Isaac flung his hand over the back of the sofa and groggily picked up the phone. "Ello?" Michelle gulped. She'd been hoping Taylor would pick up the phone. She tried to think of what to say; Isaac would know her voice. "Hello? Ah, forget it."
He was about to hang up when Michelle called out. "No, wait!" Isaac put the phone back to his ear. "I'm sorry, someone was talking to me, I didn't hear you. I was wondering if I could talk to Taylor."
Isaac vaguely recognized the voice, but didn't feel like thinking. "Taylor!!!!" he called up the stairs. "Get the phone!"
Taylor picked up the phone. "Got it Ike." Isaac would have hung it up, but he was nearly asleep and didn't feel like exerting the energy to move his arm. "Hello?"
"Tay, it's Michelle."
Taylor got a bit nervous. Michelle wouldn't talk to him normally. "What is it? Did something happen?"
Michelle sighed. "We have to tell them."
Taylor's eyes widened. "Tell them? Why should we have to tell them?"
"Because they have to know. This thing's been bottled up for more than a week. We have to tell them sometime."
"Sometime doesn't mean now. We can tell them later." Taylor's voice cracked from nervousness.
"But Taylor," Michelle worked through her mind the reasons why they had to tell Isaac and Jazmine. It's not like she wanted to, but Mike left her no choice. "If this goes unsaid for any longer, it has the ability to explode in our faces, their faces."
Taylor closed his eyes. He couldn't believe this. "How am I supposed to tell him? Huh? Do you know how?"
"Just tell him the truth. It'll be less painful."
"So you're gonna tell Jazmine the plain truth. Just go right out and say, 'You know something I forgot to tell you, while you were in the kitchen that day, John loudly proclaimed his undying love for you.' Like that?"
Isaac hadn't heard most the conversation, but as soon as Taylor said Jazmine's name his eyes jerked open. He was going to say something, when his father rushed in the front door. "Isaac, where are your brothers?"
Isaac hung up the phone and sat up. "Well, Taylor's upstairs, and I think Zac's out back." He looked at his father, who seemed frantic. "What's wrong?"
"Your mom's in labor." Isaac sighed, expecting much worse. His mother's pregnancies had become routine. "I'm going to take her now, I don't have time to wait on everyone. Jessie, Avery and Mac are already in the car. Get Taylor and Zac as fast as possible." He started turning to the door. "You take them to St. John's." He nearly ran through the door and slammed it behind him.
Isaac got up and went upstairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. He walked to his room and pressed himself against the wall, so he could hear the end of the conversation. "But that won't happen. It can't happen. John may be stupid, but..." Taylor sighed. Isaac figured now would be the best time, so he knocked. "What?"
Isaac opened the door and just barely stuck his head in. He noticed Taylor covering the earpiece of the phone. "Mom's in labor. Dad want's me to take you and Zac to St. John's." He pulled his head out of the door, but stuck around to hear the end of the conversation.
"Look, I've gotta go to the hospital. No, nothing serious, just my mother." He sighed heavily. "But now isn't the best time. I mean, a new baby is stressful he shouldn't have to worry about... fine. I'll tell him."
Isaac walked downstairs and out back to get his other brother. "Zac," He looked around and spotted a dangling pair of legs hanging out the side of the treehouse. He slowly climbed the ladder. "Zac, come on."
Zac sat up, obviously groggy from a disturbed nap. "What is it?"
"Mom. I'm taking you and Tay to the hospital cause Dad didn't want to wait." He waited until his brother showed signs of moving and went down the ladder and went back into the house. He grabbed his keys off the end table, went out the front door, and waited in his car. Not long after Zac came out followed by his brother.
The ride to the hospital had been reasonably quiet. Zac attempted to make conversation about the monotony of their mother's pregnancies, but Taylor was too worried about telling Isaac, who was already planning on how to respond to his brother's 'surprising' news.
The three of them made their way up to maternity, knowing the way by heart. They easily found the rest of their family, who stood out awkwardly from the rest of the people in the waiting room. Silently, they all sat down next to their father. Zac was the first to speak up. "Why aren't you in with mom? They let you do that with everyone else."
His father stood up. "Your mother said I should be in here until you guys came. Watch after your siblings." He directed the last comment to Isaac, who barely nodded.
Taylor went over his statement in his head. "Just relax," he said to himself. He turned to look at Isaac, who was attempting to focus on some magazine. "Isaac," his brother put down the magazine and looked at him. A knot formed in his stomach. He couldn't do this. "Do you know how the settlement is going with Moonshine?"
