We sat around our house doing nothing yet again. This had become something of a cycle on the days the boys didn't have practice. We sat around for the first bit of the day and got bored. Then we decided to do something.

Unfortunately for us, we haven't had anything come to mind.

A sudden memory came to me.

"Do you guys remember when Connor almost fell off the roof?" I laughed.

The boys joined in my laughter.

"Yeah we were all sitting down like Dad told us to and Connor just had to get up and start running around" Cooper remembered.

"Yeah and dad yelled at him and he freaked out. If dad wasn't there to catch him, he would've ended up on the pavement" Carter finished the memory for all of us.

True we laugh about it now, but back then that shit was scary. It was only a few weeks after Mom left. It was Dad's first horrifying thing that she wasn't there for.

Connor crossed his arms. "I was only eight. Plus I wasn't the only one who did stupid shit. There so many times Coop or Carter did stupider shit than that." He pouted.

"Aww" I pinched his cheeks. "Is baby Con all upset cuz he was stupid?"

He swatted my hand out of his face. "At least I wasn't the one who decided to have a flour fight and a water gun fight in the kitchen" he countered to Cooper.

Coop put his hands up in defense. "In my defense, it was Carter who started the flour fight. It was just my idea to spray him back with a water gun."

"Remember when we threatened that fifth grader who had a big crush on Cora?" Carter brought up.

I didn't remember this.

The boys laughed. "Yeah we made him cry." Connor said.

"What? Who did you make cry?" I ordered.

"Adrien Head?" Connor said like he wasn't quite sure.

"Dri Dri?" I asked.

He had a crush on me since we were in second grade. It wasn't until fifth grade that he gave up. I kept telling him that I didn't want to have a boyfriend and that I had three brothers. I never realized that they were the reason he stopped trying.

"Oh I remember that!" Coop said excitedly. "Didn't he move once he got to middle school?"

I nodded. "Yeah he wrote me one last letter. I wonder where he's at now."

"Hey why have we thought of a million and one stupid shit we did, but none for Cora?" Carter asked his brothers.

"Because I'm the perfect child" I flipped my hair over my shoulder.

Connor scoffed. "Yeah right, you did so much shit. You just always got away with it."

Carter and Cooper agreed.

"I guess that's how it is being Dad's favorite." I smirked at my brothers.

Carter's phone started ringing and he answered.

"Hey what's up man" he answered.

"Oh yeah. Sounds good. Yeah well be right over. See y'a there man"

We all gave him a confused looked.

"We're going to Sam's for a pool party. So get ready" he said.

We all went to our rooms to get dressed.

I put on a white bikini top with thin black stripes and high waisted light maroon bottoms. I threw on a over sized shirt and grabbed my bag with things left over from the lake.

"Ready" I called as the boys were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I rolled my eyes and headed down stairs. I filled up my water bottle, though I'm sure they'll have drinks there.

It took another couple minutes for the boys to be ready.

I remembered that Will was most likely going to be there and what Owen said about him.

"Cora, let's go" Connor called and broke me out of my thoughts.

I put on a smile and headed out the door with my brothers.

We drove over to Sam's. Several of the boys were already there. The door was open and we didn't see anybody. We walked through the house.

"Hey I'm Wanda Dawson, Sam's aunt. You can call me Wanda." She smiled. She couldn't have been over twenty-five. I would say twenty-two or three.

"Hey Wanda. I'm Cora and these are my brothers Connor, Cooper, and Carter. How are you?" I asked politely.

"I'm good, Cora. How are you?"

"Good" I smiled.

"There's food and drinks outside. Most of the boys are already out there." The boys disappeared to the backyard but I didn't feel like going just yet.

Two little kids came running out of the back of the house. They squealed and ran from a guy, who looked closer twenty-five.

"Aaron, Aubrey. Get back here." He called out to them. I noticed the girl only had half her swimsuit on and the boy had only his shorts on.

"Aubrey Josephine Dawson! Put your shirt on right now, we have guests!"

She stopped running as did the boy, Aaron. She put her head down. "Sorry mommy" she said sweetly.

She ran back to her the guy I assumed was her Dad. Aaron followed them back to the back of the house.

"I'm sorry about that" Wanda smiled sheepishly at me.

"You're fine" I waved her off. "I'm going to head back to the backyard now"

"Okay sweetie have a good time"

"I will thank you"

I waved to her and walked to the backyard.

I walked into a backyard full of guys. There were a couple people I didn't know.

"Oh my gosh you must be Cora" a girl came up to me. I recognized her as Summer, Darren's girlfriend.

"Yeah, you're Summer right?"

She nodded with a big smile. "I'm so excited I'm not one of the only girls that come to these things"

"Don't worry I almost always do."

"Babe!" Darren whined.

"Coming" she rolled her eyes. "He's a bit clingy when he doesn't get his cuddles." She laughed and went to him.

I little hand pulled on my shirt.  I looked down to see the little girl from the house, Aubrey.

"Hi" I said and squatted down to her level.

"Hi. Can you help me swim? I'm scared" she said.

I smiled at her sweetly. "Of course I can" I stood up and she grabbed my hand. The little boy was already in swimming with the boys.

