Devlin Holloway got out of his truck, quietly shut the door and shifted his feet in the snow covered parking lot. “Damn, it's freezing up here. You’re both going inside? Won't that attract attention?”
“He can’t go in there by himself,” Nate insisted. “Someone’s got to distract the girl at the counter. Eric can’t do that.”
Eric shivered and rubbed his left ear, the one that didn’t work. They were way up the hell on the other side of the North Front, up where the party was supposed to be. It was cold; it was freaking snowing in March. He didn’t know the guy who was throwing the party and wasn’t sure Dev did either. This was another one of Nate's plans.
Dev glanced at the store. “That girl might not even be working tonight. Who said we’d bring the beer? I don’t even know the dude.”
“She’s here,” Nate assured him. “That’s her car, that piece of shit VW over there. I know him and I said we’d bring it. Keep the motor running; we’ll be back in two minutes.”
“You know what you’re doing, right?” Nate strolled a step ahead, Eric dragging behind him. Eric didn’t know what he was doing or if there was supposed to be some kind of method to boosting beer. If somebody else brought it, he’d drink it, but grabbing it himself? He’d never done anything like that.
“No,” Eric told his brother flatly. “I don’t know.”
Nate pushed through the door without looking back at him. “Come on man, it’s no big deal. Pick up a case, walk around the back of the aisle and out the door. Just be cool about it.”
Nate sauntered up to the counter and started flirting with the ugly chick, who got all flustered and played with her hair and hid her teeth behind one hand. Nervous, trying to be casual, trying to walk casual, trying not look at anybody, Eric headed down the snack and beer aisle towards the back of the store.
He ignored the cooler; he knew he couldn’t grab more than a couple of bottles without dropping them, and Nate wanted more than that. Boxes and cases of Bud and Heineken…glancing at them, he wondered if he could manage those either. There wasn’t anything to hold, nothing he could casually hoist and casually walk out with. As usual, Nate’s great idea had a big flaw. This place was a mess of unopened crap and crowded aisles.
The carton of Budweiser seemed like the best bet. Eric slid his fingers through the handhold, quietly testing the weight, pulling the box toward him. Maybe he could manage; he doubted it, but he couldn’t walk out with nothing.
“Eric!” Nate abruptly called out his name.
Startled and sweating, he jumped away from the box and stared down the aisle at his brother, who was walking away. Just walking right away. And why was that? Because, Eric noted with horror, there was a cruiser sitting outside at the curb.
Ugly chick was nowhere in sight. A blonde ran up and pointed at him and yelled, “There he is! He’s swiping the beer!”
Was she pointing at Nate? No, not a chance. Nate was gone. Dev was gone. The cop marching in his direction wasn’t looking for or at anyone but him.
Taking a deep, shaking breath, suddenly furiously angry, knowing how this was going to play out, knowing he was going to get stuck with the blame, again, Eric clenched his hands, looked down at the dirty floor, and quietly, casually, said, “Fuck you Nate.”
Rockwood
They pulled up in front of the house after spending an hour traveling down windy roads in the wrong direction, parked, got out, then looked at each other. The trip from the store, no beer, no Eric, had been made in close to total silence. Raw wind scraped through the pines.
Dev glanced uneasily down the steep hill into the night then rounded on him. “We shouldn’t have left him there.”
Resentful, cold, Nate retorted, “Eric can handle himself. He’s not a little girl.”
Glaring at him, Dev snapped, “That’s not what I meant and you know it. This isn’t the first time you stuck him with shit he didn’t start.”
Payton and her sister Anna brushed by them, laughing. They were the reason for the trip all the way out here in the first place. “Are you guys coming in?”
Nate considered them, knowing what he was likely to get if he stayed, but it wasn’t as if there wouldn’t be another time. He couldn’t get into it. Trying for a smile, no point in burning all the bridges tonight, Nate shook his head. “No. Sorry babe, I changed my mind. Come on, Dev, let’s get out of here.”
South Beach - Stanfield Residence
The lights were on. His mother's car wasn't in the drive, and he knew his dad wasn't home. Nate hesitated, thinking he should try to call his brother and knowing it was a bad idea or at least a useless idea. Shit he thought morosely, started up the walk toward the door when it opened.
