Run, Girl (If You Can)

Chapter 455: Not Dating Either Of Them

On Friday Violet was in the middle of rehearsing her scene with the fairy godmother and all of the mice footmen when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. The only lifts in this scene were supposed to be done by all of the footmen lifting her above their heads together so she swiveled her head around, realizing something was wrong.

"What the—"

She was greeted by the beaming face of her twin brother. "What's up, Vi? Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Kal! What are you doing here? I thought you were coming home next week."

He pulled a dramatic, wounded face and complained in a low voice. "I don't see you since Easter and this is how you greet your favorite brother?"

Violet rolled her eyes and turned around to hug him properly. "You idiot. I missed you."

Abigail eyed the two of them curiously from several yards away before approaching her and whispering into her ear. "Violet, is this your boyfriend? I thought you were dating that guy with the dark hair."

"I'm not dating either of them!" she hissed before speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. "This is my twin brother, Kaleb."

"Twins? You guys don't look anything alike," Paul, one of the footman noted.

They exchanged a glance before simultaneously saying "We get that a lot."

Kaleb, who towered over his sister at 6'4", slung an arm around her shoulders and grinned. "I look like our mom, she looks like our dad. Funny how that works out, isn't it?"

Violet glanced at the clock, and realizing there were still five minutes left until six, she apologized to her fellow dancers and asked her brother to wait until they finished their scene. He shrugged and sat to the side, being oddly obedient.

They managed to finish the dance sequence without any further issues and everyone gathered their things to knock off for the day. Kaleb hadn't wanted to deal with traffic during rush hour and figured his sister could drive them back home so he took the subway over.

She didn't bother changing; simply pulling a pair of sweatpants on over her long-sleeved leotard and tights because he was waiting for her. It was good seeing his face again for the first time in nearly a year.

Of course, Violet saw it on TV semi-regularly because her family recorded all of his baseball games, but that wasn't the same. As annoying as he could be sometimes she really missed him when he was gone.

"So, tell me about what your first season in the majors was like," she instructed when they made it back to her car.

Kaleb sighed heavily. "Traveling. Lots of traveling. Of the 162 games we played, half of those were 'away' games.'

The Hales had been lucky that the Tigers were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium over Easter weekend. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to join them for a quick dinner that day. For the most part, he had to stay with his team.

Easter had been the only time everyone was home this entire year so far. Oliver had driven up from Massachusetts for the weekend.

"Didn't leave a lot of time for you to hang out with your girlfriend, now did it?" Violet teased.

"No, which is probably why she broke up with me," Kaleb said matter-of-factly. "And when there were only two weeks left of the season too. Looks like I'll be sticking around longer than I thought. All my off-season plans got dashed and I need to make some new ones."

He didn't even seem upset about the breakup, which wasn't terribly surprising. Since high school he had changed the girl he liked more times than she could count. He had probably had more than a dozen short-term girlfriends by this point.

Kaleb wasn't a cheater—their mother would have killed him—but he did change his mind quickly and every time he did, he dropped the girl like a hot potato. This most recent girlfriend was one of the few who had dumped him over the years.

"I'm sorry," Violet said lamely, not knowing what else to say.

"Nah, don't be. She was too clingy anyway." A bright smile appeared on his face. "Besides, this means I have more time to hang out with my favorite sister. I know you have the day off tomorrow. What should we do?"

She frowned. She was supposed to go to Coney Island with Noah tomorrow. She didn't really think he would mind having Kaleb along since they were all friends but still…Violet told him her plans and he didn't see the problem.

"Ah, it's been a while since I've seen good old Noah. I think it was around Christmas last year. What's he up to, anyway?"

"I suppose you can ask him yourself tomorrow," Violet said while inwardly sighing.

Noah might not be happy about this development. Kaleb had been on his bad side pretty much since high school when he started drifting away from his sister because of how hurt she had been.

They continued chatting and catching each other up on their lives until they made it back to their building. Keeley pounced on her son immediately, fussing over whether he was eating and sleeping well and asking how long he was going to stay.

Kaleb explained that his girlfriend dumped him so he would probably be here until after Christmas at minimum. That certainly made his mom happy. Aaron was happy to see him too and asked him a whole bunch of questions about how baseball season had gone.

Violet took that as an opportunity to slip away and change out of her leotard, exchanging it for a tee shirt. She kept the sweats since she was at home and took her hair out of its bun. It was always so freeing letting it down after the end of a long day.

While she was upstairs she texted Noah to let him know what was going on. 'Hey, Kaleb came home sooner than expected and he really wants to hang out with us tomorrow. Can he come?'

He replied immediately. 'I'm not going to say no to your twin, Vi. I know how long it's been since you've seen him'

She nearly wilted with relief. Noah was so understanding. 'Thanks! See you bright and early tomorrow'

'See ya'

Violet rejoined her family downstairs and they ended up laughing and talking until Nathan came home around 9:30. He tackle hugged Kaleb in his excitement and the same standard 'what have you been up to' questions began anew.

When he mentioned he was going to Coney Island with Violet and Noah tomorrow, Nathan was immediately jealous. "What?! And you didn't think to invite me?"

"It was supposed to be just Noah and me at first. Kaleb invited himself," she said with a shrug, making Kaleb give her an affronted look.

"And here I thought you loved me and wanted to spend time with me."

"Of course I do! I'm simply stating a fact."

"Well if you two are going I'm going too," Nathan said stubbornly. "You can't exclude me because I'm not your twin."

Violet sighed. Her brothers' possessiveness over her never changed. She supposed this was what she got for being the only girl in a family full of boys.

Once Nathan heard his fill of baseball talk he wanted everybody to play cards since it had been a long time since they had five people to play a specific game that was more fun with more players. That was how the Hales ended up spending the rest of their night; laughing and giving each other a hard time out of competitiveness.

It reminded Violet of her childhood and she had a smile on her face the entire time. No matter how distant Kaleb could seem sometimes, he was still her brother.

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