My Brother's Best Friend -VS- My Abusive Ex.

Chapter Fourteen

“You will,” he asked, his face lighting up. I nodded and he grabbed me in his arms. “Oh God, I love you,” he mumbled into my hair.

“I love you too,” I replied quietly. I was safe for right now. Joe was done hitting me, Aiden was on my bad list, my brother was over everything except Kim and Traeh, well, Traeh always was and always would be the best friend I’d ever had. I just had to figure out a way to let everyone know I was dating Joe again without looking like a slut or moron. That would be the hard part of dating Joe again. We stood in the corner locked in each other’s arms for the rest of the party. It was nice, comfortable to say the least. No one bothered us, probably realizing what was going on. Around midnight, I told Joe I was tired and that I was going to my room. He gave me a hug and kissed my cheek before walking away to go to his friends. The party hadn’t calmed down at all, but it had gotten smaller since all the underclassmen had left to make their curfews. I climbed the stairs slowly, not wanting to trip from my being tired.

I opened my door and trudged inside. I fell face first on my bed and felt so tired that I didn’t move from that spot. I didn’t even move when I heard Aiden come in my room and say, “You’re a wreck.” I didn’t move when he slipped off my socks, the only thing I wore on my feet to the party, or when he put my shorts on under my dress for me to sleep in. The one thing that did make me move however was when he whispered in my ear, “Case you have to change out of your dress and put a shirt on.”

I mumbled so badly that I didn’t even understand myself, but I did get up and manage to change before collapsing on the bed again. I felt Aiden lift me up and place me under the covers before he laid down next to me. I was still conscious enough to move away from him however. “Aiden,” I said softly, “I just thought you should know I’m dating Joe.” As soon as the sentence was out of my mouth, I regretted it, because he stood up and walked right out of my room, not looking back at all. I fell asleep that night with nightmares, but these weren’t my normal nightmares of being hit by Joe or anything of the sort. They were of Aiden walking away and dying or being killed and leaving me forever, and they scared me more than my nightmares of Joe ever did.

The next morning I woke up still exhausted from the night before. I hadn’t done anything that tiring which meant I was probably in a mood or something. Every time I was tired without explanation Eric would tell me I was in a mood, so I was just assuming as I got out of my bed that that was the case and no one would want to be around me today.  I slipped down stairs as quietly as I could, knowing that my brother probably had a massive hangover. I made to the kitchen and was making some food when I heard a female voice say, “That smells wonderful.”

I turned around and let go a sigh of relief when I saw it was Kim. If it had been any other girl I would’ve gone to town on my brother after kicking her out, and not for having a girl stay the night, because that usually happens after one of his parties, but because he would’ve been leading Kim on. Wait, I thought, she stayed the night after his party. She has his shirt on and a pair of his gym shorts on instead of her dress… “You didn’t,” I exclaimed.

“No,” my brother said walking in. “She made me behave.” He walked over and kissed her on the cheek before walking over to the stove to finish our breakfast. I gave Kim a pointed look that definitely said that we needed to talk later. I was gonna be caught in the middle of this if it didn’t work out. She was my friend and it was my duty as a good one to protect her, but he was my brother, which made me obligated to protect him, even though sometimes he didn’t deserve it at all. My brother put the food on plates and passed them around before discreetly motioning for me to switch seat so he could sit next to Kim. I feigned annoyance and moved over. He sat down and put his left hand on her knee while he shoveled food into his mouth with the other.