Falling For My Best Friends Brother

Chapter Twenty-two- Emmy's POV

The curtains were pulled back in my room when I woke up. I must have forgotten to close them. After talking to my mom, I had gone to my room and drifted to sleep rather quickly. I dragged myself out of bed, thankful it was the weekend. I looked out the window, noticing how grey and dreary it was out. I hated when it rained. You could never find a damn thing to do. I slowly made my way out of my room. Lately, it had been my goal to check on mom when I woke up, but today I felt like getting coffee in my system before trying to hold a conversation. Bryson had gone to Riley's last night after talking with mom. I was happy to finally see them together. I had known all along that they liked each other, they were both too stubborn to admit it. Dad was sitting at the table when I walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, dad," I said with a smile, grabbing a mug and pouring coffee into it.

"Hey, kiddo." Something seemed different about my dad. His eyes were puffy and red, and his hair was a mess.

"Everything okay?" I had never seen my dad cry, and the minute I asked, he bursted into tears. I quickly set my mug down and wrapped him in a hug. In that moment, I couldn't figure out why he was crying.

"Your mother- she passed this morning," he managed to get out in between breaths. That's when it hit me. Mom had cancer, and it had taken her from us. I couldn't help the tears rolling down my face at the realization. This wasn't suppose to happen. She was too young; she was too good of a person.

"It's like she knew," I finally said when I calmed down a bit. My dad looked at me, confusion written on his face. "She made sure to talk to me and Bryson last night." He nodded before placing his face in his hands. "We'll get through this, dad." I sat down at the table across from him, sipping on my coffee, still in utter disbelief. "Does Bryson know?" My dad looked at me and shook his head. "I'll call him." I got up from the table and went to my room. I grabbed my phone off the night stand and dialed Bryson's number. He didn't answer, so I called him again. Of course, he didn't answer. I decided to call Riley, knowing she would probably answer, and to my luck, I was right.

"Hello?" She said. I could hear the sleep in her voice. I must have waken her up.

"Did I wake you? I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine, Em. What's up?" I sighed into the phone. I knew how Bryson was going to handle this, which is exactly why I wasn't going to tell him over the phone.

"Is Bryson there?"

"Yeah, he's sleeping."

"Can you wake him up? I need to speak to him." I heard some shuffling in the background and finally, his groggy morning voice came over the phone.

"What the fuck do you want, Emmy? It's eight o'clock."

"You need to come home."

"Why?" I was starting to get pissed off. Bryson was never this difficult to deal with.

"Just fucking do it, okay?" I heard a sigh on his end, along with some shuffling.

"Fine." I hung up the phone and went downstairs to sit with dad.

~~~~

You could tell that Bryson was mad that I had interrupted him and Riley by the way he slammed the door shut.

"This better be fucking good, Emmy," he said as he came into the kitchen.

"Mom died," I said, deciding to be blunt. His facial expression changed in seconds and he nearly dropped to the floor.

"No, she couldn't have." My dad had gone upstairs to shower before Bryson showed up, but he was now making his way down the stairs.

"She did, Bryson," my dad said.