The Dilemma.

“Mmmf” I mumbled as I ate my burger, I was so hungry. I had to go trek it to get something decent. I picked a movie to watch, I had decided that it was going to be a lazy day.

I relaxed on the couch upstairs and threw my feet up so I was laying down, slightly propped up with some pillows.

“Max Helyer” Chewy’s voice spoke seriously “you need to follow me”

“What? Why? I just started my movie”

“I don’t care” Chris wasn’t having any of it. I grunted, leaving my burger on the couch and followed Chris down to his bunk.

“Show him” Chris said to Rae, she looked equally confused as me.

“Show me what?” I asked slowly, what the hell was going on.

“A picture” Chris blinked up at me.

Rae had no idea what was going on “Chris, I don’t-“ Chris cut her off.

“Rae. Please” Chris said slowly, trying to remain calm for whatever it was that was going on.

Rae handed Chris the picture hesitantly and Chris handed it to me, I inspected it and as soon as I saw my dad, everything started piecing together.

“No way. That’s-” I couldn’t believe this.

“I know.” Chris agreed. Rae just looked even more confused.

I shook my head, no this couldn’t be real! “But it can’t be. There’s no way that that’s-”

“But it is and you know it just as well as I do.” Chris was right, Rae was my sister and I was only just finding out after knowing her for weeks.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?!?” Rae interrupted my intense thinking, her face red, looking very flustered.

“Tell her” Chris whispered.

I stammered, how could I word this. Fuck “just tell me Max” Rae sighed, obviously over this situation.

“I’myourbrother” I spoke really fast, I was nervous.

I watched her face change “wait, what?”

Chris explained to her while I stood there, stunned. I had been hanging out with my sister for weeks and I didn’t even know she was my sister. We had a lot of catching up to do...
Chris left the two of us alone and as soon as he left I attacked her with the tightest hug I could give. I heard her sniffle “why are you crying?”

“I don’t know” she laughed and wiped her eyes and nose. I held her, I held her tight because she was my sister and I had so many years of catching up to do with her.

“Are you happy?” I spoke, almost a whisper.

“We have a lot to talk about later” I held her shoulders at arm’s length, I poked my tongue out. A giggle escaped from her lips. I pretended to act shocked “was that a laugh, and a smile?”

“There she is, that’s the Rae I know and love to piss off” I grinned evilly and threw my arms up. She just lightly pushed me “shut up Max”

“Uh-huh, I have 21 years of annoying you to catch up on, you think that I’m going to listen?” I said a matter of fact and poked my tongue out again and then I realised something “so can we tell the guys?”

“I look like crap” she pouted. She looked fine, the minds of some girls confused me.

“No you don’t” I assured her but she just returned my nice comment with a glare “pleaaaaaaseee” I begged. This would get her.

She rolled her eyes for the millionth time and groaned “ugh, fine. But how are we going to tell them?”

We came up with how we were going to tell the guys so I jumped out of the bunk and helped her out. I put my arm around her shoulder as we walked downstairs to the front lounge where Chris, Matt and Josh were situated. Chris caught Rae’s eyes and he smiled the biggest smile I had ever seen.

I glanced around, where the fuck was Dan? He was usually clung to Josh or Rae.

“Where’s Dan?” Rae asked as if she had read my mind.

“Why?” Josh asked, giving her a weird look.

“Cause Max and I have something to tell everyone and Dan needs to be here” Rae stated confidently.

“I think he’s upstairs” Matt said. Rae simply nodded and went to the end of the stairs and called out his name.

“You need to stop making the poor boy think he has a chance now Rae” Matt shook his head with a little smirk on his lips.

“I never said he didn’t” she winked. I could’ve sworn she and Dan were together.

“I knew it” Dan appeared and started to dance in a circle.

“I never said you did either though” Rae was such a tease, I’m pretty sure Dan was so in love with her.

“What did you want?” Dan flopped on the lounge next to Josh.

“Yeah, so what’s this all about?” Matt asked.

Rae came and stood back next to me “well, it’s about my brother”

“What about him?” Josh looked up at her with his eyebrows raised.

“I’ve found him” Rae was trying so hard not to smile. I saw Chris smirking.

“What!?! Where?!?! I want to meet him!” Dan and Matt yelled. Josh had a really shocked expression on his face.