And there stood Rayne. He couldn't see her clearly, backlit and shadowy and skinnier than he remembered. The last time he'd seen her, she looked bad. Even at her worst though, Rayne wasn't someone he wanted to run into right now.
"Rayne?" he began cautiously, "where's Mom? What're you doing here?"
She looked at him out of the dark, long and quiet, then turned and walked back inside. "You know where she is. She's cleaning up your mess. And I'm cleaning up mine."
Then she slammed the door on him.
Nate stared at the door, then shrugged it off and walked around the back of the house and wandered down the patio. He didn't get his sister; he didn't know what the hell was going on with his dad, whether he was staying or moving on; he'd ditched his brother and he shouldn't have done that. And he'd left his mother to deal with it by herself. All of it.
The phone started ringing. He waited, expecting Rayne to get it. She didn't. Nate walked inside, picked up. That familiar hoarse voice began demanding, "Beth? What's going on?"
Nate shifted the phone in his hand and firmly said, "No Dad, it's Nate. You can talk to me about what's going on. I got a few questions myself."
-----------------------
NEXT CHAPTER: Passages 15
37 comments:
Nate must have slept through a few critical life lessons :S
Poor Eric :( I take it this was why he was at the police office in Chameleon?
Nice to see Rayne's intention to start "cleaning up her mess", as she put it.
Great update! :D
Yay 1st comment!!! I feel special!
Sooo Nate..dickwad x10. Ditching your own brother to take the blame? Shitty. Ditching your TWIN? Priceless. It takes a truly selfish person to do that. And the fact its not the first time says alot about their relationship. God so many damaged relationships within one family. I fucking love it!!! Horrible thing to say but its true :) You dont get better drama than this...unless its reality tv.
Sooo whos Devlin? Hes cute for one. And he looks like a Stanfield. That tan.. or another one of Rafe's kids.
And I'm loving this in depth look at the Stanfield siblings relationship. I feel like with so much focus on their parents so much has been ignored about their kids and how they are affected. We all know how celebs kids can turn out damaged like none other. Such a large part of the life involves their kids and getting this chance to see more of them is nice.
Dinuriel - yes, that's why Eric was at the police station. My attempt to get a little further into the twins, who they are, and close that loop while I'm at it. Thank you!
Hey Sinclair!
I hesitated to get into the kids, but after working on that meme for these two guys, I thought I understood them enough to try it.
LOL Nate the dickwad x10! He's spoiled and selfish, used to getting what he wants and avoiding the consequences. He did feel sort of bad but didn't bother doing anything about it.
Eric put up with it, although I think that's coming to an end. He's kind of in awe of his brother.
Devlin is Shaun and Stevie's son. Another kid born in an unusual family. Wondered if being Stevie's son would bother Nate and Eric and decided, naw. Whatever's going on between their parents, it's not Dev's fault.
Thank you so much! I was very, very unsure about going into this, but there's a lot of material.
Wow, this family just gets more and more dysfunctional as time goes on! Not on that ridiculous level where it's no longer believable, but just where I keep wondering if they'll ever get a break. Poor Eric! His brother still has a lot of growing up to do. He reminds me a lot of Rayne, which is why I'm amused that he doesn't "get her". It's funny how similar people seem to always fail to "get" one another.
I'm glad Devlin kind of told Nate to stop being a prick. Seriously. Teenage boys and their girls, I swear. Bros before hos, Nate, c'mon!!
And Rayne is cleaning up her mess? I'm definitely intrigued...
I hope it's believable, Mao. Actually, some of the stuff I've seen goes way past this LOL!
haha bros before hos is right! And yeah, Nate is a LOT like Rayne. He doesn't see it although he doesn't like dealing with her.
Rayne isn't going down for the count. She'll clean up her mess, one way or another.
Hey thank you...
Rayne cleaning up her act? FINALLY! I'm rooting for her to get her stuff together! And Nate not understanding her? Really dude? And ditching Eric(sweet little Eric!) was just bad form! This family is so whacked out!:P Which makes it such a joy to read! You always have us guessing!
