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Chapter 159

Lonely Opinions


Jake


While the patio door slammed shut behind me, I ran my fingers through my hair in annoyance on the way to the garage.

Dad didn't want to go into the woods with us? Even though Leah had asked him? Somehow I didn't understand that.

I peered through a crack in the garage door on the other side.

Edward was as briskly on his way to David as was just permitted by human principles.

To Ced. To my brother. To his son. His right son.

I let my head hang and began to undress, lost in thought.

Mom and Dad took touching care of my little brother, who really couldn't do anything on his own. In this respect, I understood all of that. That they didn't have as much time for us as usual. Especially since it was not really noticeable so far. It was vacation, so we were on the road a lot. On the other hand, I wasn't really dependent on my parents - unlike Ced. But I had assumed that when we were all together, it would be like it usually was. But no one had asked me how my day was. What we did or if we had fun. And instead of making up for it somehow now, Dad preferred to run to his baby as fast as he could.

Then, when Leah arrived at the garage, she smiled.

Maybe I should not see everything so narrowly? I would think about it and wait for the next few days.

While running with Leah, we talked - or rather - thought about the past hours.

I went to Portland with Becky. There, where Marcus usually worked, we went to get something to eat. I had been there a few times when I was in the area. They had a totally awesome cherry crumble pie that we shared almost fairly. Marcus' new colleague, because of whom he didn't have to work all the vacations or weekends, was super nice - mid-twenties and studied. I have forgotten, what it was. But it was something technical. His girlfriend was a makeup artist at a theater, so he wanted to work weekends. So like her. The movie theater afterwards was great, too. An action comedy with Mark Wahlberg. We might have to watch the movie online later. Somehow we didn't catch some scenes that were apparently not entirely unimportant for understanding the plot.

I guess Leah's evening was nice too.

They were at Marcus' mother's - together with his sisters. They were all cooking together, for which there was plenty of kitchen space in the new apartment. The united children had spent half the evening trying to persuade their mother to accept the apartment - or more precisely, the right to live in it for life. Leah was really excited about the apartment. Rightly so, I gathered from her thoughts. As one could expect from Esmé, everything was very nicely furnished and also very practical and well thought out. The rooms could not necessarily be called spacious, but it was not nearly as cramped as at Ethan and Maggie's house. Comfortable. Marcus' mother moved through the rooms as if she had always lived there. And of course, what interested me down to the last detail was how Marcus and Leah had dedicated his room together!

'Sorry!' my little sis immediately thought.

Leah certainly turned bright red at her really very detailed memories, but you couldn't see that under the white fur.

Somehow I was craving caramel now ... 'LEAH!'

'I'm stopping already!' her thoughts murmured sheepishly.

Luckily, we were back home, and I didn't have to listen to her anymore. Nevertheless, I went to the cupboard with the sweets and took the bag with the caramel candy bars.

Becky had already gone upstairs, which is why I went straight to my room. A half-naked beauty was lying on her stomach in my bed and was engrossed in a novel.

That must have been really exciting. She was already asleep.

I quickly ate two of the bars before going to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I saw Dad just disappear into Leah's room as I finished.

Maybe Dad had a guilty conscience after all, because he had practically ignored us earlier? Then he would certainly come to me too.

I smiled contentedly, but went to my star.

I didn't want to annoy Dad that he should kindly hurry up or something.

I took the book from Becky's hands, and she immediately snuggled up to me as I lay down next to her.

Dad didn't come anymore, though.


Not until the next morning. With a well-filled tray in his hands, which he placed on my nightstand.

Two croissants, with a small bowl of Nutella for me and jam for Becky. Ready buttered bun halves, nicely decorated with slices of tomato and cucumber. A small bowl with fruit. With just a spoon. And one cup of coffee per person? That wasn't enough! The coffee, I meant.

"You'll have to pick up supplies from us! We want to have a little of you, too, if you're going to be skiing all day," Dad said and left us alone.

My thoughts from last night were vanished.

