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Amari

Jake's soft breathing should've lulled me to sleep, but instead I was awake thinking about Tyler. How does he do this? I'm laying in Jake's arms, with him on my mind. Why couldn't I stop thinking about him? A soft knock on the door pulled me from my bed. I was careful not to wake Jake as I stepped out of the room to be met by Hunter.

"What's wrong?" I whispered looking down the hall towards Tyler's room.

"You don't hear that?" Hunter asked pointing in a random direction.

"Hear what?" I asked.

Hunter shushed me and out his hand over my mouth as we listened. It was muffled voices and things bumping.

"What's that?" I asked pushing his hand off of me.

"I don't know. I thought it was y'all." He said.

"Why would that be us?" I shook my head and held my hand up. "Don't answer that."

"Right. Now if you're done asking stupid questions, can we investigate?" Hunter rolled his eyes.

He walked towards Tyler's room and I followed closely behind him.

"You know, you're kind of mean." I whispered.

"I'm not." Hunter knocked on the door and a few seconds later, Tyler answered tired and shirtless.

I stared at Tyler's messy hair and squinted eyes. What had they been doing?

"Yes?" Tyler rasped out.

"Ty, do you hear that?" Hunter asked pointing again and I slapped his hand.

"Hear what?" Tyler asked.

Just like before, Hunter threw his hand over Tyler's mouth and shushed him as we listened to the muffled sounds. Tyler shoved Hunter off of him and dragged a hand across his face.

"Maybe someone is outside." Tyler said sounding more awake than before. "You two go put on something warm and meet me by the front door."

"I'm not investigating with you." I shook my head and Hunter pointed at me nodding in agreement.

"Right? Not all of us have an early death wish." He said. "I have places to be and ladies to see." He thought about it for a second. "Shirtless." He added last minute and I rolled my eyes and Tyler slapped the back of his head.

"You want to wake everyone up." He pointed at Hunter. "And you helped him. We're all going. You have ten minutes." Tyler said pointing at me before he closed the door on us.

Despite not wanting to, Hunter and I went into our rooms, put on warm clothes, and met Tyler down by the front door.

"You smell minty." Hunter said sniffing in my direction.

"I brushed my teeth." I pointed at my mouth and he nodded.

When we made it to Tyler, he handed us our coats before slipping his own on and walking over to the closet.

"I can smell his toothpaste too." Hunter said. "I'm gonna go brush mine too. Since no one told me."

And he rushed upstairs before Tyler could yell at him.

"What an idiot." Tyler shook his head. "Here." He handed me my ice skates and I held them up confused.

"I thought we were just going to look around." I said.

"We are." He yawned. "But afterwards we're going ice skating."

"Or we could just come back here and sleep." I said in a sweet voice to try and convince him.

"Nope. I already made up my mind." He smiled at me.

Hunter ran back downstairs and blew his breath in my face.

"Done." He smiled at me and I laughed. "Why do you have your skates? Are you two going on a date?" He teased.

"No, but us three are." Tyler mocked his tone and handed him his skates.

"I'm flattered, but you two aren't exactly my type." Hunter said.

Tyler shook his head and walked outside. I looked at Hunter, slapped a hand across my chest, and pouted with a hurt expression.

"I thought we had a thing." I said sadly.

"Sadly not. Too many ladies and not enough Hunter." He shrugged with a smile and I laughed spinning around to walk behind Tyler.

A while later

"I mean, I could say that they're hunting the Hunter, but I don't want to sound conceited." Hunter shrugged.

He had been talking about himself the whole walk to the ice rink, but he had a way about himself that made you interested in what he had to say. Even if you already know what he's going to say. We sat on a bench and began putting on our skates.

"I totally get it." I nodded.

"Don't edge him on, please." Tyler laughed.

"You're just hating because your name is trash." Hunter waved him off. "Amari, tie those tighter or you'll kill yourself."

"I don't like them tight." I said studying my shoes. "It hurts my ankles when I tie them tight."

"Then don't tie them that tight, but that's too loose." Hunter said. "Look at mine and look at yours."

I compared our skates and his was tied better than mine.

"He's right." Tyler said. "You can hurt yourself with loose laces."