Seriously, what a bastard! I really feel for Eric. He seems like such a sweet kid. His brother is a jerk leaving him behind like that. And I'm surprised that Devlin went along with it. Once you're gone it's too late to turn around and fight for the person you've ditched. Though it was good of Devlin to try at least.
And I loved seeing Rayne. Especially the part where she slammed the door on Nate and locked him out. Yeah, let him face his father and explain what's going on.
I'm glad your exploring the relationships of the siblings. There seems like there has to be a lot there to play with.
Well damn, Nate! I don't like my sisters most of the time but I wouldn't leave them hanging like that!
Great way to connect both stories! I thought Cooper and Beth were back on the good side of their marriage. ?
Hi Phoenix - yeah it was bad form. Nate didn't see any advantage in staying behind with Eric, so he didn't. He doesn't dislike his brother though, and after thinking about it a little while, he did feel kind of bad. Probably because Dev told him he was a jerk.
Rayne will be moving on. Not certain what direction, but she's not going to hide in a corner and cry over Gabe.
Thanks Lunar Fox. I had to wrap up that police station encounter. This is really a housekeeping piece. It did provide an opportunity to pull Rayne out of the previous situation without a long explanation, so I took it.
Dev went along with it - Nate has a pretty overwhelming personality, and he didn't give much detail until they were actually in the parking lot. Eric is a sweet kid. Caught between two powerful siblings, and he's not much like either of them.
Thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it.
Qui, Cooper and Beth are working on things. (If we ever get another Sessions update out, we'll cover some of that.) On that particular evening, Coop simply wasn't at home. If he had been, he would have been the one to go to the police station to collect Eric (trying to tie the loose ends together here). There's a lot Nate doesn't understand, and not all of it is his fault.
Nate doesn't dislike his brother, he just dismisses and uses him. From his perspective, there was no point in all three of them getting in trouble.
Since I knew I was going to have to wrap up the police station encounter, I tried to pull as much as I could into it. Thank you so much.
Nate was a mega douche, but its sort of what siblings do to each other. The number of times I got stuck with the blame for something that wasn't my fault, well I can't count that high. And with twins its bound to be worse.
My brother used to manufacture reasons to get me into trouble, if he couldn't find something sufficiently bad. So yeah...
Nice to see Rayne finally going to clean up or attempt to clean up her mess.
Nate is quite the piece of work, nice brother. Cooper's kids are quite a mix.
Loved the drug store shots, great update~
I love how you show the difference between Eric and Nate with the little things. Eric seems to always be in his own head, thinking about things, sort of on the fringe of Nate's plans and not quite grasping a way out. You can see that he is at a point where he wants out from under his twin. Loved the bit about his ear. I almost thought he maybe didn't hear Nate when the cruiser showed up and he called Eric.
Thank you Drew. Nate is the twin with the most personal power, and he naturally uses it. Not sure he even meant to do anything all that bad to Eric.
The kids in most families are a mix, some more than others. Throw a huge talent and ego in there and it complicates things even more.
Eric notices things Nate doesn't think he notices, like picking on the ugly girl for maximum distraction. And he cannot hear clearly. If Nate said more than his name, he might not have caught it.
He does want out. He hasn't suffered all that much by being Nate's brother though - there are benefits. He'll have to give those up too.
Thank you Gayl. Always.
How on earth did I, miss this?? Must be slacking on my blog stalking. Anyway Nate is a real piece of work. Put the car in drive and turn your back while it crashes. Soooo not cool to leave his brother holding the bag. And he doesn't seem too sorry for it.
I'm glad to see that Rayne recognizes her problem enough to think about cleaning it up. That is the first step. Now that all hell has officially broken loose with all of their kids I'll be very interested to see what Cooper and Beth do about it.
thanks Muzegoddess.
Cooper's first priority would be his daughter, then whatever he thinks he should or can do about the twins.
This is going to be slow for a while. No romantic conflict on the immediate horizon. It's my hope that Rayne will learn she doesn't need a prince or a man at all; that she can survive and thrive on her own.
The romantic piece may be slow but I look forward to seeing how you play out Rayne's "cleaning up."
I'm trying, Francesca. I'm working on it. Thank you so much for reading and continuing to support me.