“What would you say if I told you that you already know him” I crossed my arms and smirked, this was fun.

“Wait? Max knows?” Josh asked, almost sounding jealous that I knew.

“There’s a reason Max knows” Rae said, amused at their reactions. Now they were just confused.

“Why’s that?” Dan asked warily.

“Cause I’m her brother” I shrugged. They went quiet and Chris sat there with his big smile plastered on his face. I would never get tired of saying she was my sister, she was the best sister anyone could ask for. I pulled her into a bear hug and she wrapped her arms around my waist. I noticed Dan looking from me to Rae, figuring this out and Matt was doing the same sort of thing, counting with his fingers. Josh, well josh looked ridiculous, sitting there with a weird look on his face.

“Is anyone gonna say anything?!” Rae was close to shouting. I winced at the loudness of her voice. Just as she said it, Georgie, Laura, Nyx, Austin, Alan and his bird walked onto the bus.

Georgie looked at us all, realising something was going on “uh- what?” she crossed her arms “Okay, so Chris, Rae and Max knew something and then they told the three of you. It was something big so what the fuck happened?”

“I would suggest sitting down” Rae smiled over to her.

“Oh thank god my feet are killing me” Nyx eased herself down onto the lounge and Austin and Alan sat down beside her, Alan pulling Anna down to sit with him.

Laura looked at the two of us with the same confused look as everyone else “why?”

“Please, just sit” I pouted. She sat down next to Chris, as Georgie sat on his lap.

“So what’s the news?” Austin looked around and then focused on us.

“Okay, so you all know the general story about my dad and brother right?” Rae asked before diving right into the good news.

Laura raised her hand and spoke “I don’t?”

But Rae couldn’t be bothered explaining the whole thing “well long story short, shit went down between my mom and dad. Mom moved to NC and gave birth to me, my dad and brother stayed over on this side of the world. I never really looked for him. But guess what!? I found him”

“That’s great!” Georgie clapped her hand excitedly and jumping up and down on Chris’ knee. Nyx was looking at Rae and I hugging, working things out in her head while Austin, Alan, Anna and Laura looked at us, waiting for the answer.

“So are you gonna tell us who it is?” Alan asked Rae.

“I can tell you that you know him” Rae smiled cheekily and that made their eyebrows rise as they tried to think. I looked at Nyx narrowing her eyes over at Rae. I watched as she realised.

“Fucking hell Max is your brother!” Nyx screamed at the top of her lungs. I knew Dan would have something to say about that so I looked at Dan but Josh had his hand over his mouth. I chuckled and so did Rae. It was amusing seeing everyone with the shock on their faces.

Josh finally said something “how did you find this out?” he pointed to me and Rae. I looked over at Rae and nodded to the picture in my hand still “should we show them?” Rae nodded as I handed Josh the photo.

I watched Josh’s facial expression change from a frown to a realisation “I’ve seen this photo before” he looked up at us, raising an eyebrow. The group of us sat in the lounge room for about half an hour until Austin and Alan had to go get ready for their gig, they took Nyx and Anna with them. Everyone else eventually disappeared and it ended up just being Rae and me in the lounge.
Rae went and got her other photo albums and she was showing me her mom...well our mom. I wish I had known her, I wish I got to meet her properly before she died...

“That’s my house. Nothing has changed at all” I pointed to a photo with my home in the background. This was going to take some getting used to. We got to a photo of our Dad and well Mom and a lady that Dad worked with but she was folded over. Rae unfolded it to take a look “that’s...” I stared at the photo.

“What Max?” Rae asked softly.

“See that lady beside Dad?” she nodded “well, uh that’s I don’t know what to call her now because of all this. She’s the lady I thought was my mum” I inspected the picture. Staring at my real mom and the fake one. Rae removed her eyes from me and inspected the picture harder. Her hand held mine as we just looked at the photo.

“Does she make him happy?” Rae looked up at me, sadness in her eyes.

I nodded “yeah she does” we went back to looking at pictures until we were informed that it was time to go into the venue and play. Before we went on stage, Rae disappeared as I was testing my guitar. I heard Chris complaining about something but I ignored him, I was in such a weird mood. Happy, that is.

Rae and I promised to make a day where we could talk about everything, figure things out.