Dad was probably just a little overzealous, really. After all, this was the first time he had had to spare Ced for an evening.

I smiled and had breakfast in bed with my star. The rolls had to believe in it first. Then the croissants, whereby I actually licked a blob of jam from Becky's cleavage.

So that my bedding did not get dirty. God forbid!

Followed by dessert. The spoon for the fruit was superfluous. We fed ourselves with our fingers, with some juice from a piece of pineapple running down my chin and throat.

Becky stopped the sweet trail at the dip below my neck. With her playful tongue she worked her way up to my lips ...

What can I say?

One thing led to another, when she crawled on me due to this of course absolutely necessary hygiene and now lay under me with a rapturous look.

I knew my star.

It would take three to five minutes for her to get over the fact that Edward had probably listened to us better than he would have liked. I was more relaxed since I had asked him one morning how much he actually noticed.

This time the temporary embarrassment passed more quickly when we heard Leah cry out.

Becky's eyes widened in panic, but I chuckled.

"Twins!" was all I said, to which Becky laughed as well.

Not agreeing to a measly cup of coffee, though we were then now quite awake, we headed over to Mom and Dad's.

We still had an hour before we had to get out of the house to be on time to Brandon's house, and we didn't need to look for our ski clothes either. We had already gotten them out on Saturday when we made this plan for today.

Even at my parents' the breakfast was obviously served in bed.

Ced looked cute lying between them. He had Becky's rattle in one hand and a piece of croissant in the other. He wiggled both, but apparently wondered why the pastry didn't make any funny noises. When he saw Becky approaching, he wiggled the rattle steadily, smiling charmingly, as if to show her that he was using her gift, too.

I gave Mom a kiss and then bent over my brother.

"Stop looking at my girlfriend like that!" I commanded him, but he kept on.

But I smiled. We were all quite taken with the little nipper, I was no exception and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Dad had already turned for the coffee pot and was now handing us refilled cups.

"Looks like someone's thirsty," I said teasingly as Leah and Marcus joined us as well.

Not a trace of embarrassment, but eyes that shone in competition. That's how I liked my little sis. Happy all around.

With new coffee, we finally sat together on the bed and watched Ced continue to eye the croissant suspiciously.

I tried to tell him it was safe to eat, plucked off a small piece and ate it to prove it. His green eyes got big in disbelief, but he put the rest, which was huge by his standards, in his mouth all at once.

"That was indeed a very nice change, though ..." I noted after a while, kissing my star. The breakfast - or rather, the dessert of it - was decidedly pleasant, though less so on Dad's account. Although. Actually, it was. Kind of.

"... but breakfast together is nicer!" Leah finished my sentence accurately.

This togetherness, even if we didn't talk about anything in particular, was just beautiful.

"Leah wished for it, and you wouldn't have had time for a really extensive breakfast," Edward opined, pointing to the alarm clock.

It was 8:23 on Monday morning.

Damn! Not half an hour until we actually had to leave.

Hectically, the four of us jumped up and I pulled Becky straight to the bathroom.

Our cups, which we had taken in the heat of the moment, I simply put down on a dresser while Becky was already undressing for the shower. We hurriedly washed.

"Do you guys mind if we get in the shower already?" Leah knocked on the door and opened it a crack while we were still busy brushing our teeth.

"Not me," Becky intimated.

That I would have no problem with it, although our shower had only glass walls, Leah could guess, so I saved myself the answer. Becky's gaze actually stayed on Marcus once, so that I had to turn her face back in my direction.

As I had caught from Leah's accidental memory of a girls' night out, Marcus was, according to prevailing opinion, 'a cream slice'. Whatever that was supposed to mean exactly. Designations for the other guys among us I had unfortunately no longer caught. There Leah had had itself mentally again under control.


I'm not sure how, but we were in Brandon's driveway on time, even though we had yet to pick up Becky's brother.

And we were even the first.