My earlier comment came out weird. What I meant was, although you say it will be slow for a while because there won't be a romantic interest for her, I actually think it will be fascinating to see you develop her character. I'm so sorry it really came across unintelligible and yet also critical.
No no it's ok! I'm my biggest critic! I'm always second guessing myself, but I am so grateful that you are reading my stuff and leaving me a comment. And she might have a romantic interest. I'm hoping to get into her relationship with her father, and who she is, and what she should do. I'm just worried that leaving out the romance for a while will turn people off.
Just one more comment from me. I had to close a loop and tie up some lose ends. This is a clean up chapter.
I really will try to do better with the next one.
Nate you stupid idiot moron! FRIENDS BEFORE LOOSE CHICKS! Classic rule! PLUS you don't ditch your twin when YOU made the mess. No, you take the rap and feel like a stupid idiot moron for it. Now he has to face karma; NOT pretty.
Eric is so aww, but at the same shouldn't always listen to his brother. - instinct is sometimes very right. Twins may be inseparable but there's times where you have to use a singular and not plural. When karma slaps Nate in the face he will NEED Eric and then he'll understand what it was like to be ditched and chucked into the ocean with no life jacket or a 'How to survive' manual. Nice.
Go Rayne! It's nice knowing she's clearing up the Gabe thing but I think she has a potential love interest. Not Cruz but.. Nic? Yeah, Nic! Didn't he kill bugs for her? Oozing macho now. LOL!
I like this chapter - it's quiet but a nice kind.
thelook, I can absolutely guarantee Nate will run into Karma. And she is a beautiful and unforgiving bitch.
Rayne's word on her meme is relentless.
Nic did kill bugs for her. Cruz would probably kill something even bigger for her.
Maybe she doesn't want or need someone who kills bugs for her. Maybe she needs to be the one who kills the bugs.
I know this was a quiet and sort of well nothing chapter. It set things up. Thank you SO MUCH for reading it though and letting me know what you think. I get kind of down sometimes so THANK YOU!
I had to set up a transition piece, and Nate and Eric gave it to me. On a platter.
Spent a few hours here and there over the weekend getting caught up on this story. Oh, my! So many images floating around in my head right now: strung out Rayne, Gabe back, family units hemorrhaging despair and betrayal, broken dreams, interfering teens who think they know best, a grey knight--the reluctant hero. Ah, so good!
ASK, thank you!! I am absolutely thrilled you enjoyed it! Gayl and I have such fun writing, despite the normal ups and downs.
I was so excited to see a comment from you -- just thank you!!
Gosh, now that is one bad little dude! Ditching your brother after you set him up is not very nice Nate! I can imagine those two will have much trouble getting along in the future.
I loved the close up expressions you captured here, Dev and Nate's conversation after they left the gas station was very believable, I love Dev's angry face, so cute!
Thank you Emily. Nate is a lot like his sister!
We'll come up with a way to do more with these guys, including Dev.
What a dysfunctional family!
Seriously... poor Beth... she is the one to clean all the messes.
Nate! What a Moron!
I fell sorry for Eric, I can't believe his own twin brother walked away from him! Geez!!
Looks like Rayne is doing better... at least she is sober! lol
Oh Boy there in it now, LOL! Nate and his brother are polar opposites, actually Nate seems to be a bit of a danger in all of this although he is showing some remorse 80) Knowing what he could get if he stayed. Then there is Rayne who does look mighty sick LOL! He wouldnt want to mess with her.
Gripping read SB beautiful.
thank you Cherie. Nate's more reckless than anything else, and thoughtless.
This family seems to have no end of problems!
Poor Eric. He sure got set up - you'd think he'd have seen it coming... I don't think you can arrest somebody unless they're actually caught red-handed trying to carry the item out of the store. Eric had put the stuff down, so he could easily claim that he was just playing around. Just a thought...
But those kids sure are a mess! Beth really has her hands full!
Yeah Colliegirl, unfortunately I know he couldn't actually be arrested, but I couldn't figure out a reasonably easy way to get a shot with the beer in his hands, and that lot kept crashing on me. So I went with what I had LOL!
This update is really only here to support the Chameleon chapter...the boys aren't all that bad :P
thank you so much!!
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