One little secret

Chapter 6

Caleb’s POV

I run up the hard stairs, hearing my feet clap against the wood. My mind races thinking of the worst, something might've happened to him, I promised mom that nothing would ever happen to him. My feet start to hurt as I get to the top, my heart feels broken knowing that something might be going on with my little brother, something that could've really got to him in a way that could make him go like this. Or someone. You can mess with me, but when you mess with my siblings, I’ll kill you. 

When I make it outside of his door I hear hard sobs and his belongings slamming up against his walls. I hear glass shatter. I try to open the door but he locked himself in. I knock on the door rapidly hoping he’ll open. A shoe gets thrown against the door. 

“Go away!” He yells at me. 

“I’m not leaving until you open this door and give me an explanation for this.” I say back to him. 

I wait a moment and I hear more sobs. I hear movement and feet coming to the door. A smile comes onto my face knowing that he trusts in me more than anyone else in this house.  He unlocks the door and opens it slowly revealing his room a mess. I’ll clean it later, I tell myself. 

“What’s wrong?” I ask shutting the door behind me. 

“My girlfriend broke up with me, she said she’s been cheating on me for a few months with a bunch of people.” He says and rests his puffy face in his hands. He sobs even more repeating it and I rub his soft back to calm him. 

“When did she break up with you?” I ask him feeling horrible for what happened. He’s been with her for over three years. He used to sit up with me late at night telling me about how in love he is with her. About how much she meant to him. About how he thought everyday about being with her for the rest of his life. He knew he could never get over her is anything like this happened. 

“Just today, after you left.” He said and looked up at me with his sad brown eyes. I thought I would never see the day that my little lover boy would be crying. That he would ever be this upset. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how I’m going to deal being without her.” 

I can’t stand one more moment with him crying beside me. He shakes with every sob. He tries to breath but just can’t. I feel so horrible just sitting here. I need to help him. I won’t feel better if I just leave him here withering in his own pity. 

“Stand up Lou.” He looked at me confused as I got to my feet. “Stand this instant boy!”  I say again and he slowly gets to his feet wiping his tears from his eyes. “Now, boy, I am going to make you feel A LOT better. You must spend the day with me. Whenever I get a break up I have a routine. You must follow them if you want to get better. If not, then screw you! My routine works like magic!” 

He laughs slightly and I grab his soft hand and drag him downstairs. The girls are waiting for me in the kitchen. To discuss out tactics. Well, we’ll probably never get to them. The girls look at me confused. “He needs some cheering up, if you know what I mean.” I whisper to them and Devon looks at me confused as Ainsley pulls out the Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream from the fridge and gets four spoons for all of us. 

As soon as we go to the couch Devon gets it completely. She pulls out one of Louis’ favorite movies and  Ainsley gets some blankets. We all sit on the couch in one big clump as we watch “Some Like it Hot”. No one could believe that that was one of his favorite movies but of course, he still knows every word and lyric in it. We would all swear he was gay. He just says he likes the classics. 

“And Marilyn Monroe is freaking sexy!” He says and we all laugh with him. He seems so much better by the end of the movie. He seems like a whole new person. Maybe it was the ice cream? Maybe hot woman?

“You know what!” Ainsley says. Distracting all of us from our bites of ice cream. “Now that I’ve heard of what a bad person this girl is, I think I just might do something for you.” She says and this gets Lou’s attention. Mine too, but in a different way than him. 

“What’s that?” He asks a little bit too excited. 

“Yeah,” I ask dully. “What’s that?” 

“I will pretend to be your girlfriend that you cheated on her with to make her jealous!” She says and he almost jumps on her like a lion to his pray.

“You would really do that for me?” He asks her with excitement laced in his voice with every word. You see, Louis has liked Ainsley for years. They are the same age so I wouldn’t be surprised but it was kinda weird when she would  spend the night. You know, he would suddenly love to hang out with us and not text his girlfriend. Or he would have some problem and ask Ainsley if she would help. One time during the summer he asked her to wash some windows. Of course you know what was running through his mind that day! 

“Of course! I’ve known you for years and with the way you used to always hang out with me and flirt with me in front of her it would be totally noticeable!” She say to him and giggles flirtatiously. 

“Thank you so much!” He says to Ainsley then kisses her cheek like he always does. 

“Ugh,” I moan and roll my eyes. “Enough with that you two! Lou you need to get started on your room!” I tell him and as he gets up I kick him in the butt. 

“Okay girls, remember the plan?" I say, my mind races with 'what if's' and I think about what might happen to my family, what might happen to my friends. We all have to make the risks. We all have to take the chances.