Brian meets Stephanie

Worry

It was later in the evening, a bit after Brian got back from dropping off Stephanie.

He went back up to Emma's room and saw Katy counting to twenty with her eyes covered and nobody else in the room, he had assumed that they were all playing hide and go seek, so he decided to just sit and wait for the next round so he could join, he also took into account that it was almost nine pm, meaning that Josh and Liam were probably sleeping by now, and Ana and Ivy were going to bed in an hour.

After a few minutes, everyone was found and they went back to the room.

"Brian!" Ana greeted when coming in the room to see Brian was back home.

Immediately everyone else came into the room and began greeting him.

Brian decided to greet them back. "Hey girls, I'm back from dropping off Stephanie."

"Oh okay, you should bring Stephanie back as soon as possible! We all had lots of fun and she was so nice to all of us!" Emma exclaimed, everyone else nodding in agreement, they all loved Stephanie and considered her a great friend already.

Brian smiled. "Oh, well I'd love to have her over more! Especially since she's so nice and you all like her too."

They all laughed and played together, Brian now being a part of the games again.

However, Emma could sense something bothering him, she however, decided to wait until the twins were asleep to say anything.

Eventually, Dave and Catherine took the twins and did their night routine before putting them to bed, so they were now asleep.

Emma decided to pull Brian aside and ask.

Emma decided to press Brian. "Hey Brian, what's wrong? Please tell me the truth."

Brian hesitated for a moment before saying. "I'm worried about Stephanie, I feel like there's something going on that she doesn't want to tell me."

Emma was a bit surprised, she didn't sense a problem, in fact, she thought Stephanie was a very happy person.

So Emma decided to ask. "What makes you think that, Brian?"

Brian let out all his thoughts. "Well, she just always has a sense of melancholy and timidity to her, not only that, but to see her get bullied, and the bullies being sent by her own brother. Besides, she never has told us about her life unless we let her know it's okay and we're not going to judge her. Like about liking kids stuff and one thing especially, when I was walking her home I discovered she was afraid of the dark and she only confessed it to me when I assured her I was safe to tell and that there would be no judgement. I think she especially trusts me the most, we, especially I, should make sure not to break that."

Emma was in shock, she never thought about any of those things, and she didn't even know about Stephanie's fear. "Wow, I realized. What do you think could be going on with her?"

Brian simply shrugged before saying. "I'm not too sure, maybe she's just a very sensitive person, or maybe she had friends in the past who treated her badly. But I'm willing to bet it's her family, especially her brother that bullies her and sends Tom and Joey after her."

Emma nodded in agreement. "What do we do?"

Brian pondered his thoughts before deciding what to say. "Maybe we could try and ask her things little by little, cause we need to earn her trust first. Soon we might be able to know what it is and how to help her."

Emma smiled. "Great idea!"

Little did they know how bad Stephanie's life really was...