Hi everyone,
Here's chapter 3! Let me know what you think :)
Thank you for reading!
Sera
'The one with the dark hair and the brown eyes was my boyfriend,' I said with a smile. 'His name is Julian, but he looks so much like his father...' I started, then quickly made up a different name for Zeke, '...Duke, that we always call him Juke,' I said, glancing at Melody. She looked relieved. 'Juke is my brother, and I'm dating Lake, the one with the black hair and blue eyes,' Melody said.
Iris and Jenna nodded happily. 'All right, they are cute! And the boy who looked like Amar, he's single and hanging out with couples?' Jenna asked weirdly. I giggled and shook my head. 'No, that's Nick, my twin brother. He has a girlfriend, Catherine, but she's still at home. And we're... Here.' Jenna's eyebrows shot up. Melody quickly explained our story to her, and she was shocked. 'Poor things!' She said, and shook her head. 'You're welcome to stay here as long as you need, okay?' Melody and I smiled gratefully. 'Thank you, Jenna, and you too, Iris. You're really kind,' I said. Melody bent towards them. 'Have you got boyfriends?' She asked inquisitively.
Iris' look was undefinable. She looked sad, yet smiled. Jenna looked the same, and they smiled at each other, causing Melody and me to frown. 'We did, but we broke up with them a while ago,' Jenna said softly. 'You sound like it still hurts,' Melody said softly as well, looking at her mother. Jenna sighed then smiled halfheartedly. 'It does,' Iris said. She folded her hands and smiled, only pulling up one corner of her mouth. That's when I knew she was still heartbroken. 'There's nothing we can do about it, it'll pass. Sometimes loving one another just isn't enough,' she said. 'Who were they?' I blurted out, 'the boys I mean?' Iris shot Jenna a look, then stroke a strand of hair behind her ear. 'I know I said that I hardly knew them, but that's just because it's hard for us to pretend like we're still friends. My boyfriend was Tobias, and Jenna's boyfriend was Zeke,' she admitted, and I gasped.
WHY DIDN'T IT WORK OUT?!
'What happened?' Melody asked breathless, staring at Jenna. Jenna shook her head. 'It's a long, difficult story that requires a lot of time. We'll tell you one day, I'm pretty sure it'll ruin our moods,' she said. Iris smiled apologetically. 'No, we get it,' I quickly said, shaking my head. Jenna smiled in return. 'Girls, Iris and I were thinking,' she said, and Iris sat up straight. Her eyes regained the usual sparkle, and she nodded. 'We need some new employees, so if you were planning on staying here for a while, you might as well earn some money, right?' Jenna suggested. Our mouths fell open and we nodded quickly. 'That would be great, Jenna! Thank you so much!' Melody called and almost wanted to hug her. Jenna chuckled and hugged her. 'We have two baker spots available,' Iris said. We nodded quickly. 'We've got this!' I said, sounding very determined. Our mothers had taught us how to bake ever since we were little kids. We knew their recipes by heart.
Iris and Jenna giggled and they smiled big. 'So that's settled. We have to take care of something right now, but once we're done, what do you say about your first few practice hours?' Jenna asked. We nodded happily and they smiled. 'All right, we'll see you in a bit!' They walked away, and Melody leaned closer to me. 'Hey, I know we haven't given this much thought yet... But where are we going to sleep tonight? And all nights for that matter,' she questioned. I gasped, she was right! We had to find a place to stay! Melody was about to say something when we heard a guitar strumming. We looked up and saw that Jenna and Iris had taken their places onto a little stage in the back of the restaurant. Jenna was playing the guitar and Iris started singing.
Mom... I'd missed her singing voice. She used to sing for Nick and me, but ever since Nick and I left four years ago, we hadn't heard mom and dad sing anymore. At that moment I realised how badly I wanted to hear them sing together again. She was singing one of her favourite songs, Breakaway by Kelly Clarckson, and it brought tears to my eyes. 'I can't believe we've lost our parents,' Mel said softly, her voice sad. I shook my head. I really hoped Nick and Sav had found dad already, and hopefully he was still in love with mom...
