I turned around to find my mother standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Hi mom!"

"Don't you hi mom me. Why the hell are you messing up my kitchen and who is he?" she questioned. Before I could answer we heard someone coming down the stairs. I looked up past my mother to see my brother wearing only his boxers and Raye wearing one of his t-shirts coming down. I saw my mom shake her head out the corner of my eye and I starting laughing because I knew she was about to go into a rant.

"I don't know what I did wrong. One child is acting like a 6 year old and having a water fight in my kitchen and the other apparently thinks my house is a brothel." We heard the front door open and in walks Mal eating an apple. "I have one good child and he's not even mine. I just don't know where I went wrong," she gave us all one last look of disdain before she turned around and walked upstairs. The five of us shared a looked before we bust out laughing. Suddenly Darien caught my attention with his eyes and pointed upstairs. I was clueless, I didn't understand what he was trying to say.

"Nick!" he mouthed

"Oh shit, I forgot all about him." Just as I was about to make a move to warn my mother, she screamed. Darien and I bust out laughing again. I had to admit she sounded just like me when Nick scared the shit out of me. Raye, Josh, and Mal not knowing what was going on stood there looking clueless.

"JOSH AND SERENA! GET YOUR ASSES IN HERE NOW!" she yelled causing Darien and I to laugh even harder. We managed to compose ourselves after a moment or two and followed the others into my mother's bedroom. My mom was standing by her dresser with only a towel covering her body while Nick sat in the bed with a big ass smile plastered on his face.

"Why are you smiling?" Darien asked.

"The women in this family are screamers. I like it," he replied. Darien tried to smack him upside his head but lucky me, I got to him first.

"OWWWW, it's true," he cried, scooting away from me.

"Since you seem to know him so well, Serena why don't you tell me why he's in MY ROOM and MY BED? Better yet who the hell he is?"

"Bed boy is Nick Callahan," I began.

"And water boy is…." She cut in pointing at Darien.

"Darien Carter, his cousin." Upon hearing the last name my mother looked at Raye.

"Yes ma'am he's my brother," Raye answered. "And that's my cousin," she added pointing to Nick.

"And you and Darien are ….." she motioned to the both of us.

"Yes mom, Darien and I are dating." I felt Mal turn to look at me but I refused to meet his gaze.

"And you didn't feel the need to warn me that he was in my bed because… ? Or do you enjoy almost giving your mother a heart attack?"

"I'm sorry mom but when we came back to the house it was real early so I told him that he could crash in your bed. I didn't think you would come home today and I completely forgot he was up there until you screamed," I explained. My mom was cool, she was taking everything in strive.

"Well it was nice to meet all of you but now I need you all gone so I can take a shower. Josh and Raye go put on some clothes and if you plan to spend the night Raye, you'll be sleeping in a separate room. Serena and Darien clean up my kitchen. Mal, you may be grown but you know better than to stay out all night and come strolling in early in the morning like that's ok. Oh and Nick if I ever find you in my room without MY permission again, you'll come up missing," she warned and then shooed us all out. As we all walked down the stairs, I noticed my brother and Mal giving Darien nasty looks. Mal I could understand but Josh, he was doing the same thing with HIS sister. Funny thing is that Darien saw the looks and judging by the smirk across his face, it was clear he didn't give two shits.

"So Darien, how long have you been fucking my sister?"

"JOSH, that's none of your," I began only to have Darien cut me off.

"No, it's ok baby," he grabbed my arm and pulled me into his arms. I looked up at his face and saw that his smile had gotten deeper but that it held a sinister look to it. It scared the shit out of me, it reminded me of the calm before the storm. I knew that this was about to take a nasty turn.

"How long have I been fucking your sister? Well," he took a pause to grab my ass only adding fuel to the fire and continued on. "That's a good question. I've got an even better one for you. How long have you been fucking mine? How long have you even known her?"

"Darien!" Raye looked mortified. I looked at Darien and realized by the glint in his eyes he was deliberately trying to piss my brother off. He was succeeding that much was apparent but he was pissing Mal off as well and that could lead to an even bigger problem. My brother looked ready to kill Darien, Mal too for that matter. I knew if I didn't de-escalate this situation soon, someone would be leaving in handcuffs.

