Jefferson Lake (MBBF Spin-Off)

Chap. 43

Recap:

Lee has a bad dream, which leaves him panicked & compromised. He manages to walk away from a bad situation, but he has a meltdown with Emily, which leads to a heart-to-heart with Parker. Parker reveals that he's been having nightmares about the accident that killed their parents, triggered by the accident he was in a few months back. At the end of the chapter, Lee agrees to go on a walk with McKenna, which leads us to where we are now.

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*trigger warning*

I stepped into the kitchen, where Parker, Emmett, and Emily were mid-conversation.

Parker glanced over at me. He didn't even try to hide that he was talking about me, instead just tilting his head to the side in question.

"We're going on a walk," I informed him.

Parker's eyes flickered between McKenna and I in silence.

"It's snowing outside," Emily pointed out.

Parker just raised his eyebrows at me, his silent way of asking me if I was okay.

I gave him a short nod.

"Okay," Parker agreed, dismissively.

Emily casted Parker a questioning look, but I didn't stick around for a chat, I left the kitchen, heading upstairs to grab a jacket.

McKenna and I left through the back door, having to cross through the kitchen again, heading out into the backyard and trekking up through the woods that way.

McKenna scooped down as we walked, taking some of the snow in her hands.

"What are you doing?" I asked her, a bit apprehensively.

She formatted the snow into a snowball, smiling at me.

I slowly shook my head.

But she didn't throw at me, instead just tossing it off into the woods.

"When I was younger, we used to play in the snow," McKenna informed me, tucking her hands away into her jacket pockets. "The four of us."

I watched her, the way her smile tugged at the ends of her lips, her expression far away from here.

"My dad was the best at making snowballs," she said, glancing over at me. "I swear, he could make three by the time I'd managed to make one."

I nodded, wanting her to continue talking. I enjoyed watching her talk about her childhood, the smile that made it's way across her face because of it, the light that seemed to glow around her.

"What about you?" McKenna asked me.

"What about me?"

"Did you guys ever take any family trips or anything?"

"Sure," I agreed, with a nod. "Plenty."

She didn't seem too impressed with my answer.

But I wasn't really in the overshare mood.

"Did you ever come up to the snow?"

"Parker took a couple of trips up here to the cabin with the Winstons," I said, glancing over my shoulder. "My mom wasn't that lenient when it came to me."

I glanced over at McKenna again. "When I was gone anywhere for more than an hour, she'd call me. Consistently."

"That's sweet."