Stevie woke up to blinding sun streaming through her window and on to her face. She always closed her curtains every night before she went to sleep, so how could they be open?

And another thing, why was she here and not at Zanders?

All in all, Stevie was in a pretty bad mood.

Locating her phone- witch was perched on top of her closed laptop on her desk, Stevie found that she had a text from Zander

From Zander 3: Babe, you fell asleep so I dropped you home, I love you. Z

Stevie let out a low growl. Did he think that telling her he loved her made it all better?

From Stevie: Don't call me babe.

She typed back angrily. Zander replied almost instantly.

From Zander 3: Alright then, Steviekins.

Stevie glared at her phone before throwing it hard at her bed.

"What are you still doing here?" Stevie growled at Ben as she entered the kitchen

"Drinking Coffee." He replied with a bright smile.

Stevie gave out a huffy breath and made herself some coffee.

"Steves please, we need to talk. Don't you think you've ignored me for long enough?"

Stevie glared at him. "Number one: No, I don't think I've ignored you for long enough. And number two: Don't call me Steves. Only people who are actually part of my life call me that." Her voice was icy

"Well," Ben hopped off the stool he had been sitting on, "whether you like it or not, I am part of your life. You're still my sister."

"Only by blood."

"Stevie this is ridiculous. You can yell at me, scream at me, but don't totally ignore me."

"Clearly I'm not totally ignoring you, I'm talking to you now aren't I?" Stevie remarked dryly, crossing her arms irritably over her chest.

"Well then, explain to me why you hate me so much." Ben requested, leaning his elbows on the kitchen island.

Stevie was shocked. "You think I hate you?" she clasped her coffee cup tightly, confusion flooding her face.

"How else would you describe the past week?"

She let out a chocked breath, biting her lip as she searched for the words to tell him how she felt. "I may be angry at you Ben, but I could never hate you. But you walked out 3 and a half years ago, promising me that you would call, and email, and come home on weekends. And you didn't. And then you all come back last weekend, and expect me to tell you what's happening, you all expect me to listen to you, to do what you say. I'm not a little kid anymore, Ben. And I expect not to be treated like one." She could feel herself getting worked up, the tears were threatening to fall. All week she had been forced to relive every bad moment from the past three and a half years, and now, she had to put all that pain into words.

"I don't expect you to tell me everything. I just want to talk to you." Ben said quietly.

"Really?" she whispers.

"Really." He replies.

Her voice is slightly shaky as she speaks, "So If I tell you nothing about the past few years-" she falters uncertainly.

"I won't be upset." Ben finishes for her.

"And if I tell you?" she's gripping the cup so tightly her hands are turning white.

"That's ok too."

Stevie turns away, Ben's worried she might walk away, and that she'll never really talk to him again. But she places the coffee cup on the bench, rubs her clammy hands on her pajama pants, and takes a shaky breath before turning back to him.

"After you left I came home every day to an empty house. I think that's the first day I'd ever been here on my own. It's eerie, I kept hearing voices. All of you. Calling me to dinner or to come and see something, or you all talking to each other. Everything was so quiet though. Your voices were all in my head."

Don't cry Stevie. You don't cry. Stevie Baskara DOESN'T cry.

She drew another shaky breath before starting again. "I never noticed how much Mom and Dad worked before, but as I did my homework on my own, ate dinner on my own, and watched movies while waiting up for them till I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, I realized how alone I was. Kevin and Nelson are fantastic friends, but there's only so much time we could spend together. I cried myself to sleep every night."

The tears were pricking the back of her eyes. How many times had she cried in the past week? She must have over done her quota for the next few years.

Ben didn't know what to think, what to do or say. So he stayed quiet, hoping the story wouldn't get any worse, but knowing it would.

"We were bullied every day. Once upon a time that wouldn't have bothered me. But it did. It hurts more when there's no one there to tell you that the bullies are wrong, that you are worth something. And there's only so many times you can push the assaults away before you start to believe everything that they say. It took everything in me to defend Kevin and Nelson. I used every technique I learnt from all of you. But I got in a lot of trouble for 'picking fights'. I'm freaky Baskara, loserberry, a man-girl. They still call me all of that. Only now, I have friends who defend me."

She was crying now, funny how it felt better to cry than to hold back the tears.

"I wanted to go to every one of those stupid school dances. But I had no one to go with. Kevin and Nelson practically had a phobia of them. All I wanted was to feel normal. I wanted to be just like the four of you as a kid. That came back to bite me, apparently, I wasn't lady like enough, I didn't dress right, I couldn't do my hair in anything other than a ponytail, and worst of all, I had no idea what mascara was.

