Living with the Grace Boys

Chapter 23

Rae's POV

I finally make it up the stairs. I crutch to Eli's door. This time, I knock. The crashing stops and I hear footsteps coming closer.

"What do you want?" Eli's tear-stricken face appears in the doorway.

"I wanted to see if you were okay." I shift my wait onto my good foot.

"Do you honestly think I'm okay, when my brother is sick and could die? Do you think I was okay when Shane told me you were unconscious in the hospital for 2 days? No, I'm not fucking okay!" Eli exhales sharply.

"You were worried about me when I was in the hospital?" I thought he hated me.

"Of course I was worried. You're my foster-sister and-and," Eli stops himself.

"And, what?" I try to decipher his expression.

"And this." He walks over to me. He smashes his lips onto mine. What is with these boys and kissing me?

"Woah." I breathe. Now I've been kissed by two Grace boys.

He turns away from me and pounds his hand on the desk. He punches a hole in the wall. Damn.

"Leave!" He yells.

"What?" I question.

"I said get out!" He pushes me out the door and slams it in my face.

Okay. You can't kiss a girl and then yell at her to leave. Back up. You can't kiss the girl your twin brother likes and then shove her out of the room. Jeez.

I slump into my room and throw myself on the bed. I need to clear my head. I let my eyes shut and drift away to sleep.

***********

Sterling's POV

"What the hell is going on here?" The 4 of them freeze.

"Sterling!" Griffin exclaims. "I can-I can explain."

"I'll deal with the three of you later. Where's Liam?" Noah points to the kitchen.

I run in to find Liam puking up blood. Tears gush down his face. Why does he have to be sick?

"How long has he been throwing up blood?" Spencer's eyes fill with tears.

"Spencer, you need to tell me." He shakes his head. "Now, Spencer!"

"The last 5 minutes." The tears roll down his cheeks. "Is he going to die?"

"I-I don't know." I do my best to keep it together. "Where's Eli and Rae?"

"Upstairs." Shane replies. I nod.

I clean the puke off of Liam's face. He cries harder when her sees the amount I blood he threw up in the bucket.

"Sterling, we have to take him to the hospital." Isaac says.

"I know. Just, just let me think this through." I pace around the kitchen.

Liam's stopped crying by now. He still looks a nasty shade of green. Spencer wipes the tears from his eyes and does the same for Noah. I can't believe that my younger brothers have to suffer through this.

"Here's what we're gonna do." I start. "Everyone's going to pack up their things. Everything we own will go in the back of the pick-up truck. We'll split ourselves up in the 3 cars. Liam's going to go to the hospital. We'll get some cash. We will get through this."

"What about sleeping? And food?" Griffin asks.

"For now, I'll pack food and for sleeping, probably a hotel. We are not coming back here."

***********

We spend the next 3 and a half hours packing all the things we'll need. I stole some of the Pikes' money from the safe they have. They'll never even notice. We are going to need this if we want to survive.

I still have to deal with Griffin, Isaac, and Shane. I knock on each of their doors and tell them to come downstairs.

We meet in the family room. The looks that they each wear tell me that they know what this little chat is about.

"All of you better explain yourselves about what I walked in on earlier."

"Isaac and I were fighting when Shane got home. He tried to stop us, but we let our anger out on him." Griffin speaks first.

"What were you two fighting about?" I look at Isaac.

"Yeah, why were you fighting?" Shane butts in.

"Fuck off, Shane." Isaac retorts.

"Dick." Shane spits.

"Enough, both of you." I nod for Isaac to continue.

"We were fighting about Dad." I groan at his response.

"What now?" I've told all the boys, on many occasions, to stop talking about Dad. He. Left. Us.

"Griffin found him. He told me that he wanted to meet with Dad. I told him it was a stupid-ass decision and that you'd be pissed. He got mad and we started yelling at each other." Griffin glares at Isaac.

"What'd you find out?" I direct my attention to Griffin.

"He's in the area. He's got a house and everything. We could go live with him, Sterling."

"No. Griffin, he's the reason we're in this mess." I can't give the man who ruined our lives a second chance.

"Dad didn't ruin our lives, that fucking idiot did!" Isaac points at Shane.

"Stop fucking saying it was my fault!" Shane screams.

"It was your fault and you know it!" Isaac shouts.

"JUST STOP!" Shane swings his arm. A loud THWACK! follows. He slapped Isaac.

"I FUCKING HATE YOU!" Shane keeps yelling. Isaac balls up his fists. He punches Shane so hard, Shane stumbles back and falls. Tears slip from his eyes.

"STOP IT! NOW!" I pull Shane off the ground and hold him back.

He squirms under my firm grip. He manages to slip out from my grasp. He races out if the room and up the stairs.

"SHANE, wait!" I can't stop him. I scowl at Isaac. "Why the hell did you do that to him? You know how mad at himself he is for that."

"I don't know, it's just true, I guess." Isaac lowers his gaze to his feet.

"He knows that it is. He regrets it so much, but he didn't know what was going to happen. Why do you have to go and remind him of it?" I pinch the bridge of my nose.

"I'm sorry Sterling, it just came out." Isaac feels awful, I know.

"I'm so, so, disappointed in you, Isaac. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go calm Shane down." I see the regret in Isaac's eyes as I leave the room. Griffin stays behind, but doesn't say anything to Isaac.

Why did Isaac have to do that to Shane? Why am I left to clean up the mess?