Chapter 12~Weekend Struggles

The last two days have been amazing, my brothers have been extra sweet to me. It made me realize how much I missed them. The weekend consisted of every single Harry Potter movie, popcorn, and cuddles.

My brothers don't seem mad at me, they seem to have almost forgotten the incident entirely. However, I know them well enough to know they would never forget something like this. I just hope they are not mad at me. I hate when anyone, especially my brothers, is mad at me. Their behavior isn't completely normal though, they seem more overprotective than usual. I don't even know how they manage to be MORE overprotective than they always are.

It's late Sunday evening, meaning the weekend is basically over. By the time I shower and brush my teeth Drew will be up to tell me goodnight. After my teeth are brushed, and my pajamas are on, Andrew opens my door. He walks in and sits beside me on my bed and pulls my shirt up, reliving the now only purple bruise. I don't fight them anymore when they go to pull up my shirt, I trust them.

He rubs his hand across the yellowing spot, being careful not to push too hard. I can see the tears in his eyes as he pulls my shirt down. I hate that he blames himself for this, I should know how to protect myself without them. Almost in tears myself, I lay my head on his shoulder. I hope it will bring him some comfort. We sit there for a minute in comfortable silence until Andrew breaks it with a question.

"Want to tell me who did that now?" He says, kissing the top of my head, laving his cheek on the top of my head.

"Not really," I say back. I try to keep my answer light, hoping he just drops it.

Instead, he lifts his head up from my hair and forces me to make eye contact with him. "Denver, please, I can't help you if I don't know who did it," he says with his voice breaking.

Wonderful, I guess I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight.

There's something about Andrew looking so lost that breaks my heart, he always knows what to do. I start to cry. I've caused him so much pain. Now I'm just hurting him more by keeping him on the outside, but wouldn't he rather me be hurt than dead? My tears don't go unnoticed. Before I know it, I'm in Andrew's lap. I'm facing him with my legs on either side of him, so I lay my head on his chest as he rubs my back. He whispers sweet nothings in my ear, trying to console my crying. I wish things were different, I wish I was different. I wish I didn't cause them so much pain.

"I'm so sorry, baby," Andrew says, holding my head and playing with my hair, still rubbing my back with his other hand.

"It's not your fault Drew" I whisper my throat sore from crying.

"Yes, it is. I'm supposed to keep you safe, and I've failed," Andrew says in a more stern voice.

"Drew, you can't blame yourself for things that are out of your control," I say to him, trying to make him not blame himself. That's what I have wanted to prevent from the start.

"You're never going to be out of my reach, you are my kid there's nothing I wouldn't do for you," He says still keeping my head on his chest.

There's something about him calling me his kid that makes my heart warm and immediately brings a smile to my face. When he notices my smile, he smiles as well. He finally lets my head free, but only so he can shift our bodies, so I'm laying down. He stands up, pulling my covers up on me.

"Goodnight, baby," Andrew says, kissing me on the forehead and walking out of the door. On his way out, he turns the lights off, leaving me in my dark bedroom. With all my crying and thinking, I can feel my eyelids start to get heavy.

Andrews P.O.V

After Denver and I's talk, I barge into Jack's room so I can finally get some answers. I'm tired of waiting, I figure this out now. I couldn't ask him all weekend about what he knows or how he knows it. I guess I could have at some point, but we wouldn't let Denver out of our sight. Now he's asleep, and I'm getting answers. The door makes a loud noise as I open it, and I hope I didn't wake Denver up. Jack looks up and takes his headphones off.

"Can I help you?" Jack asks annoyed

"Living room now," I order, not liking his tone.

"Listen I know you said not to go to that party, but EVERYONE was there, and I just had to go," he says

Party? What party? The same party I specifically told him not to go to?

"What are you talking about?!" I whisper yell at him, so I don't wake Denver.

"....you didn't know about that!" He asks, looking around the room, trying to not make eye contact.

"I do now, and we will talk about this. Just go to the living room," I say to him.

My god, that kid will be the death of me.

I close the door and head to Ryan's room to get him. Ryan is lying in bed on his phone.

"Ryan," I say to get his attention.