The atmosphere of the show was amazing, always got me hyped up. Before the show we planned to tackle Rae at one point, so we did it.

“Get off me! You all stink!” her voice was muffled underneath the five of us, sweaty and smelly men.

“But we love you Rae!” Dan shouted happily over the loud chants from the crowds asking for an encore.

“Just go back out there and please your fans” she gasped. I was the first to get up and I held out my hand or her. She looked at me and I looked at her, she knew now that I would be there for her no matter what and whenever she needed anything.

“Should we?” Chris wiped some sweat off his forehead.

I was fixing my shirt up when I came up with an idea “I have an idea” I smiled at Josh before I whispered into his ear, informing him of my idea.

“Yeah, we’re doin this” Josh agreed and then gathered everyone in to inform them also before running back on stage. “What’s up you guys” Josh yelled oh so naturally into his microphone “since you lot wanted more songs. We will give you three!” the crowd erupted into yells and cheers.

“So here’s the deal” I spoke into my microphone “how many of you read Kerrang?” everyone cheered for their answer “well they’ve sent us out with an intern to document this tour. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of her around. Rae! Get your ass out here!” I looked over at side stage and saw her shaking her head “don’t you dare tell me no sister!” I wasn’t taking no for an answer, nuh-uh. “I will come over there and get you” she continued shaking her head so that left me no choice “Dan, Chew I’m going to need reinforcements” the crowd laughed all together. I gave my guitar to Jon and Chew handed his to Dean. Dan left his sticks on his drum chair and the three of us ran over to Rae who had a half amused look on her face and a half scared look on her face. Chew hoisted her onto his shoulders and walked her on stage and sat her down next to Josh.

Josh looked so amused with a stupid smile stuck on his face “anyways, this is Rae! And she had become part of the Sixer family. Come on show her some love!” Josh clapped as the whole room clapped and cheered for her. Made me want to cry. “So, to honor her tonight we’ve gotten insider information about her three favourite songs by us and lucky for you all they aren’t on the setlist. So enjoy” Josh cleared his throat away from the microphone. He pulled Rae into a hug and then we all hugged her before she went back side stage. We played A Little Bit Of Truth first, I glanced over at Rae a few times noticing her wiping a few tears away. We finished the song so I passed my mic over to Chew.

“This one, for our dear adopted sister and my favorite Squirt,” as Chris spoke, I looked out to the crowd, some people right at the front were still wiping their tears away, and some were smiling so hard I could almost see all their teeth. I fucking loved my job.
“Is called Stay with Me.” we all looked over to Rae and smiled over to her, she had her hands clasped together. Josh sang as hard as he could, this song meant a lot to him. She sang along to every word, laughing at me jumping around like a maniac. As we finished off the song some stage help brought out 5 stools for each of us and Dan’s drum box. Rae didn’t know it yet but there was a stool for her in between Josh and me.

“Rae!” I ran up to her “get out here sis” I told her to sit on the stool and then sat down myself.
Josh held his microphone and cleared his throat before speaking

“So this last song, means a lot to this band, Chris and Dan in particular, but it also means a lot to this girl sitting right beside me, she’s been through a lot, and look how far she’s gotten. She gets to tour with us I mean how much more awesome of a job can that be really?” I watched Josh, laughing at how lame he was being “Anyways, she’s a tough girl, we love her like sister, well some of us.” Josh coughed and glanced at Dan “Anyways, Dan’s infatuation with Rae is not the point. It’s that she has become one of the family in such a short period of time. So this song is for her, this is When We Were Younger.” I couldn’t stop smiling at her, same with Chris. This song meant so much to all of us. About the time where Josh was sung “When I was younger, I never thought. That when I was older, I'd see you give up. Now that I'm older, I carry the torch.” That Rae started crying, Josh gripped a hold of her hand, and he sent her a smile, his features showing how it was hard for him to not start crying also. I looked around; I took in the moment, the crowd singing along, our band on the verge of tears. When we finished the song I propped my guitar back on the rack and tackled Rae to the ground along with the rest of the guys. We were all crying and laughing together. We were a big pile of tears and sweat. Finally Josh grabbed his microphone and said. “We love you all! We are You Me At Six.” And did a little salute before pulling all of us off stage. We stood side stage just hugging, with Georgie and others joining soon after.

