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RENNA WALKED IN THE FRONT door, immediately heading for the kitchen after the scent of freshly cut tomatoes caught her by the nose.
"Hey, mama," Renna sang as she walked into the bright room, seeing her mother stirring a pot of spaghetti over the glistening stove.
"Hey, sweetheart, have a seat. Tell me about your day." She gestured towards the barstools on the other side of the counter, the blonde immediately sitting on one as she leant over the bench with her elbows.
"I just hung out with my friends all day, nothing much," she lied with a soft smile. She hated it, hated all the lies in-between her family that she was only adding to, but assuring herself it was for their safety helped - even if she knew that was a lie too.
"Wait, lemme see." Renna's mother twirled around, a wooden spoon spinning between her fingertips as she pressed her back against the counter behind her. "There's that kid with the freckles - John! John C, or John B?"
"John B," Renna nodded.
"And there's JJ, he's the blond one, and that smarty's Pope, right?" She batted her eyelashes, tilting her head to the side with a grin.
"Yup."
"And there's Kiara, she's lovely. And there's Atticus - he's my favourite," she winked back at the girl, who jokingly rolled her eyes with a grin. "That's everyone, right?"
"Yeah, it is. You're getting better at remembering them, ma," she laughed before her eyes latched onto the pot behind her, widening at the scene. "Mom! The water's boiling over!"
The woman whipped around before playing it off as she turned the heat down, scoffing as if she had it under control. "Don't be silly, that was meant to happen."
Then Blake walked in, and suddenly the atmosphere changed.
"Wait, Ren! I need to talk to you," he called out as his sister made a move towards the open doorway, trying to escape the incessant rambling of the tragedy of an older brother.
"If it's nagging me about my friends, I don't want to hear about it," she groaned as she walked towards the stairs.
"No, it's not. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry." Renna turned around with her back pressed against the wall, crossing her arms with raised brows.
"For what?" He groaned.
"You serious?" She nodded with a smirk.
"I'm sorry for talking smack about your friends, and I'm reallysorry that I dragged you away from that party the other night. That wasn't cool of me," he said, his usually empty eyes filled with the brotherly spark Renna had missed from their childhood.