"Huh," he says with questioning eyes.

"Go to the living room," I say

"Alright," he says, immediately getting up and following me out the door and down the stairs.

When we get down there, Jack is already sitting on the couch.

"Spill," I say as I sit down, leaning towards him until my elbows rest on my knees.

"About...the party or Denver?" He asks sheepishly

"What party" Ryan buds in

"I'll tell you later," I say to Ryan, not really caring about the party right now.

"Denver, who is hurting our baby brother," I ask.

"You probably won't believe me," he says

"Try me," I say "Finn Hall," he says, looking down at his bare feet.

"Finn Hall," me and Ryan yell in unison.

"Shhhh, yes. Finn Hall, the "perfect" child," Jack says, putting air quotes around perfect.

"How the hell do you know this," I ask him just to make sure this the complete truth.

"I saw them at Denver's locker when I went to get him Friday," Jack answers, his eyes go dark just thinking about it.

"Oh god," Ryan says and puts his head between his legs.

"What, Ryan? You people have to remember I'm not a student. I don't hear all the drama that goes around." I say raising my voice, annoyed because I don't know why they are acting like this.

"He's bad news to put it simply," Ryan says

"I don't want it put fucking simply, I want to know everything. What were they talking about?" I order, both boys are shocked at my outburst.

"I don't know I couldn't hear, I didn't want either of them to know I was there," Jack says

"What do you mean you don't know, did you see anything?" I ask pointedly at Jack

"Drew, this isn't his fault. He has helped us tremendously," Ryan asks, bringing me back to my senses.

"you're right, I'm sorry, Jack. I appreciate you looking out for him, I don't blame you. I'm just livid right now," I say, apologizing to my second youngest.

"It's okay, Drew, I understand, I did see something though. I saw Finn shove bub into the locker," Jack says, bringing more information to the table.

"He did what?" I ask hoping I didn't hear him correctly,

Jack calling Denver bub did warm my heart just a little though.

"He shoved him, it took everything in me not to bounce Hall's head against the locker. See how he likes it," Jack answers, letting some of his anger shine.

"Jack, you're allowed to protect your brothers. You won't get punished for that." I tell him seriously.

I don't encourage fighting by any means. I just want my boys safe. We sit there for a minute, letting the new information sink in.

"Okay, I'll take this to the office and see what they can do," I say, finally breaking the silence.

"They might not do anything Andrew, Finn's mom works at the school board," Ryan says

"They fucking better, this is my baby we are dealing with," I say, anger lacing though my voice again.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jack questions

"Why wouldn't it be?" I ask

"I don't know..." he says, but he trails off at the end.

"We will worry about this in the morning, get some sleep, boys," I say, noticing the time.

Denver's P.O.V

When I walk downstairs so Andrew can force-feed me a granola bar everyone is acting strange, they all stop talking and look at me as I walk down the stairs.

"What are you guys doing?" I ask. It makes me think of how it was before I cried on Andrew, and it worries me.

"Waiting on you, here eat this," Andrew says as he hands me a granola bar.

Called it.

"Come on, kids, we're going to be late," Andrew says, picking up his keys.

Once we are in the truck, the conversation picks up, so I take my book from my backpack and start reading. We pull up to the school about 10 minutes later, and we all pile out.

"Have a good day, little one," Ryan says and walks over to his friends, but before he leaves, he gives Andrew a look.

I wonder what that was about.

"Bye, little one," Jack says and goes to his friends.

Considering I have no friends, I walk with Andrew to his classroom.

"Hey, try and have a good day, buddy," Andrew says sincerely.

"I'll try," I say, looking at my beat-up converse. Andrew kisses my hair before I walk out of the room and head toward my first class. Maybe today will be better. Maybe Finn got shipped to a log cabin in the middle of the Amazon over the weekend. One can only hope.

A/N~ what's up guys!! Omg we are at 11k reads that is AMAZING thank you guys so much. Have a good day/night. 💜

Edited A/N~ so there were so major changes to this chapter, but I had to leave in the log cabin thing. I remember reading a few comments about it when I first published this chapter, and just couldn't part with it lol.