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Twenty-One

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"Move!" Paige prompted, nearly pushing April into the wall beside them.

April quickly held on to it to steady herself before turning around. "Paige, my feet hurt. We've been walking for almost an hour. She's not out here."

Paige pushed her hair behind her ear and looked round the open beach. April was right, there was nobody around them. "I'm just worried about Amanda, okay? I know you hate her but she's our sister, too."

"I don't hate her, in fact it's the other way around. Why would you even think that?"

The blonde shrugged and stopped paused by the shore. "If you don't hate her, then why are you always making her feel unwelcome?"

April took a step back, forcing herself to ignore the warm glow of the sun out here. "I'm what now?"

"It's what she told me."

April rolled her eyes. Of course, it'd be April's fault that Amanda had trouble fitting in. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"You know, I don't really get the point of your beef. I mean what's more interesting on a vacation than spending time together?"

April shrugged. "Amanda's making this look like it's all my fault that she can't fit in here."

"She's always like that."

"No, it's worse. She's been riding my ass ever since we got here. If I'm not apologizing for one thing, it's another thing." It was frustrating, to say the least. They changed paths and continued to thread the sand in the direction of Javier's beach house, which should've been empty, since everyone was in their house for the party.

"Is the door open?" Paige asked, pointing. April nodded and grabbed her sister's hand to pull her closer. The door was indeed wedged open by someone's flipflop, so they slid it open and went inside.

"Who do you think is—"

"Fuck off!" Someone screamed from inside.

April's hands flew to her ears as the sound of glass shattering echoed through the empty house. She turned to Paige, her eyes were round as baseballs. "What was that?"

"I hope nobody's dead yet," She answered, fueling her steps toward the kitchen.

"You're a fucking lunatic!" Amanda's voice rang through again, prompting both April and Paige to hasten their footsteps.

"I'm the lunatic now? You're the one sneaking behind my back to-"

The door swung wildly on its hinges, cutting Malia off from speech. April's jaw almost dropped as Amanda wrenched her hair free of the older girl's grip and scurried over to their side of the room.

The whole kitchen was a mess of flour, scattered pots and pans, and of course, the pieces of the glass jug that Malia had just shattered. The remains of the handle was still clutched in her left hand.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Paige screamed, pushing past April to grab Amanda's hand. "Are you crazy?!"

Malia chuckled. "Crazy," she repeated calmly, nodding her head. "Maybe I am crazy, yeah...but what else would I be after I've caught that-" she paused to hurl the remaining piece of glass towards the door. Amanda squealed as it missed her head and collided with the wall, shattering into smithereens. "I caught that slut with my boyfriend."

"I am not a slut." Amanda cried out, rubbing the back of her head through her voluminous curls.

"It's not even an insult these days," Paige commented.

"What exactly happened?!" April asked, stepping in to stop the tirade. "What the hell you talking about?"

"Oh don't you fucking play mediator here, April, because I know you're the one who probably infected her with some kind of bug or whatever that makes you want to jump on any fucking guy you meet."

"What?" Paige mouthed.

"Is this about Nate?" April asked, voicing her—albeit horrifying—suspicion. The only guy Malia was interested in was her brother (at least to April's knowledge), and if she were to cut all the denial out, she could see something about Amanda and Nathan as well. "So you caught Amanda with Nathan. Is that what this is?!" She asked instead.

"Maybe, or maybe it's more than that."

"That's ALL it is," Amanda cried out, prying Paige's hands off her. "You're only angry cause Nate chose me over you."

"Say that again after I stuff my fist in your mouth!"

"You're disgusting, Malia," Paige shot. "And if Amanda wronged you, dragging her into an empty house to fight her isn't the answer."

"And what is?!" Malia asked as her long hair fell from the haphazard bun she had tied it into.

"Have you asked—Oh, I don't know—Nathan himself?" April asked, looking from Amanda, who was fuming and breathing hard with streaks of dried tears on her face, to Malia, whose chest was also heaving wildly as she glared daggers at Amanda.

The front door smacked the wall beside it with a loud bang, as if someone had kicked it open. It was followed by Nathan's thunderous voice. "Amanda!"

"We're in here!" Paige yelled back, but without any enthusiasm in her usually cheery voice.

Nathan was in the room in seconds, looking as alert as was possible, followed by someone else, who April recognised instantly as Javier.

"Great, now the whole fucking trip is here!" Malia groaned, slamming her palm onto the counter in front of her.

Nathan literally shook his shock off. "What the f-"

"We've asked that, and we've gotten answers!" April dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "It's actually your turn to explain."

He fell silent.

She followed his eyes as he looked round the kitchen. First at the floor, then the walls, which were splattered in mustard from the plastic bottle of said substance, which lay on the ground.

He then raised his head to see Malia standing at the end of their marble counter, and finally rested on Amanda, who was still shuddering, and Paige, who was patting her back like a mother would do to her choking baby.

"Are you okay?"

