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Author's Chapter Notes:
Drumroll please!
(In other words...something big is about to happen.)
“Hey, Mason, come and help me move the couch,” I looked, over my shoulder, at my younger cousin. It was Friday, the 17th of February…and, the day before Morgan’s birthday. To help celebrate, I planned a kids only, movie night and sleep over. Sean was bringing his 11 year old brother, Cory, because he was so close to Mason’s age. Lisa helped me to invite a couple of Morgan’s cousins, Mason invited a friend, and I also invited a couple girls, from school, that Morgan got along with.

“Where are we moving it to?” he asked, coming up next to me.

“Up against the wall. Then we can spread out the sleeping bags and stuff on the floor.”

“I still don’t understand,” Nick appeared in the doorway, “Why don’t you guys use the home theater?”

“Niiiick!” I whined, after Mason and I had moved the couch. “I don’t want to seem like a show off, to everyone else and besides, this will be more fun. We can all lounge around, spread out snacks, and have room to move around. It will be better than sitting in the theater seats.”

“Bay’s right, Uncle Nick,” Mason nodded, “plus, we can all just crash here, whenever we get tired.”

“Alright,” Nick chuckled, “whatever makes you guys happy.” I watched Nick leave the room before covering the archway with a queen sized black sheet. Mason set to closing the blinds and hanging black sheets over them. I took a marker and wrote ‘No one over 16 allowed!!!’ on a sheet of paper, before pinning it to the sheet that was over the archway. Okay, so we could have just drawn the drapes closed or whatever…but this seemed like more fun.

“Where are the snacks?” Mason questioned, looking around.

“Oh, they are still in the kitchen! Come on, we better hurry, if everything is going to be ready before people start getting here. We rushed into the kitchen, grabbing popcorn, chips, gummy bears, Raisinets, Skittles, Milk Duds, chocolate bars, brownies, mini doughnuts, Cheeze-Its, fruit snacks, and Sour Patch Kids.

“Pizza is here, boys,” Nick smiled, carrying six large pizzas, into the kitchen.

“I got them!” Mason went to grab the pizzas, from Nick.

“Hey now, only five are for you kids…one is for me,” Nick gave us a cheesy grin, before handing Mason our five pizzas. I set the paper plates on top of the pizza boxes and Mason took them to the living room. I followed with my arms full of our other snacks. Nick snickered, watching us leave the kitchen.

“Check the mini-fridge, Mason, we want to make sure there’s enough soda.”

“Hmm…we have…Coke, Mountain Dew, Root beer, Sunkist, 7-up, Cherry Pepsi, and Lipton Raspberry Iced Tea…I don’t think we could get anything else in here.”

“Perfect!” I smiled, looking around the room. We had a huge stack of movies, to choose from. All the snacks were spread out, pizza sitting on the corner table, blankets and sleeping bags on the floor. Mason finished piling a mountain of pillows around the blankets, as I flipped on the big flat screen T.V. and surround sound.

“All we need is people,” Mason smiled widely. We were both pretty excited about the whole thing and Morgan didn’t even have a clue that it was happening. In the next five minutes Sean; Cory; Morgan’s cousins Becca, Katie, and Ben; and the girls from school Maria and Jocelyn had all arrived.

“Okay, I told you guys to be here at 6 o’clock and told Morgan ten after. So, she should be here any minute. No soon, than I had gotten the words out of my mouth, I heard the front door open.

“Hello?” I heard Morgan’s voice and the shuffling of her taking off her shoes. “Baylee? Nick? Mason?”

“Hey!” I stepped into the foyer and gave her a hug. “Come with me.” I smiled, before covering her eyes, with my hand.

“What are you doing, Baylee?”

“Shhh,” I whispered, leading her into the living room. Everyone positioned themselves in front of the T.V. “Okay, ready? Open.”

“SURPRISE!!!” Everyone screamed, causing Morgan to jump, out of her skin.

“Oh my gosh! It’s not even my birthday, yet!” Morgan giggled, trying to hide the tears coming to her eyes. I don’t think anyone, but me, noticed that she was on the verge of tears. Within a few minutes, we were all sitting on the floor with pizza in hand and eyes glued to the T.V. We started out with a Star Wars movie, since it is one of her favorites. The movie was almost over, when I heard the phone ring.

“Hello?” I had hopped up and quickly snatched the phone.

“Hello, Baylee,” the voice was quiet, troubled, and sad. I was silent. Clearing their throat, they continued, “How are you?”

