2 months later
Jamie had got home just before all the kids. Eddie had prepped dinner ahead of time so all Jamie had to do was throw it together.
Alaina walked through the front door, Ryan not far behind her, and the twins coming next.
"Hey, how was-" he stopped when he saw her crying and run right upstairs with her backpack and everything.
"Alaina?" He called out but she kept going and went right to her room shutting her door. Jamie immediately turning to Ryan who entered the house.
"Why's she upset?" He asked.
"I don't know." He shrugged.
"Did something happen on the bus?" He wondered asking him and the girls.
"I don't think, she seemed upset before that." He told him, the twins seemed to have no idea anything was going on.
"Well did you ask her what was wrong?" Jamie asked him.
"Yeah! She didn't say!" Ryan getting irritated by his dads questions.
"Maybe she's sick." Scarlett suggested.
"Or maybe she got made fun of." Ava also added.
"Made fun of for what?" Jamie questioned.
"They don't know dad, they're just making crap up." Ryan said taking his homework out of his bag and plopping down in a chair.
"Well, great." He said sighing and headed upstairs. He took another deep breath before opening the door.
"Alaina?" He called out with a light knock on her door.
"Leave me alone." She said with her voice breaking.
"Can we talk first, then I will." He said, he hated how upset she sounded. When she didn't answer he asked again.
"Can I come in Lainey?" He said.
"Okay." She trembled in her voice.
"What happened?" He sat down beside her.
"Huh." She wiped her nose and sniffled. Jamie grabbed the tissue box on her nightstand.
"Why are you crying?" He asked handing her a tissue.
"I thought Cade was going to ask me to the dance today, but he didn't. He was sitting with Maddy Ryker at lunch! Then Derek told me he likes her!" She cried out in anger.
"Aw honey, I'm sorry. I thought you two were on the same page." He said and immediately pulled her into a hug.
"We were, I don't know what happened literally over 3 days!" She was so upset.
"I'm sorry honey. I hate to see you this upset over a stupid boy." They let go of the hug and she threw her used tissue on the floor.
"He isn't stupid!" She defended him.
"Well he is in my book now, that's not how you treat a friend." Jamie said and hugged her again.
"I thought we were more then friends." She wiped her tears.
"Yeah, I guess there was maybe some misunderstanding, I'm sorry." Jamie didn't know what else to say to her, he thinks he did pretty good though, at least she told him what was wrong.
"I wanna be alone." She told him.
"Okay. Well I love you, I'll tell you when dinners ready, you let me know if you wanna talk more alright?" He said getting up.
"Okay." She said wiping her face again, Jamie looked at her once more and then left her be.
—
"So what did she say?" Ryan asked Jamie while he was in the kitchen getting dinner together.
"Well she's upset with Cade." Jamie told him.
"What'd he do?" He wondered which was sorta sweet he cared about his sister.
"I guess he likes another girl and-" Jamie started, but Ava interrupted.
"Wait what happened dad?"
"Okay, look we're not going to talk about it, if she wants to tell you she can but I'm not gonna spill the beans." Jamie surrendered, not wanting Alaina to come downstairs and hear him talking about it when it's clearly a very sore subject.
"She's pregnant?!" Scarlett asked.
"What!?" Jamie says back caught off guard by her assumption.
"It's a figure of speech!" Ava tells her.
"An idiom." Ryan adds.
"Don't call me an idiot!" Ava pushes Ryan and Jamie can't help but try not to laugh.
"Hey, knock it off, and IDIOM not idiot." Jamie corrects with emphasis on the ending of the word.
"Well that's what Miss. Lindsey said when she told the class she was pregnant." Scarlett says.
"Well just because someone used that saying for reference doesn't mean that's always the case." Jamie informs.
"She's only 14, do you even know how babies are made?" Ryan confronts.
"Alright stop, we're not talking about this. Go back to whatever you were doing and everyone minds their own business, got it?" Jamie was flustered, stressed, and exhausted from their banter. To think they've only been home a half hour…!
—
A few hours later, after dinner was cleaned up, Eddie came home to see everyone but Alaina watching Americas funniest home videos in the living room.
"How was work?" Jamie got up and gave her a quick kiss before pulling out her plate of dinner to warm up.
"Alright. How was everyone's day at school?" She asked the kids, they all said good in unison, to into the show to say more.
"I'll take it." She shrugged to Jamie while she waited for her dinner in the microwave, she was starving as always.
"Lainey in the shower?" She asked him.
"No, I don't think. She uh…" he paused to make sure the others weren't eavesdropping before continuing. "She came home crying."
"What?! About what?" Eddie was caught of guard.
"I guess Cade likes another girl, something about not being asked to the dance?" He said hoping it would make more sense to Eddie.
"He didn't ask her to the dance, he asked someone else!?"
"Something like that."
"Uh! Oh my god." Eddie left her dinner on the counter and went upstairs to talk to Alaina, her heart broke for her.
10 minutes went by, Jamie told all the kids to go to bed, Eddie was still upstairs with Alaina. He warmed her dinner up again and took it up with him for her to eat.
"She's devastated." Eddie told Jamie when she came into their room.
"Yeah I know. I brought your plate up for you." He pointed out while he got ready to go to bed.
"Thanks. Wait, you're going to bed already?" She looked at her watch.
"Um yeah, it was a hectic night."
"Well aside from Alaina's boy problems what else?" She asked sitting down on the edge of the bed, eating her dinner.
"Well, with that came the other 3 wanting to know what happened, Scarlett thought Alaina was pregnant because of an idiom I used about spilling the beans, which practically gave me heart failure. Well then Ava thought Ryan called her an idiot, cause ya know, idiot…idiom. So that was an argument. And yeah, so, needless to say, I have a headache and I'm really glad you're home…and also really glad we have 3 girls." He said jokingly.
"Haha well, it's gonna get worse before it gets better." She said shrugging.
"I don't even want to think about that being close to true." He said getting into bed and Eddie laughed.
"Well I know how I could take your mind off some things, just give me 10 minutes to shower and i'm all yours." She said finishing up the last couple bites of her dinner. Jamie batted his eyes up at her.
"Not tonight." He said rolling over to go to sleep.
"Huh! Jamie!" She laughed a little at him, knowing he was kidding.
"Hurry up then." He told her, she laughed again and got up.
"I'm not hurrying, I know you'll wait up for me." She got undressed.
"You're 100% correct." He said and Eddie laughed, shutting the bathroom door behind her.
———
Poor Alaina, her first broken heart. One of the worst feelings in the world! The banter between the siblings always makes me laugh, it's how I imagine it would be if I had siblings in that close of age! Leave your thoughts and suggestions!