Hunter and Tyler both leaned down to retie my laces and I sighed. Between the two of them, I didn't know who treated me more like a child.

"I can tie my own shoes." I huffed.

"Not right apparently." Hunter mumbled and I nudged him.

"You think the laces are the problem? She can't run either. What do you think happened to her ankle?" Tyler laughed and I nudged him too.

"She's an idiot." Hunter laughed standing up grabbing my hand.

"I know." Tyler laughed.

We all went onto the ice and skated around. We dared each other to do stupid tricks, raced across the ice, bumped each other until we fell over, and talked crap until the sun started to come up. Tiredly we all skated off of the ice and over to the bench to put our boots back on.

"I'm sleepy." I yawned laying my head on Hunter's shoulder.

"Me too." Hunter laid his head on top of mine.

"Don't go to sleep out here. Come on." Tyler laughed standing up and offering his hand.

Hunter grabbed it before I could and Tyler rolled his eyes.

"Come on, bro." Hunter said started to walk away.

Hunter held onto Tyler the entire walk back to the cabin while I held onto Tyler's coat to try and keep up with their long legs. When we made it back tot he cabin, we took off our coats, hats, gloves, scarfs, and boots before dragging ourselves into the living room. Tyler put on a movie and went upstairs to check something.

"Bet you five bucks Tyler knew what that noise was." Hunter said laying his head in my lap.

"Tyler always know something we don't. I'd be a fool to bet you." I laughed playing in his hair.

"Fine, but you should still give me five bucks. I was just trying to be nice." He yawned and I slapped his forehead.

We talked quietly and watched the movie until Tyler came back and sat beside me.

"What was the noise?" I asked.

"Huh?" Tyler asked tiredly.

"What was that noise? You know, the noise we left the house to find." Hinter waved his hand.

"Oh. Uh, nothing." Tyler shook his head. "Just snow, I guess."

"You could've had five dollars." Hunter laughed poking my chin.

I grabbed his hand and stared at Tyler for a second longer. He knew what that noise was. Why was he lying about it?

"You wouldn't have given it to me anyway." I said looking down at Hunter.

"Surely wasn't." He yawned.

Three Movies Later

Hunter was fast asleep, I was almost there, and Tyler was sitting in the big chair drawing. I had fought through my tiredness just to stay awake long enough to talk to Tyler without Hunter hearing.

"Ty..." I said walking over to him carefully.

"Yeah?" He looked up at me with heavy eyes.

"Can we talk?" I asked and he sighed closing his notebook.

"Come here." He opened his arms and I rushed over to him.

I sat in his lap and he wrapped his arms around me.

"Do you want to tell me what that noise actually was or are you going to keep saying snow?" I asked.

Tyler stared at me for a second contemplating something in his head. He glanced over to a sleeping Hunter before he sighed and grabbed his notebook. He opened it and flipped through before stopping on a page and showing me it.

"Is this your mom and dad?" I asked and he nodded. "They're fighting again?"

"Yeah." He mumbled. "They've been fighting since the first night here."

"Really? Why didn't you tell us?" I asked.

"Us?" Tyler tilted his head confused.

"Hunter and me." I said.

"No." He shook his head. "Hunter doesn't need to know."

"Hunter is just as much apart of your family as you are. He's old enough to know this stuff now, Tyler." I said.

"So?" Tyler scoffed. "Have you met Hunter? I don't want to expose him to our parents' problems."

"Well, it isn't your job to hide it from him either." I said. "You're his brother, not his Dad."

"I get it." Tyler sighed. "I just don't want to be the one to break it to him and I don't want to ignore him when he comes to my door at night asking about it."

"Then don't break the news to him. You shouldn't have to." I shook my head. "Just don't try to make everything seem perfect when it isn't. Your job is to be there for him when he finally figures it out, okay?"

He studied my face before sighing.

"Okay." He sighed. "Okay."

"Good." I patted his head.

We sat there for what felt like forever. Neither of us wanted to move and ruin the moment, so we didn't. Tyler held me closer and I didn't mind as I played with the zipper on my jacket. I wanted to stay here for all of eternity, but even I knew that all good things must come to an end.

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School is canceled again so you might get another update! Look out for that!

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