drew lockwood

“Truthfully, you’ll probably need a few stitches” Jo tells the girl as she examines her.  “Do you mind telling me exactly what happened?” 

“Hard pass on that, actually.” The brunette scoffs with a small smile, holding her hand in front of her lip protectively. “And my phone had an aggressive meeting with my face. I’m obviously great at life.”

“There’s no reason to be dishonest,” Kali said. “Come on, I’m sure it isn’t that bad.”

“I dropped my phone on my face.” The girl lied easily, shrugging in faux embarrassment with a small smile. “Obviously I’m super coordinated.”

“Yeah… so we’ve been told,” she shook her head laughing, “We’re like total opposites so sometimes I forget I’m a twin.”

“I’m sure the whole ‘hey, look, my face’ thing is a great reminder.” Drew laughed, shaking her head at the girl. “I have no idea what’d I’d do if I was a twin.”

“Mhm, it does look like you got in a gang fight. It makes you look tough though. Nick said as he laughed a bit. “What happend to you anyway?”

“Maybe I should sell the gang fight story then, get a little street cred under my belt.” The brunette laughed, shaking her head. “Long story, a little long to be telling a stranger.”

Taylor took a deep breath as she made her way to where her daughter was and sat next to her. “Of course it matters, Drew. It will always matter. Even if you’re a million miles away from me, it will matter. You and your brother have always been my first priority. But you guys are getting older and it’s hard for me…especially with you.” Taylor said as she took a slight pause. “Even now, I am so happy you get a chance to spend time with your dad but I also hate it because I miss having you home all the time. And being able to spend all weekend with you and your brother. So you know what, you’re probably right. A family dinner is just what we need. Just the three of us.” 

Drew instantly perked up, specifically because getting her way tended to do that to the girl, but also because she had a thought in her head that she now had a way to execute. “Or.. it could be the four of us. You, dad, Jax, and I. Just like old times?” The smaller brunette asked, making sure to give her mother ‘the face’ in the process. Yes, it might be wrong for her to be using her mother’s love for her to get her way, but it was all for a good cause. “You guys are gonna have to get along at some point.. at least for Jax and I’s sake.”

“Right,” she nodded as she was thrown a little with her stop, “You know, I’m sure if you took your driver’s test again, they’ll fail you.”

“I can be very persuasive, thank you very much. How do you think I got it the first time?” Drew laughed, going once the light turned green and briefly looking at Lola. 

“Xan… oh, you think I’m Xandra… You got the wrong twin,” she extended her hand, “I’m Mia… Well, Dr. Kepner-Avery. I work here.”

“Nice to meet you then, I guess.” The brunette laughed, rolling her eyes at herself as she shook the taller girl’s hand. “You guys should probably include that when you meet people.. I’m Drew.”

Kali couldn’t tear her gaze away from the younger girl and her split lip. “You were lied to, there’s no doubt about that. Your lips looks awful,” she told her. “It really is that bad. What the hell did you do?” she asked.

“At least you’re honest.” Drew sighed, crossing her arms and shrugging at the woman. “The details are embarrassing, so I’ll spare myself.”

“I’m sure it is but I’m sure you could be a little nicer to him. He just wants us all to get along. This is all a really good thing. You know, you’re not too far away from going off to college and then who am I going to have to take up all my time? And with my luck, the minute Jaxson turns 16, I won’t be ‘cool’ enough to spend time with.” Taylor explained some more as she played with a pen that was on her desk. “I do. I think I played about 15 games with him last night. He’s ruthless though. And you have to watch him because he tries to cheat.” Taylor added too. “Come on Drew….” she said with a sigh. “You know this means a lot to me and I want us to all get along. Think about it as roommates all getting together for dinner. This is a good thing for all of you. Your dad is on the right track. Everything is all finally working towards really great things.” 

