I see a lot of authors on wattpad write a little bit about what's going on in their lives in their a/n before or after the story and I totally have nothing against that. I just want to tell you- instead of doing a mini rant...what you all are reading is bits and pieces of my life mixed in with some of my friends experiences within this story. This is basically all real stuff, though it may not be MY life in particular. So just you all reading this helps a tremendous amount....thank you. OK ON WITH STORY.
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I rolled my shoulders back and sighed before entering the coffee shop. It's such a cliched job, but it brought in enough money. I hadn't been in a few days but Amanda, my boss, knew that Jason had been sick so she let me off easy. She was young, twenty four or twenty five, but she had made a remarkable amount of money from opening her story Mandy's Mocha. It was the only decent cafe within a good ten miles, so a lot of the neighborhood came there. Amanda gave me a smile when I entered, the little bell ringing from its perch on the door, the two boys following in after me.

"Hey Char, hey kids." They waved and slid into their normal booth, located in the far corner of the shop so they wouldn't bother anyone. I gave Jason his coloring book and Ryan took out his sketch pad. My younger brother had a large amount of artistic talents, whereas, I had none. He had the ability to transfer looks, places, expressions and feelings onto a page in a way I would never be able to replicate. As I pulled on my apron, I glanced at the two boys and saw them both concentrated, one on a picture of Nemo and Dory and the other on his scratching charcoal.

The shift started at six and ended at nine, it was shorter than other jobs but there were a lot of customers. The place was filled within minutes and every person kept me busy with an order. I made more hot chocolates, pumpkin spice lattes and steaming teas than I could count. My hair had been in a messy bun, but after a good hour and a half, little dirty blonde wisps fell onto my face. I was too tired to brush them away so they stayed there, probably making me look like I had a wild lion mane. The boys were quiet for those three hours, doing their artwork. I would glance over from time to time and see them both bent over the table. Once of twice I caught Ryan's eye and he gave me a grin before I had to turn back to a nagging customer.

"Okay girl, you're done." I sighed in relief as Amanda closed up shop. Normally there was another girl, Sammy, working with me, but apparently she had called in sick, which left the two of us. I gave her a hug and hung my apron on the hook by the counter. It had my name, Charlotte, stitched in with pink thread, standing out on the chocolate brown fabric.

I beckoned my brothers out the door and waved to my boss before hopping into the car. The drive back started out silent, so I asked Ryan,

"Did you finish your homework?" He nodded.

"Yup. Math was too easy as always but the rest was okay." I sighed, frustrated. Ryan was in what his school called the 'gifted' program, but it was still too easy for his racing mind. I glanced in the mirror and saw Jason fast asleep against the window and I smiled before asking,

"Hey Ry?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you like math so much?" He shrugged.

"All you have to do is memorize things: equations, problems, rules and numbers. I like the rules part a lot...you can't screw up if you remember all the rules. It's not like life at all or anything. If I screw up with friends then I can't go back and erase everything and check the rules to see what I did wrong. But I can do that with math." I noticed the change in his voice when I heard the word friends.

"Ry did something happen with your friends?" I made the turn onto our road and into the driveway. He shrugged again and I sighed, getting out of the car. Carrying Jason into the house wasn't too difficult and I was able to put him into his bed without him making so much of a peep. I headed back downstairs to find Ryan on the couch. I sat next to him, my entire body facing him,

"Want to tell me what's going on?" He swallowed, looking upset.

"I-I don't know." I put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked into my eyes.

"Ryan, you can tell me anything." He nodded and started to speak.

"Okay, so it started like three months ago. I was out with Danny, right near the cafe." I acknowledged that I remembered and he continued, his voice soft. "We ran into his friend Sophia and a couple of her friends. He liked her for a while, they went to a movie or two together before he decided he wasn't really interested anymore." Ryan rolled his eyes, obviously annoyed. "Sophia gave me her number so we could talk more because she seemed like a really cool girl and we started talking and I really liked her." I smiled. Ryan had never shown any real interest in a girl before, so I found it very cute.

