Forgotten

BOBS POV.

"Ah fuck my head," I groaned loudly, rolling over without thinking and landing with a painful thump... on the floor? I opened my eyes, rubbing my sore head and looked around. Matthew and Nathan were sprawled on the other couch, fast asleep practically on top of each other. I wanted to laugh but my head was hurting too much.

I sat up slowly from where I had been laying on the floor. Obviously we had all had a few too many last night and fallen asleep on the couches while talking but I don't actually remember much of last night.

"Psst Dad!" whispered somebody from the doorway. I looked quickly and saw one of my twins stood there, I couldn't tell who it was in my hungover state.

"Yeah?" I whispered back, not wanting to wake Nathan and Matthew.

"I think Robbie is hung over."

"What?!" I hissed, heaving myself to my feet.

Small parts of last night were playing themselves back in my mind. Robbie coming downstairs after Josh had left, Robbie asking for a beer, it all started to add up in my mind.

"Damn it," I muttered. Whilst the Madina Lake twins and I were getting more and more drunk he was helping himself to beers. That little shit.

I followed Josh upstairs to Robbie's room where he was laying with a pillow over his head groaning.

"Oh shut up. It's your own stupid fault," said Josh.

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Shut up," whined Robbie, accepting defeat and pulling the pillow further over his head.

"You gotta get up. If you stay in bed it will just get worse," I lied. I was going to make him suffer for this, he can suffer with a full blown hang-over like I did the first time I got drunk.

"OK," he muttered, rolling straight out of bed and landing on the floor, blankets, pillow and all.

"Get up," said Josh, nudging him with his foot. He threw the pillow off his face. He looked truly terrible, his eyes were bloodshot and had black circles around them, he was pale and his hair was everywhere.

"You look like shit," I laughed.

"Piss off," he said, but he smiled slightly at me, pulling himself to his feet and standing beside Josh. I think they're looking less and less like me and more like their mother by the day.

"You feel OK?" I asked Robbie. He scratched his head and shrugged.

"Its nothing major," he said casually. Josh looked at the floor quickly. What the hell is this all about...

"Pssst Bob! Guess what! We passed out in your house!" came Matthew's whispered voice from behind me. We all burst out laughing.

"Sorry man! But those beers just kept on coming!" he laughed.

"Hung over?" he asked Robbie who nodded.

"Well, not me!" he said then poked out his tongue and did a kind of crazy little happy dance on the spot.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because, I don't know, I wasn't really that drunk."

"Yes you were! DTD!"

He blushed.

"I didn't!"

"You did, I remember it."

"Oh dude..." he scratched his head, ruffling up his blond and black hair. "Please tell me I didn't DTD!"

"What's DTD?" asked Josh curiously.

"Drunken table dancing," said Matthew and I in unison. Robbie snorted and Josh burst out laughing.

"Yeah yeah very funny, when you're a few years older you'll end up going to a party and dancing on tables!" warned Matthew.

"Shit. I better wake up sleeping un-beauty, we're flying out today to go visit our Dad and we need to be at the airport in like..." he checked the time on his cellphone. "Ten minutes ago," he said, putting the phone back in his pocket and walking back downstairs to wake up Nathan.

"I don't believe there are others!" said Robbie, his eyes strangely bright all of a sudden.

"Other what?"

"Other twins! We've never met any other identical twins before, especially ones that are so cool," said Robbie, dragging himself up off the floor.

"Well-" I was interrupted by a girlish scream from downstairs.

I wandered down the stairs and into the lounge.

"Who screamed?" I asked a half-asleep and clearly hung over Nathan.

"Knob head over there!" he muttered, pointing at Matthew who tried his very best to look innocent.

"Why the screaming?"

"I saw his ugly face!" retorted Matthew, pointing at Nathan.

"We're identical! You just dissed yourself, dumbass," laughed Nathan, quickly pulling on his shoes.

"Shut up."

"Make me!"

"Guys, can you argue quieter, it's just, little-un is still asleep..."

"Awwww she's so cute!" said Matthew. He had met Cassie the night before and had instantly loved her. I smiled.

"Yeah I know, but I've never woken her up before and I don't know if she's a morning person."

"She isn't," came a very annoyed sounding Cassie from behind me in the doorway. Matthew and Nathan burst out laughing and I was so shocked, my face must have been priceless.

