst Amelia was a lot more laid back and calm. Sometimes the combination of their personalities wasn't a good thing.
"Well you don't always have to win at things." Amelia huffed.
"I do." Lily nodded, "You're just no fun." She folded her arms as Amelia concentrated on her sand castle, patting it full with her spade and tipping it upside down, unveiling the castle with a smile as Lily kicked it over, causing all the sand to collapse.
"Why would you do that?" Amelia turned to her as Lily shrugged.
"Funny." Lily laughed and shrugged.
"Rey." Amelia looked over to her sister, "Rey, when can we leave?" She asked.
"What? We just got here half an hour ago." Rey looked up, tilting her sun glasses up on her head, "What's going on?" She asked them.
"I don't wanna play here." Amelia shrugged.
"Why not?" Rey sat up.
"Because she doesn't want to play with me." Lily rolled her eyes, building her own sand castle.
"What is it with you two?" Rey shook her head, "You-You two are supposed to be best friends. Like sisters."
"She's not my sister." Amelia scoffed.
"But you can be like sisters." Rey nodded, "Huh? I bet you guys like a ton of the same stuff."
"No, I don't think so." Lily shook her head in disagreement.
"Really?" Rey questioned, "What's your favourite movies?" She asked them.
"The Bee Movie." Lily nodded.
"I like that too." Amelia said, "But I like Trolls better-"
"Oh, I like that one too." Lily piped up.
"You see." Rey smiled, "And you guys both go to school, your mom and dad told me you both like reading and drawing pictures." She said as Lily looked over to Amelia.
"Maybe." Lily folded her arms as Amelia looked over to her.
"Be nice to each other." Rey smiled, "When I was your age, I would have loved to have a friend who liked all the same things as me." She nodded, "I'm jealous." She told them.
"Are you?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, I am." Rey nodded, "Why don't you both make a sand castle together? Or a sand fort? Lots of sand castles." She suggested, "Make it your own."
"Yeah." Amelia smiled at the idea.
"Uh… ok." Lily nodded, "Let's do it." She said as Rey smiled, watching as they headed back over to their buckets to begin making their sand castles, smiling to herself before laying back down on her towel to enjoy more sun.
"You brought me lunch." AJ smiled, watching Punk walk through her office with lunch for them both.
"Yeah, I thought you could take a half hour." Punk smiled, "You work hard."
"You don't know that. I could be sitting on this chair all day… online shopping." AJ smiled.
"Well then you need a break from online shopping." He said as she smiled.
"You know you don't have to leave my house every morning before I wake up. It's nice waking up with you." AJ said, opening up the lunch he'd brought which was of course her favourite sandwich from the deli across the road.
"I don't want to get in the way of you taking Amelia to school and getting her awake and stuff-"
"You mean you don't want her to see you staying over?" AJ smiled.
"Maybe." Punk nodded, "To be honest, I'm afraid she'll tell Lily and then Lily will start a fight with me."
"She's four." AJ laughed a little.
"Yeah, and she's Lily. She has my annoying fighting gene." Punk shook his head as AJ smiled, "I just wish they didn't bicker so much." He said, sitting down across from her.
"They're young, they're kids. It happens all the time." AJ shrugged, "Rey's pretty good with them." She said.
"Yeah, she's willing. Which is rare." Punk said.
"She just wants to spend time with them." AJ smiled, "I think it's sweet." She nodded.
"Yeah, it is." Punk nodded.
"How has Chrissy been?" AJ asked, biting into her sandwich.
They'd been spending a lot of close time together over the past few weeks. Time alone where they were getting to know each other again, which seemed stupid to say but it was true. Their lives were different and they were getting to know each other and the people they had become. Punk stayed over with AJ pretty much most nights, but they were still taking things steady and treating their relationship with a lot of respect.
"She's been ok, actually." Punk admitted, "Lily is staying with me at the weekend. I see her through the week too. She's being a lot easier to deal with." Punk nodded.
"Why do you think that is?" AJ questioned.
"I don't know, at first I thought it was because of you and all the time I was spending with you but I think she's just realised that Lily… needs and wants a dad, she'd be terrible to keep that from her when I'm literally five minutes away." He said as AJ nodded in agreement.
"She had no right to use her against you the way she has." AJ agreed, "Maybe she wants Lily to know her big sister too."
"Yeah, she's told me a few times that Lily loves talking about Rey, she loves seeing her so… maybe Chrissy wants her to see Rey more too." Punk said, "And I think she knows how grateful I am to her."
"Gosh you shouldn't need to be grateful. It's your daughter. You have every right to see her just as much as Chrissy does." AJ said as Punk nodded.
"How has Tom been?" Punk asked her. They'd took a lot of comfort in one another as they were almost going through the same situations with their exes. Having to co-parent with different people was incredibly difficult, and they really understood each other on those terms which helped a lot.
