"Hi dad." I smiled nervously at my dad.

"You still haven't answered my question." He asked, his arms crossed.

"Who's that?" He asked, gesturing towards Isaac.

"He's a friend." I quickly responded.

"He came over so we can do our math homework together."

He just stared at me, and I couldn't help but feel low-key nervous as he did so, since I wasn't really used to lying. I almost expected him to ask me to tell him the truh, but instead he just smiled.

"Alright then."

"What made you come home so early?" I ask.

"They let me get out of work early today so I made some dinner for you kids."

"Audrey! Audrey!" I heard a familiar voice beam as he ran to greet me.

Blake hugged me, pulling away when he spotted Isaac.

"Isaac's here too!!" He smiled widely.

He stayed staring at Isaac, I'm pretty sure cus he saw the bruise.

"What happened? Did you beat the shit out of losers like the cool tough guy you are?" He said, throwing air punches.

My dad spat out his starbucks when Blake cursed.

"Blake? Where in the world did you ever learn that type of language?!"

He asked, clearly surprised since Blake has never cursed in his 5 (soon to be 6) years of his life until now.

"What'd you make for dinner?" I asked, quickly dismissing my dad's question. Luckily he forgot about it and smiled.

"I made your favorite, swedish meatballs!"

I smiled, looking back at Isaac who seemed to have fallen into some daydream, his face serious as he was in his faze.

"Uh.. hey." Ishook him lightly to grab his attention. "Want to eat with us?"

Before he even got to answer though I just grabbed his arm and walked inside with him.

I sat across from Blake and my dad, next to Isaac.

"Help yourself." I told Isaac, as I sliced one of my meatballs and took a bite.

"How's the food, pumpkin?" Dad grinned.

"Amazing, as always thanks." I smiled, since dad really did make some really good meatballs. I normally wasn't able to get the taste of his delicious food since he was usually busy with work.

"Hi everyone!" I heard Layton greet when he opened the door and walked inside.  He was in some gray tank top and shines,  somewhat sweaty since he sometimes liked going to the gym.

"Mmm." He looked around as he sniffed the air.

"Are those-"

"Meatballs!" Blake stated, nodding and giggling.

"Sweet, I love swedish meatballs." He smiled as he sat down with us.

"Of course you do," My dad said proudly.

"Everyone loves my famous meatballs. So everyone, dig in."

I couldn't help but just smile seeing how we were all together.

Usually I only had dinner with Blake, since everyone else usually was busy at work and didn't come home until night time.

We were all enjoying our food, until Layton saw Isaac with us. He stared at Isaac's face, that obviously had bruises.

"Hey, What happened to your- Ow!" He says as I kicked his shin.

I gave him a "shush" face,  which he understood since he didn't finish his sentence and just continued to eat.

I could tell Isaac was sad, since he was hardly eating his dinner.

Everyone started getting up as soon as they finished.

"Well, enjoy your dinner guys I'm going to take Blake to Toys R Us."

Layton said as he got up.

"No!"

Blake responded, which really surprised us all.

"But Blakey, you've been begging to go to Toy R Us!" I told the young one.

"I know, but I'd rather stay here. I'd rather stay with my aunt."

"Are you sure?" Layton asked Blake.

Blake nodded.

"Well, alright. I'm going to go to the park then to fish with your grandpa. So if you guys want to come later on, we'll be there."

I nodded.

Before my dad left with Layton though, he looked at Isaac though.

"Listen boy, you better not try anything with my daughter. Because if you do..."

I held back the urge to cover my face.

Why did my dad have to be so protective when it came to having guys over?

"Dad!! We're not going to do anything dad. Just study, I promise." I said to him, my face burning.

When he left, Blake walked up to Isaac, tugging him on his shirt lightly to get his attention.

"Why are you sad? Was Audrey being mean to you? I'm telling grandpa when he's back!"

"Blake! Leave him alone." I said, a little off guard when Isaac let out a quiet laugh.

This was the first time I've heard him genuinely laugh.

I sighed but chuckled with him.

"Blake, I didn't do anything. I promise. Just let him finish his dinner. We'll play with you later."

"Mkay." The young one agreed, and went to his room. I shook my head slightly.

I looked back at Isaac.

"Are you okay?"

I placed my hand on his, as a way to just comfort him.

Before he could answer, I heard someone knock at the door.

Who could it possibly be now?

"Sorry, I'ma answer the door real quick." I told him, before going to the door.

I rushed to the door to open it, smiling when I saw my friend Joshua.

"Josh? Hi! What are you doing here."

He let out a laugh.

"Don't you remember? We have a presentation due tomorrow for chemistry. We agreed to work on it in your house." He signed, because, yes, as you could probably notice by now he's deaf.

We became friends since both of us were people that got picked on a lot back when we were younger.

I'm probably one of the few people who was able to understand him when he first moved to our school.

I know sign language since there an epoch in my life where I lost all of my hearing after getting badly ill.

Though I got some of my hearing back, I still use sign language from time to time.

"Oh! I totally forgot about it I'm so sorry!! But we can work on it now." I signed back, and let Josh inside.

We continued our conversation, until we passed by the kitchen and Josh stopped walking.

"Hey Josh.."

I tapped him in the shoulder, but he was distracted looking at something, or should I say, someone.

"You didn't tell me you had company." He smirked as he signed.

I chuckled weakly.

When Isaac made eye contact with us, I smiled, feeling awkward when he didn't smile back. Josh twisted his mouth.

"Your friend's seems like a serious guy."

"Hey Isaac." I began to say as I walked up to him.

"I actually forgot about this until now, but my friend and I have a project we have to do." I explained

Josh gave his warm smile and waved.

"K." He got up and took his plate to the sink.

Josh crossed his arms, I already knew Josh was ready to snap with one of his famous sassy comments.

"He's a nice guy, really.." I signed.

Josh gave a small shrug.

"If you say so," he responded.

I nodded. "He had a bad day today." Josh's face softened.

"So, did you bring the materials?" I asked, suddenly remembering our project.

He nodded and handed me bags that contained everything.

"Great, let's get started."