I picked Aubrey up and walked into the water. She looked over at her brother jealously.

"He can swim good, but I can't. I don't like it. I wish I could swim like that. He's only two minutes older" she cried out.

"It's okay Aubrey. One day you're going to find something that you do better than him."

Her face lit up at my statement like she couldn't believe what I was saying. "Really?" She asked hopefully.

I nodded. "Yep. Do you see those three boys over there?" I asked. She nodded vigorously. "Those are my brothers. I was sad that I couldn't play football as good as them but then I found out that I could play soccer better than all of them"

"Really?" She asked as her eyes went wide.

"Yeah"

"Wow. I wanna be like you. Do you think I could play soccer?"

My heart swelled at her words. She was just so cute.

"Maybe. You'd have to talk to your mom first though." I laughed.

"Hey Marshmallow!" Will called as we walked out from the house.

I smiled and waved at him. I still didn't know what to think about what Owen told me. I decided I would stay as far a possible from him for today.

"Marshmallow? I thought your name was Cora" Aubrey put a finger on her chin in confusion.

"It is. Marshmallow is a nickname that Will gave me."

"Will's nice."

I nodded in agreement.

She gasped loudly. "Are you his girlfriend?" She asked.

I laughed at what her brain made up. "No we're just friends"

"Samuel Elijah Pitts" Summer shouted in frustration.

"Uh oh, he's in trouble." Aubrey whispered beside me.

"Sum, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." He tried his hardest not to laugh at her.

She growled and rolled her eyes. "You are insufferable"

We spent hours at Sam's house. Aubrey told me that Sam is her cousin and something bad happened to his mommy and that his dad went to jail a long time ago. She also said that he's like her brother and she loves him so much.

Aubrey went to go eat lunch and the boys were now playing football in the pool.

"Hey Cor, you in?" Will asked as he tossed the football in the air and caught it.

"I'm good, actually I'm getting a little hungry. So I'll go eat" I made up an excuse and left the pool.

I ate and talked to Summer the rest of the time. I stayed away from Will, unless I had to then I basically ignored him. I felt bad but it's what's best until I find out the truth.

***

"We need to talk," Will said, busting into my room. I had just gotten home from Sam's house and taken a shower.

"What the hell, Will? You can't just barge into someone's room like that" I yelled as I put my hand over my racing heart. I quickly put my blanket over my bare legs.

"Sorry to scare you, but like I said we need to talk"

"You ignored me at the pool party, the entire time. What's wrong?" He asked.

I looked away from him. I didn't know what to say.

"Nothing's wrong. Please get out of my room" I begged him.

He shook his head lightly. "I'm not leaving until I find out what's wrong with you."

"You hardly know me, why do you care?" I snapped defensively. I don't want to bring up what Owen said. If its true, I don't want to upset him.

"Because Cora. We were friends and you started to ignore me. I want to know why."

"Because of Owen. He told me you're a player."

He nodded and sat at the end of my bed. He left plenty room between me and him. "I've had a few girlfriends but you already knew that. I don't think that's why you're ignoring me."

He's right that's not why. I looked down and my cheeks reddened.

"He also told me you were the reason you last girlfriend committed suicide." I said quietly and still didn't look up.

He was too calm. He didn't jump up in shock or anything. I looked at him. His head was in his hands and his eyes were glossed over.

"Will?" I questioned and moved to sit right next to him. The sides of our legs were touching, but I ignored it.   "I'm sorry. I crossed the line" I shook my head.

"No, no, it's okay. I get where you're coming from" he took a deep breath before continuing. "My last girlfriend, Samantha, did kill herself but it wasn't because of me. We started dating in sophomore year. It wasn't long but we'd grown attached to each other. It was that same year and her father lost his job and became an alcoholic and because of this her Mom left her and her father. Her father blamed her for it and he uh he started to um hit her."

I looked at him intently. I put a hand on his arm. "Will you don't have-"

He shook his head at me signaling he was okay.

"I was her escape for a long time. She always called me her light. Then one day, in the middle of junior year, she called me. I was at the doctor and I couldn't answer. They um they uh found her at the bottom of her apartment building. I listened to her voicemail all three minutes of it. It was her note to me. She told me she loved me and that she was sorry she couldn't be here for graduation. She told me to move on and graduate with a smile on my face for her."

This time it was my turn to comfort Will. "I'm sorry Will, that must've been really tough on you."

"It's just sometimes I think that I could've helped her. I could've gotten her away from her dad. She was so excited to graduate and go to college. In the end, it wasn't enough to keep her here."

I gave him one of my best hugs. He deserved it.

I let go and looked down at my hands ashamed. I feel terrible.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have assumed the worst. Owen told me and my brain was telling me to stay away from you. I didn't want to get hurt again. I've been through a lot in the past ten years and as much as I hate to admit it it still bothers me. I really liked you and I didn't want what Owen said to be the truth" I rambled.

He put a had on my shoulder and lifted up my chin."It's fine, we're all good now" he smiled. Something about that dazzling smile made all my worries go away.

"Yeah" I smiled lightly.