Reunited

|24|

☆Lauren ☆

This was a pretty shitty week for obvious reasons and the cherry on top was the school calling Liam telling him that I ditched.

Ya, he wasn't too happy about that but when I broke down crying once again he let me off the hook as long as I didn't do it again.

To be honest I feel bad for him. I know this is eating him away since there's nothing he can do about the arrangement. Maybe if I act ok with it, things will get better?

I stayed home Tuesday and now it's Wednesday and we're all currently eating breakfast.

"Hey chef Dante this meal is gas!" Evan shouts, shoving his food into his mouth.

"Oh I'm sorry sir would you like me to make you something else?" Poor poor Dante asks.

"No no! It means it's amazing. Keep it up my man." Evan smiles and pats our chef on the shoulder. He smiles, shaking his head and walks away. Yikes I've been here for a couple of months and chef Dante has been here since the boys were born. I don't know how he deals with their antics everyday.

Grayson reaches across the table for the hot sauce and I gasp when I see his knuckles. They are cracked and bruised. What happened?

"Grayson... What happened to your hand?" Liam asks sternly. "Oh this?" Grayson says looking at his knuckles. "Lacrosse practice," he shrugs his shoulders. Evan and Owen snicker and Grayson scolds them. Ok what's going on?

"Oh look at the time! We gotta go to school," Grayson quickly stands up and grabs his backpack. "Nah I'd like to hear more about what happened at 'lacrosse'" Owen says air quoting lacrosse.

He gives him a glare so deadly and cold that Owen quickly grabs his backpack and runs out the door. "We'll talk about this later," Liam tells him and Grayson nods.

"Have a great day! Try and learn something!" Henry shouts. "Ya no!" Evan shouts back. We all laugh as we head into Graysons car.

So as we pull out the driveway I interrupt their convo. "Ok spill," I say leaning forward in the front seat looking at Grayson in particular.

Evan and Owen start laughing and Grayson rolls his eyes. "Ugh! I hate being left out of the loop. What did you do!?" I exclaim.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough." Owen snorts. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask. "It means you'll know when you see it." Evan tells me.

Why are they being so annoying? Now I know why people complain about having brothers. All I can say is try having 5...

We pull into the parking spot and climb out of the car. "Would you please just tell me what you did?" I punch Grayson in the arm.

"Ironic you did that Lolo..." Evan snickers. Grayson gives him the deadliest glare I've ever seen. Ok they're being so cryptic I give up.

Once we head in we all go our separate ways. I meet up with Tara and we head to class.

"Did you hear?" Tara whispers in her seat next to mine. "Hear what?" I ask. Her eyes go wide and her jaw drops. Whatever it is, it must be big for Tara to be reacting this way.

"You might wanna have a chat with Nick... better yet, you might wanna see him face to face," she tells me. My brows furrow together. What is she talking about? Why would I want to speak to him, or even see him.

"Lauren trust me you really want to talk to him...like now, right now," she pleads. For some reason my heart beats a little faster. Is everything ok? Is he ok?

Without another thought I take out my phone and text Nick to meet me in the Janitor's closet and his response is instant, telling me he'll meet me there.

I excuse myself from class to use the "bathroom" and head to the Janitors closet. I must be early because he's not there yet. I pace back and forward wondering why I am doing this. All I can think about is Tara telling me that I need to see and talk to him.

The door creaks open. I turn around and what I see causes my heart to stop beating. There he is standing in all his Nick Carver glory, but that's not what causes me to gasp. His left eye is all black and bruised.

I rush over and grab his face tracing the bruise with my thumb. "What happened!?" I squeal. He winces under my touch and I quickly remove my hand and try to step back. He stops me placing his hands on my waist. "Nick..." I warn him. "Right sorry," he sounds defeated and slowly removes his hands from my waist. Now I feel cold...

"What happened?" I ask again, brushing my hands on my arms. He looks at me like he doesn't want to tell me. "Uhh basketball got a little intense?" he says, making it sound like a question and not a response.

Then it all clicks. Grayson's bloody knuckles, the black eye, Evan hinting at punching. Grayson did this...

Oh god I feel sick.

"Grayson did this." I choke out. I know they aren't the best of friends, hell they're not even friends. I didn't think he could stoop low as to using violence. Nick looks away neither admitting nor denying it.

"I'm- I'm sorry," I take a deep breath. "You didn't do this," he says pointing to his black eye. "Ya, but it happened because he was looking out for me." I tell him. "I caused all of this, I deserved it," he steps closer.

I mean he's right... but why do I feel so guilty?

This is all too much, I need to talk to Grayson. "I have to go." I say, walking to the door. He says nothing and nods his head.

I open the door and pause. "Nick?" I turn around. "Yes?" Hope flashes through his eyes. "You should ice your eye. It'll help the swelling go down," I tell him holding onto the door handle. His expression falters like he was expecting me to say something else, but a soft smile forms on his lips and I close the door.

Now where is Grayson...