"She's fine," Paige replied blankly, leading Amanda out of the room, leaving April, Malia(who was still breathing like she had run a marathon), Nathan and Javier, who hadn't still said a word since he arrived.

"Now do you care to explain?"

"Yeah, explain it to them, would you? Explain exactly what you've been doing behind my back!" Malia cried out, her voice coming out in high pitched streaks of anger and frustration. "Don't be scared I almost killed your little girlfriend!"

"Why are you're acting like you didn't already know about it?" Javier finally spoke up. Malia picked up a knife and pointed it toward him. "What? You're gonna kill me, too?"

April folded her arms. She didn't know they'd been talking at all. "Drop the knife, we can settle this civilly."

Nathan shook his head. "There's nothing civil about this, she almost killed Amanda."

"Yeah, and that's not gonna go unpunished. If Amanda refuses to tell Dad, I'll do it myself, and I'm sure Paige would agree with me. What matters right now is what we can't discuss in front of parents." She turned to Nathan. "Were you, or were you not cheating on Malia with Amanda?"

He scoffed. "You have no right to ask me-"

"Don't I now?" April cut him off. "She almost killed my best friend! And I don't know everything yet, but I know you could've avoided all this simply by being open with the both of them."

"She's right," Javier supported. "None of this would've happened if you'd just told Malia the truth... She's been worried about the fact that you wouldn't make her official."

"Sure! Spill my guts for me, you big gossip!" Malia spat, waving the knife in the air in front of her.

"Drop the fucking knife, would you?!" April piped up. She took a step toward her but was held back by Javier, who grabbed her by the hand.

"Malia, if you drop the knife, we can talk about this."

"I'm not talking about anything with her," Nathan shrugged and faced Malia. "You've already said your mind, haven't you? Acting like you didn't know about Manda and me."

"That's not all to it," she answered. "Nate, I-"

"You made a scene over nothing! Get the fuck out." He waved her off before turning around to leave.

Malia dropped the knife and ran after him, leaving April and Javier together. April gave him a quick nod before dashing out as well to find Amanda and Paige.

×|×|×

The next hour was spent by April and her sisters (counting Amanda), in Javier's room for privacy, while she told them the entire story, from how she'd always had a crush on Nathan, to how they'd confessed to each other at prom and kept it secret ever since. She added that the only reason Nathan had left her at prom was because she'd rejected him in front of people when he'd wanted to take things serious.

The whole time, she had been afraid of April and Paige, and their reactions to her dating their brother.

"I swear, none of it was supposed to end like this," she said, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "I'm sorry."

April looked up at Paige, whose raised brows were an indication of her scepticism. She cocked her head to the side, silently asking Paige to make up her mind and take the lead, especially since she, April, did not know how she felt about it.

"Can you two talk? I'm getting scared." Amanda squeaked out.

They sighed in unison.

"I'm not totally at peace after hearing this," Paige started.

"Definitely not."

"But you're still our best friend."

"Absolutely."

"And even if Nathan's mostly a serious, perfectionist—" Paige continued.

"—Jerky, pain in the ass," April cut in.

"He's also supposed to be our older brother. And if you two decide to be together, despite your awkward combination—"

April nodded. "—we, as your friends, have to at least support you two and let you break up on your own terms."

"Finishing each other's sentences, that wasn't creepy at all," Amanda muttered, but there was a faint smile tugging at her lips.

April mirrored her smile. "Do we have a deal?"

"Oh! And no putting Nathan before us," Paige added. "That's part of the contract."

Amanda chuckled and nodded, clutching the blanket they had draped over her shoulders. "I love you guys," she breathed out.

April and Paige swayed their heads cockily, before belting out "We know," at the exact same time, and then the three burst into laughter.

"No wonder you were being a brat to me all summer. ADHD much?" April started, poking her finger into Amanda's cheek playfully.

"Don't tease me, I swear I'm gonna—"

"Wow!" Paige cut her off, bolting off the area of the bed she'd been sitting on. "I actually forgot where we were for a second!"

April's eyes followed her till they landed on Javier's desk, where different notebooks of various sizes were stacked in a crooked pyramid. Beside this was his phone and AirPod case.

"April, we're in Javier's room!" She squealed, twirling like a princess trying out a new dress. "It smells strange in here, did you notice?" she asked, walking toward the closet. "And look at that poster," she chuckled, pointing toward an american idol poster on the side of the room.

April simply shrugged, having seen all that before. "Don't touch anything."

"Why? Is he your boyfriend?" Paige wagged her eyebrows, pulling the poster off its hanger.

April got up to grab it back. "Don't take it off!"

Amanda laughed from inside the blanket. "Is he though? Or is it Shawn this time?"

"Oh it's definitely Javier. I saw them kiss in the kitchen earlier."

April's cheeks flashed crimson. "No, you didn't!" She grabbed a pillow and hurled it at Paige before she could keep spilling all her little secrets.