"Sorry I screamed and woke you up," said Matthew, still smirking.

"It's OK. I was already awake," she said, walking over to me and wrapping her arms around my waist. I was pretty surprised but I picked her up and hugged her tight.

"Anyway, dude, we better be off. Sorry we kinda... passed out here..."

"It's alright man, forget it. Last night was funny anyway. Anything else Josh and Robbie need to do for the show tomorrow night?"

"Oh!" said Matthew quickly. "Yeah, there is. A friend of ours will be making them look exactly like us. She's made masks of our faces and everything. The guys need to go to her studio before the gig and get sorted out with that. She'll do their hair and all that stuff too," said Matthew, pulling out a scrap of paper and writing down an address, then handing it to me.

"OK. Do Dan and Mateo know that it's not going to be you tomorrow night?"

"Nope."

"Great," I said sarcastically.

"Well you told us not to tell anybody about them, and we didn't."

"Thanks guys, see you round sometime."

"Yeah, bye man. Thanks so much!" I saw them out, still holding Cassie.

"So what do you wanna do today?" I asked, closing the front door to the cold December morning outside.

"Sing!" she cried happily.

"Really?"

"Yes! I want to!"

"OK, well, I'll go in the other room and play my drums and then you can sing."

"No silly!"

"No?"

"No! Sing with you!"

"Sweetie, I can't sing."

"I know," she giggled.

"How do you know?" I asked suspiciously.

"I heard you in the shower!" she giggled. I blushed. I couldn't help myself, it was one of my secrets. I can't sing but I love to, don't know why I just do, and I thought the bathroom door was fairly soundproof...

I set her down on her feet gently and she looked up at me.

"So can I?" she asked eagerly.

"Go and get your brothers, get dressed and then we'll get some breakfast, then you can," I bargained. I heard a knock at the door and wondered if Nathan and Matthew had left something so I walked over to answer it quickly as Cassie headed upstairs.

"Mr Bryar, can I have a word?" It was the social worker dude, Ben.

"Yeah sure, come on in."

"Sorry it's kind of early, this was important."

"It's no problem, we just woke up anyway. So what is it?" I asked, showing him into the lounge and sitting down. He sat down opposite me and looked at me seriously.

"How are the boys?"

"Doing alright. Josh isn't... he's not very... what's the word? Stable I guess."

"I feel so terrible I let this happen. I feel like it's my fault."

"Yeah well, join the club," I said, a slight bitterness creeping into my voice.

There was a slightly awkward silence for a few moments until he spoke again.

"Mr. Bryar..."

"Bob."

"Bob, this isn't why I came here, I needed to talk to you about Nicola." It felt like a lead weight had fallen into my stomach.

"Why? I haven't seen her in almost seven years."

"I just needed to ask you if you were sure she never mentioned the boys when you last saw her."

"I'm sure," I said certainly.

"Nothing? Not one word of them?"

"Not that I can remember..."

"Alright. I also needed to let you know that the kids will all need to start school after the Christmas break, and there's some things for you pick up at Nicola's old house." I nodded solemnly. I had no intention of ever going to that place but if I have to then, I guess I have no choice.

"OK so, mostly what you need to pick up is just the kids stuff, all their documents, some more of their things, it's all in the house. I can watch the kids for you if you want to go get it all now because the sooner the better really."

"Uh.. sure, I mean, if you don't mind watching them for me."

"It's no problem, I've known them since they were ten and I've known Cassie since she was two."

"I'll go let them know and I'll head over there right now." Do I tell him Darren showed up? I got up and walked out of the room to the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey guys, I'm going out for a bit, Ben's here, I wont be too long," I called upstairs.

"Alright," called one of the twins. I couldn't tell who by just their voice. I walked back into the lounge.

"Their all getting dressed I think, you want anything before I go? Coffee or something?" I asked, trying to be polite even though I was still pissed off with him for sending them back to Darren when they didn't need to have gone.

"I'm fine," I nodded and left, grabbing my keys off the shelf and opening the front door. I heard a soft female voice from behind me.

"Daddy, where you going?"

"I just have to get some things sweetie, I'll be back soon." She looked at me sadly.

"That's what Mommy said, and she didn't come back."