Free Falling

Aryn sat on the kitchen island peeling an orange. It was about 11 and she had already been on her run. Although in Arizona running anytime after 9 AM could lead to one's untimely death. 

 Aryn swung her legs back and forth as she basked in the silence of her home. It wasn't often that the house was quiet when the boys were home but when it was early the Kirch home had an eerily quiet feeling. But Aryn had lived in a house full of girls who woke up early for school and sports for the past two years making this moment almost sacred to her. But all good things come to an end. Pat came into the kitchen followed the rest of the Maine with Tim in tow. Aryn grabbed the bowl of breakfast fruit salad and handed it to her brother, who just happened to be a fiend when it came to fruit. While Aryn  continued to slowly eat her orange the boys filled their stomachs with their own fruits.

"Hey Aryn, do you want the last bit of fruit?" Tim asked holding the bowl out for his younger sister.

"No I'm fine I already ate." The boys all looked shocked at this answer, Aryn almost could swear that she had also heard a 'yeah right' under one of the boy's breaths, no doubt Garret.

"You don't normally turn down food, especially fruit, you love it more than Pat does, besides it's healthy" Tim said holding out the bowl even more.

"Yeah the Aryn I know never turned down extra food."
John added.

"I said I'm full! You guys have eaten one meal with me in two years and you just assume I'm the same girl. I've changed and don't go judging me because I don't want to eat your fucking extra fruit. I was bulimic and I got help and I'm not anymore so don't you go thinking otherwise. I'm taking a shower." Aryn said walking upstairs.

"I'm gonna be honest I'm with Garrett on this I don't like the new Aryn." Pat said once his sister was out of ear shot.

"You can't hate her, she's your sister, besides everyone changes at some point." Jared said slapping Pat on the arm.

"Whatever she's just to defensive now and she doesn't seem fun anymore."

"Pat we've been home a day, give her a chance, she's probably all stressed because of soccer and Garrett." John added.

"What do I have to do with any of this." Garret said, personally offended when he was even associated with the weirdness surrounding Aryn, or maybe just the association with the girl at all.

"Oh come off it Gar, you can go around pretending that we don't know you were extremely hurt when she left. We all know you practically loved her. Why else would you be so pissed off. I'm just sure Aryn doesn't like the fact you're around, I know she doesn't like the terms you two are on." John reasoned.

"Whatever, if she didn't want to be in that kind of atmosphere then maybe she shouldn't have left without... Why do I even have to explain why I'm upset with her, she was the one who hurt me, not the other way around! Let's just have band practice." Garrett huffed, getting up to go into the practice room.

"What's up his butt?" Pat asked.

"Do you ever listen?" Kennedy asked getting up to follow Garrett.

The boys began set up their instruments when loud music began to play upstairs.

"What the hell is that?" Jared asked of the loud metal music.

"Well back when I was home and you guys weren't I learned our little Aryn has obtained some new musical tastes, mostly her new love of metal music. She likes to shower with music playing but most of the time it's been Tom Petty and you guys." Tim said plopping onto the couch nearby. "You can just play over it, no big deal."

The boys shrugged it off and began to play a little. Quickly, they became bored and began to fool around on each others instruments. John took this opportunity to head upstairs and use the bathroom unnoticed. And unlike a normal person in a house full of people John just walked right into the bathroom without even knocking.

"Jesus Christ!" Aryn screamed attempting to cover up her naked body before covering herself with a towel. "Have you ever heard of knocking O'Callaghan?"

"Have you ever heard of locking a door Kirch. Besides it's nothing I've never seen." John turned towards the toliet, unzipping his pants and began to relieve himself.

"Gross John I'm right here, just because I have brothers doesn't mean I need to deal with this" She said averting her eyes as she continued to put on lotion.

"Oh calm down, I wanted to talk to you anyways." John washed his hands and hopped on the counter to look at the girl.

"You know my brothers wouldn't be to pleased you are having this conversation with me in the bathroom while I'm mostly naked."

"Fine. Then let's go to your room and you can put on some clothes." He began to leave the bathroom towards the girl's room.

Aryn rolled her eyes but followed him nonetheless. When she got to her room she put her iPod in it's dock and began one of her playlists, ironically her The Maine one. John tinkered around her room looking at the posters and pictures that were the same as they had been all the years prior, seeing as her room was kept the same since she left. Aryn ignored the boy as she began to get into some shorts and a razorback, sitting on her bed and waiting for the older boy to begin his conversation. Saving Grace came on breaking John's trance. He turned around looking slightly shocked at the girl.

"You know this song is about Gracie..." John trailed off sitting down next to Aryn on the bed.

"Really? That doesn't make any sense, why would you write a song about Gracie?" Aryn scoffed sarcastically. " I like the song, in fact it's one of my favorites."

