One Moment

"How about a movie?" I offer Syd, quirking an eyebrow as I did.

"Edward Scissorhands?" She asked hopefully, making a smile tease my lips. I'm proud to say she got her love for Tim Burton from me.

"I don't know why you'd expect anything else," I said as I pulled myself up from the bed, helping the now smiling Syd up, too. When we were standing, neither of us started walking to head out of the room, instead we brought each other into a tight, proper hug.

It was so much easier to hold my baby sister close to me when we aren't laying down, so I took advantage of it because each hug counted so much. Every single one.
Syd buried her head into my shoulder, words and feelings silently being expressed as she did. But soon we broke away, sending each other weak smiles.

"Come on," I gestured my head towards the door and Syd nodded, letting me lead her over there.

We weaved our way out of the room and took one step at a time as we went down, a small smile growing on my face when Austin was at the bottom of the stairs, crossing the hall with my dad.

I watched as he shoved something into one of his pockets, but forgot about it when he flashed me his perfect smile and reached his hand out for me to take with mine. He looked between Syd and I, happy that everything seemed to be okay.

I gladly slid my hand into his warm on, joining his side while Syd was still at mine. "Wana watch a movie?" I ask him and my dad.

"Sure," Austin smiles down at me. "What movie?"

"Edward Scissorhands," Syd and I both say it at the same time, making a chuckle bounce out from everyone's chest.

"It's too bad Alan isn't here," Austin laughs as we get into our living room, all of us plopping down onto the couch, besides my dad who sat in the recliner next to it. I roll my eyes at Austin's words, knowing Alan would be in cloud nine with pizza and girls and Tim Burton all around him.

"Yeah," I snort. "Too bad."

Austin laughs to himself again as I search blindly around for the remote that I am nearly positive will be crammed somewhere between cushions. When my hand grasps onto something cool and plastic, I almost laugh because I was right.

I press a few buttons and the next thing I know it's on the channel for our dvd player, my dad laughing when he saw that Edward Scissorhands was already in there. "She was watching this last night," my dad laughs, reclining back in his chair.

"I fell asleep though, so it's okay," Syd says sheepishly, making me shake my head as I hit play and then throw the remote on the ground when it starts.

Syd grabs blankets, throws one to my dad, one on top of my head, and then kept one for herself. She laughs to herself as she gets situated when I huff and pull the blanket off my face, my hair sticking up from the static.

Austin reaches his hand up and tries to fix it for me, but just ends up laughing when he makes it worse. I stuck my tongue out at him right before I curled into his side, putting the blanket over us both while my head rested on his chest. I propped my feet up on Syd's laugh, which made her give me a look. "Hey. Pregnant," I point to my stomach. "Pamper me."

Syd scoffs as she shoves my feet away, "in you're dreams, turd."

"Turd," I stuck my tongue out at her, getting hers back in return.

I shook my head in amusement after, finally turning to the screen as I curled my legs up into myself and closer into Austin's side. His arm was already wrapped around me from behind, his fingers drawing circles on my back.

And laying here, listening to his unique heart beat with my sister at my side and my dad at my other, I couldn't feel any better.
Despite all the shit that's happened recently and the nagging pain in the back of my head, I was with the three people I love the most. Actually, make that four... My little Jelly Bean... Our little Jelly Bean.

For the stupid little extra sense of contact, I reached over and grabbed Austin's hand that was resting on his leg and brought it up to my lips to plant a light kiss on. My action got him to look down at me, somewhat surprised, but also with a small smile.

Since the movie was started and we didn't want to interrupt, Austin mouthed 'I love you' down to me, which made my heart flutter and my head bow down to hide the blush. How many times has he said I love you and it still makes me blush?

In return I playfully bit at his knuckle, which only got him to flick my nose lightly. We had to bite our tongues to stifle our laughter, but I still managed to mouth an 'I love you' back before laying my head back down on his chest.

I sighed out, letting myself get lost in the story playing on the TV and the fingers drawing on my back.

And then just when I thought things couldn't get any better... they got worse.

One step forward and two steps back right?

That's the first thing that came into my head when the sound of the front door opening and slamming closed rang out.

Everyone immediately sat up, Syd looking at me with fear in her eyes. She swallowed, gulping down the lump in her throat before she spoke. "Mom's home."

Dread washed over my body in cold shivers and I realized how much I had forgotten that I'd actually have to confront her. I was so content and happy with the way things were doing that her missing presence was forgotten and absolutely not missed.

Her footsteps got louder and louder as she walked down the hallway and I looked to Syd, eyes pleading for help even though I don't know exactly what kind of help I'm asking for.

"Who the hell is parked in the driveway? Taking up half of the fucking thing," her voice was in it's normal hiss, with that same underlying tone of agitation it always had.

When I heard she was about to round the corner, I quickly stood up, readying myself even though ready is far from what I am.

And when her wide figure was appearing in front of me, walking to the kitchen table to throw her sunglasses on, I was hit with the impact of harsh memories. Her hair was still it's dark color, half of it pulled back by some clip while some greasy strands escaped to rest around her forehead. Her eyes were still that same sharp color and her eyes were still dully shaped in contrast. And of course, she still had a damned cigarette in between her fingers.

But the odd thing was, when she turned to see me, I wasn't afraid because of what might happen with her, I was afraid because I didn't want my Jelly Bean around her nasty second hand smoke.

It made me feel a sense of confidence, knowing I moved on. Knowing she can't bring me down anymore because I obviously care about bigger and better things than her.

"What. The. Fuck."

Everyone else is now standing too and someone had to have turned the movie off because I no longer heard it, just my moms heavy breathing.

"Hello to you too, mom."

Notes

i'm not getting anymore comments you guys:( I miss talking to you all! I don't even care what it's about I just love talking to you!
You guys are the best! and thank you so much for all the support! I never thought this story would get to where it is today! I'm so super excited for the sequel!

I'm kind of stretching out these last few chapters, like this one was supposed to be much longer, but I want to make sure the second part is as good as it can be! So not too many more, but still a few chapters left! <3