* * *

"Alena, are you ready? Drew will be here in five minutes!" I yelled out from across the room.

I turned to look around my room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I was out of my wits because this was all happening so soon, I wasn't ready for another meeting with my father. The last thing I wanted was to be on enemy base with nowhere to run. Drew didn't trust that I would drive on my own, even though I said Alena could ride shotgun with him. The problem he had, he thought I would storm out and drive off.

There was a 90% chance of that happening so I wasn't denying it.

"I'm ready!" Alena yelled out from her room.

I looked at myself through my mirror for one last check. I had decided on simple skinny jeans, a black peplum top with my leather jacket. I didn't want to look like I was trying too hard but still wanted to be dressed neat enough. I let out a sigh as I grabbed my clutch before walking out.

"Shit." I whispered hastily before walking back to grab my medication. I looked to see that I only had one pill left before placing it into my bag. Panic took over as I made a mental note to find my prescription so that I could collect it from the chemist. The sound of beeping brought me back to reality and the issue I had to face in the next twenty minutes. Grabbing my jacket, I closed my bedroom door behind me before meeting Alena downstairs.

After locking everything we walked towards Drew's Jeep, I let out a silent sigh before climbing into the passengers seat. Immediately, my head turned to the right to make eye contact with my brother who was smiling like a Cheshire Cat.

"Ladies." Drew greeted with all smiles glued to his face.

"Hey, Drew!" Alena responded back with enthusiasm, while I just stared at him in annoyance.

"Lighten up lil' sis. You look like someone's dragging you somewhere you don't want to go." Drew whispered.

"Shut up. You didn't even win!" I whispered hastily.

Drew leaned closer before quietly responding back, "Neither did you."

"Yeah. Exactly. We both shot each other at the same time so the bet should have been voided."

"Nah, it's more fun this way." Drew said but chuckled lightly when I swore underneath my breath.

"No, it's not." I mumbled.

"Think of it like this, we both finally commit to the one thing we've been avoiding most of our life."

"Pfft." I huffed before crossing my arms over my chest.

"Any last words before we drive to our destination?" He asked, before looking at me. I looked at the back to see Alena playing games on my phone, before looking up at me to give me her biggest smile. The happiness on her face went straight to my heart, causing it to ache. Smiling back, I turned to look at Drew. As soon my face was out of view from Alena, the smile immediately disappeared and was replaced with irritation. Drew simply chuckled at me before driving off towards our destination.

"Love you too, sis."

It's times like these when I wish we had a long drive ahead of us, but frankly it was only a ten minute drive. I had ten minutes to learn how to maintain my composure and not act like a hot head, especially with Michael around and my fathers wife. Whose name I had forgotten. I felt bad but there was a part of me that had hoped Alena would be just as mad at our father as I was for not being there, for not fighting for us.

Was I being selfish for thinking this way?

I let out a sigh when I saw the gates open for Drew's house, he took one look at me before slowly driving through. We drove in silence as he got the front entrance, he drove alongside the curve of the driveway so that his car was now facing the exit. He switched the car off before looking at me,

"You ready for this?" He asked

"No." I whispered.

"Are you afraid?" He asked in confusion.

I turned to look into his eyes before answering honestly, "Yes."

"Don't be. I'm here, every step of the way." He whispered back as he grabbed my hand to squeeze it. I smiled nervously at him before unbuckling my seat belt to get out of the car. The moment I got out of the car, I noticed the expression on Alena's face. She looked like a deer in headlights, her eyes widened in shock mixed with fear as her mouth slightly opened. I took a step next to my sister's door, before opening it slowly and standing in front of her view. Grabbing a hold of her hand, she looked at our hands before looking up at me.

"You sure you want to do this? It's not to late to try another day." I asked, hoping she would want to cancel.

She bit on her lip nervously before shaking her head in denial, "I'm okay. I'm just scared he won't like me"

"Are you kidding, of course he's going to like you. In fact, he's going to love you Alena! Trust me." I responded while running my fingers through her hair to put a little order in it. She let out a sigh before removing her belt to join me and Drew, who was waiting patiently next to me. I watched as Alena put her jeans jacket on before clutching onto my hand.

"You guys ready?" Drew asked. I looked at Alena who smiled at me before looking back at Drew,

"We're ready." I stated confidently.

* * *

We walked behind Drew before coming to a stop in front of his door, we waited and watched on while he began to open the door to his house. It took all of a minute but it felt like an eternity, like everything was in complete slow motion. I swallowed the lump in my throat as he opened the door further for us to enter first, I had to put on a brave face because Alena kept looking at me for some sort of guidance on how to behave.

We both walked in slowly and took in our surroundings, it felt completely different this time around. The last time I was here, I never really noticed the room or anything like that. We both stood in the doorway as we took in our surroundings. They had two large staircases on either side of the house leading up to the second floor. To our left there was the sitting room and to our right was a dining room that was already made up for this lunch event. The walls were a colour of off white as they had perfectly placed photo frames of their children hanging proudly on them. I felt Alena squeeze tighter onto my hand as we took a few more steps into the foyer, we were both way out of our element.