Simultaneously with the thought, two other cars pulled up. Ethan and Maggie and Jason and Claire. The latter was allowed to drive along, since both Marcus and Maggie were there. She was, after all, their cousin.

As we feared at the beginning, we didn't manage to integrate Jason's fifteen-year-old girlfriend Claire properly into the group, which is why Jason moved away from us a bit. Therefore, we took advantage of such opportunities when we could do something together, like today.

Brandon and Lisa casually leaned against his dad's SUV and made out.

Becky's little brother - Bryan, in case I hadn't mentioned it yet - and Daniel understood each other at the first go. By the way, Bryan had had his birthday in the meantime. He was now fourteen, as he proudly answered Brandon's father's question.

It sounded as if he wanted to make it clear that he was now a man.

They both rode in Ethan's Civic, with their ski gear staying in Marcus's bus due to space constraints. Jason and Claire got in with Brandon and Lisa. Into his father's SUV, which the latter was always happy to make available for our trips when he didn't need it.

So the bus was left for the four of us. Dad had even remembered to give us a little packed lunch for the ride. Something to drink for the road and a couple of pancakes for each of us. After all, we would have over an hour's drive ahead of us. Enough time, then, for wolves to starve.


It was very busy at Shawnee Peak, but it was less than we feared.

While the various skis and boards were unpacked and everyone was getting into the right clothes, I went with Bran and Ethan to get the ski passes.

Forty-seven dollars per person. A steep price for one day. Fortunately, it was not the weekend. Then it would have been sixty-five dollars per ticket.

I bought - as Dad instructed - all twelve tickets.

It was his way of apologizing to our friends for not being welcome at our home since several weeks and continuing to do so for an indefinite period of time. So that no one got to see Ced.

"Did you win the lottery?" asked Bran in amazement.

"Something like that," I merely smirked. Dad was something like winning the lottery, but not because of his dough.

We rushed directly to the lifts. However, twelve people were difficult to keep together with the existing number of slopes and different levels of difficulty. None of us were beginners and all of us knew our way around. Shawnee Peak was a popular destination for schools, Boy Scouts, and other outings in the greater area. To that extent, we made a time to meet at the cabin at the top of the mountain for a snack.

Leah and I would definitely stop by the bakery at Base Lounge by then.

As I also found out by then, Mr. sports science could ski very well.

That had been clear. But hey, he wasn't better than me. But not worse either. And he didn't look any sillier on my snowboard than I did on his skis. So it was a clear draw. Shit, damn!

A small group - like us consisting of two couples - made fun of us at that very moment. They were older than us - maybe in their mid-twenties - and felt they had to verbally beat us up.

They challenged us to a competition. On the most dangerous slope of the mountain. We won. By far!

The day just flew by.

No idea how many times we had gone up and down.

Again and again our travel group met each other. The smaller groups changed their configurations again and again.

So I was temporarily with Daniel in the halfpipe, where we were in very good hands because of our skateboarding experience. With Leah in the bistro, where we had a second breakfast. In the meantime I had to make clear to a guy that Lisa was taken. With Bran, I fought an epic snowball war, with Bryan coming to my rescue. Drinking cocoa with Becky by the fire bowls in front of the mountain lodge. On a ski lift ride, Jason told me that he had received a very personal Christmas gift from Claire. In a word - he had become a man. He was so happy that he was planning the rest of his life with Claire. He wasn't telling me this to brag or anything, though. He had a question about this new world for him. How did I manage not to constantly pounce on Becky, to continually experience these feelings during sex? He had also asked Bran and Marcus about this, but they had no satisfactory answer for him.

I asked with a smirk what they had said about it.

"That sex is already pretty awesome and for a long-term functioning relationship certainly important. But it is not THE most important thing," he replied.

"And they're both absolutely right about that," I agreed with the previous speakers. "It's not about what Becky gives me physically or what she's able to do to me. The point is that the person who is her is happy. That includes things like spending a day in the snow with your friends. And that Claire also has time for herself sometimes, and you for yourself. That's important," I added. Yes, my parents' words had reached me.

