Lifeline

11. Spontaneous

I immediately flinched when I heard Jay shouting at me like that. He never shouted at me even when I did things worse than this, so I'm definitely not used to it. Judging by the way he's glaring and staring right at me, he might hit me any minute now.

"I- erm.. I wasn't th-thinking," I mumbled.

My brother inhaled, getting ready to explode, but he didn't. Instead, he looked at Callum, "please leave."

I watched as Callum rose from the sofa and walked towards the door. Before he walked out, he turned to Jay and said "take it easy on him, okay?" Jay didn't even acknowledge what Callum said, he just waited for the door to close before shouting at me.

"You never are thinking, are you Ben?! You just keep doing things like this time and time again! You promised that you weren't going to do this anymore!!"

My heart raced in my chest as I watched his face turn red from all of the shouting. "Sh- shut up... p- please just shut up!" I yelled.

"Not until you give me an explanation!" He screamed back.

"I- I was just worried about our m-money... I- I just d-don't know how we can a-afford all of th-this."

"I've already told you how, Ben," he told me, calming down a little. "Don't worry about money, I've got everything sorted."

A huge weight had just been lifted off of my shoulders. Everything was sorted. Everything. I'm guessing that means that I won't be hearing from that man again. "Thanks. Are we good?"

Jay sighed, "yeah, we're good. I just need some space," he told me before walking upstairs.

A wave of relief smashed into me when he told me that we were good. The last thing I would want is to lose my brother especially over some stupid mistake I made. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without Jay in my life. He's helped me through so much.

Not knowing what to do, I slumped back on the sofa and checked my phone. Much to my surprise, there was a message waiting for me.

Callum Highway: look outside
Delivered 6:57pm

Almost immediately, I got up and walked to the living room window. Callum's car was parked right where we left it and he was inside. Why was he still here?

I got into his fancy car with a small smile on my face "w-what are you doing here?"

The older man smiled back "I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

I wanted to melt as he said this. He cared about me. He really did care about me.

Oh god. I really like him.

"Yeah, I-  I'm fine," I replied, even though I was shaking so badly.

"How did things go with Jay?"

"It was alright I- I guess... he umm... he s-scared me at f-first. I- I thought he m-might hit me.. even th-though he's never laid a- a finger on m-me b-but in the end, everything worked out okay."

Callum nodded and put his hand on mine  "it's normal to be scared when someone shouts... especially if you've had a history of abuse, but I'm not saying that you have."

I was a little tense. How did he know? Maybe he doesn't but he was just guessing. Ugh, don't overthink this. He's just showing that he cares.

"W- would it m-matter if I do?" I mumbled while looking down at our hands. His was a little bigger than mine but that didn't matter. They were still a perfect fit.

His tone softened "of course not, babe. I just want you to know that I'm here if you ever want to talk."

I felt a warm glow form on my cheeks as I heard a new name he called me. "T- thank you, it m- means a lot."