Our smell combined into one and it stunk! I was almost gagging.
Rae made some sort of escape so I tackled her again “Fucking hell you idjit. Get off me!” I just stayed lying on her. Then Dan decided to make it funnier “dog pile on Rae!” we all piled on top of each other and then Georgie, Laura and Nyx sat on the pile. I heard Rae groaning about how heavy it was. I just laughed. This was the start to being annoying brother.

“Can you lot get off me?!” Rae yelled as loud as she could but we all answered with a loud no.

“What’s going on?” Tino asked with a laugh as he and Phil approached us all piled on the floor, Rae yelling at them to get off her. I just laughed. This was fun, being a brother was fun.

“Well apparently, it’s dog pile on me day” Rae coughed out, it must have been hard to speak with 5+ people sitting on you.

“Awesome, I’m going to take a picture” Phil laughed and pulled his phone out. Rae just stuck her finger up at the camera whilst we all posed and smiled.

“Ok! Get off me, you all stink and need to shower!” Rae shouted, trying to stand up. With help from Tino and Phil she wriggled herself out from under the pile, leaving us all still sitting there on the floor.
--
Everyone went back to the bus and showered and such so Rae and I locked everyone out of the back lounge. We had our computers, phones, pillows and blankets.

“Max! We need to tell Tina” Rae said it as though she had totally forgotten about Tina which made me laugh. We were hanging upside down on the lounge.

“I’ll get your computer; we’ll Skype her upside down” I got up and grabbed her computer, opening up Skype after setting it in front of us. I lay back beside Rae and waited for Tina to answer.

“What are you two doing?” Tina’s all too familiar laugh came out the speakers.

“Well, hanging upside down, keeping everyone else out of the back lounge and attempting to tell you important news” I said quickly, poking my tongue out at her. I could feel my blood running to my head.

“News?! What news? Did Josh break up with what’s-her-tit’s-yet?” Tina was speaking 100miles a minute.

“Shutup Tina!” Rae laughed “That is not what this is about! This is about me”

“Tell me!!” Tina whined causing me to laugh.

“So I found my brother” Rae said calmly. Tina’s eyes went wide.

“YOU WHAT!??” Tina’s scream filled the room. Shit she was loud.

“I found him, Chris helped” Rae said, smirking at me.

“Well who the fuck is he!?”

“Me!” I laughed. She looked at me and then looked at Rae.

“WHAT!? YOU’VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME”

“Chill out Tina, I’ll fill you in more later ok. Just had to let you know”

“But-“

“Tina” Rae shot her a look. I loved the way these two treated each other.

“Fine” she huffed “But soon” she sent a glare at us both but Rae just smiled “I love you, talk to you later”

“Love you” Rae replied as we both waved goodbye. The screen went black and then I looked at Rae “what to do now?”

“Probably sit up right so all the blood doesn’t flow to our heads”
I agreed “might be a good idea” we both sat up, Rae making and “oof” sound. “That did not sound fun” Rae pushed me off the couch forcefully. “Ha I pulled that off!”

“I commend you for that sir” she tipped a pretend hat me. I chuckled and ruffled her hair. We sat for hours talking.

“Rae. I’m borrreeedddddd.” I whined over a Rae who was snuggled under a blanket.

“Then go get some foooddd.” Rae whined back.

“How exactly is that going to help?”

“I dunno," she shrugged. "I always eat when I’m bored.” She went upside down. I still couldn’t believe she was my sister.

“You are weird. BUT I JUST HAD THE BEST IDEA EVER!!” I flipped off the couch and jumped up all very dramatically. This was the best idea.

“What is this best idea ever you claim to have?” Rae sat up and mimicked my moves.

“Two words.” I grinned like it was Christmas morning.

“Continue dear brother.” She waved her hands around.

“Dance. Party.” I laughed maliciously. Rae looked at me like I was the best person on Earth. I guess we were more alike than we realised.

“Best. Idea. Ever” Rae agreed with an excited nod. I opened up iTunes on my computer and played some shitty dance music. We danced like nut cases, it was so fucking fun. We couldn’t even dance but we made it look good. A funny thought popped into my head. Josh would probably use our moves on stage. Sometime while we were dancing and laughing our heads off, Josh pounded on the door and told us to shut up. We sighed, stifling laughs and then settled down, falling asleep.