@dianahawthorne
Diana loved her family, no one could say otherwise. But liking someone and loving someone were too separate things. For example, she loved Kaiden because he was her brother, but she had a lot of difficulty liking him given his obvious disdain for her. She wasn’t sure what she did to him to deserve this type of malice. Honestly, she was almost positive it had less to do with her and more to do with her proximity to their mother. Regardless, she was on the verge of snapping and no one- no one- made her snap. Still the words slid from her lips- “So do you, Kaiden. It’s not like you try to contact us either.” She sucked a breath in, tongue pressing against her teeth as she closed her eyes. She exhaled, meeting his gaze once more. “I’m sorry, that was rude. But, Kaiden, it’s not like you ever try to reach out. We didn’t think, well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I didn’t think a call was welcome. I thought this would be easier; make it harder for you to say no,” She laughed, an attempt at a joke- though the words were true. She pursed her lips. “Fine, that’s fine. What about just a dinner with Miles and me? She wouldn’t even be there. It would just be me and Miles. I promise.”
“That’s probably for good reason.” People usually had plenty of good reasons for not calling; for never sending something as simple as a text message. Kaiden kept in touch with Miles and his father, but even then he didn’t make it all that known that he did in the first place. While half of his family often made a normal day in his life feel the most difficult, it remained that the others offered some sense of calm and comfort that he’d needed time and time again. It wouldn’t matter how upset Diana seemed to become over it, or how sorry she might have been for any rude comment, it certainly didn’t change anything. “Not calling.. not reaching out..-- I never did any of that for a reason, D.” He could barely handle every day life without being thrown into the chaos of losing one of their own, adding to that their distraught mother sounded like a terrible idea. “Didn’t feel any harder to me.” Her attempt at a joke was completely lost on him, her laugh met with little else other than a deadpanned expression on his part. “Just us?” Did he believe it? Not particularly, but it was one lesser evil that he could handle. “I don’t even want her knowing about it, okay?”














