The Darling Boys (Rose Award Winner) (#Wattys2017)

Here We Go Again

I woke up to the horrifyingly loud scream of my baby sister.

Mom had assured me that nothing was wrong with Evie, that she just cried more than most children do to something called colic.

"Mom?" I mumbled, finally taking my throw pillow off my ear and tossing it behind me.

"Mom!" I called out, a little louder this time. When she didn't answer, I slid into my slippers and stomped out of the room and toward the nursery. Evie had the bars of her grip in her hands, her usually fairly pale face rosy. I felt my heart clench a little when I saw her tear stained cheeks redden even more.

Her screams started to die down a little when she saw me, her lips parted in surprise that I had been the one to come instead of Mom.

"Well, hello there, Miss Noisy." I crouched down in front of the crib and slid my hand in between the bars, touching her hand.

"Why are you crying?" I asked her. She stared at me blankly, her tear filled blue eyes wide with curiosity.

"Do you want to come with Si?" I questioned her, standing back up and holding my hands down toward her. She held her arms up, allowing me to pick her up. She clenched on to the back of my shirt as I carried her out of her room to try and find wherever it was that Mom had disappeared to.

Just as I had given up looking for Mom, I caught her standing in the middle of the driveway, staring up at someone I couldn't quite catch the view of right away. Instead of being smart and logical and staying in side, I opened the door and stepped out on to the porch.

"Mom! Ev-" My words died in my throat and mind when my eyes fell on who she was talking too.

Despite it being over five years since the last time I saw him, I recognized my scruffy father.

He surprisingly didn't look that different. With the exception of a few tattoos peeking out from under his long sleeve black t-shirt and his buzzed chesnut hair, my father looked like the same man he had when they put him away.

"Sienna!" Alan said my name as if it hadn't been three years since the police had come and forced him behind bars for nearly putting Sam in the hospital, like it hadn't been five years since he walked out on my family entirely and only showed up when he had wanted something or was hammered.

"Sienna, sweetheart. Please take Eve inside and-"

"Well, who's this sweet little thing?" Alan moved passed Mom and jogged up the wooden steps of the porch, the old wood creaking under his large and heavy steps.

"Hi there, cutie." I felt my entire body stiffen as Alan reached out and brushed his hand along Evie's cheek. I tightened my grip around her, trying to ignore the large pit that had begun to open in my stomach.

"How old are you now?" He asked, his attention on me again. I winced a little, not knowing exactly how to feel about my own father not knowing when my birthday was.

"I just turned eighteen." I answered quietly, shocked by the robotic tone in my voice.

"Eighteen? You've grown up." He took my jaw in between his fingers, a smile stretching across his face, "You're beautiful, Sienna. Just like your mother." I shook my head, my eyes darting toward her.

She was shifting anxiously on her feet, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

Why hadn't she just called the cops and told them he was here?

"Is she mine?" He diverted the subject for a moment, nodding toward Evie, "Or did some dumbshit kid get you knocked up?" I tried to keep my face emotionless as possible, knowing he was only at the beginning of getting a rise out of me.