"Darien please don't do this. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I don't wanna deal with all this drama," I whispered as I laid my head on his chest. I instantly felt the tension in his body disappear. I looked at him and saw that he was looking down at me and that his face had softened.

"WOW, you are really whipped!" Nick began. "The Darien I know would never had backed or stepped down."

"Shut the fuck up Nick," Darien exclaimed as he let me go and walked into the living room.

"Hey we're not done here, rich boy" Josh yelled after him.

"You're such a fucking hypocrite. With all that damn noise you and Raye made last night you can't say shit about us." I reprimanded as I followed Darien.

"And you're lucky because rich boy as you call him could have easily beaten your ass. Trust me I know," I heard Nick warn before I was completely out of ear shot.

"Hey what's wrong?" I asked sitting down beside him.

"Nothing, you asked me to stop," was his simple reply.

"But you didn't have to walk away and come in here."

"If I would have stayed your brother and I would have fought and Nick would have jumped in had your ex moved in any direction towards the fight. I have a past with fighting and I'm trying to be a better person but I haven't changed enough where I can just let my anger go. You understand?"

I felt myself shaking my head yes before I even knew I was. "Thank you for being the bigger man," I whispered into his ear as I climbed on his lap. "It meant a lot to me and I'll definitely show you my gratitude later," I promised before I kissed him.

"Could you do that in a room please?"

I ended the kiss to see Nick pretending to throw up. Laughing, I got off Darien's lab. "I'm going to check on the food," I got to my feet and walked towards the door, where I was greeted by a fully clothed Raye, Josh, and Mal. "Don't start shit, Josh," I warned and continued on my way to the kitchen. It wasn't long before Raye joined me. "Do you think it was wise to leave them all alone together?" I asked.

"I'm not sure but there was too much testosterone in the room. It was killing me," she laughed.

"I'm sorry about my brother," we exclaimed in unison after a minute of elapse silence.

"Look at us apologizing for them and we didn't even do anything wrong?" she pointed out.

"Yeah, but isn't that the main role of a woman these days, to fix her man's mistake," I joked.

"You're right," she laughed. "Can I help with anything?"

"You wanna help. Have you ever cooked anything?" I asked.

She smiled again. "I don't know the first thing about cooking or being in the kitchen but I want to do something. I don't feel like a real woman."

"Ok, come here and stir this for me while I put the sweet potatoes in the oven."

Raye and I had been in the kitchen for a little under 30 minutes when we heard my brother start to yell.

"I'm gonna beat the shit out of you rich boy!"

"Boy? I'm older than you I'm sure. You won't win so you mine as well not even try."

Raye and I thinking that they were fighting rushed into the room screaming stop only to find Darien and Josh playing Madden on the playstation, while Nick and Mal sat on the couch watching. Being that Raye and I had run into the room like crazy woman, they all turned and looked at us as if we were alien creatures.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Josh questioned.

"We thought ya'll were fighting," Raye answered.

"Naw, I am about the beat the fuck out of your brother though."

"Not likely," Darien countered.

"So you guys are cool?" It's not that I didn't believe or trust them! Well yeah, that pretty much was what it was! I mean less than an hour ago they were all ready to fight one another and now they were all chummy. It seemed really unlikely

"We're as cool as two guys dating each other's sister can be. He breaks my sister's heart and I'll kill him and vice versa." He shrugs, "you can say we have an understanding."

"So we're dating now," Raye questioned, she actually looked hopeful. Guess someone was over Chad.

"Don't know why you sound surprised, you know you wanted to date me," my brother turned from the game to wink at her. Raye's smile got even bigger, she was already falling victim to the Aries confidence. The rest of the afternoon was rather calm. My mother came downstairs shortly after her long shower and helped Raye and I in the kitchen while the boys switched between playing Madden and watching the football game. It was around seven when we all sat at the table to eat. Darien sat beside me, Nick beside him, Raye beside him, Josh beside her, Mal beside him and finally my mother between me and him. Looking at the table filled with food, I had to admit me, my mother, and Raye had out done ourselves with this meal. My mom said grace while Josh cut the turkey and then we all dug in.

"Mom, how are you off?" Josh asked. "This is the first time I've seen you home this long in years,"

My mom looked to Mal and he shook his head in approval. "Well Mal and I have some good news. Why don't you tell them what you did Mal."

