 ( chapter one )
THE BREWERS RETURN.

Dylan Castillo stood behind the counter at the coffee shop she worked at, regretting her choice to ask her cousin to get her a job at the place months back as she stood around. Frankie was in the back doing god knows what, which left Dylan up front only hoping the clock would suddenly begin to tick faster.

"Frankie! I think I will literally die of boredom if you're in there one more minute." Dylan shouted, leaning across the counter in front of her. She heard a laugh from the other room, Frankie quickly emerging as she looked toward her cousin.

When the two were younger, Dylan's parents got into some trouble with the law. They'd been addicts, and with that came the constant need to use whatever money they had to keep from sobering up. It had left a very young Dylan to constantly wonder if she'd eat that night.

The night her parents had been arrested would stick in her mind forever. She could remember her Aunt Lucia grabbing onto her and trying to cover the girls eyes, but Dylan had watched anyways as her mom begging for the cops not to take her stash.

She'd been 9.

From there on out Dylan had lived with Lucia and Frankie, basically becoming a second daughter for Lucia and a sister to Frankie instead of a cousin. Dylan was grateful for the two. They didn't have much, but they made due with what they did have. And she knew anything was better than how it used to be.

"Isn't that a little dramatic?" Frankie laughed, nudging Dylan slightly before pulling out a rag and beginning to wipe the counter down. "It's symbolic to my level of boredom. How much longer anyways?" Dylan replied, eyes staying glued to Frankie.

"Just an hour and a half. And then we'll be free to head to the park and meet up with everyone." Frankie smiled back, looking up toward the clock.

"Thank god." Dylan replied, turning around to begin counting the inventory. The coffee shop rarely had anything stocked up and even more rarely ever had customers inside. Dylan didn't blame them, though, the coffee was terrible.

She had to guess it had something to do with the low quality coffee beans or the ancient coffee machines, but either way Dylan wouldn't even drink the coffee from her work. 

When the shift was finally over Dylan felt like she could jump for joy, eagerly getting into Frankie's boyfriend Treys car as he drove the three to the park. He lived decently close to the coffee shop, so on days the two had to work and the group would then hang out after, they always found it easier to catch a ride than anything else.

"Anyone order anything today?" The boy wondered, looking toward Frankie as she sat in the passenger seat. "Nope. Just Dyl and I all morning." Frankie smiled back, turning around to send her cousin a smile. "Imagine my boredom." Dylan joked, dodging the best she could when Frankie swung a hand her way, both girls laughing lightly.

"Is Jack coming?" Trey questioned Dylan's way, looking at her through his rear view mirror. "He's supposed to. Practice may run late, though." Dylan responded, quickly sending CJ a text to say the three were almost there.

"I still believe his practices start so soon. I mean, summer just started." Frankie spoke up. "Baseball boys are weird. I feel like even when he doesn't have an official practice he's practicing." Dylan replied, shaking her head lightly.

"He's gotta impress those scouts." Trey answered, shrugging lightly. "Okay, we're here." The boy then voiced, parking the car.

Dylan quickly exited, feeling Frankie immediately connect her arm with Dylan's as the two walked, Trey following behind them quietly. Dylan smiled when she made eye contact with Alex, quickly running toward the bench Alex was at with CJ, taking a seat beside the girl and wrapping her arms around her.

Alex was quick to hug back, just as excited to see Dylan. "Wow, no hug for me?" CJ joked, handing Dylan a red solo cup as she sent him a look. "Ew, gross. You sound like one of those where's my hug at dudes."

"I take offense to that, Dyl. I thought we were closer than that." CJ joked, laughing when the girl lightly pushed him away. "I've actually hated you this whole time. I'm just a great actress."

"Well now we definitely can tell you're lying." Alex laughed, laughter only growing at the betrayed look plastered on Dylan's face. "I'm gonna go mingle, you two have fun." CJ laughed, moving on to talk to some other people.

Dylan hadn't really noticed how many people had shown up, forgetting before that the hang out was much more of a party.

Frankie and Trey sat across from Alex and Dylan, the two wrapped up in each other as the girls played rock, paper, scissors until someone won ten times. "Boom, take that." Alex smack talked, earning her sixth victory.

Dylan just laughed, shaking her head. "You're up by one, Alex. One. You're still going down."

"Devvey! C-squared!" Dylan suddenly heard CJ yell, eyes widening when she saw them. Excitement grew in the girls chest as she saw the Brewer twins, two people she had not expected to make a return to Gravesend.

