Welcome to the Family

A few weeks after the double date incident, Danii found herself sitting in the passenger seat of her brother's awful pick up truck, biting her lip as she watched the other cars speed by.

She was in trouble, yet again. Although this time it had nothing to do with her boyfriend or her sister and everything to do with herself.

Back in school, her and Emily had separate groups of friends. Sure, there were some people that overlapped, but for the most part they kept to their own crowds.

And well, lets just say Emily was the one with upstanding citizen group of friends. Danii, on the other was not exactly well behaved. In fact, she was lucky that her record got expunged when she turned 18, since she had quite the laundry list going; shoplifting, minor drug possession charges for things like weed and prescription pills, as well as more speeding tickets than any one person should ever have (which is why Matt finally took her keys away a few months back).

But right now was a little different. Matt had gotten a phone call from a friend, saying he thought he saw one of his sisters, and figured he should let him know. So, Matt, being the responsible older brother that he was, got into his truck and drove up the coast, blood boiling. He was so sick and tired of going to rescue his sister, but he knew he had to. Plus, he was done with losing the people he loved the most--he already lost his parents, he wasn't about to lose one of his baby sisters.

“I can't believe you!"he yelled, his eyes locked on the road in front of them as he swerved in and out of lanes.

“I'm sorry Matt, okay? I'm fucking sorry!"

"No, Danielle, I don't think you are. I thought we were done with all of this shit, I thought you were finally on the right path. But no. Oh fucking no, then you go and pull a stunt like this." He sighed deeply. He sounded more disappointed than angry, and that was what was truly upsetting Danii.

She never wanted to disappoint him, and really, her bad behavior had nothing to do with her brother's attempting to fill in as a parent. In fact, she loved Matt more than anything for it, and she really wished he knew that. But in her eyes, he didn't. He just thought she was a little shit, or at least that's what she assumed.

Danii bit her lip, feeling it quiver between her teeth. She didn't want to cry, not now, not in front of him. She didn't want Matt to see her crumble, not again, not this time. "I don't know what to say..."

"There's really nothing for you to say. Just sit there and be quiet and think about what the fuck you did."

She fell silent, her mind racing at a million miles an hour as they went in the direction of their home. She was surprised that he had driven all the way out there-- they were a good three hours away from home.

It was a good twenty minutes before she thought it was safe to say anything. "Matt?" Her voice cracked.

"What?" he snapped. She could see that his knuckles were still white as he gripped the steering wheel.

"Does Emie know where you are?"

He sighed. "No."

"Is she going to know?"

“I think she should. I think you owe her that much. And I'm going to assume that your boyfriend doesn't know where you are either, does he?"

Danii didn't answer, just closed her eyes to hold back the tears.

“I didn't think so. But you owe him that too. As much as I really wish you weren't in a relationship 'cause you do shit like this, you are. And usually I'd let you fight your own battles in that aspect, but I can't just sit on the sidelines with this one; you practically forced him into my group of friends," Matt said.

Danii was unable to believe the fact that Matt had just referred to Zacky as one of his friends, but she didn't saying anything about it. "Do they really need to know?"

“Yes. End of story."

“But, Matt!"

“No, Danielle. You're telling both of them where you were tonight--or should I say this morning, since it's now almost four."

“But I said I was sorry! And it's not like you needed to come rescue me!"

“Are you out of your fucking mind?! Fuck yes I needed to come get your sorry ass. Do I need to remind you of why you were forbidden from ever seeing Sean ever a-fucking-gain?"

Silence.

The angrier Matt got, the more aggressively he drove. Danii was praying that they got pulled over, just so her life could stop flashing before her eyes as she watched the speedometer continue to crawl upward.

“Okay, so I'm taking your silence as you needing to be reminded. Let's see, first there was the drugs. Do you not remember your drug of choice, Danielle? It was coke. Ya know, the white stuff you snorted? And almost OD'd on, multiple times! Oh, ya know, and then there was the fact that the fucking psycho would knock the shit outta you, and you wouldn't come home for days at a time since you'd be too battered and bruised!" Matt raved, his knuckles going even whiter and his pulse racing. He truly couldn't believe they were having this conversation. "Do you not remember the pain you put your family through? Because I really think you don't. You don't give a shit about anyone but yourself, do you? You think that no one else in this world suffers, just you. You have no respect for anyone, not even yourself."

