"You need to explain," Jared speaks sternly still, yet quieter after he got a 'shh' and a wack to the back of the head from his little sister, reminding him she had just put the baby back to sleep. They say their goodbyes as their friends leave before gettin ready to talk.
"You need to calm down," she says annoyed as she sits down on the couch.
"I'm realizing how much shit you hid from me, and I'm not happy about it," Jared says annoyed, causing Devon to roll her eyes.
"You were never around it wasn't exactly difficult to keep everything from you," she threw back at him, her bitterness towards her brother coming out. He kept his mouth shut after those words.
"Our father didn't willingly permanently leave us. I threw his ass out. I continue to throw his ass out. All he does is leech off of me and my hard work, stealing my money to fuel his addictions. He has no place here, and I will continue to make that clear to him," she says frustrated to Jared.
"You should've told me, I could've helped-"
"No you couldn't! You want to know why? Because you were never here! You were always off in your own world living your life as best as you could possibly make it, as if your parents didn't leave you and your sister! As if your younger sister didn't have to become your mother! I am a child raised to be a mother, that is all I am and all I will be for the next 18 years. It is all that defines me because I have never had a fucking choice and it makes me sick," she interrupts him and yells, her frustration growing as tears well up in her eyes.
"I don't even have any dreams or aspirations anymore. I don't even know what I would try to make of myself, because it hasn't been a possibility to me in years. Don't you get it? I would never be able to leave you behind, and I can never leave Anthony," she continued as she looked up at Jared, his eyes shining with tears as well as he takes a deep breath.
"I'm going to bed," and with that, the crying teenage girl makes her way up the stairs, sobbing quietly as she crawled into bed.
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Devon wakes up first the next morning, sighing as she remembers the previous nights events. She takes a brisk shower before blow drying her hair and putting on undergarments and a large oversized hoodie which fell mid thigh, slipping house slippers onto her feet. Anthony was still asleep, so she grabbed a baby monitor and made her way to Jared's room to wake him up.
Upon opening his door, she discovered he wasn't there. Sighing, she set the baby monitor down and looked around at the mess before getting to work.
She put away his clean clothes and organized it all while filling his basket of dirty clothes. She threw away trash and organized all his things before vacuuming and throwing his bedding into the basket as well. Once everything was organized, she carried the basket downstairs and began the laundry.
Once she had that going, she made a cup of coffee and sighed, going to sit in the living room on her laptop and begin homework while Anthony slept. Babies this old can sleep through the night, especially if they're bottle fed, if you don't sleep with them. As much as Devon loves cuddling sleeping babies, it's good to establish that tiny bit of independence early, and she needs it as well because it's hard to be productive with a baby on you all the time.
Devon has just finished her work and gotten ahead too, before she heard Anthony making noises on the baby monitor. She went upstairs and looked down at him in his crib, smiling at the happy baby. He was just chilling.
"Good morning, love. Let's get you a clean diaper and some food," she says to him, making him smile as she reached her arms into the crib to pick him up.
