From the Wreckage We All Rise.

7.55am and Brian had just arrived. He was sitting in the kitchen while me and Aiden were finishing getting ready. I was putting on my socks while Aiden was fixing his hair before he grabbed his favourite baseball cap and put it over his head. Seriously, what was the point? He spent nearly 20 minutes trying to make his hair look good and then, annihilated his work by putting a cap on… I rolled my eyes, grabbed my cell phone and slide it in my pocket.

“Ready?” I asked Aiden, he nodded and grabbed his cell phone. My stomach grumbled. We hadn’t eaten breakfast, we were supposed to eat breakfast with Brian’s girlfriend: Nathalie and then we were supposed to meet Brian’s parents, our grandparents, for lunch and then for dinner, we were going to our uncle Matt’s house, with everyone.

This day was going to be epic…

“Are you guys… I mean girl and boy, are you ready?” asked Brian looking apologetically at me after I had hugged him. I gave him a reassuring smile before I turned to say goodbye to mum.

“I’ll see you tonight, right?” I asked, for the third time.

“Yes Angelina, I’ll be here.” She replied, kissing my cheek. I smiled at her and then went to hug my grandparents. Billy and Celia weren’t up yet. Aiden hugged our grandparents and then quickly hugged mum before he ran past me to the car. I shook my head at him, while Brian simply chuckled and made his way to the car.

I got on the passenger sit, buckled my seatbelt and starting preparing myself mentally to meet my future stepmother.

**

I saw Brian rubbing his face with his hand as he locked the car. He was nervous, it was written all over his face. And I couldn’t blame him... I was nervous too.

Brian opened the front door and I walked in, followed by Aiden. My brother looked really calm, like it was no big deal. Sometimes, I couldn’t understand him. I ran a hand through my hair and wrapped my arms around me, hugging myself.

“Stop doing that.” Muttered Aiden nudging me as a woman walked down the stairs. She was wearing a baby blue dress, her blond hair floating around. I had to make sure I wasn’t gasping. She was beautiful. I looked at my father only to see that the nervous look he had before was now replaced by adoration. He loved her, there was no doubt about it.

“Good morning!” she said as she took a step forward and hugged me. “Angela right?”

“Angelina, but it doesn’t matter.” I replied, lightly hugging her in return. I wasn’t expecting her to hug me…

“And you must be Aiden, right?” she asked, hugging my brother.

“That’d be me!” he replied, hugging her.

“Are you hungry? I made you guys breakfast!” she said, pointing a perfectly manicured finger in the direction of the kitchen. Aiden smiled and grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me in the kitchen as Nathalie kissed Brian’s cheek.

Turns out Nathalie was really nice, she was trying her best to please us and was making conversation. I wasn’t expecting that from the woman who was glaring at my mother the other day on the beach…

After we ate breakfast and cleaned the mess we had made in the kitchen, Nathalie excused herself, telling us that she had to go to L.A but that we will see her tonight, at Matt’s.

I sat awkwardly in the kitchen, not knowing what to do… Everything looked so clean, perfectly in place… I couldn’t help but compared the kitchen to ours back in Baltimore. Sure it was just as clean, but mum was always running to keep it the way it looked when it seems that no one ever ate in this kitchen…

“Come on kids, I’ll show you around!” said Brian, smiling brightly. I nodded and followed Aiden out of the kitchen. Brian showed us the basement, where he kept all his guitars. I had to pull Aiden by the arm so he would get out. Then Brian showed us the laundry room, the living room, the dining room, his bedroom, and the 3 spare rooms. The house was big, bigger than our grandparents’ but thankfully not as big as Joel and Nicole’s.

I noticed that the whole house looked like it had just been taken from a magazine. It was kinda freaky. There wasn’t one piece of clothing in Brian and Nat’s room, no toys on the living room floor, nothing.

I was quietly sitting in the living room, watching TV while Aiden and Brian were talking next to me.

“No, I don’t have any kids beside you and Angelina.” I heard Brian say. I didn’t turn to look at him, I didn’t need to. It was pretty self explanatory when you look at the house… No house could stay that clean with a kid.

I couldn’t really focus on anything, all I could think about was my mother. I couldn’t help but wonder if she really was taking the situation as well as she showed. I mean, she was all smiles and everything, but it must affect her in some way, right?

“Do you know the enemy? Do you know the enemy?” I felt my face broke in a smile as I focus on the big TV screen in front of me and saw my mother’s favourite band. The video for ‘Know your enemy’ by Green Day was on at the moment. I could only imagine her face if she was here at the moment. Aiden looked at the screen and then at me before focussing back on our father.

I took my phone out of my pocket and looked at the time, we only had an hour to kill before going to see Brian’s father and step mother.