Mistakes

Thirty Six

Michael

I decided not to interfere with the conversation happening in the dining room no matter how much I wanted to. Ashton sounded very angry and Bryana was yelling, meaning it wasn't a good time to crack a joke.

Luke was out with Calum, leaving me alone to do nothing. I played around in the Lair, but I didn't feel like practicing anything. There was no one to play FIFA against and any other game was irrelevant, so all I could do was eavesdrop on what was happening.

"He isn't my son, though!" Bryana yelled.

"Correct. He's mine. Not yours." Ashton said.

"But I'm your girlfriend. Technically I'm his mother."

"You didn't sign the papers."

"You're being so confusing!" Bryana yelled.

"I'm not. All I'm trying to say is, I have a son and I have to take care of him. You are my girlfriend, but you're not his mother." Ashton shouted back.

"What if I don't want you to have a son?"

"That's not your choice."

"Why did you do this without consulting me first?"

"I-I-I wasn't thinking straight. I just really wanted a kid after having to take care of my siblings for so long."

Lies, I thought.

"You could have told me first." Bryana cried.

"Why are you crying?" Ashton groaned, sounding annoyed.

"It's like you forget that I'm a part of your life when it comes to big decisions!" Bryana shouted.

"Bryana! You're the one making this difficult! The only thing you need to worry about is yourself! Dale isn't your problem at all!" Ashton yelled.

"Stop yelling at me! You're so mean!"

I heard footsteps, meaning it was my time to go. I ran down the hall, mentally noting to slap Ashton later today.

Calum

"Do you think Dale would like this?" Luke asked, holding up a pair of blue socks with pugs on them.

"Who wouldn't?" I smiled. "I want some for myself!"

I grabbed the grey ones with poodles on them, Luke laughing behind me.

"You're such a little kid." Luke said.

"No, I'm not!" I frowned.

"Yeah, you are." He smiled widely.

"Whatever. Let's go see if they have superman capes." I said jokingly.

As we kept browsing the store, I saw a basket of bow ties. I instantly ran to it, searching mindlessly through it. Luke helped and we found three bows.

One was grey with a houndstooth pattern, another had white stars on red and the last had little black x's on white.

+

When we got home, we weren't expecting silence. Michael wasn't in the living room or the Lair and Ashton wasn't making dinner like he said he would. Instead, they were both in their separate rooms while Dale sat on the hall floor by his room.

He was playing with some string, braiding it and singing softly. His face was red and his hair was messed up, his posture slumped. He looked like he had been crying, his room door closed. His left shoe was untied, his right missing. He had a rubber band around his skinny arm, swollen red lines covering it from his wrist to his elbow.

I dropped my bags, crouching beside him, repeatedly asking what happened. Luke ran into Michael's room, from which I heard loud yelling.

"No one can hurt you if you're hiding." He sang.

"Dale, what happened?"

"No one can see behind your lies."