Brutal Love

Chapter 12

*Tre's POV*

"Tre look." Mike said, pointing to Winnie. I turned and saw she was smiling over her phone. It was like a blushing smile too. Who would be making her blush. "Winnie?" He snapped his fingers in her face.

"Huh?" She asked, snapping her head up in confusion. I snatched her phone from her hand and he smirked. She tried to reach for it but my arms were just a bit longer.

"Who you texting?" I teased. "Huh? You're boyfriend?" Billie and Mike were thoroughly interested as she would just insist that I give it back. They started to laugh.

"Give it back! It's no one!" She insisted, practically on top of me.

"'No one' doesn't make you smile like that or practically climb on top of someone to get their phone back." I saw anger flash in her eyes when I said this but then she smiled and sat back down. "Just gonna give up?"

"It's not giving up if you have a lock."

Billie and Mike were practically on the floor laughing at this point as I looked at the phone in my hand that went black. Shit. Wait, she had a lock on last night and maybe she hasn't changed it...

"What are you doing?" She asked concerned. I had begun typing in her password.

"Just unlocking your phone." I got the right password and the familiar sound of an unlocking phone filled the silence that had overcome us when the guys stopped laughing. "You should've changed your password."

"How did you -"

"Now let's see." I cut her off. "Last person you texted was...Joey. Who's Joey? Your boyfriend?"

Her face went beet red. Except only one thing didn't occur to me.

"Joey as in my son Joey?" Billie said, with a smile on his face. Then his voice changed to a baby voice. "Does Winnie have a wittle crush on Joey?"

"Piss off. I do not." Her face was really red now. She thought she was saved when the waitress came with our food. I gave her back her phone and the waitress left. "Don't ever tell him you think I do, Armstrong, or so help me god I will make sure you never have kids again."

We ate in silence before I finished first and started the conversation again.

"So Winnie, asking him not to tell is basically like admitting it." I explained. "So do you or don't you?"

She nearly choked on her food and started coughing. I rubbed her back. "I don't know, I just met the guy yesterday."

"Even so, he's good looking and he's a nice kid. I'm really surprised he doesn't have a girlfriend." Billie added.

"You're so full of your son. I wouldn't let her date an Armstrong if he's anything like you." I joked.

"And what's wrong with me? I settled down."

"But not until you were 22. Remember all the girls you were with before that?" Mike added.

"Joey isn't like that. He's actually a good kid."

"Besides if he is an asshole, he's an asshole that I kinda like and it's not like you're my father so you can't tell me who I can and cannot date." Winnie said nonchalantly eating away at her food. She immediately looked up and covered her mouth.

"Aha! So you do like him!" I exclaimed. She looked down back down at her food.

"Please don't tell him." She said quietly. Mike, Billie and I all laughed.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with us." We all said in unison.

"And I would never try to replace your dad. You can do whatever you want as long as your safe." I said. "That was just an act to get you to admit it."

"You're smarter than you look, Papa Cool." She said, smiling at me.

The rest of breakfast went by pretty quickly. Instead of just talking about music, we talked about stuff with Winnie so that she could join our conversation. She totally supported our idea of releasing a trilogy album. And as a big fan of ours, we we ecstatic about her opinion. We finished breakfast and had desert and by the time we left that place it was almost noon. The guys wanted to start working right away so we all agreed to jam when we got back to my place.

"Tre, I'll be in my room." Winnie said as I closed the door.

"Why? You don't want to watch us jam?" I asked.

"I do, it's just I've had enough of Billie for one day."

"Are you ever going to tell me what he did?"

"I'll get over it before that happens." She giggled. "I'll probably just watch a movie or something and have a boring day."

"Why don't you invite Joey over?" I winked.

"I just might do that." She winked back.

"Ok, but be safe with him? He is an Armstrong after all." I said in a serious tone.

"Don't worry. I can take care of myself." She hugged me. "I have been for almost almost 6 years now." She walked away and ran upstairs.

Those last words damn near broke my heart. I just wanted to hug her, and hold her, and never let go. She was still so young yet she had to grow up so fast. She lost her parents and been forced to live with her aunt whom she's scared shitless of. And what happened today, this morning, the fire, was a big reminder and flashback for what must've happened.

I'm making it my personal mission to make sure that that girl becomes happy again and is safe from any harm. I'll make certain that she will be ok and that her aunt will never hurt her again. First things first, though, what the hell happened with her and Billie?