Drew placed a protective arm around Alena's shoulders as he winked at me, "Lets go introduce you to Ashley."

"Who's Ashley?" Alena asked.

Drew looked up at me for some kind of approval so I nodded before smiling at him.

"Ashley is my step-mum, she's pretty amazing. You'll like her. Besides, she makes the best cookies." Drew whispered.

Alena smiled before nodding in agreement, "I love cookies!"

"Well, lets go see if she made any." I said, Alena looked around before nodding at Drew and I. I watched as Alena let go of my hand so that she could hold onto Drew's, that gesture alone made me smile.

The more steps we took through the hallway, the faster my heart was beating. I shouldn't be nervous really, I've met them all.

'You met them as Jaxon's girlfriend.'

'We are so out of our league here.'

I let out a shaky breath as I followed behind Drew and Alena. The sounds of voices coming from the kitchen helped me refocus, realising that I had no way of escaping. I looked around and noticed that their kitchen was double the size of our kitchen. It was huge, it was amazing.

"Hey ma." Drew spoke out.

"Hi honey."

"I got a few people I'd like you to officially meet."

She turned around at that statement and I watched as pure joy ran over her features, starting with a smile before the happiness reached her eyes. It felt nice to know that she was happy to see us but I don't know whether she knew the truth and played along with our father or not. Either way, I had to be cautious.

"Avery, it's good to see you again honey." She responded as she walked around her kitchen island. Before I could respond I was pulled into her arms as she hugged me in a way that only a mother can.

I stuttered in shock before composing myself, "T-thank you, Ashley."

"And, who is this young lady?" She asked as she smiled at Alena.

Alena unintentionally leaned closer to my arm out of embarrassment. I smiled as I introduced her, "This is Alena, the baby of the family."

"Nice to meet you, Alena. My name is Ashley. I'm Michaels Mum." Ashley responded softly before raising her hand to greet Alena. I could tell that she didn't want to scare Alena by pulling her into a hug.

Alena smiled at the realisation before shaking Ashley's hand, "Nice to meet you."

"Thank you, for having us over." I intruded.

"The pleasure is all mine." She said, smiling as she placed a protective hand on my shoulder, before walking over to the sink to resume her food preparation. Drew walked us into the lounge room at the back of the house, apparently they had two lounge rooms. One was the sitting room at the front which apparently is more for display, then there was the one next to the kitchen at the back of the house which is where they hung out and watched TV. We immediately spotted Michael playing on his PlayStation, I looked on until I recognised the racing game he was playing.

"Michael, look who finally came over." Drew said before chuckling when I slapped his shoulder.

Michael looked over his shoulder after pausing his game to get up and hug us, "Avery! Alena! I'm so glad you guys are here!"

I chuckled as I hugged Michael. Michael was such a younger version of Drew, he reminds me so much of Drew when we were at this age.

"Watcha playin?" Drew asked as he gently pushed us to sit on the couch. I stifled a laugh as I sat down next to Michael's left with Alena right next to me and Drew on the single couch to Michael's right.

"Need for Speed. Wanna play?"

I looked at him and noticed he was actually now talking to me. I bit onto my bottom lip as I contemplated whether I should play or not.

There were a few concerns here,
A) I was extremely competitive
and
B) I hadn't played since leaving my house abruptly, leaving my PlayStation at mums.

I let out a chuckle as I nodded my head, "Sure. I'll play."

"Game on sis." He responded as he gave me his controller. I was almost stunned when he called me sis, mainly because he's never said it. This was the first time he said it and I liked how it sounded.

We were in the middle of playing our game, Michael in the lead and me falling closely behind him. I had every intention of letting him win until Drew called it out, only making Michael demand that I play for real and not let him win. I let out a carefree laugh as I sat forward to help concentrate better.

"I never knew you played." Drew commented.

"There's a lot about me you don't know oh wise brother." I said, smirking at him.

"Pfft. I disagree." He said, crossing his arms over his chest, only making me laugh.

I saw the finish line so I knew this was my queue to go as fast as I could. Pressing the button that released the NOS I watched as I went full speed, overtaking Michael and crossing the finish line within seconds. Alena and I cheered out loud before high-fiving each other in excitement as the boys groaned, pretending to be upset.

I felt his presence before he said anything, I turned my head and sure enough, there he was placing his briefcase on the side bench near the entrance of the lounge room. I swallowed the lump in my throat because this was officially happening.

* * *

A/N: Sorry I'm late guys. I had some issues with saving my work on here, so I had to wait until all the bugs were fixed by Wattpad.

Next Chapter: It's lunch time. Anyone hungry for a little confrontation?