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Ezra grabbed Lake’s hand. “It’s fine. I told my Daddy where we would be.”

Dom snorted. “You two really need to learn how to brat!”

“We don’t want to brat.” Ezra lifted his chin in challenge.

“Fine,” Dom said with a sigh.

Lake relaxed. This was the fun room, and he didn’t need to be worried in the fun room.

“Do you want to hold Mister Beary?” Brandon handed over the blue bear with an apron on.

Nodding, he placed Mister Beary in his lap as Ezra dumped out a box of blocks. “What should we play?”

“Can we play fairies and dragons?” he asked shyly.

“Yes!” Brandon jumped up and raced toward the toy box.

Dom yawned, drawing Lake’s attention.

“Are you feeling okay?” Lake asked his friend.

“Just tired. I’m fine lying here. I like hearing the sound of you guys playing,” Dom said.

Ezra crawled over to the beanbag chair. He grabbed a nearby blanket and tucked it around Dom. Lake handed Ezra Mister Beary so Ezra could lay the stuffie with their friend.

Dom gave them a tired smile. “Thanks.”

“You just let us know if you need anything,” Lake said.

“You got it, buddy!” He wiggled in the beanbag chair before giving a contented sigh.

Brandon returned with two containers of figurines. He dumped them out with a laugh. He was the worst at cleaning up after they played too. Lake didn’t mind picking up after a playdate. He liked when everything was clean and in its proper place.

He’d done all the cleaning in his old apartment. Jack and Brex were slobs and before Lake moved into the small spare room, their mom had still come over once a week to clean and do laundry. She even did their grocery shopping. Lake took over those duties since he didn’t think that was fair to his mom.

Lake wondered if his mom was back cleaning for his brothers.

It had been three weeks since Lake moved out.

His phone was still off.

He knew eventually that his time would run out and Lake would be forced to deal with his parents and brothers.

Ezra nudged him then handed Lake the pretty pink and purple dragons. Ezra kept the green and blue dragon beforegiving Brandon the orange and yellow one. Next, they divided the fairies. Lake waited until Ezra and Brandon picked theirs and was happy with the white, red, and silver fairies. Those were so pretty. So, so, pretty.

“I’m going to make a bakery. We’ll sell all the best pastries to the dragons!” Ezra said.

“I’m going to make a dance club. Fairies love to dance!” Brandon said.

Lake sorted through the colorful blocks. “I'm going to make a nice little library for the dragons. They like to collect books.”

“What about the fairies?” Brandon asked. He grabbed a handful of blocks, not caring about the colors.

“They run the library! They loved floating the books to the shelves!” Lake exclaimed. That was an awesome idea.

“Oh! What if they’re next door to the bakery! The dragons can get a book, then a little treat!” Ezra clapped.

“I don’t want to make a club anymore,” Brandon whined. “I want to make something that goes with a bakery and library. Where the dragons can relax.”