Reconstructing Amelia (unedited)

Chapter 27

November 15th, 2019

*Alan*

I glanced at my phone. Xander had just texted to tell me he was outside but I wanted to stay a few minutes longer. Things had been weird between Mia and me since she saw the gang fight. I knew we'd probably scared her shitless but I was determined to keep trying to make her trust me again, and she was slowly starting to warm up to me again.

"Is everything okay?" Mia asked, glancing towards my phone. I quickly stuffed it into my pocket.

"Oh yeah, it's just my brother," She nodded.

"How'd you do on the English essay?" she questioned, wiping down the counter. "I think I got an eighty-seven," I shrugged.

"I got a sixty-six. Did it the night before, didn't really care," I answered, suddenly feeling embarrassed as soon as the words left my mouth. Compared to her, I looked stupid though she never seemed to mind.

"I'm sure you'll do better on the next one," she said brightly. I couldn't help but grin. The doorbells jingled as someone stepped in. I didn't bother looking. But someone grabbed my arm, clenching it tightly.

"I told you to come outside," Xander hissed. Mia looked partially frightened and mostly confused - and rightfully so. My brother could definitely be scary when he wanted to be.

"Chill," I told him with a frown, ripping my arm from his grip. "I was just finishing up with Mia," His eyes travelled towards her, staring at her. Mia offered a smile but Xander had frozen completely, his expression tense. I hadn't told anyone about her yet and I knew immediately he was pissed. His expression had twisted into a sort of confused glare.

"Are you Alan's brother?" she asked, her voice managing to sound confident. Xander nodded harshly.

"Yes. Alan, let's go. Now," He practically dragged me off of the stool. I barely had time to grab my pack and board before he led me out the door. Mia waved after me, a small smile on her lips.

Xander pulled me out into the cold, glaring at me. Hard. He punched me, and I went reeling backwards. I held a hand to my jaw, spitting out a bit of blood.

"That better not be who I think that is," he growled. "Because if you've found her and not told us..." he trailed off, breathing hard.

"I'm not telling you anything until you calm down," I spat bitterly. Xander raised his fist again except I stepped forward with my own, dangerously close. "Do you really want to this here? Now?" Xander gritted his teeth before briskly stomping towards his car, snapping at me to hurry up.

***

The ride home had been silent. Xander had death-gripped the wheel the entire way and had definitely been speeding. I was decently surprised he hadn't been pulled over for reckless driving.

We entered the house, hearing the chatter from the rest of our brothers running around the halls.

"Stay right here," Xander commanded, storming off to find Cato. I tugged my coat off, heading towards my room. I knew Cato was about to blow the biggest fuse the world had ever seen, and I knew to stay the hell away. I flopped down onto my bed, mindlessly scrolling through my phone. Stupid girls and their crushes and shit, always messaging me.

"ALAN JACOB ADAMS GET THE HELL DOWNSTAIRS!" My oldest brother shouted. I could tell he was beyond pissed. Full name, ouch.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the living room where all six of my brothers were waiting. Eli and the triplets just looked confused. I chose to stand, leaning against the doorframe.

"You called?" I placed a lazy grin on my face. Cato rose to his feet.

"Get that grin off your face, this is fucking serious!" he yelled.

"Cato, what's going on?" Eli demanded. Cato rubbed his temples, clearly fed up with all of us at this point.

"That girl he hangs out with - Mia - is our sister," Everybody's eyes snapped to me, a mixture of shock and anger.

"Mia...?" Eli said slowly. He put his head between his knees. "Oh god, how did I not realise?" He muttered a string of incoherent remarks.

"Are you saying that Amelia is alive?" Colton whispered. Xander nodded.

"You've all seen her, she's practically the living embodiment of Mom,"

"Alan, why didn't you say anything?!" Cayden asked angrily. I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Because," I answered coyly. Cato's scowl grew deeper.

"I swear to god, Alan, why didn't you say anything?" I folded my arms across my chest, a scowl forming on my own face.

"Well, what would you have done if I had?" I proposed. My brothers paused, slightly taken aback.

"We would've tried to get her back," Calvin said like it was obvious - which it was.

"And that's exactly why I didn't tell you," I replied. "I wanted her to trust at least one of us before we completely turned her life around,"

"We could've all been working on that," Cato grumbled. "But fine, I see your point,"

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Cayden asked, still glaring at me.

"We need to wait and give it more time. Something's up with her, I can tell she's hiding things. And she's still pretty scared from the gang fight," I told them.

"I wouldn't blame her," Xander muttered.

"And let's not forget that she's practically dating one of the Serpents," Eli said, his eyes darkly glancing at mine. Colton narrowed his eyes.

"She's what?"

"It's unimportant," Cato snapped. "We need to focus on the bigger issue here,"

"But she's dating one of them!" Calvin cried. "Who knows what shit they're telling her?!"

"Shut the fuck up," I growled, who were all arguing amongst themselves. "We need to wait until we tell her. If we overwhelm her, we'll scare her off,"

"It doesn't matter if we scare her, she's our sister by blood and we need to get her back," Colton argued.

"No, Alan's right," Eli muttered. "We have to give her more time,"

"And maybe give the rest of us a chance to meet her," Xander grumbled.

"Just don't overwhelm her," I commanded. "She's shy and probably still terrified of all of you,"

"So how long are we supposed to wait?" Cayden complained.

"We can't just show up out of the blue and sick the cops on her dad," I snapped. "As I said, give her time," The room went silent as all of us nodded in agreement.

"Are we even sure it's her?" Calvin asked, voicing the question everyone had been thinking deep down.

"Yeah, I'm sure," I said. "She's got my birthday, and she looks exactly like her old self," That seemed to appease them all. "And she moved away when she was four,"

"Well, I think we should start getting to know her, maybe invite her over more," Cato announced. "The court process for this should take a little bit so we at least have that time,"

Now that the information was out, I felt this sort of hollow feeling in my chest. My sister was no longer my special secret, I had to share her between all of my brothers now. Don't get me wrong, I was over the moon to be working on getting her back, but everything felt just a little bit diluted all of a sudden. Love worked in funny ways, and I guess I'd have to get used to feeling it.