“You wouldn't understand.."she replied, her voice just above a whisper as she finally let the tears flow.

“You're right, I wouldn't. I'll never understand you, Danielle, will I?"

“No one does," she snapped, using the back of her hand to wipe away the falling tears. She didn't want to be in the car with him right now. If anything, she wanted to be smeared all over the pavement; he was right, she had already put her family through hell and back, she had no right to do it again.

“I guess not. Now shut the fuck up. I don't want to hear a single fucking word from you until we got home," he said, clearly exasperated. She wasn't going to disobey him. Again

Meanwhile, back at home, Emily was freaking out, pacing back in the living room. Brian was there, he was beginning to be a permanent fixture at their house, watching her with sad eyes. He didn't know how to help her; all he could do was tell her what he knew. Which was that Matt had simply gone out for the night, to go and see a friend a couple of hours away. Of course, Matt had told him this after receiving a really weird phone call, so he wasn't exactly sure what the fuck was going on. Zacky was there at the Sanders' household as well, although he wasn't in the room with them. He was sitting outside, smoking a cigarette, wondering what the was going on.

Brian had called him around two, to ask if Danii was with him since Emily had said that she was missing. Of course, Zacky was more than surprised by this, since he hadn't spoken to Danii or anyone else in that select group of people in the past couple of days. So, when Brian had continued on to say that Matt went to 'see a friend,' the guys put two and two together, and realized some major shit was going down.

“Where are they?" Emily asked, looking desperately at her boyfriend, although she knew he didn't have the answer.

“I don't know, Em. The minute I find out, I'll let you know. I don't know what else to tell you," he said, his eyes following her a she continued on back and forth.

“This is fucking ridiculous. I don't understand how they could both disappear."

Brian just shrugged, wondering if Emily had put two and two together. This night was almost like deja vu.

Flashback

Matt grabbed his jacket and car keys, his mind rushing in a million different directions as he tried to figure out a a plan of action.

“Emily!"

A moment later, she appeared in the kitchen, looking sleepy and disoriented. "What? I was falling asleep... What's going on?"

He took a deep breath, not wanting to yell at her, when she wasn't the one causing the mayhem. "Emily, I need you to call Brian. Have him stay over tonight.Okay?"

“Why?" she asked, clearly confused. Usually Matt was kind of old fashioned when it came to letting the girls and their lovers sleep over. Of course, Brian was kind of different, considering he and Matt were best friends before he became Emily's boyfriend.

Matt thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to word this. "I need to go get Danii from somewhere, and I don't want you alone here."

“What happened to Danii?"

“Nothing. She's fine. Just call Brian, and I'll see you in a little bit, okay?"

Emily nodded, and before she could say anything more, Matt ran out the door.

Hours later, Brian found himself stroking Emily's hair, trying to keep her from breaking out in tears again. Matt had been in contact via text every now and again, up until about two hours ago, and it had both Brian and Emily worried, although Brian was trying his best to mask how much it truly unnerved him.

“Do you think they're dead?" Emily asked suddenly.

“No."

“Not in the slightest?"

“No. They would never leave you."

“Everyone says that, I know my parents did."

“This is different."

“How so?"

“It just is. Promise."

“Okay."

Emily buried her face back in his chest, and Brian continued to gently rock her back and forth. He didn't know what else to do. It seemed like nights like these were happened more and more frequently. Matt would get a call, whether it be from local police or from a friend or a friend of a friend, and he would go running out, causing Emily to call him and ask for him to come over. And then it'd be hours before they knew anything.

Nights like these never ended well. Sometimes Matt would come home, alone, with a somber look on his face, and then he'd just storm off into his room without saying anything, leaving Brian and Emily to wait until the next morning for an explanation.

Other times he and Danii would come into the house, still screaming at each other, blood boiling, fists about to fly.

And then there were the times that Matt would call Brian in advanced, telling him to take Emily out of the house since Danii wasn't in the best shape and Emily didn't need to see that. Those nights were the scariest.

"You should try and get some sleep. I'll wake you up as soon as Matt gets back to us, okay?" Brian said, still stroking her head.

“But what if you don't hear your phone?"

“I will, trust me."

“Okay."

Emily was sound asleep within minutes, although it wasn't very peaceful.

