"Why do we have to work on this project at someone's house?" I jokingly whined.

"So we can get it done faster, duh. And it's the perfect time to get to know my pretty girl better." He smirked, playfully nudging my shoulder. I just rolled my eyes.

"I don't think I can do it at my house today," I told them, keeping the answer short.

"Why not?" Braxton questioned.

"My siblings will be home and they can be a little distracting at times, especially my little sister," I smiled, looking over to Colton who was staring at me with curiosity.

"How many siblings do you have?" Colton asked. "I know Jace, but that's it."

"I'm the oldest sibling of three. Jace is 15 years old and I have a younger sister, Olivia, who is 5 years old," I explained as my eyes traveled back and forth between each boy.

"You have a little sister?" Colton asked in shock.

"Yes I do, she's like a mini me," I slightly chuckled. I pulled out my phone and showed them a picture of Jace, Olivia and I sitting together in the living room, playing a board game. Nora captured the picture when she slept over one night.

"Damn, she really does look like you," Braxton exclaimed as he studied the picture of my siblings and I.

"Boys and Dakota! Get off your phone and get to work!" Mr. Johnson yelled, my cheeks turning a shade of red from embarrassment.

"Yeah, yeah," Braxton replied. He looked away from the teacher and inched closer to me. The teacher just rolled his eyes before turning his back to us to write something on the whiteboard.

"Our house, after school," Braxton whispered as he got out a piece of notebook paper. He grabbed a pen from his backpack and wrote down his address. "Here, this is our address."

"Our?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Colton cleared his throat beside me. Braxton gave Colton a look before continuing. "Oh yeah, we all live together. It's just Colton, Karson, and me."

I briefly remembered Nora telling me a few weeks ago that they all moved down to this town together. It all made sense now. Of course they lived together, why would they all just randomly move down here together with no one else?

"Oh damn, I didn't know that," I replied, genuinely not being able to put the pieces together.

"Not many people do. They just know we moved down here together," Braxton explained as he struggled to maintain eye contact. There was obviously more to the story, but I wasn't going to push it.

"I'll text my siblings to let them know I'll be at y'all's house tonight," I told them as I heard a scoff coming from Karson's direction.

I turned to look at him. "Is something bothering you, Ryder?"

"Yes," he grumbled. "I don't want you at my fucking house."

"Well that's too fucking bad, we need to work on the project," Braxton cut in to answer for me.

Karson just rolled his eyes before leaning back in his chair, texting someone on his phone. He stared at the screen, his jaw clenching as he read something the person on the other side of the screen texted. He roughly threw his phone on the desk before turning his head to look outside the window.

I averted my gaze and quickly texted Jace, telling him I'd be working on a project at some friend's house. He eventually replied and told me he found a ride and that they would be able to pick up Liv from her elementary school as well.

I shoved my phone into my back pocket and faced Braxton. "Any specific time?"

"After school is fine. I guess you can just follow us," he shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, I can follow you," I responded as I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

The bell rang above our heads only minutes later and I nearly jumped out of the seat, as it scared the shit out of me. As quickly as possible, I shoved my notebooks into my bag and we all trudged towards the door, heading to our next class.

~•~•~

After school, Braxton told me to follow him to their house. Their house was a 15 minute drive from school, and we all followed each other because the boys had separate cars.

When we got to the house, I was surprised to say the least. I was expecting a huge house, almost mansion like but I was greeted with a smaller, more cozier home.

It was located in a small neighborhood, the houses close together. It was a two story suburban home that was a gray color. What stood out to me was the bright royal blue door, it added a pop of color to the bland exterior.

I parked my car in the street as I watched the three boys park each one of their cars in their three car garage.

I grabbed my backpack from the backseat and got out of my car. I turned to look at the simple, yet cozy house in front of me before locking my car.

I trudged my way over to the boys who had just closed the garage doors. Braxton motioned me to follow them as we headed towards the royal blue front door.

Karson unlocked the door, roughly shoving it open before heading straight towards the living room. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the smell. The scent was a comforting smell of cologne that traveled throughout the house.

"Wow, you guys have such a nice house," I pointed out as I not so discreetly looked around. The walls were also a light gray color and there weren't many decorations on the wall, just a few pictures of all three of them when they were younger.

"Thank you," Colton mumbled, a small smile pulling on his lips as he watched me look around.

Karson was already sitting on their navy blue sofa in the living room. He was on his phone as he grabbed the tv remote, turning it on for background noise.

"We can work here," Braxton added as he walked over to the kitchen. It was a smaller kitchen, the countertop covered in cooking supplies. We walked to the dining table, a beautiful deep colored wood finish.

I set my backpack down, pulling out my history notebooks, a pencil, and a few textbooks I picked up from the school library.

We started working on the project, writing down any information that would be important for the final product. We were finally able to choose a leader and ended up going with Adolf Hitler. We decided he would be the easiest person to do the project on because we didn't feel like trying too hard.

"How long was he the leader of Germany?" Braxton asked as he flipped through a world history textbook.

"I think it was like 10 years or something, I'm not very sure," I said casually, shrugging because I was too distracted with writing notes down in my notebook.