"Why?" he asked so quickly that I had to chuckle.

"Because otherwise we'll get mad if you don't do anything with us anymore. That's how her friends will react in the long run if she doesn't have time for them. Besides, you do have to study now and then, prepare 'Black Eye' games, and you have your baseball team," I said. And how the words of my parents had reached me! I was a little surprised about it myself.

As dusk fell, the slope was illuminated. Lights from various cabins could also be seen on the surrounding mountains.

So I sat with Becky on our summit in the snow and enjoyed a bit of the remaining view with her.

One by one, the rest of our group trickled in and joined us, even though it wasn't time yet.

Bran and I told how we had once climbed the opposite mountain with his father.

It was a few years ago.

But before we got too cold from sitting, we hit the slopes again.


Later, we besieged the Base Lounge changing rooms to exchange our snow clothes for regular street clothes.

There were a total of three restaurants here at the ski park, but we didn't want to go to them. The food was not particularly good, but overpriced and the portions damn small. The rooms were usually crowded and therefore altogether uncomfortable, because pretty much every skier wanted to eat here. It was just convenient to not have to drive anywhere else. But we were happy to put up with a few more miles.

Not far from here there was a place that had numerous 'all you can eat' offerings where the food was also mercilessly delicious.

The first time we were here without parents and without school, we lost our way and found ourselves there in the parking lot. A real stroke of luck.

In addition to the 'all you can eat' offers, however, there was also a normal menu. Most of our excursion group chose something from it.

We twins could not decide.

In the end, me and Brandon went for the 'Never Ending' spare ribs, Leah went for the 'Never Ending' chicken wings, and Marcus went for the 'Never Ending' mini burgers. The fact that everyone tried something from our plates didn't bother anyone here.

Also a reason why we liked to eat here when we were in the area.

"So," I began as I was brought my third plate. "These ribs are pretty awesome, but nothing beats your dad's!" I stated all-encompassing in Daniel's direction.

He also had spare ribs, just a regular portion, but he nodded in agreement.

We slowly approached the culinary end. The dessert menu was served.

Leah was undecided and walked with Marcus to the counter where the cakes and pastries were displayed. Becky and I would share a giant ice cream sundae, which also arrived at us rather briskly. Only when I put the spoon aside did I realize that the two seats next to me were still empty.

Leah certainly still hadn't made up her mind. If she had to choose between chocolate and caramel, she had a real problem since some time.

Becky and I went to the washrooms.

Aside from having to pee, I had somehow gotten ice cream on my face and was a little sticky. As well as Becky. No idea how that could happen.

I got a little suspicious as we approached the washroom.

A boy of maybe nine or ten ran past us kind of stunned.

I was still looking after him, puzzled, when I pushed open the door to the men's toilets.

As well as Becky, who had to move one door farther.

A man was standing at the urinals, and I silently joined him one basin over. I lifted my head in amazement when I heard a strange noise. The man next to me smirked.

"There seem to be two who need it pretty badly. They've been in there for twenty minutes," the guy next to me whispered.

My jaw dropped.

Twenty minutes? For a quickie on the toilet? Someone had a lot of nerve. And stamina - for the external circumstances. However, I wondered with a critical eye how the guy knew that. Was he already in here for twenty minutes and listening? My look was probably enough, and he was 'suddenly' finished peeing. The couple in the stall, however, was not. You could hear a lot. Suppressed moaning. Hectic breathing. Licking lips. Rustling clothes. The walls shook and groaned.

I chuckled to myself and hurried. I had accidentally thrown the paper towel next to the trash can after washing my hands and bent down. Involuntarily, my gaze went to the booth.

"Leah?!" I stated, aghast. Her key was lying on the floor.

"Ouch!" cursed Marcus in reply, and the etiquette rules landed on the tiles.

I grinned.

A little gloating. Not a sound was heard from the stall.

"Didn't we explain to a good friend this afternoon that sex isn't everything?" I asked through the closed door.

