The Party Scene Got The Best Of Us...And Look Where We Ended Up.

The house only held the Gaskarth siblings. Ian was in his room practicing, although Bryony couldn’t understand why since he would be heading off to practice soon. Ian however, told her it was dedication, “something you wouldn’t understand.” All Bryony could do was sigh and continue on with the housework that was always up to her since cleanliness was not something the males of the house cared for.

Bryony had gotten most of the housework done and was just folding a few towels and her fathers clothing in the living room when Ian walked in and plopped himself down on the couch to pull on his shoes. This, in turn, ruined the neatly folded piles.

“Ian! What the fuck!” she spoke out in frustration.

Ian just rolled his eyes and continued on with his shoes.

“Tell dad I wont be home until late tonight. I have a date with Molly,” he told her, his lips contorting into a wicked smirk that nearly made her gag.

“Why do you do this to Shae? To yourself?” asked Bryony as Ian reached for the handle to the front door.

“She does it to herself,” he spoke in an even tone, then slammed the door forcefully.

Bryony ignored her brothers dramatics that reminded her so much of their fathers and picked up the laundry basket full of clothes, heading for the stairs.

After a quick stop at the hall closet to drop off the towels, Bryony made her way to her fathers room to begin putting away his clothes.

As she stepped in the room she made her way to his bed and put the basket on the bed. She began to put away his jeans in his drawers. While on her way back to get more of the clothes that belonged in the dresser, she noticed a small box sticking out from under the bed. Bryony went to push it further under the bed and out of the way, but seeing the name “Kayla” printed across it in her fathers messy scrawl, she felt a sudden urge to poke around her father and biological mothers past.

Her family tree had turned out fine, even though there were no pictures and all she could do was dip into her mothers heritage and give a brief description of her looks. Bryony’s teacher was satisfied and understood, though Bryony was far from it and was thirsting for more on her mother.

Eager to catch a glimpse of the woman she could only dream about, Bryony sat herself on the carpet and pulled the box from under the bed completely. A deep breath in and the lid to the box was off.

There were ticket stubs, a few wilted flowers, some papers and pictures. With care, Bryony removed the flowers from the box and then the tickets, noting that they were movie tickets and a couple concert stubs. After the letters were the pictures and the one standing out on top caught her eye.

The picture held two children in the center of it, a boy and a girl, around the age of thirteen. In the distance of the picture, there was another girl. The boy in the center of the picture reminded her much of Ian as a kid, but knowing that it couldn’t be him because she didn’t recognize the girl and the picture was much more faded, figured it was her father.

Out of curiosity, she turned the picture over and on it was written in a neat, feminine writing, Alex, Kayla and Kara. That sparked her interest because from what she could tell, the picture did look a lot like the ones her “aunt Kara” had of herself in her younger years, yet to Bryony, it made no sense since to her knowledge, her aunt and father didn’t know each other until Rian started dating her.

With being so engrossed in the box of memories, she never noticed that the garage door had opened and that her father was now home. She didn’t notice it until her father was at the bedroom door, his face clearly angered.

“I- I’m s-sorry,” Bryony stuttered over her words, a little frightened by the look on her fathers face. Never before had she seen him look that way at her.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Taken back, she looked shamefully at the ground, like a kicked puppy. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “But Aunt Kara didn’t help me much with my family tree project and I just really wanted to know what she looks like. Is that so wrong?”

“Of course she would worsen this,” he muttered to himself. “Of fucking course. She’s just like Kayla. StupidfuckingDiakoulascousins,” his words jumbled together and all Bryony could pick up was her aunts maiden name and cousins.

“Cousins?”

Shit, Alex thought. Maybe I should just shut up. “Just go to your room.”

Bryony nodded and got up, handing the picture to her father on her way, but stopped at the door, “Aunt Kara is moms cousin, isn’t she?”

Alex rubbed his temples, a tension headache coming on, “Yeah,” he said resigned. “Don’t even ask. She claims she doesn’t talk to her.” Bryony nodded softly, all hope gone, and continued on to her room.

Gazing down at the picture, Alex couldn’t help but remember when it was taken.

It was summer 2003 and the Diakoulas family and Gaskarth’s were spending two weeks of the summer at their lake house. Alex was angry at his family for making him go away for such a period of time without his good friend Jack, instead making him spend it with two other girls, nearly his age. He saw no appeal in it since he had known them since diapers in the literal sense.

The parents were preparing dinner in the house and on the back porch and sent the kids off to the water to keep them out of their hair.

Alex being the troublemaker he is, challenged the girls to a race to the middle of the buoy in the middle of the lake and back.

The race was a close one between the two thirteen year olds, Kayla and Alex, with Kara trailing far behind.

Not wanting to lose and figuring he would since Kayla was much further ahead of him, he decided to play a game of trickery.

“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” he screamed in pain, only to where Kayla and Kara would hear him.

Kayla stopped paddling and turned to him, terrified, and began swimming back to his side.

“Are you okay?” she asked frantically.

With a triumphant smirk, Alex shot his way through the water, leaving the two other girls there in shock.

By the time all three were on the beach adjacent to the lake, Kayla was fuming. She charged after Alex and knocked him to the ground.

They wrestled each other on the ground, Kayla throwing smacks at him and Alex trying unsuccessfully to dodge them. Finally, Alex had maneuvered himself so he was on top and pinned her arms above her head.

Still pissed, Kayla started muttering and yelling things at him and Alex had enough. He thought quickly and leaned down, gently placing his lips against hers and effectively shutting her up.

“Girlfriend?” he asked.

“Boyfriend?” she asked him back, a smirk that even knocked Alex Gaskarth off his feet.

With a nod, he swooped down again, capturing her lips yet again.

That was the summer to change everything.

Alex sighed and put the picture back in the box, sliding it further under the bed.

He didn’t like thinking about that day or any of the days he spent with Kayla. It only made the ache in his heart greater. He felt bad. He wished he could make both his kids, but mainly Bryony, realize it wasn’t them he hated. No, it was Ian’s mother and even more so, himself for being so foolish.

But no matter how hard he tried, his bitter heart made that hard and he refused to get close to either child, afraid he would make Ian like himself or that Bryony would remind him too much of Kayla and he would blame her or cry and over the years, he had definitely done enough of crying over Kayla Diakoulas.

Never again, he thought to himself before falling asleep on his bed to dreams of what his family could have been like.