Fighting Family

8

Weylyn's POV

I hated seeing my brother so upset. It had been the two of us against the world every since Callum left- got taken away. He had been the one to step up for us when Lily refused to. He learned to cook and even though Callum will always be better at it than him it was the thought that counted. He figured out how to do laundry, helped with homework even though we were in the same grade and he barely knew what he was doing.

It made me feel guilty. We were the same age yet he was always the one who did all the hard work. When Rowan started coming around the house he was the one that took the beatings and the yelling from Lily when she thought he had been fighting at school again but that's when I stepped up.

I helped clean his wounds and dealt with the panic attacks that sometimes followed. I listened to rants about how unfair Lily was being when she refused to let him watch TV after the school called her about something we'd done. I kept him calm in arguments with teachers or mom when she bothered to show her face.

I don't know if it was exactly equal but it was something I could do for him and I was happy to do it.

Now I sat in my chair beside Liam watching him storm up the stairs. I wanted nothing more than to follow him but I also knew that he needed to be by himself for a little bit so I stayed put.

"Should we go check on him," Callum asked after a few minutes of tense silence.

"He won't want to see anyone," I said, trying to make my voice as firm as Axel's but it came out with a slight tremor. Callum frowned at that.

"I'm sorry that we upset him," Andrew said with his own frown as he shot me a guilty look. "It truly wasn't our intention."

"Seemed like it was. You were picking on him."

"He was picking on us too," Andrew said. "We just gave him back everything he gave us."

"He's a child," I said with a glare that I rarely used. I didn't like being mean, nothing good every came out of it but they started it this time. "You are the adults. You're supposed to be mature about a child acting out, not stoup to their level. It's very unbecoming of you."

"You're right. We should have done better." I appreciated the apology but it didn't make me feel any better.

"I'm not the one you did it to. Your apology should be going to him."

"And it will," Callum said, his frown still in place. "When we have breakfast tomorrow I'll make it better."

"Good luck with that. He won't want to speak to any of you."

"Maybe I can change that in the morning. Does he still like pancakes?" I couldn't help but smile. It was something we used to do at home. Callum would try to correct Axel on something, Axel would make him mad, Callum would blow up, Axel would storm off, Callum would make chocolate chip pancakes the next morning and would apologizes, and we would go about the day like the day before never happened.

"I doubt that will ever change."

"Well for now I'll set him a plate aside in case he comes down later," Ryder said as he did just that. "But the rest of us should eat before it gets cold."

Dinner was quiet considering all that happened a few minutes ago until Andrew was finished and looked up to me.

"How are you adjusting here? Do you like it?" I wanted to hate this man. He had upset my brother in less than 15 minutes of meeting him and that just didn't sit right with me.

"It's fine," I said with a shrug.

"Just fine?"

"Well it was better before you got here." To my surprise he smiled.

"I swear you are both so much like Callum it hurts."

"Getting flash backs over there," Callum teased as he took in my confused face. "This was all pretty much an exact replica of the first time I met Andrew too. I guess we should have seen it coming. I had just sat down for my first session, he asked that same question, I gave that same answer, he started asking too many questions I wasn't ready to answer, and then I stormed out."

"It's uncanny," Andrew said as he stared at me. "If you could pick one thing to make this place feel more like home would you pick?"