"Mmm ... mmm ..." I heard approvingly.

I saw the blushing faces almost through the wood.

"So what are you doing in there right now?"

"Um ..." it came indecisively.

"You can explain it to me later. When you're done!" I opined and walked out.

There stood Becky - a little nervous.

"I haven't found Leah. Where could she be?" she asked.

"I found her," I said matter-of-factly.

She looked at me questioningly.

"Marcus, too," I added, chuckling, and pushed Becky through the door a bit.

The two in there, by the way, continued unmolested.

A little shocked, Becky turned to me, but the shock didn't last very long. Her eyes lit up frivolously, and she kissed me desirously.

Not that I didn't feel like doing it now. Simply the thought of doing something so 'forbidden' appealed to me. Not to mention Becky herself. But I felt overwhelmed. As for the logistics. How did that work? In the winter? With jeans and since we were skiing also with thermal underwear? Apart from that, I didn't have a condom with me, and we were expected back at the table.

So, unfortunately, I pulled Becky out of the washroom, but still stayed in the hallway with her.

"How does one do that? After all, it's not summer where one simply pushes aside a skirt," Becky interrupted our kiss.

I smiled. A little relieved.

"I wondered that myself," I admitted. "Well ... I wouldn't go in there right now," I stopped a young man and made a gesture as if it smelled damn bad in there.

The guy disappeared for the time being.

It took a few more minutes before the door was opened from the inside.

Marcus and Leah. With not to be overlooked happiness on their faces. And not a trace of embarrassment!

Marcus leaned against the wall next to me, got an extraordinarily binding kiss, and Leah and Becky returned to the table, chuckling.

Marcus looked after my sister for a long time.

It was unmistakable that he was happy with her.

Only when she disappeared from his field of vision did he look at me.

"Are you giving me a sermon now about what I can and can't do with your sister?" he asked before I said anything.

"Nonsense," I objected directly. My almost-brother was allowed to do anything with my sister, as long as she agreed to it. Even if I got more out of it than I wanted to. Besides breaking her heart, of course. "How does that work?" I asked instead.

He looked at me like I was asking how sex worked.

But I wasn't quite that stupid. "In such a small space with as many clothes as we have on?" I therefore specified.

"It's all a matter of practice," he smirked.

"I thought you only had a one-night stand. The one at Hooters where, unbeknownst to me, I had your back back then," I now asked suspiciously. Had he been lying?

"Thanks for that!" he said seriously. "That's the way it was. One time, that's all the experience I have with it. But Lily liked unusual, sometimes not quite allowed places."

"So how?" I asked again.

But he postponed the answer until a time when our girls would not be in the area and were already impatiently looking for us.

Instead, he at least told me that he had almost dropped Leah when I had caught the two of them and he had hit the back of his hand against the door in the heat of the moment. He was bleeding, for which I had no compassion at all.

We paid the bill, Marcus flirtatiously got a band-aid from an employee, and we left.


Bryan rode with Brandon this time so we wouldn't have to drive halfway across town. We would drop off his ski gear on another occasion.

"There's no hurry," he said.

Becky called her parents from the road so they wouldn't worry.

We would in no way be able to keep to our original time estimate, it had become so late in the meantime. We would have to already be there in a few minutes.

Daniel also got the idea to text his dad, but his phone was under all our clothes in the trunk.

"David knows that you are on the road with us. His concerns will be limited," I answered lightly.

We chatted about David on the way back.

What we had experienced with him over the years and how at times we thought or wished he was our dad. Everything we had done with him, he had also done a little later with Daniel. Even though Daniel hadn't seen his father more often than we had for so many years - even less often than we had, since we went to Philly with Mom quite often - he didn't necessarily feel neglected. He had grown up in a great family, even if he had always known it wasn't his own. The fact that his dad lived here now, and they saw each other every weekend pleased Daniel a lot and he thought his dad was pretty cool.

We confirmed this view.

