Sounds of Summer|Braden Higgins|

|TWENTY-TWO|

"But daddy, I don't wanna go home." Becky whined, as everyone packed their belongings into the same car that they had came in. "I like the lake house."

"Sorry, sweetheart. But we gotta get back home." Lenny told his youngest daughter. "We gotta get home. The summer isn't over. We'll have a couple get together's at the house, go to the park-,"

Maggie cut her dad off, "Make a gigantic twister game in the backyard."

"What?"

"What?" Maggie looked at everyone that looked at her, "Everyone loves twister."

"I don't." Andre told her, "Last time we played, Greg pushed you and you landed on my wrist."

"Nothing was broken." Greg said.

"Maisie broke her pinkie!" Andre exclaimed, "And my wrist!"

"I apologized!"

"Just get in the car." Roxanne sighed, walking around from the arguing children.

✖✖✖

"How was your first summer with us?" Maisie asked as Braden and her were the only ones awake as he drove her car.

"It's been pretty amazing so far." Braden told his girlfriend, "I mean I've gotten to spend most of it with a really pretty girl. Oh, and you."

Maisie smacked his arm playfully, "Becky is pretty isn't she?"

"The prettiest." Braden grinned, "But you my dear, are beautiful."

"Jackson called me last night while everyone was outside." Maisie said after a few minutes of silence between the two.

"What he say?"

"Uh, they're planning a funeral for Jacob this weekend." She told him, "Asked If I'd like to go. It'll be really small and short since his dad's in jail and his mother and both side of his grandparents died a while ago."

"Are you going to it?" Braden turned on the right blinker, taking the turn.

"Yeah, I'm thinking about it." She said, "Maybe it'll give me a little more closer. And hopefully, I can get the whole Kyle thing out of the way."

"What does Kyle have to do with going to a funeral?"

"Jacob and Kyle were cousins."

✖✖✖

Maisie sat down on the floor or her bedroom, phone on speaker as she talked to Jackson and all of her friends as they went through photos in each other their rooms to used for Jacob's memorial.

"Are your parents gonna be okay with you coming to Jacob's funeral?" Kelly asked.

"Mom and Dad think it's a great idea that I go." She said, holding up a picture she had taken a while ago of Jacob. "But I finally told them that Kyle and Jacob were related. And I also told Braden."

"Braden?" Colson asked, "Is he the new boyfriend?"

"Yeah, he is." Maisie said as said boy walked back into her room from taking a shower. "And he's in the room."

"Hey, Maise." Caleb spoke, "Do you still have that photo of Jacob from prom? I think we should blow that one up and use it."

"Yeah, it's around here somewhere in one of the millions of boxes that I have with old photos in it." She said, "I'll look through them and try and find it."

"Great. Thanks." Caleb said, "Love you guys."

"Love you too."

Maisie hung up the phone and sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "God, this is gonna be stressful."

A knock on the door made her turn her head, finding her twin brother standing there.

"Everything okay?"

"No." Maisie shook her head, "This whole Jacob thing has got my head in so many knots that I can barely think. And then I have the funeral that I'm gonna go to, and focusing on getting ready for our senior year."

"You know, I'm always here to talk, Maisie." Greg told her, "That's why we're twins. Built in diaries for each other."

"I know." She smiled, standing up. "Let's go see what's for dinner."

"Hopefully we don't choke on it."

"Mom's cooking couldn't have possibly gotten worse."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it."