Sounds of Summer|Braden Higgins|

|TWENTY-FOUR|

The sounds of teens laughing loudly and the smell of bacon woke up the adults in the Feder house. It was a sound that Lenny and Roxanne had been waking up to since the beginning of Summer, but for Morgan, she never woke up in a loud house to the smell of breakfast. 

"Morning." Charlotte grinned as the three adults walked into the kitchen, "We came over and all of us decided to make breakfast." 

"And by that she means Maisie and Braden did all the work." Andre said, making the others laugh. 

"Hey, I helped." Greg frowned, a hand over his heart as a joke. 

"With what?" Nancy asked, looking over at her boyfriend, "All you did was push a button on the microwave." 

"Babe, don't sell me out like that." Greg said to the blonde. 

"Yeah," Braden laughed, his arms wrapped around Maisie's shoulders from behind, "You'll bruise his ego more than what it already is." 

"You're saying that his ego is big? Buddy, have you met yourself?" Maisie turned her head to look at him with a raised eyebrow. 

"Okay, you guys made breakfast, them I'm taking everyone and their families out for dinner." Lenny clapped his hands together, "Morgan, you're invited." 

"Thank you, Lenny." Morgan gave him a soft smile as she kept her eyes on her son and the people that he had made friends with.

"Oh! We should go swimming again today!" Andre smirked, "Maise and I brought the air mattress back with us." 

"Yeah, I don't think so." Roxanne shook her head, "Our swimming pool is not a place to jump off an air mattress." 

"We'll do it later on." Maisie whispered towards her dark-skinned friend, who hi-fived her. 

✖✖✖

"How are you dealing with the whole Morgan coming to get Braden thing?" Nancy asked as the two girls got ready for the dinner that Lenny was taking them too. 

The dark haired girl let out a groan, falling back on her bed. "I don't know how to deal with it. I mean, okay say you were me and Greg was Braden. How would you feel if his Mom just showed up out of nowhere, telling him that she came to take him back home? Because I honestly feel like fucking shit." 

"Maisie." Nancy frowned, feeling bad for her best friend. 

"You just don't get it." Maisie covered her face with her hands before sitting back up to look at her. "Nanc, a week ago, everything was okay. We were having the time of our lives at the lake house and Braden and I said we loved each other. I haven't put so much time, love and effort in a relationship since the one with Jacob, and he's dead. I don't want to waist my time on somebody who's gonna be pulled away because his Mom wants him to come home. I don't want to do the whole long distance relationship thing, it's not who I am." 

"Then tell his Mom that!" Nancy exclaimed, "Tell her that she's breaking the two of you up!" 

"I can't do that." Maisie sighed, "Morgan is his mother, and I can't control if she takes him or not. I love him, I do, but maybe we shouldn't have jumped into a relationship."

"You see?" Roxanne crossed her arms over her chest as she and Morgan stood outside Maisie's room, "You take him away, you're gonna make him loose the one good thing he found this Summer since coming to stay with Marcus. My daughter." 

✖✖✖

Everyone sat at the long table in the restaurant, the adults at one end, the teens at the other end and the little kids sitting in the middle. 

"You didn't really come to take Braden home, did you?" Marcus asked. 

"Yes, Marcus. I did." Morgan nodded, "The summer is up in a few days and he has to start school again. At his old high school." 

"What's so wrong with him just starting school here? With the kids?" Sally questioned. "Braden's made friends out of our children, so it isn't like he will be alone." 

"Look, I appreciate what you've done for m-," 

"Maisie!" 

The adults turned their heads to find Maisie storming out, wiping at her face, with Braden followed before he stopped at the end of the table to look at his mother. 

"This is your fault." Braden pointed a finger at her, "You told me that if I wanted to stay, that I could. And this is me wanting to stay here, with all of these people that took me in over the summer and showed me what it was like to actually have family. This is me wanting to stay with Maisie because I'm in love with her. So, I'm so very sorry that you came all the way down here to bring me home, but I'm staying my ass right here." 

Morgan watched her son storm out with her jaw dropped and tears welding up in her eyes, but refusing to let a single tear drop in front of a group of people that she didn't know. 

"Any one want pie?" Kurt grinned, trying to break the silence. 

✖✖✖

Everyone sat on the couch in the Feder house, waiting on Maisie and Braden to return from where ever the two of them had run off too when both of them left after Braden snapped at his mother.

"Oh thank god." Roxanne breathed out as Maisie walked into the house, her arms wrapped around herself. "Where the hell did you go? And where's Braden?" 

"I went to the quarry to clear my head. And Braden went to pack because he's gonna go back with Morgan." 

"What?" 

"What about your relationship with each other?" Greg asked his twin sister. 

"We broke up."