David was pretty awesome as a 'surrogate' Dad. Even more casual than Brandon's Dad.

Daniel had to pee halfway back.

We stopped at a gas station, but it was already closed. He quickly slipped away into the bushes, and we sent the other two cars ahead.

Why should they wait for us when we were already late anyway.

Marcus also disappeared into the bushes another time.

"Didn't you spend half an hour in the bathroom earlier?" teased Becky.

"I had better things to do then!" he grinned, giving Leah another little reminder of this.

And then the car wouldn't start. We tried a few times and also gave the engine a moment to recover, because we were standing here in the middle of nowhere.

I called the first person I could think of.

Dad. Dad was always there for us.

After a brief detailed explanation that we were all fine and no one's life was even remotely in danger, I was able to describe our problem .

He would pick us up.

I smiled.

That was how I knew him.

So that we didn't get too cold - we had negative double-digit temperatures - we played music on our cell phones and just danced as we pleased.

It was fun, but it also got cold at some point. At least to the humans among us. But when Rosie and Emmett drove up, I felt screwed.

Where was Dad?

"Party in the wasteland?" came Emmett grinning at us as Rosie headed directly for the bus. "You're all fine, though?" he asked right after.

Worried, which somehow didn't really fit him.

"I thought Dad was coming to get us?" I asked, caught off guard.

"Yes, but then he remembered that we would get to you much faster," Rose replied. "What's wrong with the bus?" she turned to Marcus, who of course was already standing with Rosie in front of his Scrapy.

"I don't know. It won't start anymore. But you said he would easily make the distance ...", the two discussed the problem.

Emmett ordered Daniel into his car and took him home after the latter had cheerfully thanked us for the ride.

It was rapidly approaching midnight and they would certainly be on the road for more than half an hour. Even though it was vacation, Daniel was only fourteen. And even if David knew that nothing would happen to him with us, Sonya didn't necessarily have to be just as convinced of that. Mothers, that is. Even if she wasn't really his mother, which one could quickly forget.

Meanwhile, I continued to get upset with Edward.

Quietly to myself as I now warmed Becky under the jacket through my exposed arms.

Wolves didn't freeze, which Daniel didn't know about us. I found that now somehow impossible from Edward. Maybe I exaggerated, but after all, he was our dad. He was otherwise always endeavored to do everything possible for us. Personally - on it he always put value. But he hadn't even let me know that he would send Rosie, even though I had to admit that it made more sense in the end.

"If you want, you can run home already so you can get into a warm bed. I'll take care of the bus and get it to the garage," Rose said after she had jiggled some parts without anything happening.

"I'm staying with my baby," Marcus stated.

I didn't care. Becky was warm enough in my arms to stay.

Rose then ran home again to get something, hoping that the bus would then run again.

We made ourselves comfortable on the bus. Becky sat on my lap with my jacket over her shoulders and I kept rubbing continuously over her back.

Leah and Marcus sat across from us similarly, only in reverse.

Looked a bit silly and I also made a bit of fun of how my almost 'six and half feet' brother-in-law/brother was sitting on my more or less delicate little sis.

It only took Rosie a few minutes to return with a toolbox and a bag full of car parts. We were commanded to stay in the car before Becky and Marcus would catch cold. She had also brought blankets for the two of them.

She participated in our little 'truth or dare' spontaneous round.

Marcus and I refused to kiss each other.

Leah admitted that she once had an undying crush on a fictional movie character. Some hero from a vampire teen slush.

Becky talked about her first kiss, with me still laughing at her for the guy she chose for it.

Rosie confessed how many beds she had dismantled with Emmett.

Literally!

I had to confess the most embarrassing experience between Mom and me.

How she had caught me jerking off.

"In my case, it was my father," Marcus admitted in solidarity.

He was then subtly reminded of his upbringing.

"Brandon was even more unlucky. His older brother caught him at it. He's allowed to listen to that until today, if it somehow fits," I smiled encouragingly.

