Painful Love

t w e n t y

"You had no right!" Grayson screams throwing everything that was on the table to the ground. The sound of the breaking glass on the floor silencing the whole house.

Ethan made his way through the door when he heard the screaming coming from the kitchen. He left for the store to buy beverages for dinner only twenty minutes. How was Grayson capable of making a disaster in such little time?

"What's going on here?" Ethan shouts making his way through the house, quickly to the kitchen.

He sees Meredith standing in the middle of the kitchen terrified, a spoon on her hand. She was making dinner before Grayson started screaming at her. Ethan observes the mess on the floor and curses mentally. He knew Grayson wasn't going to clean that.

"Her!" Grayson screams furiously pointing at Meredith. She flinches at his action, scared he might throw something at her.

"I'm sorry." She says through whispers, her voice breaking halfway through it.

Ethan still couldn't understand the problem. She was just making dinner. "What about her Grayson! She's just being nice." Ethan exclaims picking up the broken pieces of the crockery.

"She's wearing moms apron." He whispers drying his face. "Take it off! Now!"

Ethan stopped cleaning the floor and looked at Meredith. Indeed she was wearing their mothers apron. Ethan felt a small pain on his chest for a brief moment remembering how their mother always baked cookies for them on that apron. And cake for their birthday or if they got a good grade. But he didn't scream at her or got mad.

"Here." Meredith said throwing the apron at Grayson.

Grayson grabbed the apron and went upstairs. Ethan sights passing his hand between his hair. He gets the reason why Grayson got mad, but like always his temper got the best of him.

"I'm really sorry about that Meredith." Ethan says standing straight. "I'll be back to clean this. Let me talk to him." He says going to the stairs.

Meredith nods and goes to get a broom and dustpan to clean the mess Grayson had left behind. She couldn't stop herself from crying because instead of making things right with Grayson she made them worse.

"Grayson." Ethan says entering his room. "That was completely unnecessary!" He shouts closing the door.

"So you're getting on her side?" He scoffs sitting on his bed.

"What?" Ethan says frowning. "There are no sides here." He says standing in front of him. "I get you got mad but there was no need for that mess. You could have hurt her."

"I wish." He whispers with hate.

"I get you loathe the woman but you need to stop this! It's been two weeks already." Ethan says crossing his arms.

"Oh I know." Grayson says standing up. "Two weeks of having her here acting like she owns the house." Grayson's hate was reflected in his tone. "Acting like she's our mother."

"That's what this is about?" He says sighing.

"Whatever." Grayson says standing up, stumbling in the process.

"Are you high?" Ethan says grabbing his brother face by the jaw. "Again?" He says furious.

"Maybe." Grayson says smiling.

"I don't get you, you know." Ethan says taking a step back. "I understood why you drank and behave the way you did before, but what is it now?" He asks confuse. "I thought you were past this." He whispers in disbelief.

"I am." Grayson says looking at his brother. "I just like doing this." He says coming closer to his brother. He was inches away from his lips and was really craving to kiss him, but they agree to never do things like that when their father or Meredith were home. "It's fun." He whispers brushing his lips against Ethan's neck.

"Stop!" Ethan says pushing him away. "I know you're high every time we," but he couldn't bring the words out of his mouth. "do stuff." He says looking at his brother.

"So?" Grayson asks confuse. "That doesn't change anything."

"It does." Ethan says going to the door. "It proofs thar you can't be on your right mind to be with me." He murmurs disappointed.

The only thing that Ethan didn't knew was the reason why Grayson did what he was doing. If he was high most of the time he wouldn't think of Katherine and how much he misses her. But he couldn't bring himself to admit he was wrong, by choosing to go out the door, because he chose the right thing. Right? He has been wanting his brother for months, so why was he missing her so much?

Ethan made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. For his surprise Meredith had already clean the mess and was currently making dessert. Cookies, like their mother did on Fridays. Ethan got a wave of nostalgia while watching her.

"Meredith?" He asks standing next to her.

"Yeah?" She says not looking at him.

Ethan noticed the cut on her arm. He hadn't noticed that before, it was bleeding. "Are you going to tell my father?" He asks grabbing the first aid kit to grab a band aid. He slightly cleans her arm first with a wet cloth and proceeds to put the band aid on her skin.

"No." She says moving her arm away from him, not because she was scared.

"Thank you." He says feeling relieved.

She continued baking, ignoring the fact that Ethan was observing her. She appreciated that at least he didn't hate her too like Grayson did.

"You know," he says breaking the silence. "He wasn't always like this. Moms death changed him."

"You don't have to give me explanations." She says frowning. "I know how it feels."

"Really?"

"My father died when I was fifteen." She says shrugging.

"Oh." Ethan replied surprised. "I didn't know that, I'm sorry."

"Not many people know that." She says smiling. "Not even your father."

Ethan nods, it felt nice knowing someone that went through the same thing. For some reason that made him like her a little more.

"I'm pretty sure Grayson will come around." He says hoping that was true. "Do you need help?" He asks pointed towards the food.

"Sure." She says smiling.

Ethan was more than happy to be helping her because unlike Grayson he saw Meredith for whom she really is. She's just trying to be their friend because she knew she could never take their mothers place and she wasn't trying to.