End of Day IV

~~Third POV~~

"Brooke, Dad says dinner's ready!!" Austin yelled at his sister's door, whether she had heard him or not would be determined in a couple minutes. Austin made his way downstairs, the smell of Chicken Parmesan radiating throughout the house.

Austin's mouth already began drooling as he imagined the tenderness of the chicken with the savory Marianna sauce, 'So good' Austin thought. He wasted no time setting up the dinner table, placing down cups and plates for everyone in the family, 'Is Marvin eating?' He wondered, Marvin had just strayed into his room and hadn't made an appearance since.

"Did you call your sister?" Joel asked from the kitchen, an apron covering the clothes he had been wearing all day. He was currently focused on chopping up lettuce for the Caesar Salad he was making, he was planning to have a well-balanced dinner, reusing the spaghetti he made earlier this morning and baking cookies and garlic bread.

"Yeah, I told her" Austin replied back still sitting up at the table. Almost like magic, Brooke made her way down from her room at the mention of her name. Her face was still stuck on her phone, she didn't make her presence known, simply heading over to the living room and lying on the couch.

"Okay, everything's looking good, I'm gonna go get your mother and Brooke you get Marvin," Joel told his children what to do, taking off his apron and making his way to his wife's office.

"Austin go get Marvin" Brooke immediately pushed her assignment off to her brother, her tone had a hint of annoyance due to having to even ask her brother to do something.

"No, Dad said you" Austin immediately said no, he didn't actually have a problem going to get Marvin, but his sister's tone and attitude when she asked him made him annoyed. 'If I say yes it would be like I'm saying I'm her slave' was Austin's line of reasoning.

Brooke showed no intent to move off the couch at her brother's rejection, it was like she hadn't heard him. This annoyed Austin as he knew she was ignoring him, but he didn't say anything, 'Wit till dad gets back' Austin believed he would get the last laugh when his dad got back and yelled at Brooke. 

A couple more minutes passed and the two siblings could hear the voices of their parents making their way over to them. It was then that Brooke made her way off the couch and over to Marvin's room, not before releasing a heavy annoyed sigh.

"Where's Brooke?" Olivia asked Austin, she was expecting to see everyone already for dinner. 

"She's getting Marvin," Austin said, he left out the part of Brooke only moving after she had heard Joel and Olivia's voices, his mother would probably give Brooke a tough time and that would put a sour mood on the night. 'Till next time' Austin wasn't giving up on his plan of getting Brooke in trouble though.

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~~Brooke POV~~

"Did you see Tyson today?" Trisha asked in the group chat, she had already started making a list of all the cute boys in our grade level, how she was even able to she was able to do this on the first eludes me.

"OMGGG, TYSON IS TO DIE FOR" Sophia typed in the chat, she always had a thing for football players, actually just athletes in general. She kept spamming the group chat with different pictures of the other athletes at our school, I don't think any of them were even in our grade.

"Woah who's that in the middle?" Grace circled a picture of a guy. He was wearing football pads, but he had wavy blonde hair with matching brown eyes, he had his jersey raised so we could his faint abs.

"Let me check. His name's Justin, he's a grade above us" Trisha told us about him, she also pasted a link to his social media, her internet detective/stalking powers sometimes scare me.

Looking at his account, I saw various photos of him with his friends, he hung out at the lake a lot judging by the plethora of pictures he had with him at the lake. One picture, in particular, caught my eye, it was him and two other guys.

They were all flexing in the middle of a pool, it would usually be corny but they had the looks to make it look cool. "Best pic" I shared the link to the picture in the group chat. Instantly Sophia responded.

"That's Tyson's brother. That whole family hit the gene pool" I could practically hear her exaggerated voice. Taking a closer look at the boy in the middle, I could see the resemblance between him and Tyson, they both had the same hazel eyes and dark brown hair.

He had an athletic build with broad shoulders and toned muscles, he had a laugh on his face as he took the picture, I wonder what was said before the picture was taken.

"Yeah, you can tell from the eyes. Now who's the big guy at the end, he's kinda cute" Trisha pointed out the other guy, he didn't have any defining features like the two other boys he was posing with, 'No visible muscle, messy hair, what is she talking about?'