"Remember when I told you yesterday that my producing and song writing endeavors were doing great. Well with the money from those projects I paid all your school bills," he explained, looking at both Josh and I. "Then I paid off some of mom's back debt so she doesn't have to work past what she wants to do. In the next few months Imma pay it all off."

"OH MY GOD! Seriously," I looked at my mom to see she was all smiles. "Thank you so much Mal," I cried as I jumped up and hugged him.

"Yeah, thanks man," Josh was more reserved, he just padded his back.

"So you're going to be home a lot more, now?" I asked, returning to my seat.

"Yes, I quit my second and third job today. I'm going to keep my first one until I find another one I like more." I almost couldn't believe it. My mom always had to work to so hard. Now she didn't have to. I was extremely happy for her.

"So Darien, how'd you meet my daughter?"

"She came over to tutor Raye when she had the chickenpoxs. I asked her out then but she turned me down. I spent the next two weeks wearing down her resistance. She finally gave me a chance and we've been together ever since," Darien explained. He definitely gave my mother the sugarcoated version, not that I'm complaining.

"Alright, Josh how did you and Raye get together?" Josh clearly wasn't expecting that, he damn near coughed up all his food.

"We had a few elective classes together at Westbridge Prep. I always thought she was cute and of course she thought I was handsome," he paused to smile. "Meeting up again and we just clicked."

"That's good. How about you Mal? Any special woman in your life?"

"Yeah, but she's involved with some else at the moment. I guess I'll have to wait until he messes up before I can get her back," he was staring directly at me as he spoke.

"You mine as well let that notion go and find another girl because I'm as good as they get and unlike you I'm not going to let someone great slip away," Darien's tone left no room for discussion. Mal opened his mouth to reply but was quickly cut off.

"Hey, I have a special woman in my life," Nick cut in. He was trying to ease some of the tension. "Well, I have a few actually. One's a Brazilian model and the other's an aspiring actress. I even have this mother of three, I'm trying to get. Her kids are all grown so I don't think they'll give us a problem," he smiled, staring at my mother.

"Imma give you a problem, it's my mom, you perv," I exclaimed, throwing my napkin at him. Everyone started laughing but I didn't see what was so funny. The remainder of the dinner was calm, probably because everyone stayed off the relationship topic.

After dinner my mom went to bed but not before she made the boys clean the kitchen while Raye and I watched TV and relaxed. About 30 minutes later all the boys dragged themselves into the living room.

"Baby, are you ready?" Darien asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go," Nick announced, falling across Raye and I.

"Not you, dumbass, my girl."

"Where are we going?"

"We're all going over to my house and chill. We can't really do anything because your mom is sleeping and we don't want to wake her up."

I looked at Mal and Josh to see if they were coming.

"I'm going to visit my brother," Mal exclaimed, grabbing his keys and walking away.

"Well, I'm definitely going. I have to redeem my name and beat rich boy," my brother was a serious game head. Darien drove Nick and I while Raye and my brother came in her car.

"It was nice meeting you, Serena. Keep my crazy cousin in line. Darien, I'm going to hit you up later," Nick exclaimed as we pulled up in front of Darien's apartment. He got out the car and was gone before either one of us could say goodbye. As soon as we all walked in the house, Darien and Josh started a game of Madden while Raye and I watched TV in Darien's room.

"Are you okay with me and your brother getting together?"

"I'm fine with it. As long as you and him are happy. I'm all for it," laughing I turned to her. "It's not like I could really say anything if I wasn't. Me and your brother are together. Did you ever have a problem with me and Darien hooking up?

"No, honestly I like you with him. You've calmed him down a lot. There's no more bar fights, arrests and DUIs. This is the Darien I haven't seen since before our mother died," Raye explained. I didn't know what else to say. It was a subject that Darien and I haven't even touched basis on, so instead I just turned the channel and we started watching America's Next Top Model.

I don't know how many games my brother and Darien actually played because we ended up falling asleep. I woke up to find Darien and Josh standing over us. "To the guest room we go, sleeping beauty," Josh exclaimed, picking Raye up and leaving the room. I was still groggy when Darien slipped into bed with me. He pulled me over to him but soon realized I was still fully dressed. I sat up and lifted my arms in the air as he pulled my shirt over my head. Chuckling, he pulled off my pants next as I lifted my ass off the bed.

"Goodnight baby," Darien whispered, kissing my forehead and pulling me closer again.

"Night."