Hi hi, y'all! Back at it again with a slightly shorter chapter! This is gonna serve as an intermission chapter into summer, letting you know what Kasey's been up to while the girls have been gone. When I started actually plotting out this story a bit, this is one of the first things I planned out and I hope you lovely people enjoy it. ~Shaymie

Kasey

Life really comes at you fast.

Kasey leaned into the mirror, tongue slightly poking out as he tried to comb out his unruly hair. His hair wasn't straight like Angela's or curly like Molly's. It was some strange texture in between that he couldn't define. Most days he straightened it, but he wanted to make a good impression and knew that his typical skater boy hairstyle wouldn't cut it.

Cut it. Maybe he should just chop his hair off. That would be easier than trying to deal with this stupid, messy hair. Curse his father's genes.

"Fuck it," he growled, slamming the comb down. Who cares about impressing those uppity snobs? Nothing he did would impress them. He could show up in a goddamn Lamborghini wearing an Armani suit and they'd find something to pick on. They've hated him from the start. To them, he was nothing but trailer trash. They treated everything that wasn't up to their standards like garbage.

Even their own damn flesh and blood.

Kasey felt a sting of guilt at the thought of his children. What the hell were Molly and Angela going to think when they found out about the kids? He hadn't meant to keep them a secret but he could never find the right time to bring them up and next thing he knew it had been four years. Angela was going to kill him when she found out.

Hadn't he condemned Mikhail for doing the same damn thing he'd done? At least Mikhail had the balls to come out and confess what he'd done. Kasey's kept Lumina and the twins a secret all this time. Only Jack knew about them, and that's because he'd been at the party where they met and accidentally walked in on Kasey and Lumina in bed together. Kasey felt bad about having his best friend keep such a big secret, hiding where he went when he visited the kids.

Kasey sighed as he fixed his raggedy suit jacket and left the bathroom, knowing that it wasn't getting any better than this. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself. It's alright. After this, he won't even have to see them ever again. Lumina's family had made it perfectly clear that they wanted nothing to do with him or his "dirty children." Fine by him. He just wished he lived closer so the twins wouldn't have had to deal with their grandparents at all.

Mara Rose and Gideon Ray were the spitting image of their mother, the only thing inherited from their father being Gideon's unruly hair.

Kasey smiled sadly as he watched the twins explore the house. He's always wanted to be able to spend more time with the twins, but not like this. He didn't want Lumina to die in order for him to get custody of them. He'd always thought that the two of them would eventually have shared custody over the twins, the kids visiting him in the summer once he lived somewhere that wasn't about to fall apart. He loves his childhood home, but it felt like one wrong move would make the place collapse.

"Daddy!" Mara called out, running over to him with bright hazel eyes and flushed cheeks the same shade as the headphones over her ears. Mara's hearing has always been sensitive, so most days she wore a pair of custom-made headphones so she wouldn't get overstimulated. Lumina had specifically picked a quiet town to live in for her sake.

"Yeah, Rosie?" Kasey reached out to steady her as she stumbled over the edge of the rug. He forgot how clumsy kids could be. Molly had been the same way up until she started her dance classes. Should he child-proof the house? He knew from personal experience how much a fall on the wooden floors could hurt, memories of past bruises and lost teeth floating into his head.

"I'm really excited to be living with you!" Mara gave him a tight hug and ran off to join her twin in examining the family photos hanging around the house. Kasey stared after his daughter in stunned silence, a small smile spreading across his face.

"Dude, this is insane. You realize how crazy this is, right? I-I mean, you're a fucking hypocrite!"

Kasey tore his gaze away from the colorful flyer that was so much like the one his sisters had shown him months ago and looked up at Jack. His best friend was glaring at him, his brown eyes narrowed into slits. Kasey sighed. He was the biggest hypocrite he knew. He'd spent months silently (and sometimes vocally) judging his sisters for deciding to pack up their entire lives and move to some ridiculously small island with a population of barely 40, but here he was... considering the exact same thing.

"I hate my job, Jack. You and I both know that."

"You hate your job, fine, but that doesn't mean you move to some little nothing island because someone hands you a flyer! Besides, a teaching job? Dude, teachers get paid jack shit! You have the kids to think about now, you can't just make stupid decisions!"

"I am thinking of the kids, Jack. Mara... can't handle the city." Even with her headphones, everything was too loud for her. She can deal with playing with the other kids in the suburb but going places like the store or the park was a big fat nope. If she can barely leave her house, what kind of life is she going to be able to live? Gideon, protective as he was, refuses to leave her side for anything.

"Kase—"

"And I miss Molly and Angela."

He missed his sisters so much it hurt. He thought he would be fine, but he could feel himself sinking into a depression he couldn't afford to be in. Not with the twins here. They looked up to him. Gideon admired him. And he wanted the twins to know their aunts. He's tired of keeping secrets. He had called Angela the day after picking up the twins, but couldn't muster up the courage to tell her about them. She could tell that something was bothering him, but surprisingly didn't press it.

"Kase... You can't be serious."

"As a heart attack. Look, Jack, it's not gonna be anytime soon. I'm not rushing it or anything. Trust me." Jack chuckled darkly as he put his feet up, shooting Kasey an evil grin.

"Angela's going to fucking murder you."