I've come a long way since then- if you haven't noticed. I now am considered a female."

Ben bit his lip awkwardly, he still had no idea what to say to her. Sorry? Would that cover it?

"Maybe you did me a favor by leaving. Cause if you hadn't, I probably wouldn't be dating Zander." Stevie gave a harsh laugh.

Then to his shock she held out her wrists to him, "See here?" she pointed to one of many faint red lines on her skin, "Things got so bad I started cutting. I couldn't cope. I'm lucky they've faded, and that I had the good sense at the time not to do too many. I did things you couldn't even imagine. There's so much I'll never tell anyone. Not even Zander. I've dipped my toes in the deep end. That time is so dark. In art once we were told to pain the worst memory we had, I threw red and black paint balloons at the canvas. And then Mom finally got the idea something was wrong and she sent me to that summer camp. I meet Zander on day one. We've been best friends ever since. If I hadn't met him I can't even imagine what my life would be like now."

Stevie, who had stopped crying by now, ran her tongue over her lips slowly, thoughtfully contemplating the idea.

She was jolted back to reality by Ben's shallow breath and chocked "Sorry".

Stevie reached across the island and gripped his hands. "Don't be." She said simply.

Ben's forehead creased in confusion.

Stevie shook her head. "I was always going to go there, I don't know how far I would have gone if you were still here, but I do know it would have happened either way."

She sighed, drawing her hands back to her and fiddling with the rings on her fingers.

"Look Ben, I'm not angry at you for all I went through. I was angry because you all came back in expecting the innocent little kid you left to be the same, expecting me to tell you that my life was all sunshine and rainbows. That I was crying because Zander and I had a little spat- What we said was not little, and it wasn't nice at all. I'm not a little kid any more, I won't jump at you like a lost puppy after you've been away for so long. I tried that- it didn't work. And I won't push myself to pretend everything's fine when it's not."

Ben nodded. "I'm still sorry you felt like that."

Stevie gave a little smile.

"Can I give you a hug?" he asked tentatively.

She giggled and moved round the kitchen, letting him pull her in to a tight hug.

When he finally let her go he held her at arm's length, looking her up and down in a good natured, brotherly way.

Stevie raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"It's lucky I saw a bit of you these last few years, otherwise I wouldn't recognize you. You really aren't a little kid anymore."

She shook her head, a smile starting on her lips.

"Can I call you Steves again?"

Stevie laughed, Ben had always loved her laugh, the way her eyes lit up and her nose crinkled. "'Couse." She giggled.

"Well then, Steves, as your older brothers, Leif, Finn, James and I would like to take you out to lunch. To get to know you now. You don't have to tell us anything big, just talk to us as Stevie the seventeen year old."

Stevie took a step back out of his grasp, she bit her lip nervously, clearly uncertain as to whether this was a good idea or not. She ran her tongue over her top teeth and twisted a piece of hair round her fingers. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Ben, she nodded. "Okay."

"Wear something nice, we'll leave at 12 o'clock."

Stevie nodded again, her mouth felt dry so she went to get her coffee, only to find it was cold. With an indignant grunt she poured it down the sink, before finding a tea bag. Figuring that she didn't need the energy boost coffee gave her.

Hi! Sorry this has taken so long, I wrote so many drafts of this chapter, and NONE of then came out even vaguely close to how I wanted it. but a couple of days ago there was a huge storm where I live, it blocked off all but one road out of my area and cut the internet. So I sat for nine hours with nothing to do before forcing myself to figure out where I went wrong with this. And ta-da! Magic! it worked, the internet just came back on so I'm posting this before it goes out again :)

Now, My wonderful reviewers:

ZevieANDHinnyFan: I fully intend to continue :)

HTRobsessed: fanning the flames of my girlfriend's bad moods, was my favourite line too. When I re-read the chapter I thought it seemed so out of character for Zander, but I loved it so much I had to keep it in. BTW your reviews make me smile, there so sweet and very entertaining :)

Guest (Zevielover17 I think? Correct me if I'm wrong): thank you! I would love to help you with a fic, if you PM we can have a conversation about it :), After I read your review I looked up Tori Kelly's Funny, I was very impressed, I really like that song!

ZevieFTW::)

I promise I have not given up on this story, in fact the next chapter is about half done (I'm guessing, but its already longer than i intended it to be, soooo...). I'll post it as soon as its done :)

Untill Next time!

Encantria 3