Smiley and Sunshine

9.

Austin had a lot of respect for parents, especially when trying to round up everyone to leave the house on time.

"I'm leaving in 5 minutes, with or without you!" Austin yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

Various responses from the brothers were heard throughout the house ranging from a sprightly "Sir, yes sir" to a snarky "don't get your panties in a twist," plus or minus a few curse words.

As Glen and Hayes passed by Austin on their way down the stairs, Glen shot him a thumbs up and Hayes gave a small smile to acknowledge that they heard him. Reaching the main floor, the two moseyed on into the dining room to wait until the departure.

"Sunshine?" Colton addressed his sister. He held up an iphone that had been abandoned on the kitchen table. "Are you missing something?"

"No?" She replied, pulling out a seat to put on her shoes. It was Thursday night which meant dinner at Baker's house. Glen and Hayes were pretty stoked for their first official family outing. Thursday was the only consistent night Baker had off of work each week and he made it a priority to spend it with his siblings, and his wife, of course. Baker lived for being involved with his siblings' lives even though he didn't live with them anymore. Like Austin, they were his babies, his pride and joy.

"You sure? Who else would this green swirly phone case possibly belong to?"

"Was that a sexist joke? Because it's actually mine. Thanks Colton." Glen made to take the phone but Colton slapped his hand away.

Hayes glanced up at them thru her eyelashes. "Oh, yeah. I've been looking for that." Glen snickered at her lie. She had not been looking, at all.

Colton glanced at her to the phone still in his hand and back to her, confused. "Sooo do you want it? Because I'll take it if you don't. I've been meaning to upgrade my phone for a while."

"Oh yeah, thanks." She muttered, taking it from his hand and putting it on the table next to her. She'd conveniently forget to take it when it was time to go.

These new phones were a generous gift from Austin. He surprised Glen and Hayes when they woke up that morning by taking them to the Apple store and buying iPhones, a huge step up from their previous off-brand cellular devices. Glen was super appreciative. The first thing he did besides bear hug Austin, was log into his social media account to reconnect with his buddies from back home. He had missed talking to Lewis and Patrick everyday. Hayes thanked Austin and then proceeded to leave her phone around the house. She wasn't interested in it. Why bother when it could be taken away in a blink of an eye?

"You're a weird kid, Sunshine." Colton leaned his hip against the table watching her tie her shoes.

"Thanks?" She wrinkled her nose at him not sure if that was an insult or not. Deciding she didn't care enough to find out, Hayes stood up to go wait on the rocking chairs out front instead. 

"Wow, that was mean of you." Glen sided with Hayes.

"What? No, no wait! Don't walk away. I meant it in a good way. I'm sorry Sunshine, please come back." Colton backtracked. He reached out with his long arms before she got too far away and playfully tugged her over to him. She tried to resist him but Colton easily overpowered her and wrapped his arms around her locking her against his chest. His evil plan worked. Hayes melted into his embrace, all the while cursing hugs for being her weakness. "I just meant that most kids would be obsessed with the newest iPhone and you're not." Colton clarified.

Hayes shrugged. So she wasn't like most kids, there was nothing wrong with that.

"Maybe you're the weird one.  Have you met yourself?" Glen asked Colton. He sat down in Hayes' abandoned chair.