"I'm surprised you even listen to it, or to us at all"

" I love you guys, nothing is going to change that. Beside I like the fact that this new album doesn't have any songs about me on it."

"Songs about you? How self-centered of you, when have we ever written a song about you?" 

"Oh come off it! Pat and Tim aren't here to be mad about the fact you write songs about their little sister. Besides most of the songs about me are 'Garret hates Aryn because she's a soulless bitch' songs." 

"I still have no idea what you're talking about, please enlighten me."

"Okay, where to start... Let's see your first song Daisy, don't worry I'll never tell my bros because they would murder you knowing that I made out with you every time you sang that song to me." 

"That was ages ago it doesn't count!"

"Whatever it counts but your EP was chalk full of songs about Aryn, seeing as you recorded it after I left. First The Way We Talk, although I feel you mostly wrote that, I feel Garrett's bass part is directly shooting into my heart. Then we move onto Girls Do What They Want which isn't directly pointed at me but you know Gar was thinking it. You Left Me is basically Garrett saying fuck you I found someone else like your best friend."

"Garrett didn't date your best friend"

"He dated Cassie, I have a Facebook, I saw pictures. Beside the first line is "You left me with a broken heart and now I see what I shoulda from the start.".... It's obviously me. Also there's the whole 'she said she loved me but I didn't give a fuck' and the 'don't keep calling just forget me' because I tried to get him to see I still cared but he didn't want to hear it. Then there's  This Is The End, not all about me but 'left me here with a whole lotta nothing' screams Aryn left Garrett 'without saying goodbye'. Oh and there's Whoever She Is,  the closure, because I don't have to worry about him but I am the girl he thought he had but she ran away. But the cream of the crop is that stupid song on your EP, If I Only The Heart."

"That's not about you two it's a guy apologizing to his girl."

"No it's Garrett writing from my point of view. Because I'm 'young, stupid , and reckless' so I left without admitting my feelings. And 'please just forget me when I'm all alone on the east coast' I was alone on the east coast and Gar didn't need to remember. ' Please don't forgive me when you're home all alone and you need me most.' I cried when I heard this, it's the first song and I was so excited to buy your album and then I heard this and realized Garrett would never forgive me for leaving him when he needed me more than anything! I'm a horrible person and he made me cry for that but I didn't mean to hurt him, I just couldn't be here anymore." She choked out the last part.

"Perfect segue to my point. Garrett writes about what he knows and he knows you and he was hurt but he still loves you"

"We never told each other we loved one another, we weren't even dating"

"Okay fine he still has strong feelings for you, but I want to say I understand why you left. You can say it's because you couldn't stay here or because Gracie wanted you to go to Solomon or even that you couldn't stay here because Gracie wasn't at your side. But I know if you hadn't left we wouldn't have you anymore, you would have killed yourself and I know that for a fact. And I would miss you like hell, besides you still got some olympic medals to win. So forget Garrett he'll eventually come around." John pulled Aryn into a hug.

"This is why we couldn't date." Aryn laughed wrapping her arms around him.

"This is why? I thought it was because of your brothers and the age difference."

"Well that too, but because you're more like a brother making me feel better about guys who treat me poorly." Aryn smiled wiping away stray tears.

"Oh I get it, it's because I don't make you cry like the guys who really love you like that." John laughed helping wipe away leftover tears. "But since I made you so upset with this conversation, I won't tell you about the lyrics Kenny wrote about you." They both laughed and Aryn buried her head into John's neck savoring the much needed hug.

"John what's taking you so long- oh I should have known... Fucking perfect," Garrett said barging in and seeing the two quite cuddly.

"Man it's not what it looks like..." John stood up reasoning with Garrett.

"Whatever man, I know what I saw, you don't need to defend her, it's Aryn she's a maneater." He turned around walking back downstairs mumbling something about a new space for practice that needed to be put into effect immediately.

"I guess I should take that as my cue to return to practice. But remember if you ever need someone to talk to I'm here. And he'll come around eventually just give him time." John placed a kiss on her forehead. "By the way nice picture there." He pointed to the wall behind her.

"Just go I don't want to become the Maine's Yoko Ono because you were gone too long." She said shoving him towards the door.

Aryn turned around and looked at the picture John was referring to. It was her backstage after the first Maine show she was all cuddly and close with Garrett despite the fact that it was before her and Garrett were an 'item'. Pat was trying to squeeze in between them whether it was to break his sister away from the boy or because he wanted some Garrett action due to his bromance with the kid Aryn couldn't remember, but she smiled seeing the rest of the Maine acting normally around them as the picture was taken. After the euphoric moment ended Aryn just ended up feeling worse. 

She went downstairs quietly and saw all the boys joking around in the family room, normally she would have joined in with them, but not anymore. Now she didn't want to cause anymore drama so she left the house silently wanting to seek refuge in place where people still cared about her.