“Uh…” I could feel the color drain from my face, as my words got caught in my throat. “Huh…Uncle Kevin?” My voice was barely a whisper, but suddenly I had three pairs, of eyes, on me. Mason, Morgan and Sean were instantly by my side. Taking the cordless phone, we all stepped out into the foyer.

“Yeah…it’s me,” his voice sounded so distant. “I’m sorry I haven’t called.”

“Where are you? Are you okay? Are you still in rehab? Why didn’t you tell us? We’ve all been worried!” I jumbled my words together, not being able to think clearly.

“Dad? It’s Mason…” he grabbed the phone, from me, but still held it to where all of us could still hear.

“Mason…” Kevin gasped, letting out a soft sigh. “I…I…”

“Tell us where you are, so we can visit!” Mason blurted.

“I can’t tell you where I am. I am still in rehab…I entered into a six month rehabilitation program. It’s best for you not to visit, right now.”

“But…but we miss you.” It was all I could think of, to say. So many things were running through my head. There were so many questions that I wanted to be answered.

“I just…I just needed to know…” he drew in a deep breath and his voice lowered drastically, “…if you all still hate me.”

“Dad we never really…”

“No, Uncle Kevin!”

“I’m really trying, this time,” Kevin’s voice cut back in. “I know I have a lot to make up for but I am really going to try. I didn’t like the feeling that I got, when I thought I had lost you boys. I guess I didn’t realize how bad things had gotten…I wanted to think that I still had everything under control.”

“Don’t worry about that, right now, Dad. That’s all in the past and you just need to worry about getting better. Everything else will come after that.”

“We never, really, stopped loving you.”

“I love you boys. I just…I needed you to know that. Know that I love you and that I am sorry for hurting you so badly.” My eyes watered a little because I could sense a new sincerity, in his voice. There was something there that wasn’t there, before.

“We love you, too, Uncle Kevin.”

“Well, I best get going. I will try to call again soon. Oh, and Morgan…thanks.”

“How did you…” Morgan looked up at me, confused. She hadn’t said a word, the whole time, how did he know that she was there?

“Lucky guess…well…more like an educated guess. Anyways, I need to go, now.”

“I love you, dad. Bye.”

“Bye,” Morgan and I whispered, before I hung up.

“Wow…” Sean stuttered, looking at the rest of us. “Sounds like I really did miss a lot, while I was at mom’s.

“Yeah. Sorry, I guess we didn’t completely fill you in, huh?” I shrugged my shoulders. I turned to Mason and engulfed him in a hug.

“We gotta tell Nick!” he blurted.

“NICK! NIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!” Mason, Morgan, and I screamed, together. We all sprinted, up the stairs, in search of Nick. Our faces we covered with smiles, as we continued to shout his name. “NICK! NICK!”

“What? What’s wrong? What happened?” Nick’s face was covered in panic, as he came tumbling out of his room.

“Dad called!” Mason jumped up and down. “He called! He actually called!”

“He sounded for real, this time!” I nodded, with the same excitement. I turned to look at Morgan and Sean. It was at that moment, I realized Sean didn’t come upstairs, with us.

“He said that he loves us and that he’s in a six…” Mason started explaining everything to Nick. I turned and headed back down stairs, to find Sean.

“Hey man, what’s up?” I asked, sitting next to him. I had found him, in the living room, watching the movie.

“Nothing. I was gone and missed a lot, so I didn’t feel like I was a part of that moment.” He shrugged and looked over at me, with a smile, “It is so cool that he is finally getting the help, though.”

“Hey,” Morgan grinned. Sean and I parted, so that she could sit between us like she always did. “We should watch a scary movie, next.”

“You don’t really like scary movies,” Sean raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah…why would you want to watch one?”

“I like them, sometimes. Besides, I have a jock on each side, of me, so if I get scared I have two shoulders to choose from.” She shrugged her shoulders and chuckled.

“Boy, you are one lucky geek…I mean girl,” Sean nudged her.

“I’m not a geek…I’m a hottie in disguise!”

“Nice!” Sean and I nodded, with big smiles. I looked, over my shoulder, to see Mason come back into the room. He sat down next to me and settled in, for the movie. Over two hours later, everyone was asleep…except me and Mason.

“Hey, Bay? Can we talk?”

“Yeah, sure.” I nodded. I gently moved Morgan’s arm, before trying to get up. I, almost, fell over because my leg had fallen asleep but was able to make it to the foyer. Mason and I sat on the stairs, to talk.