"That's great Ry!" He shook his head.

"No. Danny heard and got pissed, saying that I broke the bros before hoes code. I was planning to ask her out too, but I didn't want to wreck my friendship with him so I told her that we couldn't talk anymore." MY eyebrows crinkled together in confusion.

"Why did it break the code?" My brother shrugged.

"No clue, but I wasn't about to argue. Anyway, apparently Sophia talked to Danny and was really pissed that he was being such a dick about everything so then he did the weirdest thing. He started telling me that he would only forgive me if I talked to her again."

"What the fudge?" He threw his hands up in the air.

"I know! It didn't make sense, but I was happy to keep talking to her so it was okay. Then he started to get pissed again and it's been on and off and I don't know how many times I've told her that I couldn't talk to her because of Danny." I put my hand on his shoulder as he kept talking. "And I really like her but I don't want to risk my relationship with Danny. Then, Danny decided that he wanted to become best friends with Liv." Liv was Ryan's best friend in school, he'd known her since second grade. The two were two peas in a pod. Danny and Ryan had met in the local soccer club, and had kept in touch even after the summer had ended. The two boys became close, but not as close as Liv and Ryan.

"How?"

"He started texting and face timing her and they started sharing secrets that Liv wouldn't tell me. Charlie it felt like I was losing two best friends. Liv started telling Danny everything that I had told her about Sophia, even when I had told her I wanted her to keep it a secret." I sighed. It wasn't fair for Ryan to deal with all of this, plus a dysfunctional family, but I stayed silent. "So as a result Liv told him that I was still talking to Sophia, which meant Danny got even more pissed and sent me this long thing about how much he hated me." Ryan showed me the text and I read it, anger building up inside of me.

still not ok with whatever's goin on w/ u and soph cuz if you cared about me you wouldve put a stop to it, and since you failed to do that i really hope you have a great time cuz i dont plan on hanging out w/ u anytime soon or ever so go back to soph cuz u chose her good for u

I rolled my eyes at the poor grammer and stupid message, but obviously Ryan was upset by it.

"I didn't understand why he was so mad so I called Liv and asked if she had talked to Danny recently. She told me that she had face timed him that morning and they had talked for an hour and I asked her if she had told him about Sophia and she said yeah but she didn't understand what the problem was. I couldn't handle it Charie, I just told her that we couldn't be friends anymore." Ryan's bottom lip began to shake and I felt my heart break into a million pieces. His friends were the people that were his constants, the rest of his life being a bunch of variables, so when those constants suddenly became....well...not constants, it killed him. I held my thirteen year old brother in my amrs and he started to cry.

"I don't know what to do. I can't be friends with Liv, I don't know if it's worth talking to Sophia and Danny hates me for feelings I can't help and reasons I don't even fully understand." I stroked his hair.

"Do you like Sophia a lot?" He answered immediately.

"Yes."

"Then why would you stop talking to her? If you need to let go of Liv and Danny do it. If they don't respect your choices and decisions then let them be. Maybe one day they'll come round, but until then, don't let them hurt you." He sniffled and I felt him nod. I leaned back on the couch and he leaned on me, as if I was his life line. When he spoke, his voice was so nervous and quiet I barely could hear it.

"Can you meet Sophia?" I smiled and kissed his head, even though he couldn't see me.

"Of course! You can invite her over for dinner tomorrow night. My shift ends at five, so have her come around six."

"What about mom?" I froze. When I had checked her room midday she was gone, her bed unmade and the mug half full. I wasn't sure when or if she'd come back.

"I don't think mom's gonna be there."

"No I mean will she barge in at a random time?"

"What do you mean?"Ryan sat up with a serious expression.

"I know that you've been taking care of her at four or five am. I can tell." I was about the speak but he held up his hand to stop me. "Why do you do it Charlotte? She hates all of us, she won't help you with anything, she just drinks her life away! Why do you spend your time helping her." I sat up as well, my back leaning against the pillow, ready to answer the question I had been waiting and preparing for for as long as I could remember.