"I have no idea." Isaac scowled inwardly at his brother. "Why can't he just go on and say it?" he thought to himself. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, um, just that you've been pretty down lately. Thought dad might be keeping you updated so you'd know when things can get back to normal."
Isaac raised his eyebrow. Since when had him living out of the house been considered normal? He could tell Taylor was slowly trying to say what he was supposed to. "Well, thanks for your concern." He picked the magazine back up, but he didn't focus on the words. He waited a few moments so Taylor could think of something to say.
"You see," Taylor stopped before he could finish, his brother's attention now fully on him caused him to stutter. "Um," He cursed himself for this. "Say something remotely intelligent," he told himself. "How's Jazmine?"
Isaac tensed up. "From when I last talked to her she seems fine. Nothing too bad has happened since that incident with John and Jen." He had to bring the matter to the forefront of the conversation. Taylor had to say it now.
Taylor gulped. He hadn't expected the subject to come up so fast. Now had to be the time. He had to say it. "Oh, well that's good." Taylor kicked himself. "Smooth, Taylor." He thought hard on how to bring it up again.
Isaac had had enough of this charade. "Dang it Tay, just go ahead and say it!" He nearly yelled at his brother. The waiting room suddenly became silent. Everyone was looking at the two brothers, and neither said anything until the muttering began again. "Stop beating around the bush and say it," Isaac said in a loud whisper.
Taylor was totally shocked. "What are you talking about?" He couldn't have known all this time. He would have said something.
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about." Isaac warned himself not to mention the fact that he 'accidentally' overheard his conversation with Michelle.
Taylor went through the past few days in his head. Isaac hadn't acted like he knew, he was just depressed. But for him, that wasn't too strange. Isaac was known to brood over things. His review stopped at the phone conversation. He never heard Isaac hang up the phone. He hadn't thought of it while he was talking with Michelle, he was too distracted. What could he say now? It's not like saying it again would help any, so he used the best approach he knew how; he avoided the subject all together and whined about the injustice he received during his private conversation. "So you were listening in? Don't I get any privacy anymore?"
"Taylor, come on. You're just avoiding the subject." He sighed. "For once Taylor got a clue," he said to himself.
"But you shouldn't have been listening. It was a private conversation."
Isaac looked at his brother with disgust. "I didn't intend on listening in on your conversation. But it's a good thing I did, or else I'd have never found out."
Taylor sighed. There was no use in keeping up the violated privacy argument. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just, I never knew how to say it."
"You could have told me the truth." There wasn't anymore to say. Both sat silent until they were ushered out by their father to meet their new sister.
Michelle knocked on Jazmine's door and went in. Jazmine was sitting stretched out on the love seat, looking through something. She didn't even notice as Michelle stood in front of her. "What are those?" Jazmine jerked her head up.
"Oh, sorry." Jazmine smiled. "These are the pictures from New Years. Dave took me to the 1 hour Photo shop." She moved her leg and motioned Michelle to sit down. "How'd you get this one?" She handed Michelle the picture of when she and Isaac were dancing.
"That's my little secret." She smiled and handed the picture back to Jazmine. She waited until Jazmine put the pictures down, then took a deep breath and went through what she was about to say. "Um, Jazmine, the reason I came in is that I need to tell you something."
Jazmine felt a bit worried now. Michelle knew she could tell her anything. "Go ahead."
Michelle cleared her throat. "Well, you remember that day a little more than a week ago? Back when there was that whole, um, thing at Isaac's?"
Jazmine raised one of her eyebrows. "Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, you know while you were in the kitchen with Isaac?" Jazmine nodded. "Um, well, while you were gone John and Jen kept yelling at each other, and things got kind of heated. He said some things that were, well, kind of harsh."
Jazmine interrupted. "To Jen? She deserved whatever he dished out."
"Well, normally I'd agree with you, but this had to do with you too." She paused a second, noticing the curiosity on Jazmine's face. "You see, I would have told you earlier, but Taylor and I weren't sure you could handle it that well."
"What does Taylor have to do with it? He hardly ever talks to me, and sees me even less. Why'd he even have to worry?"
"Well, we thought Isaac should know too. You see, Jen was going on about how he should respect their relationship, how you shouldn't be a factor, how he should just forget about you. He nearly exploded and he said 'You can't expect me to do that. I love her, I'll always love her, nothing can change that. I care about you, but you'll never be to me what Jazmine is.'" Michelle paused, waiting for a response.
Jazmine sat there, thinking about what she had just heard. Suddenly she started laughing. "Is that all?"
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