Page 88 of The Break Out

“I did because I know she will put your ass in place when you need it,” Brent says, coming down the stairs.

“Of course you fucking did,” Matt mutters.

“Hey shorty,” Brent greets me while I hold back my laugh from the exchange I just witnessed.

“It’s like wrangling cats here, isn’t it?” I tease.

“Speaking of, how’s yours? Have you added any more cats to your collection because I think crazy cat lady would suit you.” Brent smirks and I smack his arm.

“You’re a dick, I have one cat. You should get a pet, might be good for you. Might I suggest something gross and slimy, so you have something in common with it?”

“Maybe I will. I’ll make sure to get the biggest snake I can find, and you can be in charge of pet sitting for me.”

I’m glad he seems to be in a good mood today, something I feel like I haven’t seen from him recently and it lightens something in my chest. It's the same lightness I saw in Colton when I told him about everything and he told me about his brother. I would have never guessed we had something so huge and morbid in common.

“If you trusted me with such a creature, you would not come back to it alive.” I shiver.

“You would kill it?”

“Absolutely not. I would leave the door open and let it make its own decision. Or you’d come back to a house full of different wild animals. Guess we’ll find out.”

Brent wraps his arm around my head, pulling me in for a hug. I want to tell him I miss him, and I’ve missed this between us, but I can’t because I’m going to cry, and I refuse to do that right now.

“You going to help too, Collee, or are you just going to stand around?” Matt calls out.

Brent drops his arm and faces his teammate. “Not sure who you think you’re talking to, but who was the one who was up with Evie all night while everyone else slept?”

“Uh, Bunny?” Matt responds, dumbly.

“No, dipshit. I wanted her to get some sleep,” Brent retorts.

“Speaking of, I’m going to escape this lovers quarrel and go see my two favorite people in this house.” I raise my hands up and walk toward the stairs.

I find Chandler carefully backing out of a bedroom, closing the door softly and raising a finger to her lips signaling me to be quiet. She gestures for us to move away from the door.

“I just got her to sleep,” she whispers once we are a few feet from the door.

“But I wanted to snuggle her,” I complain.

“I’m sure she will wake up in the next thirty minutes and you can have all the snuggles.”

“Deal, I’ll probably need to come up here and hide most of the night anyway.” I shake my head.

“Why?”

I give her a look, and she just laughs.

“Don’t think too much about me, but you may want to go downstairs before Audrey kills all your boyfriends,” I divert.

“I’m sure they deserve it.” She waves me off.

We get downstairs at the exact same time Audrey yells, “Matt if you don’t stop moving those fucking glasses, I’m going to shove one of them up your ass!”

“Oh boy,” Chandler sighs.

“Stop telling me what to do, they are my cups,” Matt yells back.

“Do I need to separate you two?” Chandler interrupts.

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