Everglow

Chapter Seven: Anger

* There will be a couple of POV changes in this chapter *

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Rowan's POV

"We've got a problem." Dad was looking directly towards Aaron.

"What's going on?" Maddox voiced my thoughts.

Dad didn't move his sight from his eldest son and pointed his thumb behind him, gesturing for Aaron to leave the room with him.

"W-what-."

"It's nothing for you to worry about, Ro." Aaron cut me off before I could question any further and he gently pushed me up to my feet from his lap so he could stand up. "It's just work stuff." He and dad left the room without another word.

I wordlessly looked to Maddox with worry.

"I'm sure everything's okay, Ro." He tried to reassure me, but I didn't miss the hint of worry in his own facial expression. "I'll just go and check if they need help with anything." Within three big strides, he was out the room.

I could've done without this today. I was already stressed about Melissa at school and now dad's having problems with work, only days before he's meant to be flying off to Canada.

I still felt extremely anxious from this mornings events; It's all out of my control. If I had it my way, I'd still be at school right now and my family would be clueless about the bullying. But nothing ever seems to go my way and now some how I've got to adapt to the reality and effects of my problems being out in the open.

"Rowan?"

Hunter's voice cut me from my thoughts from across the kitchen. His brows were creased only slightly into a frown and his jaw clenched before his whole expression visibly relaxed.

"You look like you're about to cry." He stated.

There was no need for him to point out the fact that I'm on the verge of crying; pointing out that I'm upset is just as bad as the situation I'm upset about.

"I've just had a really shit morning." The wobble in my voice sure wasn't going to leave any time soon, especially when I'm doing everything in my power not to fall deep into another anxiety attack.

"I know." The words slipped from his mouth in a whispered tone, but I still caught it as I slumped back down into the chair that Aaron and I were originally sat on.

"I wish today didn't even happen and things were back to normal." I rubbed at one of my tired eyes before allowing my hand to flop back down into my lap.

"Normal?" I looked up at Hunter's sudden change of tone and his face said it all; he wasn't impressed with my choice of words. "Nothing about you being bullied is normal, Rowan. It's not normal for someone to hurt another person unprovoked whether that be physically or verbally, it's not normal for someone to use you and hurt you so much to the point where you have a fucking panic attack about it, so please enlighten me on how you would describe any of that as normal.."

He was angry.

I lightly bit down on my bottom lip, not knowing how to answer my brother without crying.

"I-I didn't mean it like that." I looked down at my hands, all ounce of confidence within me had been drained.

"Well how else would you have meant it?" I could already picture Hunter's eyebrows formed into a deep frown. "Because before today, the only normal you knew was getting bullied and not telling anyone about it."

So that's why he's angry - because I kept all of this to myself. I couldn't bring myself to look up at him and see his disappointment in me, this was one of the things I was afraid of; first Asher, now Hunter. Who's next?