Dylan and Frankie made quick, excited, eye contact. Dylan quickly jumping up from her seat and moving to walk over to the two. "Devin? Cece?"

The two both shot their heads the girls way, Ceces face lighting up as Dylan b-lined her way. The two quickly hugged, Dylan now more excited for the day when she saw her two old friends. "Dylan! Oh, my god, hi!" Cece smiled wide.

"I didn't know you guys were coming! Hi!" Dylan smiled, pulling away from Cece and immediately hugging Devin. "Hey, hi." Devin almost gasped, heart rate increasing heavily as the girl hugged him.

Dylan pulled away, still close to the boy as she smiled wide his way. She was quick to notice how much he'd grown up, eyes glued to the boys. "Uh, yeah, we, uh... uh, we're— we're here. Yeah, I, uh, we're here. I'm— I'm— I'm here. Uh, they're— they're here." Devin awkwardly replied, smile not leaving his face.

Dylan laughed lightly, not fully knowing how to reply but finding the rambling kind of cute. "Yeah, Devin, we're all here. These are undeniable facts." Cece voiced, sending Dylan a small look, making the girl just laugh lightly.

"Well, it's so good to see you guys. This is the best surprise ever." Dylan smiled, eyes moving between the siblings. "Yeah, it's... You know, it's bussin' out here in Gravesend, you know? So bussin'." Devin replied, eyes still glued to the girl.

"Yeah, totally." Dylan nodded, laughing lightly. She'd forgotten how amusing the boy could be. "I'm gonna go somewhere else... and so are you." Cece decided, dragging CJ away. "You should say hi to Frankie!" Dylan called out, laughing as Cece dragged CJ off.

"Your brother has no game. It's impressive." Dylan heard CJ speak, rolling her eyes lightly. "Ignore him. How have you been?" Dylan wondered, gaze moving back to Devin and staying there.

He smiled, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to another. "Uh, uh... good! I've been good. How— how about you? I mean... I, uh, I followed you on Instagram. You don't seem to post too often."

"Really? I kinda feel like I post too often." Dylan laughed, pulling her phone out to look at her Instagram. "I never saw that you followed me." She quickly showed the boy her profile, watching as his cheeks heated up. "Um, that's definitely not the account I followed."

Dylan laughed. "You followed a poser account? No way, that's too good. What account did you follow?" Devin anxiously pulled his phone out, opening Instagram and revealing a Dylan Castillo that definitely was not her. "How'd you think this was an account a teenage girl would run?" Dylan laughed, scanning over the account.

The profile photo was in black and white, only showcasing a figure far away. There were also only three posts, all in black and white as well and all photography photos. "I mean, at least you gave this random person a fan for their photography." Dylan continued, handing the phone back.

"Yeah, I commented on one of those." Devin cringed, thinking back to the conversation he'd thought he'd been having with the girl. He would not be diving into that one ever now that he knew it was some random person.

"Here. I'm pretty sure this is the person who stole the username I wanted, mine is dyl.castillo. Right there." Dylan smiled, pointing to the profile on the boys phone as he typed in what she said. "Cool." Devin nodded anxiously, looking around.

"Um, uh... it seems like you've been good. I— I mean have you, uh, have you been good?" Devin wondered.

Dylan smiled, ready to answer when she suddenly felt her feet lifted off the ground, gasping as she felt someone wrap their arms around her. "Hey, Dyl." Jackson smiled, pulling the girl close to him as he stared forward at Devin, smile still on his face. "Who's this guy?"

"Jack, hey. This is Devin. He used to live in town before moving in 8th grade. His twin sister Cece is probably around here somewhere." Dylan explained, smiling Devin's way as the boy just watched the way Jackson's arm sat across Dylan's shoulders.

"Hey, man. It's good to meet you." Jackson nodded, holding a hand out. "Oh, uh, yeah, yeah. You too." Devin nodded, sheepishly shaking the other boys hand.

"Dylan, come on. Trey and Frankie want to challenge us to some cup pong. I need my secret weapon." Jackson smiled, looking back down to the girl. "Give me a second and I'll be right over, okay? I want to finish talking to Devin a bit first." Dylan replied, smiling Jackson's way when he nodded, quickly kissing the girl before walking off, sending the two one last look.

"Sorry about that. I didn't know if he was coming or not. Didn't mean to ambush you." Dylan apologized. "Oh, it's, uh, it's all good. How long has that been going on?" Devin wondered, trying to contain the jealousy building up inside of him.

"A couple months now. It's new." Dylan replied, looking back toward where Jackson, Frankie, and Trey were for a moment before turning back to Devin. "You're welcome to join us, you know. I don't want to just leave you over here." Dylan continued.

