Oh Brother (Completed)

My Blood

I had just stepped out from the hallway when hands slammed against my chest so hard it nearly knocked the wind out of me.

Gasping, I touched at my chest, my eyes widening as I met Aden's. His entire face was twisted in agony, tears staining both cheeks, lips curled back in a snarl.

"You!" He snapped. "This is all your fault! None of this was happening before you got here."

I winced but continued to outstretched my hand to him. "Aden, please, just—'

When he yanked his arm back, he made sure to push me off the two steps I'd started up to try and reach them. This time when I hit the ground, not only was the wind actually knocked out of me, but a sharp pain shot through my tailbone. As I tried to rise to my feet again, he shoved even harder. "Leave, Arianna!"

Before I can comprehend what's happening, Aden pulls his hand back and then punches me with all his force across the face. Hudson and Damien threw themselves over the back of the couch, Damien catching me before I could fall. Aden raised his hand again as if he were going to throw another punch, but Hudson caught it midair, jaw clenched as he stared at the shorter boy before him.

"What the fuck, Hudson!" Aden tried to twist his hand free, but Hudson was hold on his fist was too tight. "What, now your on her side? You hated her as much as I did!"

"I'm on the side of not hitting girls, especially our helpless sister, Aden. That's going way too far."

But its Damien who pushes me into Phoenix, armed with an ice pack for my face, that shoves Hudson then shoves Aden so hard he hits his head on a stair.

"What the hell is wrong with you, man? Why the hell would you hit her?"

Aden laughed, rising to his feet again so he's eye to eye with his best friend. "Of course you're going to defend her too. You've been trying to get between her legs since she got here."

Damien's first swing knocked my brother back on to the stairs, his nose immediately gushing blood. He swung one more time before Hudson restrained him, pulling him back long enough for Aden to be able to stand again.

"How about you shut your mouth for once and grow up?" Damien tried to break free of Hudson's grip as he spat every word at my twin on the stairs. "If you touch her again I will kill you, Aden."

Nix touched the ice pack to my nose, his own body tense beside me, as if he were prepared to throw himself between us if Aden tried to attack again. Instead my brother looked me dead in the eyes and said the worst possible thing he could.

"You're all just going to let her do this. She's driving a wedge between us, our family. Break us."

Damien broke out of Hudson's grip and stepped on to the first stair so he was looking my brother in the eyes again. "The only person driving a wedge in this family is you, Aden."

Its just as Nix hands me a wad of fresh tissues for my bloody nose that I watched my brother's entire face crumble. He looked as if Damien had drove a blade through his chest and was twisting it repeatedly. But it was seeing him stare at Damien so helplessly, so angry and hurt, that Sam's words in the kitchen a few weeks ago finally made sense.

"I don't think Ari is the problem here."

I in fact was not the problem, I never had been, not directly. All the pranks, the anger, the hits and shoulder rams, had been out of jealousy, of hurt. I wasn't the issue, Damien was.