"He's been ok, I guess." AJ nodded, "He barely says anything to me when I pick Amelia up or he comes and drops her off." She said, "It's never gonna be ideal but… that's on him." She shrugged, "If we just give Amelia what she needs separately then that's all I care about." She said as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, that's the most important thing, right?" He said as she nodded, "Hey, maybe we could arrange one night to actually go out." He said.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" AJ smiled across at him.
"Yeah, I think so." Punk laughed to himself.
"That would be nice." AJ nodded.
They were spending so much time together whether it was Punk coming around for dinner and staying the night, or seeing each other on lunch breaks, taking Lily and Amelia to the park, but it still felt like they weren't really getting a proper chance to concentrate on them and their relationship.
"You pick." Punk nodded.
"Well you'll have to let me think about it." AJ smiled.
"I'll wait." Punk nodded.
"I did tell Amelia you were coming over for dinner tonight. She was asking." AJ smiled, "I think she likes when you stay."
"Yeah?" Punk smiled as AJ nodded, "I'll be there. I'm not gonna miss taco night."
"I do make good tacos." AJ agreed as Punk smiled.
At the beach, Rey hadn't realised that she'd fallen asleep. The sun was so warm and she was so relaxed that she realised she must have dozed off into a pretty deep sleep. She pushed her sunglasses up over her hair and sat up, turning around beside her when she couldn't see Amelia or Lily.
"Oh my God." Rey got to her feet immediately, looking around the area in panic, "Lily!" Rey yelled, "Amelia!" She called, looking around the area, but it was so busy which made her panic even more.
"Excuse me." She walked over to the family that was beside her, "Hi, did you… have you saw my little sisters? They were just playing beside me over there." She pointed to their towels.
"No, sweetie." The woman shook her head worriedly, "Why don't you start looking around there, we'll help look over here." She said.
"Y-Yeah, yeah thank you." Rey nodded, taking all the help she could get, running over and putting her t-shirt over her bikini, grabbing her phone and starting to look around the beach.
She figured she'd try the most obvious places like down at the water, the ice-cream truck and food stalls, but she couldn't find them anywhere. She couldn't even stop to take a breath as she was so worried.
Luckily, she spotted Amelia running back from the water with a bucket full of water. She ran after her and followed her to where she was headed.
"Amelia!" Rey yelled, rushing over to them where Lily was sitting around a huge sand fort, along with a boy perhaps around her age, "Hey!" Rey pushed him over as he got to his feet, "What the hell are you doing with my sisters?" Rey pushed him again, ready to fight.
"No, he's helping us." Amelia said, "Coby helped us build our sand fort."
"What?" Rey shook her head, looking on at the African American boy who put his hands up in defence.
"I saw them wandering around on their own. I figured I'd keep them with me instead of letting them wander around anymore." Coby said as Rey glared at him.
"Yeah and then you should have tried to find me." Rey spat.
"But you told us to go build a fort, Rey." Lily looked up at her.
"Yeah, where I could see you." Rey told them, "You never wander off."
"But you were sleeping." Amelia said, "And snoring." She said as Coby laughed a little.
"Something funny?" Rey turned back to him.
"You don't remember me, do you?" Coby asked her as Rey looked at him and shook her head, "Last year, your birthday, we met in a club and…" He raised his eyebrows as she narrowed her eyes at him, "Must have been really drunk, huh? Normally girls remember me."
"Well you obviously weren't that impressive." Rey shrugged as Coby just smiled.
"No, but I remember you were." He nodded with a smile as Rey looked across at him, "They're funny kids. Look, I really meant no harm, I thought I'd just entertain them for a bit, they said you were sleeping. I didn't want them wandering around anymore than they already were."
"Yeah well you should have taken them back to me right away." Rey said.
"You shouldn't have fell asleep." Lily looked up at Rey, "I'm gonna tell my daddy." She smirked.
"Don't you dare." Rey scoffed as Coby just smiled, "Come on. Back to the towels." She nodded to them.
"But we're not finished our fort." Amelia said, "Just move the blankets over to here." She waved her hand as Rey folded her arms, looking over at Coby who was checking her out, "You can sleep over here just the same." Amelia nodded to her sister as Rey rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, whatever." Rey shook her head. She never thought her little sisters would be able to embarrass her.
"I'll come help you with the towels." Lily stood up, taking Rey's hand and leading her away.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her." Coby nodded to Amelia as Rey just nodded, walking back with Lily.
"He told us he thinks you're pretty." Lily whispered to her as Rey looked down at her.
"He did?" Rey asked, turning back around as she watched Coby helping Amelia with the sand fort. She felt lucky that it was a decent person who had found the girls wandering around. She felt so irresponsible for taking her eye off them. She vaguely remembered him from an obvious one night stand, but not completely. If she was sober she was sure she would have remembered a face like that.
"Yes." Lily nodded, scooping up their towels, "You talk to him whilst we do the fort." She told her sister, as if giving her advice as Rey laughed a little.
"Yeah, ok, Lily." Rey shook her head.