I understand saying Justin and Tyson's brother were good-looking, but this last dude was just average, sure he was bigger than the other two but his body was still lacking compared to the other two guys. "What are you talking about?" I asked Trisha

"Brooke, Dad says dinner's ready!!" Austin's voice came from outside my door, I heard his feet scurry off before I could say anything 'How does he even know I heard him' Sometimes I wonder if he ever put any thoughts into his action.

I got out of bed, and put my slippers on before making my way downstairs while still chatting with Trisha and Sophia. Getting downstairs, I could smell the chicken that Dad was cooking, dinner was gonna be good today. 

I made my way straight to the couch, getting into the perfect comfy spot. Trisha was now trying to defend how the last guy looked, the only redeeming quality he had was that he was a football player, and knowing how Coach Hartman handles things I doubt he's super trash.

"Okay, everything's looking good, I'm gonna go get your mother and Brooke you get Marvin," Dad said before making his way down to Mom's office, I wasn't gonna get out of my comfy spot so I told Austin to do what Dad asked me to.

I didn't pay attention to what he said, I was focused on the argument Trisha was making. She was even starting to convince Sophia that the guy was some kind of sweet angel, the type of guy who worked with puppies and just liked seeing his girl smile. 'We don't even know this guy' There was no way Trisha knew what she was talking about, more than likely the dude was just some self-absorbed egomaniac like most other players.

"Yeah Tristan keeps complaining about his contract, he doesn't like the non-compete clause" I could hear Mom's voice making her way toward us, I looked toward Austin and I didn't see Marvin anywhere near him. 'He didn't get him' I sighed as I had to get up and go get Marvin myself, I wasn't gonna deal with Mom's yelling over me not getting him, not tonight.

I made my way to his door and knocked on it "Hey you gotta come and eat" I waited a couple of seconds, but I didn't hear anything. "Hey!!" I knocked again, but still nothing. He's probably asleep and that sucks cause I have to enter the room and wake him up personally.

I opened his door and there he was, lying right on the bed. His bag was scattered across the floor along with his shoes, 'At least he took them off before hopping in bed' I remembered the times Austin would just pass out with his clothes and shoes still on.

"Hey you have to wake up, dinner's ready," I said from his door, still no response, 'How deep do you sleep?' I decided to make my way over to his bed, and just tap him awake.

Getting to his bed I got a good look at him, his hands were clenched by his sides into a fist, and his arms looked rigid and stiff, like they were being forced at his sides. His face was also weird, he would scrunch his eyes, shutting them tighter, and his cheeks would twitch.

"Hey, are you okay?" I tapped his shoulder, but he did not wake up, instead, he looked even worse. His face had always been expressionless but now it looked like he was scared of something, 'A nightmare, is he having a nightmare?'

I didn't know what to do, I thought Juvie kids like him didn't have nightmares, 'Aren't they meant to be like street gangsters or something'. Once again I tried to wake him up, this time forcefully shaking his shoulder. 

It worked as his eyes instantly shut open, they weren't the usually dead eyes that I had seen, they looked filled with rage and anger, but all that disappeared as quickly as he opened his eyes. "Can I help you?" His gruff voice came out, his eyes had now reverted to their usual state.

"Uhhhh..dinner's ready" I struggled to get my words out, I wasn't expecting him to wake instantly, it short-circuited my brain a bit.

"Hey are you okay, it looked like you were having a bad dream?" I asked him, I hadn't really interacted with him at all, but it would be wrong to just leave him after seeing the way he looked. 

"I'll be there" was his reply, I guess he didn't want to talk about it, that was fine with me, I didn't wanna listen to what he had to say anyway. "You need to eat dinner," I said once again and made my way out of his room.

'What was he dreaming about, a fight, he did say he had a lot of those' I was thinking about the many things that could Marvin a nightmare, I even decided to ask Trisha and Sophia about it.

"You guys know that foster kid I said is living with us, I think he just had a nightmare" I typed in the group chat.

"Really!?, what'd you see?" Trisha responded immediately.

"He was twitching a lot, his body was stiff and he just looked scared" 

"Maybe he was relieving a fight from Juvie," Sophia said the same thing I was thinking.

"Did you see when he woke up?" Trisha asked.

"Yeah he looked angry when he woke up"

"Definitely about a fight" Sophia doubled down.

"Yeah I guess it was a fight he lost" Trisha also followed the same reasoning Sophia and I had.

"Brooke phone" Mom's voice snapped me out of the discussion I was having, I texted goodnight to Sophia and Trish and set my phone down.