chapter sixteen

Oliver itched to slam the door, like a want pulling at his skin, but he couldn't do it in front of Ellie. He flashed the little girl a smile, opening the door a little wider. She happily skipped in, but when the man took a step, Oliver quickly jerked the door shut, narrowing the gap.

The man held out his hand in order to stop the door from closing completely. "Really, Dominic? Come on, let me in."

"I'm good," Oliver answered, sneering.

The man's mood soured, his expression turning unimpressed. "Ellie's not this much of a brat, and she's six."

Oliver looked over his shoulder at Eleanor, who grinned toothily. A little smile of his own crossed his face.

"Oh look! Emotion!" The man said, "A rare sight from Dominic Oliver Laurent indeed."

"Shut up, Kale," Oliver retorted, biting his tongue so he wouldn't swear in front of the child.

Kale opened his mouth, but then snapped it closed when his eyes drifted to Carson. Carson himself was watching the interaction intently, albeit the crease in his forehead revealed that he was confused. "You have friends?" Kale asked.

Oliver pressed his lips together into a thin line. "Yeah, I do. Why don't you go hang out with some of your friends now--if you have any, that is," Oliver said, once again trying to close the door but was stopped by Kale's hand.

Kale's smirk disappeared. His voice lowered to a murmur. "Either I come in or Ellie comes out. Let's not drag this out any longer than it has to be."

Oliver swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. Hesitantly, he opened the door a little wider and Kale pushed his way in. Oliver turned around, avoiding Carson's inquisitive gaze, and landing on the little girl who was on her tippy toes trying to reach a jar of cookies.

"Ellie!" Oliver chastised. His voice was softer. "Could you be careful? If that falls on you, I could be sued, and I'm way too broke for that."

Ellie landed back on the soles of her feet and looked up at Oliver, blinking, puzzled. "What?" Her wide gaze was childlike and unwavering.

The edge of Oliver's mouth tilted up. "Nevermind." The smile still remained on his lips when he continued. "You know, you still haven't given me a hug. But, I mean that's okay. If you don't care about me anymore I understa-" He cut off when Ellie ran and launched herself into Oliver's arms, causing him to let out a grunt of surprise.

"Sorry Dommy, I forgot! I still love you though," she murmured into Oliver's shirt.

Oliver wound his arms around her and pulled her to him tightly. He closed his eyes and let out a breath. "It's okay. You know, it's been awhile since I've seen you. Where have you been, kiddo?"

"She's been with me," Kale interrupted. "And I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion with my little sister, but we need to talk. Is Marissa home?" He looked around the house hastily.

Oliver scowled at the reminder. Eleanor wasn't actually his sister, but it felt like she was. She was a better sibling then the ones he had, anyway. He hesitantly let go of Ellie and stood up, wrinkling his nose. "What do you want with my mom?"

Kale opened his mouth to answer but stopped when his eyes landed on Carson. "Can we take this somewhere private?"

Carson, looking more curious and confused than ever, tentatively spoke up. "Yeah sure--you know what? I can go."

"No!" Oliver shouted, before flushing and lowering his voice back to normal. "Stay. Whatever Kale wants to say, he can say it in front of you."

Oliver had just gotten Carson, and he wasn't about to let him go so easily.

Kale huffed. "Fine. Eleanor and I need a place to stay."

Oliver scoffed. "Ellie is welcome. You can leave," he said bluntly.

"Dom, come on."

"You know you wouldn't help me out if it were the other way around, so why should I help you?"

"Your family owes me, and you know it."

Ignoring that comment, Oliver asked, "Where's your mom?"

Kale avoided his gaze. "Doesn't matter. She's not around right now. That's why I need to stay over."

"And Michael?"

"Gone."

"Again?"

Kale gritted his teeth. "Enough with the jabs, Dominic. Yeah, my family isn't exactly stable, but it's not my fucking fault." He directed a pointed glare towards Oliver.

"That's not my fault, either," Oliver snapped. "You see? This is why you can't stay. You have a vendetta against me and my family, and everyone knows it. So, I'm asking you again, why should I help you?"

Kale spared a look at Ellie. "Eleanor, could you please go upstairs?" His eyes shot to Carson, as if he wanted to order him upstairs too, but thought better of it. Ellie pouted, but obeyed, stomping up the stairs.

Kale looked back at Oliver, deadly serious, which wasn't a look Kale wore very often. He was sarcastic and blunt and frankly, he annoyed the fuck out of Oliver, because, as it seemed, Kale was born to push Oliver's buttons.

"We're family, Dom," Kale murmured, "please?"

***

"Well, that was interesting," Carson said.

Oliver groaned, closing his eyes and rubbing his face. He shifted, wrinkling the bed sheets. Shortly after, Marissa had arrived from the grocery store and had sent both boys upstairs, leaving her alone with Kale. "I'm sorry. You must be so confused. This isn't exactly the ideal way that I wanted to start our-"

"Olly, it's fine. Just--what's going on?"

Oliver licked his lips. "Well, you've already met Kale and Ellie...." Carson made a noise of agreement. "Cool." Oliver blew out a breath.

"Olly...." Carson began unsurely, "you're making me nervous."

