Bailey-Rose: The Complete Duet (Sunshine & Rainbows Omegaverse)

1. Bailey-Rose

Rap music beats filled the room as I sat in front of a wide full-length mirror.

An easel with a blank sheet of paper pinned to it was before me.

I stared into my eyes, one a crystal blue color and the other an almost seafoam green.

Both were full of the heartache I felt as I sketched out a self-portrait.

My hair, a color melt of violet into sky blue normally styled with a bouncy wave, hung disheveled and unwashed.

Just like my room, usually a bright and cheerful pastel explosion, was cast in shadows. I felt dark, dull, and hopeless.

The only light I allowed was the soft fairy lights around the mirror which were enough to see my sheet of paper.

It also created the shadows I needed to portray my despair in this moment that I couldn’t achieve any other way.

Nothing says heartbroken like a woman wrapped up in a fluffy pink, cloud-patterned robe wearing bunny slippers.

I’d only given myself white, gray, and black on my palette to draw and paint with because there was no more color in my life.

The only man I thought would love me—see past my brokenness—had betrayed me.

What was the point of color in the world?

“LouLou,” Crew, my older brother, shouted from the other side of the door to be heard over the music. “Open this door right now.”

I was lucky enough to have two older brothers who doted on me.

Eli, the oldest, was an Alpha and Crew a Beta.

They still lived at home to make sure their fragile baby sister was looked after.

Our parents weren’t really home, traveling the world, conducting business and saving all the orphaned children along the way.

Their mission was to build schools in poor countries so every child had a chance to better their situation.

It was a dream my late father had of one day achieving, but he never got to see it happen.

Jet-setting didn’t leave much time for my parents to spend looking after their only daughter, who happened to have a genetic defect that caused me to have congenital heart failure, among other things.

It was the same genetic defect that stole away my papa, and one of my mother’s bonded-pair, twelve years ago.

His death was what pushed my mother and Daddy Rawr to stop wasting time and put Papa Addy’s dream into motion.

To be clear, I don’t, nor have I ever resented my parents for not being around.

Everyone deals with a tragic loss in their own way, and doing this for Papa was what made them happy.

When we had the chance to all be together, they were completely invested and present, never letting anything else get in the way.

It was how they showed us they cared by providing their full attention to my brothers and me, no exceptions.

Truthfully, any other parent who had an Omega daughter with a life-threatening issue would be hovering over every aspect of my life.

Especially after losing Papa Addy, most moms would keep their child in a protective bubble to ensure that fate didn’t happen to them.

However, I was blessed with parents who trusted me to know what I could handle.

After all, it’s my body, and I was well aware of the signs that told me I was in trouble.

Besides, if I really needed to talk, there was no doubt in my mind that I could easily get a hold of them.

They were amazing at keeping us in the loop as to where they were and for how long.

They always said they didn’t like to stay in one place for long—too much life to live.

The money we have from our family being on the ground floor in the oil refining business allowed them to do as they pleased.

“LouLou, you have two seconds before I use my key,” Crew hollered. “You know I try to give you all the privacy in the world, but this is going too far.”

I promptly ignored him, grabbed another pink Peep, and bit off its head.

The gooey, sickly-sweet marshmallow was a balm to my soul and the only comfort I needed in this life.

Okay, maybe I needed Zebra Cakes too, but I ran out of those last night.

Soon I would have to resort to Oatmeal Cream Pies as my source of nourishment.

Blinding light filled my room, making me slam my eyes closed as they burned from being in the dark for so long. Groaning, I dropped my paintbrush and covered my eyes with my hands to lessen the burn.

“Holy hell, LouLou,” my brother muttered as he entered my room. “This place looks like a bomb went off. Wait. Fuck, are you still in the same clothes from four days ago?”

His voice sounded closer, but I just kept ignoring him, hoping he’d go away. When the burning finally subsided, I picked up my paintbrush and resumed my portrait.

“The hell, LouLou, is that a Peep? Those haven’t been sold for months. Were you hoarding them?” Crew asked as I saw him cleaning up the remnants of my dwindling supply of nourishment.

It was strange to see him so ruffled since Crew was the free spirit in our family.

