act appalled

A little while after his new little half brother was born, Keiran finally moved into his own home. It was a small apparment, but perfect for one person. It had one full bathroom, a good sized bedroom, and a living room that went right into the kitchen. The appartment was right above a little antique shop that a cute little old couple owned. They were really nice, and came up to visit Keiran every once and a while.

As much as he didn't want her to, his mother had bought him like, everything. His bed, his couch, his fridge or whatever they had in Amelia, just everything. He decided that he'd save his money and pay his mom back for it all. (He still worked at the farm.)

Anyway, Keiran had just shut the door, with a tray of cookies that the little old woman from the shop baked for him. He sighed and set the cookies on the counter in the kitchen and sat on the couch. Julie had just recently had Quill, and was probably with Kaiden by now. But at least the baby was going to have a normal life.

But still...

D:

Lily had seen baby Quill, but she knew that Keiran hadn't. It almost wasn't fair, in Lily's opinion, that he didn't get a part in Quill's life. Like, in a way it made sense, but seriously, he had spent almost all nine months of the pregnancy at Julie's side. She knew Julie wanted Keiran to come see the baby, but she could understand why Keiran didn't want to right now.

Anyway, Lily had had some stupid fight with Rhint, and while they would get over it because there were in love and everything, it still hurt Lily's feelings. She didn't feel like staying at home so she was going to Keiran's new house to spend the night for the first time. Hopefully the would both cheer each other up a little.

So here she was, walking up the stairs to Keiran's little apartment. She didn't bother to knock, but instead walked right in. "Keeeeirannnn, I'm heeere," she called, pulling off her shoes and leaving them by the door.

Keiran had layed down on his couch and was about to fall asleep when his sister showed up. He sat up and smiled slightly, "I should probably start locking the door."

Lily did some kind of eye roll thing, or maybe she playfully punched him in the arm, I don't know, I'm not Lily, and Keiran laughed a little, "There's some cookies in the kitchen, help yourself if you want any."

"You made cookies?" Lily asked incredulously, walking in the kitchen to grab some. She got two and then walked back to the living room. "I got you one," she said, handing him one of them.

She sat across from him and munched on hers. "Jeez, they're good," she said.

"Thanks," Keiran said when she handed him his cookie. "I didn't make these though," he said after he swallowed his first bite. "The little old lady who owns the shop with her husband downstairs made them for me." He smiled, "They're so nice, but I feel sort of ridiculous, I'm friends with senior citizens." He took another bite of his cookie and after he swallowed he asked, "So what brings you over today?"

"That is weird," Lily said. "Watch out, they might be like, murderers or something," Lily joked.

She finished her cookie quickly. "I just came to hang out, is there something wrong with hanging out with your brother?" she asked. "I mean, you left me in the house with mom and two babies, what's wrong with you?" she said with a joking angry face.

Keiran laughed at the murderes comment, then said, "Well you know how I 'hate' babies," he made some kind of weird evil face but then his face turned into a sort of, ':\' face. "How is Julie's baby...?"

"Quill? Oh Keiran, he's adorable. She really wants you to see him, you know?" she added, moving over to sit on the couch next to her brother.

"I think you should. Julie still cares about you, Keiran."

Lily felt in the middle of things all the time. In the middle Julie and Keiran, in the middle of something with Claire and their shared baby brother. She was getting pretty sick of it actually, it made her feel sick.

"Oh," Keiran replied lamely. "I--I don't want to." He looked into his lap sadly. Seeing Julie would hurt him, but seeing the baby that could have been part of his life would hurt him even more.

"Hey," Lily said, laying one hand on Keiran's lap, "don't worry about it. She understands, and so does everyone else."

She felt bad for her brother, but she really wished he would get over it a little quicker. Especially since he was the one that broke up with Julie and not the other way around.

"It's alright, you don't have to be alone tonight. I decided I was spending the night," Lily said with a huge smile. "We should make a tent under your table like we used to do when we were little!" she said.