It was three weeks later, and we'd gotten to know our parents better than we'd ever thought we would, and we'd learnt so much about them that we didn't know before. Iris had become my best friend, whom I told everything (apart from Melody and Cat of course, because we'd been best friends since their births). Melody had become best friends with Jenna, and we even lived with them now, so did Savannah. Juke became best friends with Zeke, Lake with Tim and Nick was still struggling with dad. Savannah helped him where possible, but dad was just quite hard to befriend, apparently. I had only seen him once when I picked up Savannah. He gave me the chills, because he was cold towards people he didn't know... And he didn't know me. He was friendlier once Savannah told him I was her big sister, and I could tell that he was fond of that cute little girl.
Even though she wasn't struggling with befriending our sullen-faced father, the boys were, and they needed her help. Nick was now Tobias' assistent, and the latter was opening up to him somewhat more. Nick told me that even though Tobias had this security wall around him, he was one of the best people he'd ever met. Nick also said that if Tobias and Iris hadn't been our parents, he would've wanted to befriend both. I agreed with him, they were amazing people, but they were even better parents. Nick, Juke and Lake lived with Tobias and Zeke. Melody and I noticed that Jenna and Iris were definitely not over the break up with Zeke and Tobias, but they never wanted to talk about it, nor did the boys for that matter.
According to Jenna, something really bad had happened between Iris and Tobias, and that we shouldn't confront her with asking questions about it. We'd agreed, but it made our job a lot more difficult. How could we get them back together if we had no idea what to fix? Nick was trying to figure it out by asking Amar and Tobias, and Juke was trying to help by trying to retrieve information from Zeke. Even Lake tried to help by asking Tim, but he'd joked that Lake would get him fired if he'd tell the story.
I rubbed my eyes and yawned as I raised up. Melody groaned, 'bakers' hours suck, all right.' I chuckled and stretched. We heard footsteps and finally saw Iris appear into the doorway. 'Should you want to shower, Jenna is about to roll out of bed, so I'd run for it,' she said happily. I nodded quickly, jumped out of bed and raced down. I heard Iris and Melody giggle behind me, and I almost jumped down the stairs. 'NO, SERA!' I looked up and saw Jenna run up to me. We both screamed and ran into each other, knocking the both of us on the ground. I felt her nails scratch my arm in the process, and she apologised as we tumbled down. 'What the hell!' She called, and laughed. I laughed too, but Iris and Melody were laughing so hard they almost fell down the stairs. 'You're idiots,' Iris said, and Melody nodded agreeingly. Jenna and I looked at each other and our laughs grew louder, until we were finally grabbing our bellies because it hurt.
'You go,' I said to Jenna, still giggling as Melody helped me up. Iris pulled Jenna up and the latter shook her head. 'No you go, I scratched you, you have the right.' I looked down at my arm and saw blood. Nothing new, as a Dauntless member, but I was still surprised. 'What do you have there, razor blades?' Iris nodded, 'right?' Jenna laughed. 'Sorry, S. They can be quite sharp.' I hugged her, and shook my head. 'It's all right, but now I do dibs the shower.' I quickly ran into the shower, saluting as I closed the door. The girls chuckled, and walked away. I looked into the mirror and saw my face. I smiled. Even though mom and dad were at home, probably mad at us... I was having a good time with alternate them anyway. I was sure that once we'd returned home I would have a completely different attitude towards my parents.
When we'd all showered and had eaten breakfast, we walked down towards the bakery. Jenna and Iris lived above the bakery, which was nice, because work was close. We started baking and preparing other goods, and time flew by as always. Soon enough three hours had passed and Rick, Emma and Tim came in at 8 to open up the business. We drank coffee together until the first people started coming in at half past 8. It was Lake and Layla. What? 'Hey guys,' Lake said, waving. I looked at Tim, and his usual happy face suddenly looked quite uncomfortable. Lake saw it too, and he looked at Melody with a frown. She shrugged her shoulders. 'I met Layla outside of Isenna's, she,' Lake started, but Tim scraped his throat. 'Layla,' he stated, is tone of voice hurt.
Damn it, another broken pair.
'Tim,' she said surprised as she saw him. 'I had no idea you were working today,' she said, a little flustered. 'I'll be in the back,' Tim said, nodded at Iris and walked off. Layla looked sad. Iris tried to smile, and walked up to Layla. 'Hey, long time no see. Would you like some coffee or tea?' She asked, stroking Layla's back. Layla nodded and walked off with her. Lake, Melody and I stared at Jenna and Rick, who looked uncomfortable. 'Layla and Tim broke up a few months ago, due to an unsolvable argument,' Jenna said softly, trying to be as vague as possible. Lake sighed as he sat down on a chair. DAMN IT! I was starting to hate the word "unsolvable".
