My Seven Brothers

Chapter 4 - Social Butterfly

Summer's POV

"Mom? Is that you?" Adam said into the phone. My brothers and I all looked at each other. We all stayed silent until Adam ended the call.

He looked at us with wide eyes. "Adam, what's going on?" I asked. He sighed and sat down at the table. "To be honest," Adam started, "I don't know, Pumpkin." "Well at least tell us about the call," Ryan said. We all nodded our heads at Adam, and he explained.

"Okay, well, there was this voice...a woman's voice. She said, 'Adam, honey, I love you. I'll explain this to you soon.' After that, a man's voice, yelled at her. I couldn't hear what he said, but the line went out," Adam explained. "What do they want with us? They left us!" Victor yelled, outraged. "Victor, the thing is, I don't think that was Mom," Adam said.

The room went so silent that I'm pretty sure that you could hear a pin drop. "What do you mean you don't think that was Mom?" Parker asked. "I mean, her voice sounded different. It sounded like it was on the verge of tears. Mom was usually so strong. It just wasn't her...I know it wasn't," Adam responded. "It could just be the phone," Jake reasoned. I wanted to agree with him, but I couldn't get rid of the aching feeling I had. I had a feeling that Adam was right. "It could be," Adam said, but he sounded unsure.

"Well, whoever it is, we'll worry about it tomorrow," Adam said. I stayed downstairs while the rest of my brothers went up. I rested my head on the table, and started to tear up. I never cried in front of my brothers. I felt a hand on my back that I assumed to be Jake's.

He rubbed my back which made me feel some sense of relief. I looked up and instead of Jake, I saw Blake. I narrowed my eyes and said, "What are you going to do, laugh at me for crying?" All of my sadness had vanished and was replaced by anger. To my surprise, Blake lunged in and hugged me.

"I'm so sorry, Summer! I'm sorry I'm so mean to you. You don't deserve it," Blake whispered. I put my head on his shoulder as we embraced each other. I was half expecting him to jump up and say, "I got you!" but he didn't. Blake, my brother who has been teasing me my whole life, apologized and hugged me. I couldn't believe it.

We sat there for close to half an hour. I wrapped my legs around his torso and nuzzled my head into his chest as he carried me up to my room. He put me in my bed and whispered, "I love you," after kissing my forehead. I smiled and fell into a deep sleep thinking about Blake.

I woke with tears stained on my face. When I walked into the bathroom, I laughed at my reflection. My hair was standing up everywhere and I had red blotches all over my face. I walked downstairs and at in my usual spot. I had a bowl of cereal and talked to my brothers. We were all much more happier than we were last night.

"So, what do you guys want to do today?" Adam asked. "I wanna go swimming!" Andrew yelled excitedly. "We went yesterday, dumb dumb," I said. "Let's go bowling!" Ryan suggested. "That's boring!" I complained. "Well what do you wanna do?" Parker asked, clearly annoyed. "I don't know," I said quietly. My four youngest brothers threw their hands up in the air and groaned.

"Come on guys, give her a break," Blake defended. My brothers looked confused while I smirked at the, and hugged Blake. I stuck my tongue out at them while they grumbled. "I have an idea!" Victor said. "Let's play chase the Summer!" My brothers grinned evilly at me as a worried look took over my smirk.

I ran into the backyard followed by Parker, Ryan, Andrew, and Victor all chasing me. I ran through the slit in the fence and into Autumn's house. My brothers were all too big to fit through so I just laughed at them from the other side. "Losers!" I taunted while they growled at me.

I was hoping they didn't notice that they could climb over the fence, but sure enough, a look of realization reached their faces. Parker climbed over the fence first, and tackled me to the ground while I tried to run. "I got her!" he screamed. I heard whoops from the other side, and Ryan came over to help Parker.