→ Everyone has their own secrets

→ You know that would be a lie right?

━━━

starbursts and M&Ms and jolly ranchers and snickers and skittles and marshmallows and-" Going to the grocery store had always been such a hassle but today, daddy said I could get as much candy as I wanted. And I wanted to empty the whole store of candy. It would be like a candy magical land!

There would be lots and lots of fluffy pillows in candy magical land and there would be unicorns with lollipop horns. A big waterfall with chocolates and strawberry fish would be right next to the big castle so the princesses could eat chocolate strawberries every single day! Vegetables- especially the evil green trees as I liked to call broccoli- would be banned and the easter bunny monster would fight all the veggies. And there would be lots and lots of candy canes hanging from trees and it would be Christmas every single day!

And no school, of course no school.

"Marshmallows aren't candy, sweetie." Daddy interrupted my daydream and I frowned at him. He just had to ruin my train of thought, didn't he!

"Well in candy magical land, they ARE!"

"Candy magical land, huh? I wish I could go there." Daddy pulled the car gear on park and turned to face me with a hand on the passenger seat. "You ready, princess?"

"Yup!" I lifted my hands in the air and daddy unbuckled before lifting me out of my car seat. "Daddy, let's go get candy!" I say, running as fast as my tiny legs could take me over to the store door. The doors swooshed open automatically as I neared and I watched them, fascinated.

"They only open for princesses now, do they?" Daddy finally catches up to me, his breath already tired.

"So is she a princess?" I ask curiously, pointing to the lady that had just walked into the store after us.

"Uh, sure angel."

If she was a princess, then I sure wanted to meet her. Maybe she could come with me to candy magical land! I run up to catch up with the princess and tug on her hand as she stands in an isle looking on the shelves. "Miss princess? Could you come to candy magical land with me?"

She looked surprised as she pulled back and then looked down to notice me. "Come again, sweetheart?" She asks in a pretty british accent.

"Candy magical land! Daddy said you were a princess and only princesses can come to candy magical land," I say infactly, moving my pointer finger back and forth. Daddy caught up to me at that exact moment, pulling me back by the shoulder.

"Princess, I told you not to run away at stores," He said, running a hand through his face. He looked up and finally noticed the woman watching us with an amused look on her face, one that daddy had directed to me multiple times. "I'm so sorry, I just turned- Heather?"

The woman blinked once before breaking out into a smile. "James! She's your daughter?" she gestured towards me.

"I'm his daughter," I say, walking up in front of daddy after pulling out of his now relaxed grip. I placed my hands on my hips, trying to drag attention to my tiny frame. She could have just asked me!

"Of course sweetheart! It's so nice to meet you! I'm your dad's friend from work!" She says, sending me a warm smile.

I decided I like her.

"Now that that's out of the way! So will you come to Candy magical land with me?"

━━━

"What can Iget for you today?" A pretty young waitress with blonde hair left free walked up to our table. We were sitting at what seemed like a fancy restaurant called 'La casa' to spend 'quality time together' as Mason claimed. Caden had just gotten back from his business trip yesterday night and he had agreed to take some time off so we could all hang out.

"Your number, please?" Mason asked from his corner seat, being the usual player.

The girl blushed furiously and ducked her head down, clutching onto her notepad.

"Mase, give it a break," Eli groaned loudly, rolling his eyes. "I'll have grilled cheese, please."

"And I'll have grilled cheese too," I add and the waitress' eyes finally find me. She narrows her eyes slightly at me before straightening up every so slightly.

"Of course, and you?" She asked in a sickeningly sweet voice to Mason.

"Pasta, please," Mason says, leaning back in the seat with a smirk.

Caden and Aiden both order burgers and the waitress finally leaves the table with one last wink towards Mason.

"So, anyone wanna play 20 questions?" Mason asks through the soft spanish music playing on the speakers of the restaurant.

"20 questions? Seriously, how old are you?" Aiden scoffs.

"Watch the attitude," Caden sends him a warning glare. One that I would very much not want to be on the receiving side of. "And yes, I think that would be a great way for us to get to know each other.

"Okay, I'll start!" Mason claps his hands together like an excited puppy, immediately brightening the mood. "Easy first. What's your favorite color?"

"Blue," Me and Caden called simultaneously.

"Yellow," Mason cheerfully announced. Made sense, everything about him seemed bright.

"White because it's technically all the colors since all colors are reflected and-"

"My brother's a secret nerd!" I call teasingly, pinching Eli's cheek. Eli's eyes seemingly soften when he hears the word 'brother' but nonetheless, still slap my hand away scowling. Mason and Caden both laugh carefreely while Aiden remains unaffected.

"What about you, Aid?" Eli asks, turning towards his youngest brother.

"Black." He states, emotionless as always. His color choice doesn't surprise me a bit and I can tell it doesn't surprise anyone else either but Mason comments either way.

"Emo," Mason muttered under his breath making Eli and me snicker while Caden gave us a disapproving look, though I saw the corner of his lip tilt up slightly.

"Okay, my turn now! Most craziest thing you've done?"

We all think for a moment before Mason comes up with one. "I've stolen a substitute teacher's lesson plan and replaced it with a bunch of slime covering the teacher's desk in like freshman year."

"I remember that. I got a call at work from the principal telling me to stop by after school so we could talk about your 'non student friendly pranks,'" Caden laughs and Mason looks pretty proud for someone who had gotten in trouble.

