Walking into the kitchen, Scarlet noticed her grandmother standing on her tippy toes looking for something in the upper cabinet. Scarlet chuckled to herself before going over to her grandmother.

“What do you need?”

“Nothing that concerns you.” Granny Payne scoffed as she kept rumbling in the cabinet while still standing on her toes. “Oh, come on, let me help you or you’ll break a hip.” Another scoff came from Granny Payne as she stepped aside and looked up at Scarlet, due to the said woman’s height.

“I need Pudding’s can of food. It’s in the back.” Scarlet nodded before she began to search for the can of dog food while wondering who had put it this far into the cabinet.

Granny Payne looked at Scarlet’s back with a pained look as she remembered something specifically about her husband, who had died just a day after Scarlet’s birth.

“Never mind, I don’t need it anymore.” Granny Payne announced as she turned around to leave the kitchen with quick steps. “I can get it.” Scarlet spoke as she turned around to find that her grandmother wasn’t behind her.

A sigh escaped her lips as she turned back around to find the can in the cabinet. When she had finally found the can of dog food, she carefully got it out of the cabinet and placed it on top of the kitchen counter.

Looking at the kitchen door, she felt a dull ache in her heart, before she wandered off into the back yard.

It was still early in the morning and most of the Payne family was still asleep while a few were awake.

When Lauren had finally done her business, she had come out of the bathroom to find that Scarlet was wide awake and had her cellphone in her hand. A small part of Lauren was rejoicing at the thought that she didn’t have to cuddle with Scarlet again but the other part of her, the fairly large part; was disappointed.

Scarlet had excused herself to go get a cup of coffee while Lauren had gone to the guestroom that had the Payne kids; namely, Blake, Juliet, the twins and Greg.

Just as she entered the room, Lauren was hit with the sounds of snoring and bickering. The snoring was undoubtedly coming from the half-naked Blake, while the three kids were fighting over an action figure.

Juliet sat on a movable mattress, looking at her phone with determination as she typed away quickly.

“How can you stay calm in this chaos?” Lauren asked just as she sat down next to Juliet with a plop.

“When you’re related to them, it comes naturally.” Juliet joked as she looked up from her phone to stare at Lauren’s red face. “What happened to you?”

“What? I’m okay.” Juliet raised a perfect eyebrow up at the blonde woman. “Your face is all red.” Juliet stated and Lauren’s face began much redder as if pointing it out fueled it.

“It’s probably nothing.” Lauren waved it off as she tried to avoid looking in Juliet’s eyes. “Oh my god, do you like Blake?”

“What? Ew, no.” Lauren glanced at the shirtless sleeping Blake with disgust as she turned back to look at Juliet. “Then what is it? Is it someone else?” Juliet’s eyebrows began to wiggle as she smirked at the blonde woman.

“There is someone.” Lauren muttered to herself but Juliet heard it as an excited squeal came out of her mouth, grabbing the kids’ attention.

“Is she okay?” Ed loudly asked the other Ed as Greg looked at Juliet with his head tilted to the side. “I can hear you, Edward.”

“I’m not Edward, he is.” Ed pointed at Edward with a frown making Juliet apologize quickly.

“I’m just kidding, I am Edward.”

The resemblance of the two twins always confused people, there family as well as Juliet, who was their sister but couldn’t even tell them apart except for the different interests of the two brothers.

“I am going to kill you two if you don’t leave right away.” Juliet growled as she placed her phone beside her. “Sheesh, woman. Can’t even take a joke.” Ed and Ed got up off from their own movable mattress before they went out of the room with Greg, who was awfully quiet.

After the kids, had left, Juliet turned back to Lauren, who was trying her best to not blush again. “Tell me all of the details and I mean all.”

“It’s nothing big, just a little crush.” Lauren explained as she stretched out her legs from a bent position. “Doesn’t matter. I want details.” Lauren sighed before she began, “Well, she just got out of a relationship- “

“What!?” Lauren flinched from the loudness of Juliet’s voice. “She!”

“Oh my god.” Lauren muttered as she slapped her forehead, realizing her mistake. Thoughts swirled around her head that now the whole Payne household will know that she has a crush on a female and Juliet won’t talk to her, and she’d probably have to leave the house right away. She won’t even be invited to the wedding as well.

“Uh, yes. I have a crush on a girl.” Lauren admitted as she slumped her shoulders waiting for a negative response from her new friend. The response that Lauren was waiting for didn’t come, instead came squealing noises as Juliet fan girled.

“Is she good looking?” Juliet asked after a whole minute of fan girling, and Lauren staring at her with confusion and surprise. Lauren snapped out of her daze to give a slight nod of agreement, at which Juliet squealed again. “Okay, you have to stop doing that.” Lauren pointed out as she began to feel comfortable with this.

“Sorry. But I’m just so excited.” Juliet laughed at herself while Lauren smiled at her. “Thanks for understanding.” She thanked shyly and Juliet cooed at the cuteness before she spoke something that Lauren was definitely not expecting.

“Besides, now you can finally talk Scar into coming out as well.”

“What?” The shock was evident in Lauren’s face as she stared dumbfounded at the red head.

“Scar’s also a lesbian.” The nonchalance in Juliet’s voice was what made Lauren’s eyes open wider than they had ever opened before. “You know.”