"You fucker!"

I flinched as I heard Karson yell from the living room. I glanced at Braxton who wore a concerned look on his face. He quickly got up, stumbling over his feet as he rushed to the living room. I followed behind him, quickly walking as I heard Karson yell some more.

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you?" Karson fumed, his eyes flashing angrily.

Braxton and I stood by the entrance of the living room, finally comprehending who Karson was yelling at.

Colton stood only a few feet away from Karson as his jaw slightly ticked. He looked at us and his gaze hardened. "Go finish your goddamn project."

"Calm down!" Braxton barked. "What the fuck is going on between you two?"

Braxton quickly stepped in front of the two boys when Karson strode towards Colton, ready to pounce. Braxton roughly shoved Karson's chest to separate them.

Karson glanced at me for a split second before giving his full attention to Braxton. His eyes held an unfamiliar emotion, he looked defeated. "This asshole just had to bring up the one person I hate most in this world. He knows how much my father fucked me over and yet he still defends him."

I have never seen Karson this angry before. The way his cheeks turned a deep shade of red from rage and how his eyes flared with an unrecognizable emotion made me nervous.

"I didn't defend him!" Colton argued. "I just said maybe he didn't mean to do it this time."

"This time?!" Karson roared, taking a step closer as Braxton held him back. "He didn't 'accidentally' send a text threatening both Amelia and I!"

Amelia?

The way he was talking about his father made it seem that he had caused a shit ton of problems for Karson. His father threatened not only him, but a girl named Amelia. Maybe the reason they all moved down here was to get away from their home life, and for Karson to get away from his father. Maybe there is a lot more to their story than I ever imagined. I really underestimated how much shit they've been through.

"He lives across the country, what's he going to do?!" Colton yelled.

"That's not the fucking point-" Karson replied angrily before he was cut off by a phone ringing.

It was mine.

I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket, so I quickly took it out and looked who was calling me. The name said no caller id, but I decided to answer it anyways in case it was an emergency.

I held the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Baby," the voice slurred as I heard loud music blaring in the background.

My body stiffened when I heard my mother's voice coming from the other end. I grit my teeth as I looked up to see the three boys staring at me with curiosity. The two stopped fighting and the whole room was quiet except for my mother and I's conversation. The boys finally calmed down once my ringtone interrupted them.

"Who's phone is this?" I demanded, my voice slightly shaking.

"It's some hot guy I met at the bar. Oh! And we fucked in a bathroom," she giggled, hiccuping after every sentence.

I felt knots form in my stomach, feeling sick at the thought of my mother alone at a bar with disgusting men around her. I looked down at the floor as I fumbled with my fingers. "Mom, it's not safe by yourself."

"Bullshit," she mumbled, barely being able to hear her over the loud music. "Oh my god, you'll never guess who is here. Jason is here!"

My eyes shot up and landed on Karson's fierce gaze. My body went completely rigged and I felt the color drain from my face. Jason.

Jason was one of the men my mother would bring home. He was the one she brought home regularly, I guess you could say he was her favorite. When he would stay at my house, he would always sneak into my room at night and try to touch me inappropriately, but I would always find a way to get away from him before he went through with it.

"J-Jason?" I stuttered as my knees began to feel weak. I averted my eyes to look at Braxton who looked worried, his eyebrows were furrowed and he tilted his head in curiosity. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Karson's body tense when he heard Jason's name.

"Yes Jason, you know, the guy you tried to steal from me," my mothers voice hardened.

I was taken aback. "Excuse me?"

The wash of fear went away and it was soon replaced with anger. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins as I was ready to go off on my mother.

"Don't think you can hide it from me, slut. I watched as he walked into your room at night, after he was done with me. You wanted to steal him away from me you no good whore!" My mother was screaming at this point.

"You don't know the whole story," I trembled.

"My daughter's a goddamn whor-"

I didn't let her finish her sentence because I immediately ended the call. I looked straight ahead, my hand slightly shaking as I grasped tightly onto my phone. My mother thinks I tried to steal Jason away from her. She thinks I'm a whore.

"Pretty girl," Braxton whispered, breaking me out of my trance. "You look a little shaken up, are you okay?"

I cleared my throat as I looked between each boy. "Y-yeah I'm fine."

Braxton frowned when he heard my response. He didn't believe me.

"Thank you for letting me come over, but I think I should go know," I rushed out. I turned around before they could respond and went to the table to grab my stuff. I messily threw my work in my bag, trying to get out of here as fast as possible before they saw me breakdown.

I walked back to the boys who are now standing by the front door. "I'm sorry for leaving so soon, I just have to do something."

"It's okay, I understand," Braxton reassured, but I could see the small amount of pity swimming through his eyes. I hate pity.

I glanced at Karson who was already staring at me with a hard gaze. I didn't see Colton, so he probably went back to his room to calm down after their fight. I guess the phone call came in handy for something.

I broke away and quickly rushed out of their house. My hands began to shake and the pounding in my head came back. My mother thinks I tried to steal Jason. I felt nauseous, trying to hold down the bile rising in my throat.

How could she ever think that? I was only 14 years old.

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