"The craziest thing I did was probably with Mason," Eli pauses.

"You may have to be more specific. You and Mason have made trouble at more than one occasion," Caden lifts an eyebrow.

"We toilet papered our history teacher's house the day before a test and stole the school's printer so he couldn't print the tests out," Eli elaborates smugly. I practically double over laughing and Mason swipes at his tears of laughter, probably reliving moments. Aiden looked down at his fingernails but even I could tell he was holding in a laugh by the way he bit his lip.

"What will I ever do with you boys. Jess, please tell me yours is less... prankstery?"

"Oooh, yes I want to hear Jess's!" All eyes turn on me expectantly.

I bite my lip, trying to think of something crazy that I had done. I was a pretty good student, always getting homework done and even helping teachers during free periods when I had the time. The one time I had done anything reckless was when I tried a drink for the first time at a high school house party, one that I had gone to in my rebellious stage. After being neglected by my mother for many years, when I was 12, I had the crazy idea that if I rebelled, my mother would pay more attention to me. Trying to test that theory, I snuck into a high school party as a middle schooler and drank five bottles of alcohol before I lost count. That night, I danced on top of a table, ran away from the cops, spray painted a wall, and showed up at my math teacher's house drunk. Which one I would tell the boys about, I didn't know. Probably the lather. After that night, I swore never to drink again because not only did my mother not even notice me, I also ended up failing my next math test. Whether it was due to being hungover or my math teacher's growing hatred for me, I had no idea. But that was all in the past.

"Probably singing 'Let It Go' in a super scratchy voice outside my math teacher's house." Yup, one of the many things drunk Jessica does.

"You did that?!"

"Woah, looks like miss innocent isn't so innocent after all," Aiden says with a whistle, finally relaxing into the conversation.

"Jessica! I expected better from you missy!" Caden teases, mocking an angry voice but his unmissable amused tone took away from the fear. Mason on the other hand didn't try to hide his amusement as he spit out his water, making people from nearby tables turn towards us.

"Alright, alright, laugh it up." I say crossing my arms with a tiny smile creeping up my lips. "Caden, what did you do?"

"Hm? Probably staying up too late the night of a presentation and ending up writing the script on my arm. Plot twist, I spilled coffee all over myself a few minutes before the presentation completely forgetting about the writing and everyone, including my boss, saw it when I took my sweatshirt off." He ranted. His craziest thing didn't match all of ours for sure but it definitely was something for most embarrassing.

"Way to go big bro!" Eli hollered, slapping Caden on the back with a laugh.

The food came and a new waiter placed the platters in the middle of the circle table. He handed us all our plates and forks, folded into napkin designs that I thought was pretty useless for grilled cheese. Pouring water into all the glass cups using a pitcher, he walked off with a small nod.

"Aiden, your turn," Mason claimed as we all started digging into our lunches. I picked up the grilled cheese sandwich cautiously, wanting to match the fancy theme of the restaurant. Even the sandwiches were made so perfectly, the cheese coming out just the perfect amount on all the sides and a toothpick pressed into the middle.

"Probably when I spray painted 'school sucks' on the school wall last year," he shrugged casually.

"Aiden, that's illegal!" Caden yelled while Mason went, "That was you?!"

Aiden rolled his eyes at the opposite reactions before replying with a simple shrug and, "You asked."

"My turn now. Who's your favorite sibling?" I ask trying to break the tenseness.

"Jess, you evil evil child," Eli laughed. "Okay, let's do it like this, everyone points to their favorite sibling in the countdown of three so it's fair."

We all nodded, agreeing that it was fair and I straightened in my chair, thinking off my options. Caden had helped me get through my nightmare and comforted me for more nights than I could imagine. Eli had made me feel the most comfortable all the time and always there for me. Mason had always managed to brighten the mood and make me laugh without a dull moment. And I could see through Aiden's facade that he actually cared.

No one said anything against choosing more than one sibling, I decided with a smirk. I would use each of my fingers to point to each of the boys that made me realize that I could love again and get through this.

"1... 2... 3," Eli's countdown went.

Six hands shot out, pointing in different directions. One belonging to each of the boys and two belonging to me as I pointed my fingers toward all of them. What surprised me most was that every single finger besides my own was pointed towards me. My heart warmed in disbelief but happiness and an unknown feeling to me ever since my dad had passed away: Love.

"She pisses me off the least," Aiden shrugged as everyone put their hands down.

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, threatening to fall. One made it so far to roll to the middle of my cheek and Eli, sitting next to me, swiped it away with his thumb.

"Hey, hey now. Don't cry, love."

"Or else we'll have to tickle you!" Mason claimed standing out of his chair. The mention of tickling made the tears in my eyes only double.

That was what dad used to do.

"To see the beautiful smile on my girl's face again," Caden added.

I quickly swiped at all my tears, not wanting to face the vengeance of the tickle monster again and smiled at them.

"I love you all." I say for the first time and I wasn't even pretending it.

━━━

It wasn't surprising to any of us when Caden hands Mason a crumpled piece of paper after we get into the car, the receipt. Mason looks at it confused while we all trade knowing glances and chuckles. Mason opens the receipt, straightening out with his palm.

And there, scrawled onto the bottom in curly handwriting, is the waitress' phone number.

━━━