Even though he was felling sad, Keiran still couldn't help but smile at Lily's comment. He loved doing that when they were little, and they would giggle all night, making their Dad get up out of bed and chase them around roaring like a monster.

"Remember when we'd laugh so much that Dad would come downstairs and chase us around?" he smiled. "He'd roar and say, 'I'm the giggle eater, I eat little boys and girls who keep their mommies and daddies awake all night!'"

"Yeah," Lily said, laughing at the memory. She missed being a little kid, when Julie would come over like every night for sleepovers. When nobody had to worry about anything like babies or breaking up.

The she sighed. Sophie and Lane would never get the same childhood that she and Keiran had had. Rowan had made sure of that. It made Lily angry.

"Seriously though, we should make some popcorn and hot chocolate, and do just what we used to do when we were little."

"Alright," Keiran replied, really liking the idea. "I'll make the popcorn, you can make the hot chocolate."

He got up and walked to the kitchen. He got one of those old time popcorn makers, some kernals, and started the stove.

Lily watched her brother get up and go to get the popcorn. She knew he was probably still a little sad, but she was glad she had gotten her mind off things at least for a little while.

She went into the kitchen and started getting the hot chocolate ready.

Soon they were finished making their food and drink, and were now under the kitchen table. There were pillows and blankets everywhere since the floor was hard linoleum. There was also a blanket on top of the table, big enough to make it like an actual tent.

They had just finished laughing about something when he said, "I'm half expecting Dad to come out and chase us around."

Lily smiled sadly. "I wish everything was how it used to be..." she said. It was weird how much had changed since then. So many things were going on now, it was so crazy.

Thinking about everything really made Lily upset. It was hard for her to be sad at home, becaue her mom needed her help with Sophie and Lane. But trying to be strong sorta made everything worse, and now that she was fighting with Rhint, it just made everything harder. Especially since Julie was so busy now and she didn't have as much time to hang out with her.

Oh, she missed when things were easier so much, when her parents were seemingly in love and when none of her friends had babies and when everyone lived at home and was happy.

A tear sparkled in her eye, mostly because she was a teenager and everything seemed so much harder than it really was.

Keiran noticed the tear and felt a little alarmed, "Lily what's wrong?"

"It's just so hard, you know? Everything changing. I guess I wasn't ready for it..."

I wouldn't say that Lily and Keiran had led sheltered lives, but they had never had anything truly terrible happen to them. They lived in an amazing house and always had money for whatever they wanted to do because their mom was an Overloridian, and things had just always been really stable. And when things started to go wrong, they did it all at once.

"It's silly though, crying. I just can't help it sometimes..."

"No, no," Keiran replied. "It's okay to cry Lily," he sighed. "I wish I could cry more often, it makes me feel not humanclio, when I don't cry over some things."

"Yeah," she said quietly, wiping her eye and taking a drink of her cocoa. "I don't know, I just know I don't really have anything to cry about. It makes me feel silly, crying over this stuff. It isn't all so bad, I mean, Dad seems happy, and Mom's doing good with Lane..."

"It's okay Lily," Keiran replied. "You have every right and reason to cry." He pulled his sister into a hug and patted her back comfortingly.

"Thanks, Keiran," Lily said, hugging him back. She knew he was going through some tough things too, so she felt bad for making him comfort her.

"I know you're upset about Julie, Keiran, but I promise, things will get better for you too. And you know, you can cry sometimes too."

"Yeah," Keiran said. "I know I can..." But I never do. "Hey," he said, wanting to get off of sad things. "Let's turn off the lights, lay down, and tell each other ghost stories."

(I guess they did that too when they were little.)

Lily didn't mind getting off the sad topics either. "Okay," she said. They snuggled under their blankets and took turns scaring the crap outta each other and ate popcorn and drank cocoa. It was just like old times. :3