"Have you ever been really jealous since you became a vampire?" asked Leah, turning to Rosie.

A bittersweet smirk flitted across Rosie's angelic face.

"Oh yeah. Of Bella," she said. "Has anyone ever told you that Carlisle transformed me - regardless of the fact that he wanted to save my life - in the hope that Edward and I would become a couple?" she asked.

"Yeah, Dad told me once," Leah opined.

This was completely new to me, and I stared downright horrified.

"I never saw Edward as anything more than a brother. But the fact that he didn't want me still discomforted me a lot ..." she began to say, while she screwed on the engine besides.

She talked about her youth and how much she enjoyed the attention and feasted on it, but Edward never made any advances towards her. At some point she had come to terms with Edward's attitude, as it was apparently just in his nature. But then he met Mom, and he was suddenly able to show interest in a girl. On a human girl who could not be nearly as attractive as she herself was. That tugged very hard at Rosie's pride. And then Mom was a human, too, which Rose was jealous of in itself. But all that was behind her. Mom had brought her family into Rosie's, which she was very pleased about.

And then the engine started. Since we lay so cozily together in the back, Rosie drove the bus herself - straight to her garage.

The bus would be temporarily banned from driving!

When asked what Marcus should then drive around with, Rosie immediately provided the information.

"Audi?!" she stated, as if that would be obvious.

This would have already been arranged with Dad, also for the time when they would restore the bus together.

"Edward is just amazing," Marcus stated dryly, leaning back against Leah.

Leah nodded affirmatively.

But for me, the amazingness has been wearing off a bit lately.

But I said nothing about it.

We drove into the underground car park and freshly prepared sandwiches, lavishly topped, were already waiting for us. And our grandparents, who balanced the plates.

The dinner was almost three hours ago, so it was high time.

I hugged Esmé gratefully as I took my plate from her.

As we ate, they inquisitively asked how the skiing had been, if we had gotten enough to eat - and enough to drink. Drinking was much more important, they said, with the physical exercise.

The wolves present saw it a little differently.

How it was with Daniel and Bryan, who were a little younger than the rest.

Marcus, of course, was summoned to his medical room when Carlisle saw the band-aid.

He shirked more specifics about how that happened, and since Emmett wasn't in the area, Marcus got away with it, too.

"Are you going to stay here, or do you want me to drive you home?" asked Carlisle solicitously as we began to yawn in turn.

But Leah and I shook our heads at the same time.

We still wanted to move a little and therefore run across as wolves. So we needed only a few minutes. Besides, I expected to get a full breakfast in the morning. I mean, we hadn't seen our parents all day. Mom would probably be asleep for a long time, yesterday we had been gone for the afternoon and evening, today we had basically all had breakfast alone, tomorrow night we wouldn't be with our family either. It was simply time again that we were together without the pressure of a deadline.


But as conclusive as it seemed to me, it was probably not for everyone, as I discovered the next morning.

Good morning, you little rascals!

We hope you had a lot of fun yesterday. We want to hear all about it!

Your little brother wants to swim again immediately, but we don't want to wake you up yet. You need your sleep. Enjoy your breakfast in peace.

We love you!

Mom & Dad

"How sweet!" was Leah's comment on the neat lines, but I angrily crumpled the message.

I ate lost in thought. And increasingly bad-tempered. Since we had pretty much let our 'twice a day around the city' patrolling slide at the moment, Leah and I caught up on it now.

'What's wrong with you, anyway?' she asked me as soon as we were on the road.

'What should be already? I did not have the impression at the moment that I had parents. Or that my parents had simply chosen another child, completely forgetting their previous ones. Or hadn't you somehow assumed that we would finally have breakfast together again today?'

'Yes, of course. Actually, yes ... But how long should they wait for us? It was almost 11:00 when we woke up. Besides the fact that Ced wanted to go swimming again, Carlisle wanted to do the follow-up on Mom today. See if everything was okay with Mom. Honestly, I'd hurry up on that one, too. On the one hand, to get it over with as quickly as possible. On the other hand, because I would want to know if everything was okay,' Leah remarked.