"Don't be! It's not that big of a deal. It's just... Kale is sort of, kind of, my..."

"Ex-boyfriend?" Carson guessed. For some reason, Oliver was vaguely skirting around the point, which wasn't like him at all. It was, Carson figured, a valid suggestion.

He wrinkled his face up, disgust at the mere idea. "No! That's-fuck, ew, no. He's my half-brother. My dad is his dad."

Carson blushed, heat traveling up his neck in patches of red. "Oh. So your brother and your sister-"

"No. No sister. Ellie isn't related to me, just Kale, though sometimes I feel like we should've been siblings instead," he confessed bluntly.

"Wait, what?"

Oliver sighed. "Nineteen years ago, my dad met his mom, Olivia. And later... you know... sex... and Kale came. Then, my dad left Olivia six months after he was born because she's...she's selfish and ignorant and--nevermind." Oliver didn't want to get into that again. "Anyway, two years later, he had me with my mom. All three of us stayed together, and Olivia dated around a bit before having Ellie with this guy named Michael. Only, he's sketchy as hell and disappears kind of often—he's just not reliable, you know? So, it's mostly them three but now, all of a sudden, Olivia and Michael are gone. What a surprise," Oliver explained with disdain. "They've stayed away from us pretty much my whole life—his mom hates us--except for when they need a check or two. And Kale hates us too—he's always blamed me for his family being screwed up." Oliver shrugged. "Like I said, it's best if we stay separate."

Carson bit his lip, scooting closer to him. "I'm sorry, Olly. You don't deserve that pressure on you... and it's definitely not your fault. It's no one's fault, you know? People aren't perfect and they can't blame you for being happy."

While speaking, he felt an emotion poking at his ribcage, crawling up his throat, squeezing around his heart. He felt it wholeheartedly. It was a little prick at the back of his mind, a warning, reminding him that there was so much that Oliver had never told him, not until he was forced to. A half-brother? That seemed like a thing one would mention. Carson did his best to push it down--this wasn't about him, or what he thought or felt, it was about Oliver.

"Thanks, Carson," Oliver murmured. His face took a more thoughtful expression. "You know, I used to tell myself that. No one likes the idea of your supposed family hating you. But... then... there was this thing that my history teacher told me once when I was fourteen. Something about perspective. And then I realized," he turned to the other boy, "maybe I was thinking about it from the wrong perspective. Maybe I was the selfish one."

"You're not selfi-"

"Well, you're a bit biased, don't you think?" Oliver asked teasingly, with a grin. After Carson grinned back, Oliver's smile faltered. "But maybe I am. Someone who was supposed to be their family--someone that was supposed to protect them, and love them, and create memories with them--just left. Maybe I should feel bad for being happy."

"No," Carson responded, a furrow in between his brows. "You shouldn't."

"Weren't you the one who once said that they were waiting for something to go wrong in their life?"

Carson opened his mouth, but shut it. What was he supposed to say to that? It was true, and one couldn't argue the truth.

"It's okay," Oliver continued, "it's easier to give advice to loved ones then to follow it."

"Who said you're my loved one?"

Oliver laughed. "Ouch."

Carson laughed too, knocking his shoulder with the boy sitting next to him. "Loved one. Hm. Let's see. Maybe we can get there," he teased.

---

A/N: I'm sorry. I think this is the biggest gap in between updates that I've ever had. I just... I'm stressed. And kind of annoyed. And I'm starting to not be in a super amazing place mentally and stuff (school gets me into that mood.) But even if that was it, I would still update. That's not the problem. It's that I simply don't have time to update. I do homework 24/7 plus extracurriculars and school. I have this one assignment that I'm extremely behind on, so I'm sorry, but I wouldn't exactly expect a weekend update this week as usual. Once I catch up with this assignment, I think updates will be okay. Obviously, I can't guarantee anything, but I hope so. It's just this one assignment, guys. It sucks. So I really am sorry for not updating but I have been writing. I've been writing in the pockets of time that I have, but I haven't finished the chapter until now. If it makes anyone feel better, then I haven't had the time to do any of the things that make me happy! So it's not just writing :) (I didn't do any homework today. Whoops. I'm going to regret that. But truth is, knowing I've updated makes me feel better emotionally so now I can just focus on school a little more. I hope. Who knows tbh.)

Anyways, enough of my sob story. What did you guys think of this update? Not a lot goes on, but information gets released, so it's important in that sense. What are your emotions, feelings, thoughts, etc.? What do you think of Kale? What do you think this will bring? What would you guys like to see soon? Let me know, I'd love to hear!

Okay. I'm sort of tired. I have a big day tomorrow with school. I'm probably

going to go sleep now. I will do my best to update soon, but if I'm being honest, it probably won't be any sooner then Tuesday (and I really doubt it'll be Tuesday.) I'm sorry, but once I get my shit in line, I think I'll feel better. I hope you can forgive me, and I hope that you'll all be eagerly awaiting the next update! I'm excited to get to sit down and write it! Thank you all for reading and for sticking by me, because I really appreciate all your supportive comments (and the fact that you're still reading!) Thank you again. Xoxo,

A Shadowhunter Wannabe,

herondaledevices <3