All for a reason

Chapter 12 : I mean everybody loves tangy cheese Doritos

Chapter 12 : I mean everybody loves tangy cheese Doritos

Things surprise us. That was exactly how I was feeling standing outside this dark blue door. Surprised.

I expected Toby to live in a big, fancy house on the suburbs of Sunnyvale, much like his friends, but to my surprise, I'd found myself in a block of flats, and not the fancy kind either.

I knocked on the door twice and moments later Robyn opened the door, smiling widely at me.

"Hi Robyn, is Toby in?" I asked, smiling back at her.

"Yes, you can come in if you want," she said opening the door wider for me.

I stepped in. Surprised again. The interior was nothing like the outside. Straight ahead there was a lounge area with a large TV suspended from the wall, the only brick wall, as the other walls were glass, offering spectacular views for as far as the eye could see. Robyn ran back and sat on the sofa, watching the TV where 'The Lion King' was playing.

Toby came out of a room on my right, gesturing for me to follow him back through the door. The door led to his bedroom, a typical boy's bedroom.

We swept through the project quickly and when we finished we were soon joining Robyn to watch 'The Lion King'. Toby sat next to Robyn and she immediately laid her head on his lap as he brought his hands down to stroke her head. He loved her a lot.

At 1, Toby got a call from someone, half way through 'Bambi', and he left the room. Robyn turned to me.

"Do you like Disney?"

"Yeah, you'd be crazy not to like Disney," I said and she giggled in reply.

"Have you ever been to Disneyland?" she asked.

"Yes a couple of times, have you?"

"No, Mommy and Daddy wouldn't let me go and Toby says we don't have enough money now but I really, really want to, I do," she said, her big eyes shining sadly at me.

"I'm sure you will one day, you've got a long life ahead of you, you'll go to Disneyland," I confirmed, trying to plan a way to get this girl to Disneyland.

"Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise," I said wrapping my little finger around hers. I knew I couldn't promise something that big to a young girl but, for some reason, I felt like I had to. She smiled and turned back to the TV just as Toby came back into the room, plonking down on the sofa and pausing the film.

"Robyn, you're staying at Sage's house for the night, come on pack your overnight bag," Toby told Robyn as she jumped up in excitement, running to her room. Toby had a grim expression on his face, something that told me something was wrong.

"Are you ok?"

Toby slammed his head back into the sofa and sighed deeply at my question and shook his head in reply. He ran his hands through his hair a couple of times.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm such a bad brother," he sighed, placing his head in his hands.

I placed my hand on his shoulder, rubbing gently.

"No you're not," I reassured him.

"You don't know the full story Brooke, you don't know that," he replied, standing up suddenly and ushering Robyn out of the door and holding it open for me, allowing me to leave with them.

We pulled up at Hayden's house 5 minutes later and Robyn hopped out of the car, only then did I realise that when Toby had said Sage's house it had been Sage, Hayden's mum.