'Am I wrong all the time in my opinion?'

'No,' she thought concisely.

'How now? What no?'

'No, you're right in a way. We're seeing Mom and Dad a lot less than usual right now, which is why, of course, you may feel like they're neglecting us.'

'Oh ... thank you so much that I may this!", I thought bitingly.

'Take it easy, Jake! All I'm saying is that we're on vacation. There's just no regular routine where we're bound to get together. We're on the road a lot, and the thing with Ced has to level out first. At the moment we just can't really find a common denominator. I think it's more the overall situation that gives you that feeling.'

The rest of the way, I mulled over Leah's words.

I couldn't manage to be really mad at my parents and agreed with her proposal that we play bowling over by Carlisle's.


Alice had also cobbled together our outfits for tonight, which is why we had to go over there anyway. But even though we were all together in the same house, we still only got to see our parents quite briefly.

But this time I could understand them. Mom got to swim again. Being in the water with Ced, introducing him to this element, had been fun when we were there on Sunday.

Then it was already time to interrupt my competition against Marcus when Alice entered the bowling alley jittery.

And that when I just got ahead!

But she sent us to our rooms for showers with a stern index finger. With a tone of voice that sounded more like grounding. But we were very well-behaved children.

I wore very plain, somewhat puffy white cloth pants with a black belt, a white muscle shirt, and over that an open white button-down shirt that I rolled up a bit at the arms.

Becky, on the other hand, looked dreamlike.

Already. Only wrapped in a towel.

But immediately Alice puttered around with her.

Instead of a bra there was a white bandeau and over it a white dress. Two layers. The bottom layer was tight-fitting and cut quite scarce. Over it swung airy loose a completely crocheted lace dress. Handmade ... ' by Alice'. Shoulderless, down to her knees and the sleeves grew wider towards her hands. Her long hair remained loose, and she was also given matching boots that picked up the crochet pattern of the dress at the back seam. In addition, her necklace, my grandfather's bracelet, and the earrings from the wedding.

Perfect. My girlfriend!

"Wow ..." just slipped out of my mouth as Leah and Marcus picked us up.

Marcus wore basically the same thing as me. Only in black. And once again with a three-day beard. Leah, on the other hand, looked hot. Also completely in black. Her top was quite wide and generously cut, it glittered a little bit, but you could almost constantly see her lace bra flashing somewhere. In addition, hot pants, silk tights, above overknee socks and high-heeled ankle boots.

"That's not how you wanted to leave the house!" Dad asked dryly as we went to say goodbye in the living room.

Well, hello there! Of course we wanted to. "Um ... Yes!?" I stated.

I didn't understand his problem. The girls looked absolutely stunning after all.

"Don't you think maybe that's a little ... too revealing!" said Dad, and Mom nodded in agreement.

Um ... yes ... and ...? They won't freeze. After all, the party wouldn't take place outside in the snow.

"Don't make such a fuss, Eddie. That's what people wear nowadays!" Alice defended her own creations and we found them quite successful.

"Your daughters look really hot!" interjected Emmett from the background.

Oh ... yes. They were.

"That's exactly the problem!" Dad made clear.

In my head then my flat hand clapped loudly against my forehead.

So this was his problem.

"Do you think we're going to let these two get groped by anyone!" I asked challengingly, putting an arm around Becky to make my point clear. No one would touch my star. And the way Marcus looked, the same was true for Leah. Not that she would need a protector in an emergency. But I still grinned to myself. The fact that Marcus or I could be harassed in some way probably didn't bother anyone here, did it?

Dad laughed out loud, stepped up to the girls, and put a hand imperiously to both their cheeks.

"And you take care of my boys!" he commanded them earnestly.

They nodded and each pressed a kiss to Dad's cheek.

"Call me when you want to go home. I'll pick you up," he said before we really left.


Thank you for reading!