Brian waited up for another two hours before finally giving in and going to sleep himself.

When he woke up in the morning, the other Sanders siblings had yet to return.

“Emily, look at me.” Brian said, standing from his seat on the couch and walking over to his, still pacing, girlfriend. “I’m going outside to talk to Zacky, I want you to stay in here from at least 5 minutes so I can talk to him and see how he is ok?” He said with his hands on Emily’s shoulders looking her in the eyes. She simply nodded her head, he gave her a quick, simple peck on the lips and turned to leave. Before he could take one step, Emily had his wrist in her grip causing him to turn back around and look at her.

“Thank you for always staying with me when this happens Bri, it means more to me then you could possibly imagine.” She said, smiling sadly. All of the pacing had given her time to think and she put two and two together, she knew that her sister was in a lot of trouble. Brian nodded his head, giving her a sympathetic look, and turning to go see how Zacky was holding up.

~*~

“Hey man, how you holdin’ up?” Brian asked, walking out of the apartment building to stand next to his newest friend.

“I don’t know.” Zacky answered honestly, taking a long drag of his cigarette in the process. Brian took out his own cigarette and lit it, taking a long drag as well.

“I’m sure she’ll be ok, she usually is.” Brian said, trying to consol Zacky as best as he could. From seeing the way Emily had been acting, he knew there was little anyone could do to consol each other at this moment. They all just need to be there for each other right now. Even Brian was trying to be a rock and help everyone else, he was hurting just as bad. He saw the condition Danii was in most of the time when she came home from nights out with Sean. He wanted to beat that man to a pulp, almost as bad as Matt did. It broke him to see his best friend and girlfriend in the sort of pain they were in when these situations came up.

“I just wish I could be there with them, isn’t that what a boyfriend is supposed to do? Protect their girlfriend? I failed Danii as a boyfriend, and I failed Matt as, I guess you could say, a friend. I should have been with her today. But, I wasn’t.” Zacky replied sighing.

“You can’t blame yourself for this man, it isn’t your fault at all. Her last boyfriend was, let’s just say, very problematic. Danii should be the one to tell you the full story of what happened with him. But this has nothing to do with you, if anything you’ve been keeping her in line.” Brian said, giving Zacky a consoling pat on the shoulder. Sure Zacky knew some of the stuff that had happened with Sean, he just didn’t know the full extent of it. “Please, don’t beat yourself up over this, everyone is hurting bad enough as it is, none of us need to see you put yourself down over this as well.” Brian said with sad eyes.

“I’m trying Brian, I really am.” Zacky replied.

“Is it ok if I come out here now?” Emily asked, poking her head out from the main doors of the apartment building. Her make-up was running down her face, making it obvious that she had completely broken down in tears when Brian left to talk to Zacky.

“Of course, babe.” Brian replied, smiling weakly at her. Instead of walking straight over to Brian, however Emily walked over to Zacky to give him a hug.

“I’m sorry you have to be going through this right now, Zacky. I know this can’t be easy on you.” At first, Zacky was very taken back by the sudden hug. But after a few seconds, he gladly returned it.

While Emily wasn’t paying attention, Brian quickly checked his phone to see if Matt had texted him with any news. It looked like it was going to be one of the scary night, because Brian hadn’t heard from Matt in a few hours, just like last time. Brian shook his had when he saw he had no new messages or missed calls.

“Emily, you should really try to get some sleep.” Brian said, hoping to get her to bed, if only to take her mind off the situation at hand for a few hours.

“I can’t, I can’t just go to sleep knowing that my second half is in trouble again.” Emily’s voice broke at the end of her statement. Brian’s heart broke right there, seeing Emily collapse onto the sidewalk and break down in tears. Brian and Zacky both bent down next to her trying to coax her into standing up and going inside with them. “No, NO! I’m not leaving this spot until I know my sister is home and safe!” Emily shouted at the two men next to her.

“Then, I’m not leaving your side. I need to know my girlfriend is home and safe as well.” Zacky sighed, and sat down next to her.

“I’m not leaving your side either, babe.” Brian said, sitting down with the other two. He placed his arm around his sobbing girlfriend, and pulled her into him. Soon, the crying and stress had gotten to Emily, and she fell into a very un-peaceful sleep with her face buried in Brian’s chest.