“Of course, I know. I’m her sist- “

“Wait, you knew as well?” Juliet cut herself off as she squinted her eyes at Lauren making Lauren chuckle nervously. “Yes.”

“Wait, then are you two a couple or something?” Juliet’s voice dropped a little as she leaned closer to Lauren to whisper. “No. I wish.” Lauren face palmed herself immediately just as the words left her lips. “You like her!” Juliet stated loudly and Lauren flinched before she covered Juliet’s lips with her hand.

“Could you speak any louder?” Lauren hissed as she turned to look at a still snoring Blake.

“I’m sorry.” Juliet apologized just as Lauren took back her hand. “But if you like her and she’s into girls, then why aren’t you confessing your love?”

“First off, it isn’t love, it’s a mild crush.” Lie. “And second off, she already has a girlfriend, or had.” Lauren listed off with a little disappointment. “But what about that Stewart guy?” Juliet asked confusedly as she looked at Lauren for answers.

“It’s a long story.”

“We seem to have a lot of time.” Juliet smirked and Lauren glanced at a sleeping Blake before she broke.

After a few minutes, Juliet was made aware of the whole situation that had happened in New York. Lauren told her everything about how Katie, Scarlet’s girlfriend, had cheated on her with Lauren’s brother, Stewart, also the boss of Scarlet.

“Oh God, that’s is a new level of fucked up.”

“Tell me about it.” Lauren muttered as she folded her legs up beneath her. “I hate this Katie for breaking my favorite cousin’s heart.”

“I hate her too.” Lauren admitted and then instantly got a smirk from Juliet that spoke volumes. “What are you waiting for then, this is your chance.”

“What?”

“You can win Scarlet’s heart by confessing your love.” Juliet spoke excitedly as Lauren shook her head frantically. “Crush.”

“And I’m not going to just fall into her lap just because she’s single now. She’s heartbroken.” Lauren mentioned as she sighed.

Juliet fell back on her back as she groaned loudly. “That sounds a bit sexual.” Juliet commented and Lauren fell on her back laughing.

“It does, doesn’t it?”

“You can try it.”

“I’m starting to think that you’re mad.” Lauren confessed as she shook her head at her.

“What’s there to lose?” Juliet pointed out as Lauren began to wonder.

Scarlet was sitting in the living room drinking a cup of warm chocolate milk just like Greg, who was sitting beside her smiling up at her while drinking the same thing. “It’s good, isn’t it?” Greg nodded his head cutely as he sucked at the straw.

Everyone was now awake, even Blake, who was now fully dressed. Vanessa and Kevin had come back from the hotel with all of Kevin’s stuff which had brought up a million questions that Vanessa calmly answered.

“He’s gonna stay in my room.” ‘It’s my room’, thought Scarlet, scoffing, before padding away into the living room.

“Lauren, you and Scar can sleep in the guestroom with Juliet and Blake.” Lauren simply nodded as she and Juliet went to the living room as well where Scarlet was sitting with a frown, staring at the t.v that showed cartoons.

“We’ll have sleepovers every night till the wedding.” Juliet excitedly spoke as she jumped on the sofa beside Scarlet, who just scoffed.

“She’ll get over it.” Juliet murmured as she took hold of the t.v remote which was in one of the twin’s hands.

“Hey!”

“Go out and play. Kids your age shouldn’t be watching t.v.” Juliet ordered as she glared at her brothers. “Scar.” They both ran to Scarlet as she chuckled at them. “She’s being mean to us.”

“Yeah, like she’ll listen to your lies even after seeing everything happen.” Juliet laughed at them making the twins pout adorably. “Jules.” Scarlet spoke in a tone of warning as she looked at the said girl, making Juliet look at Scarlet in disbelief.

“Whatever.” Juliet waved her hand as she left the t.v remote on the sofa before getting up and stomping out of the living room making the twins celebrate.

Scarlet laughed at the girl while Lauren was torn between two things; first was to keep looking at Scarlet laugh like a kid, which was extremely cute in her eyes, or she could go and accompany her new friend.

For a while, Lauren sat glued to the sofa, looking at Scarlet’s laugh turn into a smile that lit up the whole living room, but she immediately looked away when Scarlet’s eyes turned to her.

“You’re red.” Lauren immediately brought her hands to her cheeks in embarrassment. “I should go see where Juliet is.” Lauren quickly got up off the sofa and walked out of the living room as fast as her legs could take her.

“Oh my god.” She muttered to herself just as she got out of the living room.

She was just half way up the stairs when her phone began to ring inside of her jeans pocket. Confusedly, she got her phone out of her pocket and immediately frowned at looking at the screen.

Rejecting the call, she continued up the stairs indifferently as if her brother hadn’t just called her.

It wasn’t such a surprising thing for her since she had been rejecting all the calls from Stewart since she had come to Scarlet’s house.

She didn’t want anything to do with Stewart for the time being because everything was going so great with Scarlet and her family. Lauren didn’t want to think about her life in New York, specifically her brother.

Besides, it wasn’t like his brother would show up at Scarlet’s house. He knew about distance and why people wanted it in the first place, and the distance that Scarlet had put in between New York and her wasn’t just out of boredom, it was completely serious.

He had to know that he had broken Scarlet’s relationship and on top of that, he had the audacity to even think of himself as the victim.

He was in the wrong and he knew that himself as well.

***