𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲

Not All Discoveries Are Good

Next morning, the Holland siblings, except Paddy woke up with a throbbing headache. Hungover and the cherry on top, throwing up. Poor Nikki and Dom were forced to handle four hungover young adults and a grumpy teenager. Yes, Paddy was grumpy on a Monday morning. Nothing new here. Which teenager isn't? Especially one who saw their siblings party the last night and when said wretched siblings get to stay home. He tried to convince Nikki to let him skip school. Key word here, tried. After refuting such excuses for more times than she cared to count, Nikki Holland had grown immune to the infamous Holland puppy eyes and excuses.
"Mum, come-on!", Paddy yelled, "skipping school one day won't hurt!"
"Paddy shut up!", Liza reprimanded from the living room.
"It hurts...", Sam groaned, rooted to his spot on the sofa.
Tom, Sam, Harry and Liza were sprawled out on various objects in the living room.
For example, the eldest Holland child, Thomas, more famously known as Tom, was occupying the bean bag, head in his hands.
"For the last time Paddy, get dressed! You're going!", Nikki yelled from the kitchen, making the hungover Hollands groan.
Much to his chagrin, Paddy accepted his defeat and fate, and went to school. Dom went with him, to drop him and because he had work after.
After cooking something for her older, and more stupid children, Nikki bid them her goodbyes and left for a photoshoot. But not before reminding them not to but the house down and be somewhat responsible.
"Are you four planning on staying like this the entire day?", Granny Tess called out.
"Ah, Gran, please. It hurts", Harry hissed.
"You didn't answer the question", Granny fired back. Four voices simultaneously said "yes" and Granny Tess gave up.
A few minutes which could have been hours passed by when Liza's phone started buzzing with messages. She unlocked it to see that Mackenzie and her other friends had sent the pictures from the night before. She smiled at herself at the memory, what a night they had had.
"Guys, Mackenzie sent the pictures", she called out enthusiastically, momentarily forgetting about her headache.
"First, stop speaking so loud.", Tom said, slowly getting up from the bean bag, "Samantha, feet", that made Harry chuckle as Sam rolled his eyes.
Tom then went on to sit on the sofa between Sam and Liza, Harry on Liza's other side. The siblings were collectively looking through the pictures of the night before and found themselves relishing the memory.
Tom loved his job, he loved Spider-Man-ing without question, but he terribly missed times like this. He hated not being there for his family always. For example, the last time Granny Tess was sick, he wasn't at home, he was in Atlanta, filming. He'd missed the twins' 20th birthday, and as an elder brother, he felt terribly guilty about it.
There was this one picture where Liza, Harry and Sam were holding beer bottles, Tom photo bombing being them, which caught Sam's attention. However, it wasn't the pose that caught his eye. It was something, or rather someone who had.
"Wait, is that...", he trailed off, pointing at the part of the screen his eyes were glued on. Tom, Liza and Harry's eyes followed the direction of his finger and Liza immediately shook her head, zooming the picture to get a better view. The siblings fell into an uncomfortable silence.
"Is that- Is that Jeff?", Tom spoke out, saying what his siblings were thinking out loud.
"Seems like him mate.", Harry replied, "Look, he's wearing the same thing and- Oh My God, you have to be shitting me, is that Ericka Hargreaves?"
"I-I think so.", Sam said, knowing he was stepping in dangerous territory. Liza hadn't uttered a word yet and was staring intently at the screen.
The picture was a good one, in fact Liza was thinking about posting it. That was before Sam had pointed IT out. In the background of the picture, Jeff was engaged in a heated make out session with Ericka, that too at his girlfriend's birthday party.
Tom, Sam and Harry were getting scared now. Liza lashing out when angry was a different thing, but it was pretty evident by her silence that a humongous storm of emotions was going on inside her. There was not a flicker of emotions in her eyes. Her face was drained of any colour.
Abruptly she got up from the sofa and declared, "I need to clear my head. I'm going for a run. Come on Tess."
Saying so, she ran to her bedroom and when she emerged, she was dressed in clothes for jogging. She took Tessa's leash, attached it to her collar and went straight out, leaving three worried elder brothers behind.
Words couldn't describe what Liza was going through. Betrayal, anger and sadness all at once. And the worst, the feeling of not being good enough.
She decided to go to the famous Kingston Gate Garden, not Richmond Park right now. Besides, Kingston Gate Garden was nearer.
As she was running, Tess beside her, she thought about the reasons Jeff could've cheated. Heck! She'd have probably forgiven him had he been drunk. But when that picture had been taken, the Holland siblings themselves weren't drunk at all. And Jeff had just arrived.
Was it because she'd been away for a long time? Couldn't be. Jeff had come to visit her in Atlanta. At this point, she was ready to accept any sort of excuse or explanation.
Suddenly, Tess stopped running and started barking. Liza stopped running too and looked over to the direction that Tess was barking at. Tessa was the quietest dog ever, she never barked unnecessarily.
When Liza saw what Tess was barking at, she nearly fainted. Sitting on a bench was Jeff, snogging Ericka passionately.