𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬: 𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐲𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧 ~ 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

𝐒𝐦𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐝

I took a breath as I pulled up to Tannyhill, parking the Twinkie next to the property.

I needed to see Wheezie despite how much I hated being back at Tannyhill. I wanted to distract her from everything that was going on for at least a little while.

I knew she was home since Rose mentioned she would be taking the next few days off of school. For obvious reasons.

I let myself inside and looked around the place I once called home. As much as I missed my father, I was less tense knowing he wouldn't be there.

"Rose?" I called through the house.

She quickly came into my view.

Her makeup was smudged and she looked a bit disheveled.

"Hi, Aspyn..." She muttered, clearly confused as to why I was there.

"I- um...I came to see Wheezie," I explained. "I know you were talking about letting her take a few days off school. Is she doing alright?"

"She's hanging in there," Rose sighed.

"What about Rafe?"

She paused for a moment, surprised I would even ask about my brother.

"He's stressed," She explained. "Hell, I am too,"

"Cameron Development is 1.7 million dollars in debt, and Ward left no trace of the gold behind," She sighed. "We have a month to come up with that money but nobody knows where to find a single bar of that damn gold!"

I watched her expression shift as she realized she probably shouldn't have been discussing shit like that with me anymore.

She had just begun rambling without taking into consideration who she was talking to.

I wasn't the cunning, manipulative, bitch that I used to be, and I could see the exact moment she remembered that.

There wasn't much I could do with the information she let slip, but it was clearly something she didn't want me to hear, so I made sure to keep it in the back of my mind just in case.

"So, um, is Wheezie in her room?" I asked, brushing off her comment.

Rose shook her head as if it would erase the past few moments. "I- uh...yeah, she is,"

"Okay, thanks..." I said, walking past my stepmother.

I made my way up to my little sister's room, knocking on the door.

"I told you to go away, Rose!" She huffed.

I sighed, leaning against the door. "What if it's not Rose?"

I heard footsteps approach followed by the door opening.

"A..." Wheezie said, a very small smile coming to her face.

"Hey, Wheeze,"

Her eyes were red and puffy, and her face tear-stained.

"Do you want to maybe do something together?" I asked. "You know, to kind of distract from everything. If not, it's okay, I'm just glad to see you,"

She wiped her eyes. "Honestly, doing something sounds great right now. Can we just stay here though? Like, play a game or something?"

I gave a small smile. "Sounds good, Wheeze. I'll go downstairs and grab some snacks while you pick a game, alright?"

She nodded. "Yeah, alright,"

-

"Oh, come ON!" I yelled, slamming down my controller after losing another game of Mario Kart.