He owned a well-respected recording company and even had a studio built on our property so someone was home all the time.

I didn’t mind, though, since Crew was my best friend out of my two brothers.

There was a five-year age gap between us, but you could hardly tell with him being a big kid.

He taught me tons of card games during the times I was admitted to the hospital for one medical reason or another.

When I was twelve, he taught me poker against our parents’ wishes.

Crew was always there to distract me from the fear of being in the hospital.

He often brought his best friend Ulysses, or Lysse as I called him, to make the game more interesting.

I don’t think I would have made it through all those days without Crew by my side.

“LouLou, are you even listening to me?” Crew demanded as a pair of hands scooped me up off the floor and set me on the edge of my fluffy bed.

Finally, I admitted defeat, knowing Crew wouldn’t leave me alone until I talked. “What do you want me to say, Crew? What’s out there that I can’t just do right here in the safety of my own home?”

My brother rolled his green eyes that matched his father’s.

“LouLou, do you know how stupid that sounds? You just graduated from college, and now is the time to explore the world around you. What about the art studio Mom and Dad gave you as your graduation present? Have you even gone to see it since you got home?”

“You know I haven’t,” I grumbled. “As soon as I returned home full of hopes and dreams for the future, it all blew up in my face.”

“Lou…” Crew started with a sigh. “Randall isn’t worth all this. Don’t let that shitstain steal your joy. He’s not good enough for that.”

“Easy for you to say… you never liked him,” I pointed out.

Crew shrugged. “True, but that doesn’t mean my advice is wrong.”

“Yes, it does,” I argued, chucking a cloud-shaped pillow at him. “There’s no way for you to know how I feel. You’ve never had your heart broken before.”

“Hey,” Crew snapped. “How do you know I’ve never had my heart broken?”

I cocked my head and gave him an unimpressed look. “When the hell could you possibly have had time? You and Eli made taking care of me your whole personality… there was no time for anything else.”

Crew pouted at me before taking a seat beside me on the bed. “That’s just mean, LouLou.”

Puffing up my cheeks, I let out a dramatic breath. “Yeah, that was a low blow,” I admitted, flopping back on the bed. “How could so much change when I was only gone for three months? I had to be on campus to finish my final project, which, mind you, was sixty percent of my grade.”

“This has nothing to do with you being gone and everything to do with some punk ass bitch who couldn’t keep it in his pants for that long. If he knew he couldn’t manage not getting his dick wet for that long, he should’ve just been honest,” Crew muttered.

Turning my head, I looked over at him smirking at the expression on his face. Randall was a lucky man that I didn’t want retribution for cheating on me, or Crew would have put that asshole in the hospital.

“I love you, bro,” I told him, patting his leg.

He looked down with a grin. “Now I know you’ve lost your mind saying shit like that.”

“Oh fuck off. I tell you that all the time,” I shot back, laughing as I shoved him as hard as I could, but he barely even shifted to the side.

With my genetic disorder, in combination with my heart issues, it stunted my growth, so I was on the small size.

Yup, this twenty-five-year-old was a whopping four foot eleven, meant I stood no chance against my two six-foot brothers when they wanted to throw their weight around, which Crew did more than Eli, being the playful one of the two.

“Yeah, you do, LouLou,” Crew agreed as he tugged me on his lap and wrapped me up in a hug, a hug I hadn’t realized I desperately needed. “I love you too, even if you smell like stale gym socks.”

“That’s it… get the fuck out if you’re gonna talk like that,” I said, wiggling out of his arms to stand before him, arms crossed. “Go on, you’ve now seen I’m not wasting away in the corner sobbing to the point of dehydration, so I’d like you to leave me to my wallowing.”

“Ah-ha… and how long should I leave you to wallow? Do you plan to ever reenter the world at large? Something tells me you’re just planning on hiding out forever,” Crew challenged, showing no signs of moving.

I tossed up my hands. “You really want to do this to me?”

“Do what? You haven’t told me anything about what’s really going on in that head of yours. LouLou, we talk about everything, so why can’t you talk to me about this?” Crew pleaded, worry filling his expression.