My flight lasted about an hour, and then we had to wait another hour just to leave the plane. I walked toward the escalator waving at the few people I knew who worked there. When I got downstairs I looked around for my brother, my eyes quickly scanned the cluster of people. And then I saw him,, he was holding a cardboard sign that said “Jelly bean” I laughed and ran to him, “KODA!” he dropped the sign picking me up in a hug and spinning me, “Hey, Emmysue.”

I held onto him for a while and started crying, I missed him so much! He pulled away and looked at me wiping my tears. “I missed you Em.” He smiled and pinched my cheek. “I missed you too Koda. And I have so much to tell you!” I squealed in excitement
“And I can’t wait to hear all of it! But right now we’re in a hurry. I have a surprise at home for you.” He put his arm around my shoulders and we walked to the car, the entire way I was telling him what happened, leaving out a few parts such as: when they saw my bra, what I did with Jaime, the drinking and the Tony thing, along with the fight. I mean I love him and I could tell him everything, but I don’t want to tell him that stuff right now.

I was still talking when we got into the car and headed home, “And now I’m here with you.” I finished smiling. “So you knocked on their bus door, spent 2 days with them, and got all of their numbers along with Austin Carlile’s. Hmmm… sounds like you had an amazing couple of days.” He smiled not taking his eyes off o f the road.
“Yes. Yes I did.” I actually did have an amazing time, until this morning. I didn’t want to think about it so I plugged in my ipod and we jammed out to my music, luckily no PTV, Jaime Preciado, or MikeyWhiskeyHands came on. It’s like my ipod knew I didn’t want to hear it. Koda and I sang along to every song on the way home.

Soon we pulled into the driveway of our little gingerbread looking house. Koda turned off the car and got out, “Stay there!” he shut his door and ran to my side to open mine, “Here you are my dear.” I laughed, “Well thank you, bud.”
I grabbed my backpack and climbed out of the car. I raced him to the backdoor flinging it open and running inside before he could open it for me. I stuck my tongue out at him and ran downstairs to my room. I threw the backpack on my bed and shut the door taking off up stairs to join koda in the living room. I plopped down next to him on the couch, “So, what’s my surprise?” he looked at me smiling, “I’ll be right back.” He ran to the guest room, “Okay, close your eyes!” he yelled, I closed my eyes and heard him walk in, “Hey, can I open my eyes yet? PPPLLLEEEAAASSSEEEE!!!” I drug out the word.

“Ok, now open them.” I opened my eyes and gasped, “you got me a puppy?” in his arms was the most adorable Australian Shepard I had ever seen! I jumped up and stole it from his arms. “So, no ‘thank you koda’ or ‘OMG I love you koda!’?” he laughed

“OMG thank you koda!” I mimicked his tone, “So, what are you going to name her?” he pet her head then looked at me. “Sebring.” She looked at me when I said it.
“Wait, so after the OM&M song?”

“Yes, after the song. Plus she’s already answering to it.” Just as Dakota was about to say something when my mom and little sister came walking in, “Ouch, look what the cat drug in.” I smirked; I really didn’t like my sister. She thought that she was the sexiest P.O.S. to walk the planet. “Now, now. Your sister has something to say to you.” My mom looked at my sister who sighed and stepped forward, “Mom let me use your phone and I broke it.”

I immediately got pissed off, “WHAT! Why the hell would you let her use MY phone?” I looked at my mom then returned my gaze to Becca, “And why the hell weren’t you more careful! You know how much time and money it took to get that phone! How could you be so incredibly stupid!” I could feel Dakota put his hand on my shoulder to calm me down, thankfully it worked. Well for the most part.

“Now Emily, calm down. It’s just a phone and your sister is very sorry. It was an accident.” My mom started to raise her voice at me, so I returned the tone, “Fine! What the hell ever! Becca, you better sleep with one eye open. You are paying for my phone, I don’t know how but you are. Even if that means I have to shave those lovely locks of yours and sell them to a wig maker.” I tugged on her hair and she gasped, “YOU WOULDN’T!”

“Oh, I would.” I said smiling at her, she started crying. “I can’t wait until you graduate and move out!” she yelled and ran off. “Don’t worry, 2 more week and I’m gone!” I flipped her off when she looked back at me, I heard Dakota laughing but my mom was not happy at all. “Do not do that to your sister young lady! Give me your dog right now I am taking her to the pound.” She reached for Sebring, Dakota stepped in between the two of us, “To hell you are I gave her Sebring for her birthday, I’m the only one who can take her away.” My mom backed off and left the room and Dakota turned to me, “If she ever tries to do that again let me know.” He pet Sebring on the head.

“Ok, I will. But only 2 weeks until graduation. Once that comes I’m leaving this hell hole.” I smiled at the thought

“Where are you gonna go?”

“San Diego. Me and Charlie, do you remember her?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Oh, well we’ve been saving money since you left. We already have an apartment lined up and she has family out there who owns a couple tattoo shops so we also have some job interviews lined up.”

“Wow, Em. I’m proud of you.” He hugged me, “Now, you know what that means right?”
“No, What?” I pulled away from him, “I’ll have to visit a lot, maybe even get my own surfboard.”

“Yeah, totally.” I laughed

“Yeah, well I’m sorry Em, but I have to leave. I work tomorrow.”

“Oh, ok. Thanks for coming koda. It means a lot.” I could feel the tears surfacing but I quickly blinked them away, koda noticed and hugged me. I put Sebring down and hugged him tightly afraid to let go; I didn’t care anymore so I let the tears cover his shirt. He held onto me until I stopped crying. “Koda, I’ve got to give you something.” I pulled away from him and ran down to my room then back up to him. He was waiting in the living room, “Here, this time I’m going to keep my promise.” I handed him my last razor, he immediately started crying. I hadn’t seen him cry in a very long time, it completely broke my heart. Just seeing him like that made me cry harder than I already was.

He held my razor in his had and looked at me. He wiped my tears, “That’s my amazing little sister. I knew she was still in there somewhere. Emily, I want you to know that no matter what happens and no matter what you do, I will always be proud of you and I will always love you.” He kissed my head and walked to the back door opening it. Before he left he turned to face me again, “I love you jelly bean. I promise I’ll call you tomorrow. Remember, you and me.”

“I love you too koda, you and me.” I smiled, and then he walked out. I grabbed Sebring and we went down to my room shutting my door and collapsed on my bed. I pulled out my ipod and started looking through the pictures that I took over the last 2 days. I laughed when I came across a video of Tony and Austin writing on mike’s chest and back while he was passed out in the bathroom with the horse mask on. I continued looking through them until I got to a picture that made my heart sink. It was of Jaime and I, he was kissing my cheek while I had my eyes closed tight and I was smiling with my tongue partially out. It was a really adorable picture; it was for sure going to be framed one day.

After I looked through all of the pictures, I noticed that I was smiling. I decided I wanted to talk to one of them so I got up and grabbed the house phone then returned to my bed. I punched in a number from my ipod, it rang 3 or 4 times then he answered, “Hello?”

“Hi, Turtle.”

Notes

i know that it's really short compared to the other chapters. and it's just a filler chapter. i hope you guys don't exactly hate me for this. :p so yeah, (: haha
-Emilio