"I've waited a hundred years, and I'll wait a hundred more for you" -turning pages

Song- this city; Sam fisher

Walking into the Taylor house I'm greeted with the smell of burgers. I stop in the doorway when a rough figure pushes past me.

"Watch it" I seethe to Cameron's retreating figure but he keeps walking. Ella crawls up to me plopping in front of me and outreaches her arms.

"Marwee" she babbles grinning ear to ear with the same dimples Cam has. I pick her up kissing her face all over.

"No high for me Ella?" Connor teases his sister kissing her cheek. She looks at him and I swear she smirks.

"Dummy" she points at Connor. Grayson and Theo both start laughing hysterically. I giggle patting Connor on the shoulder

"That's because of you" I remind him pinching his cheek.

"Yeah, yeah." He waves me off walking into the living room. Cameron walks up the stairs and shuts his bedroom door loudly when Sara walks in.

"Someone's in a mood" she chuckles hugging me.

"That's probably my fault" I admit sending her a tight lipped smile.

"You guys have been fighting since you were born, I wouldn't expect anything less" she tells me kissing my forehead.

"Where's mom?" Theo questions as him and Grayson meet us in the foyer. Sara looks sorrowful and I immediately know what she's going to say.

"She had to work" She tells us softly wrapping an arm around both of the boys. Ella pulls a piece of my hair and starts squirming for me to let her down so I do. She crawls off to the living room where she tries to steal the controller from Connor.

"When will she get here?" Grayson asks innocently. She's not going to make it. I know it, she probably won't be back tonight at all.

"Gray" I say quietly giving him a solemn look.

"Oh" he looks disappointed but shakes it off and replaces his frown for a smile. "That's okay"

"Well Dave has some burgers on the grill, they should be ready soon" Sara says before grabbing Ella who's crying in the other room

Dave walked in with a plate full of burgers a few minutes later ,setting it on the table. We all gather around, the boys practically drooling.

After Dave yelled up the stairs a few times Cameron came sulking down the stairs. He sat in the only open seat which was surprise, surprise next to me.

"Okay dig in" all the boys grab food and start piling it onto their plates including Dave.

"They're like animals" Sara shakes her head cutting up some green beans for Ella.

"They are animals" I reply as they shovel food in their faces.

"I heard that" Theo mumbles with his face full of food.

"Good" I reply drily scooping some Mac and cheese onto my plate.

"Did you check your sugar Mar?" Sara acts as I'm stuffing Mac and cheese into my mouth.

"Yeah" I lie "before I got here" I shrug off chewing my food.

She seems content and goes back to her food when Dave clears his throat. "So how was everyone's day?"

Theo replies with an answer about how he slept through most of his classes which earned a smack in his head from Sara.

Gray and Connor tell them about two freshman who got in a fight and how one of their classes got canceled so they got to hang out on the football field for an hour.

"What about you two?"

"It was fine, could you hand me the ketchup? " I ask them taking a bite of my burger. Sara nods and hands me the bottle. Cameron snorts so I look to him with a raised eyebrow. "Do you need a tissue?"

"No I'm just surprised you haven't left yet" he says coldly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You have a tendency to run away from all your problems" he glares harshly at me sitting up in his seat.

"Oh that-" I start to say but Theo covers my mouth.

"Children, children" he says calmly as I lick his hand. He cringes wiping his hand off. "No need to get violent"

"He started it!"

"You started it when you stormed off at lunch!"

"I wouldn't off stormed off if you weren't bugging me!"

"I was trying to help!"

"Kids!" Dave says loudly but his expression is unamused like everyone else's at the table. Cameron and I are both red in the face. Anger radiates off of both of us.

Our family is used to this by now. Our constant fights since we could walk. Mom and Sara said that when we were toddlers we would purposefully hit each other.

"Yes" we say in unison putting on innocent faces.

"Would you like to explain why you two look like you want to kill each other" Sara gives us the 'mom' look and I shiver.

"We don't want to kill each other" Cameron tells her in a kiss up voice.

"Speak for yourself" I cross my arms over my chest slouching in my seat. "And not particularly"

The rest of dinner was the same as the first few minutes. Cam and I made little digs at each other while participating in the conversation with everyone else.

When dinner was over I helped Sara clean up the kitchen along with Connor who she forced to help. This ended in him and I splashing water on each other.

Eventually Sara kicked us out for making more of a mess. We met everyone else in the living room and watched a random movie on tv until it was dark and time to go home.