"No, no, no. It's cool. Have a bussin' time." Devin replied quickly, kicking himself for once again saying bussin'.

Dylan laughed lightly, nodding. "Thanks, Dev. We should totally hang out soon, yeah? It's been way too long. It's nice to see you and Cece again." Devin nodded back fast, smile on his face. "Yeah, definitely. One hundo percent."

"Awesome. Come join whenever, okay?" Dylan smiled, lightly squeezing the boys arm before giving him one last look, running toward the three who'd begun yelling for her to meet up with them.

"There she is." Jackson smiled, pulling the girl toward him on instinct. "Hey." Dylan replied, eyes moving behind the boy for a moment as she watched Devin walk off toward Cece. "You ready to play?" Trey wondered, sending the girl a look.

She turned back around, nodding. "Oh, yeah. You're going down." Frankie laughed, shaking her head. "I don't doubt that."

"Hey, hey, hey, guys. Don't start a game yet! I want to get Cece and Devin to explain their crazy family history. You'll want to be there to hear it." CJ smiled, running up to the four as they started setting up. "Oh, yeah?" Jackson laughed, already knowing what he'd rather do and it wasn't that.

"Yeah, come on." CJ nodded, running off again to grab Cece and Devin. "Let's play." Trey laughed. "Oh, come on. It's a story worth hearing." Dylan replied, mostly directing her attention to Jackson, smiling lightly the boys way.

"Well, if you already know it then it—" Trey went to speak, getting cut off by Jackson. "Okay, yeah. Fine, let's go hear it." Dylan smiled wide, immediately grabbing Frankie's hand and pulling the girl with her back toward the table their friends were at.

"Dude! You've got to resist!" The two heard Trey whisper yell from behind them, just causing the girls to laugh to each other before taking their seats, Dylan between Frankie and Alex as Jackson stood behind her as she leant back against him.

"Yo, what's good, what's good, what's good. Hey. So, did you guys know that Devin and Cece's uncle was one of the kids that went missing in 1994?" CJ exposed, causing Dylan to roll her eyes lightly with a sigh. She knew the story all too well, remembering how scared it used to make her when she was younger.

"Yes." Cece nodded, clearly not the one who had the idea to tell everyone. "Ooh. Full of surprises, aren't you?" Alex smiled, eyes glued to Cece. "Yeah, of course. I mean, that story gave me nightmares when I was younger. That place is seriously haunted." Frankie chimed in, frowning as she looked around.

"Yeah, major bad vibes." Dylan agreed, feeling her cousin lightly squeeze her hand from under the table. That same place had been where her parents would take her when they were doing some type of drug deal, the two finding it easier to just take their six year old with them than find the money for a sitter.

So, Dylan had never been a fan.

"Wait, so what was the real deal?" Alex wondered, bringing Dylan's mind back to the actual conversation at hand. No one ever knew how those kids really died, there had always been theories, but no bodies no conclusion.

"I mean, we don't... we don't know. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about how our uncle tragically died." Cece replied instantly. "They slept over on a dare." Devin added in, clearing up at least why the group was there to anyone who didn't know.

"And they were killed by ghosts?" CJ wondered, smiling Devin's way. "No, nobody knows what happened." Cece interjected.

"Okay, I mean, they were probably not killed by ghosts." Devin smiled, looking around slightly. "Wait, wait, I'm sorry. So, you're saying that you're not scared of this place?" Frankie laughed, looking Devin's way confused.

Devin noticed Dylan sit up slightly, leaning more his way as she looked at him intrigued, waiting to hear what the boy had to say. "No." Devin answered Frankie, his eyes moving right back to Dylan as her head lightly tilted to the side, smiling the boys way.

"Why don't you, um... Why don't you prove it?" Trey wondered, taking a sip of his drink after as Frankie sent him a look. "Yeah, man. Sounds fun, right?" Jackson added, fist bumping Trey after.

"Seriously?" Dylan questioned, turning around to look at both the boys annoyed. She hated that place, and them egging Devin on to go in could never end well. She could just feel it.

"What?" Jackson laughed, eyes moving from Dylan to Devin. "I mean, it's not scary... right?"

Dylan anxiously bit down on her lip, eyes moving back to Devin as he looked between Trey and Jackson, slowly nodding after a moment. "Okay."

Trey nodded back mockingly, staring daggers Devin's way. "Okay."

AUTHORS NOTE!
splitting the first episode into two chapters so I can get this one out!! I'm so excited for this story!!!