Drew folded her arms and looked at her mother, her eyes watering a little at the comment about her dad. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her mother to be happy. At all. She just didn’t want to share her mother with anyone but her dad, who couldn’t even get it together for his own daughter, let alone her mother. So, it really boiled down to her just being stubborn and hurt that her mother wasn’t considering her feelings when it came to something that would and was affecting more than just Taylor. “I’ll be gone soon, right? It doesn’t matter. Just like me not wanting him to live with us or you guys to get married doesn’t matter, mom. Just continue as you were.” The brunette scoffed. 

“I know you have an issue with me and I don’t expect you to just love me over night or even tolerate me over night. I’m not trying to step in and take anybody’s place here Drew. I love your mom and I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon okay?”

“No.” She said simply, shrugging and glaring at him incredulously. “It’s not okay. Maybe you guys should’ve.. I don’t know, checked with the other people who live in the house before just deciding that living together was a great idea.”

“Sure. Sounds good to me. Just text me when you want me to come over.” Gianna said as she wanted to avoid having that conversation with her best friend. “Anything else going on?” she asked curiously. 

“Uh.. drama, mostly. That Eric dude is still living in my house.. my dad’s like..” The brunette simply sighed, pressing her palm to her forehead out of stress. “A fucking mess if I’m being honest.. don’t repeat that either. As my best friend you’re automatically sworn to secrecy.”

“Once that’s done, come home and sleep. Okay? It will help you heal faster too.” She added. “I still don’t understand why you do that. He’s very nice to you.” Taylor said as she walked to sit behind her desk. “He was good. We watched some movies and board games. His new favorite game is Uno.” Taylor mused on. “We can do that but it’s also important that we do some things as a big family too. Especially once the wedding gets on its way.” 

“I don’t really care who he’s nice to if I’m being honest, mom. I tell him not to speak to me very frequently.. if that wasn’t a big enough hint.” The brunette scoffed, rolling her eyes at the thought of the man who lived in her house. If she were being honest with herself, it wasn’t really anything personal. She just didn’t like sharing her mother’s attention or seeing anyone take her father’s place, so she was gonna push back with all she had even though it was obvious that her opinion didn’t really mean much to her mother. “You do know that now I’m gonna be stuck playing Uno for weeks now, right?.. and they’re not my family. Who you choose to marry is one hundred percent on you. Leave me out of it.” Drew said with a small smile, rolling her eyes to hide her obvious annoyance. 

“You’re lucky that you are okay. Although I do take a little enjoyment out of getting to tell you I told you so.” Taylor admitted to her daughter as she sat at the edge of her desk. “Well, I’m glad you at least came in so that I could triple check. I don’t care if you’re 6, 16 or 35…I’m always going to worry about you.” Taylor watcher her daughter closely as she appeared startled for a moment. “Maybe some sleep would be a good idea too. You seem a little tired.” Taylor pointed out. “It was good. Everything ran pretty smoothly and on Sunday Ethan and I went out to dinner. Just a normal weekend. Obviously not as exciting as yours.” 

“Yeah.. sleep sounds like exactly what I need. I have theater and dance tonight so it’ll have to wait until after that, but it’ll happen eventually.” The brunette answered easily, shrugging. “Ethan.. Ethan.. doesn’t ring any bells. You mean Eric? If so, gross. How was Jax? I told him he could hang out in my room if he wanted so hopefully nothing is destroyed.” She paused. “You know, we should totally do a family dinner. You, me, and Jax. I missed you guys.”

“I can tell.” Ethan said looking at the teenager and sighing. “Your mother and I are getting married. We aren’t just sleeping together. Not that you and I should be discussing this at all.” The older doctor said. 

“If that’s what you’d like to think, Eric.” She said easily, smirking as she answered a text on her phone. “Also, we definitely should be discussing this. I’m exactly who you guys should be discussing this with because that’s my mother. And I live here, which makes it my business.”

“That’s good to know,” she laughed then nodded, “I like the way you think. I should go ghost on them for a week.”

“I’m sure it’ll stop you from stressing so much about it.” The brunette nodded, stopping abruptly at a red light. “Out of sight, out of mind, right?”