"Marlee! We need you!" Grayson shouts into the phone over Ellas cries and Connors cursing. "She won't stop crying!" He exclaims with plenty of panic in his voice.

I laugh putting some flour into the cart "I'll be right there"

We hang up and I open my grocery list scanning over it. Once I quickly grab the last couple items I check out pushing the cart outside and piling the bags on my arms.

Walking home I struggle to keep all the groceries from falling onto the ground. Usually I force Cam to drive me but since I'm not talking to him currently I just walked.

When I step through the front door I'm met with the sound of Ellas wails and both of the boys desperately trying to soothe her.

"Is her diaper full?!" Connor questions.

"I don't know, you check" he tells him handing off Ella to Connor.

"What did you guys do to the poor girl?" I ask teasingly walking into the kitchen and setting the grocery bags down.

"Nothing, she just started crying and hasn't stopped" Grayson tells me grabbing one of her toys and trying to hand it to her but it flies back at his face.

Sighing I walk over and grab her from Connor. She still cries harshly so I take a peek into her mouth. "There's the problem"

"What's wrong with her?" Connor runs a hand through his hair a lot like his brother does.

"A lot of things" Grayson snickers with Connor, both boys high five.

"She's getting a new tooth" I tell the idiots heading to the kitchen and grabbing a teething toy out of the freezer. "Put up the groceries or do you need help doing that too?"

"It's not our fault she's a little demon" Grayson points to Ella who's crying has calmed to a sniffle while she chews on the teething toy.

"Now you know how I felt when you two were born" I scoff smacking both their heads.

"Yay pringles!" Connor says excitedly pulling out the canister from a bag. I sit with Ella on the couch while the boys continue to put up groceries. They then ask me if they can go down to the park and play ball.

I wanted to say no but they gave me a pleasing look so I caved.

I really need to learn how to say no to puppy dog eyes.

"It's smells so good" Addie says pushing open the door to a restaurant a few minutes out of town. Her arms are interlocked with mine and Brianna as she drags us in after our short shopping spree.

"Mhm yeah it does" Brianna agrees breathing in the scent of food.

"Where are the boys?" I question scanning the multiple booths and tables. I spot Cameron's brown fluffy hair and Theo waving his arms around like a crazy person.

"I think I found them" Brianna tells us.

"Really?" Addie retorts before snickering and dragging us to the table.

We're at a semi-fancy Italian restaurant so I'm wearing a short black jean skirt and a maroon sweater that falls off one of my shoulders with a black lacy bralette underneath.

"Finally you're here! I'm starving!" Theo exclaims dramatically like he hadn't ate an entire bowl of chili an hour ago at the house.

"I think I grew a few gray hairs from sitting here so long" Asher shakes his head leaning down in front of Theo. "Do you see them?"

"Yeah I do!" Theo tells him, both of them very amused by their little performance. Miles and Cameron just look at their menus ignoring the boys.

"Who said it was a good idea to take them to a fancy restaurant?" Miles asks setting down his menu. I sit between him and Cameron while Brianna an Addie take the other empty seats.

"Certainly not me" Cameron says next to me closing his menu.

He and I still haven't talked at all since our fight. I'm waiting for him to apologize

... which hasn't happened yet.

But no way in hell am I going to say sorry first.

Once we order our food and our drinks arrive we end up in a fit of laughter. Like the mature kids we are we decided to play charades. At one point Addie was pretending to be ballerina.

She stood up and ended up bumping into an old lady who cussed us out and called us stupid kids. Then I ended up crawling onto the table and pretending to be the Statue of Liberty.

We did multiple rounds until our food arrived.

Mom knew about our plans and practically forced money in my hands so we have enough for both of us to order full meals. I ordered fettuccine Alfredo.

I reach into my purse and rustle around it, silently cursing when I realize I forgot my diabetic bag. I was ready to just eat and not say anything but Cam reaches into his bag and pulls out a diabetic kit.

"Here" he hands it to me not looking my way. I take it not saying anything and check my sugar.

I debated not taking it since I'm still mad but I'd rather not go into a diabetic coma.

That would put a damper on the night.

After an incredibly fun night with my friends even while ignoring Cameron I had a great time. With a stomach full and my body tired I slump into my bed almost immediately falling asleep.

I don't even have enough time to dream when my phone rings. Blindly I reach over grabbing my phone, answering the unknown number, and pressing it to my ear.

"Hello" I mumble, my eyes slowly closing again.

"Well if it isn't my lovely daughter"

❤️