Nick
Even though Sera, Julian, Lake, Melody and I screwed up big time with the fight, I was having the time of my life getting to know my father like a friend. I was Tobias' assistent and I was helping him teach classes, help people and we joked around a lot. He was willing to tell me more and more about his life and when he was in a really good mood, he even spoke about Iris. That only happened when Savannah was around and Amar was gone, because Amar always glared at him when he answered Savannah's questions. We still had no idea what had happened between our parents, and neither did Julian and Melody. Lake was still trying to find his mother, but he was certain about Tim being single.
I was however not focusing on the break up that day. Tobias had brought his little sister Beth with him, and she was six years old. Savannah liked it, her aunt Beth was normally seventeen and a half years older, yet now she was a year younger. It was weird seeing aunt Beth so young, because I'd grown up with her being like a sister. She was only three and a half years older than me, so this was exceptionally weird. Tobias' attitude changed around her, he became this... Well... Dad. He became the person I recognised as dad: loving and caring. 'I always love it when Beth is here,' Zeke joked to Julian, who laughed. 'Yeah, Tobias is quite different like this,' Julian admitted. I nodded agreeingly, but hadn't envisioned the next scene. Beth saw Savannah, and gasped. 'Wow, you look like Iris!'
Tobias' face fell immediately as he looked at Savannah who blushed. 'No, Iris looks like my mommy,' Savannah said, looking at me. I nodded and put my hand on her shoulder. 'It's nice to meet you, Beth, your brother has been talking about you!' Beth's mouth fell open, having forgotten about Savannah's looks immediately. 'What have you told them?!' Tobias chuckled. 'Only the bad things, I promise.' Beth nodded approvingly. 'All right, I can live with that.' We all laughed. Zeke and Julian walked away to train a new class, and Amar walked away to do some paperwork.'Can I play with Beth, Nick?' Savannah asked happily. I smiled, 'ask Tobias, Sav.' She looked at Tobias with her big green eyes. 'Can I play with Beth?' Beth nodded happily, 'yes, please, big brother?' Tobias' face softened as the two cutest girls on the planet were almost jumping at his feet.
'Yes, you can,' he said, and raised his finger before the girls could exult. 'You have to stay in the gym! And don't come near the equipment, all right? I don't want the two of you to get hurt.' Both girls smiled, thanked him, exulted and ran away. He shook his head while smiling. 'Kids can be so easy, making friends like that,' he said. Due to their cuteness, he forgot to build his wall back up... So I decided to strike. It was worth a shot. 'It's easier to build a wall around yourself once you get older right?' I asked, looking at him. He looked surprised, yet nodded. 'Yes, even though it can destroy everything you love.' His face fell right after he'd said that: he realised he'd given something away... And I jumped on it. 'You mean Iris?' I asked, and tried to act casually.
He stared at the boxing gloves he was holding and sighed in defeat. 'Yes,' he admitted. 'Our break up is my fault.' I raised my eyebrows. 'It can't have been that bad, right? My sister Sera told me that Iris and Jenna still speak kindly of you and Zeke,' I said. Tobias frowned. 'That's because they ARE kind. Zeke and I messed up. Well, I did, he tried to defend me which was nice of him, but eventually caused him to break up with Jenna.' My eyebrows shot higher. 'What happened, Tobias?' I asked slowly. He looked at me, his eyes darker than usual. He looked slightly scared even... What could have been so bad?! He took a deep breath. 'Iris was,' he started, but was cut off by Amar. 'T, I need you. Something about a person's membership,' Amar called from the doorway. Tobias looked slightly relieved now. 'I'm coming,' he called to Amar, then looked at me. 'I'll tell you another time,' he said apologetically, and walked away.
Once they'd disappeared out of sight, I clenched my fists. DAMN IT, SO CLOSE! All of a sudden my phone beeped. To stay in contact, we had had to buy new phones, because our phones didn't work in this world. I looked at the phone and saw that Sera'd texted me.
SOS. Another broken couple has been found. Tim Layla. "Unsolvable problem" as Jenna called it. I've never seen Tim without a smile, but it was like the North Pole in here.
Fuck... We knew they would be broken up, but now we had another problem to unravel.