Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter Thirty-Five

-Brooklyn's POV-

Despite everything, or maybe even because of everything, it felt especially good to be with my family again. Even being teased by my siblings felt like a breath of fresh air. It was nice to temporarily forget about everything, focus all of my attention on playing on old Crash Bandicoot game that I found underneath my bed, but every so often, what had happened creeped into my thoughts – Almost all of the other boys had out of touch.

It wasn't unusual for us to be more inactive during our breaks, but this time, their absence felt much more noticeable. Neither Rye not Andy had texted at all, Mikey had only talked about his concerns about Rye, Liv had said that she was busy but didn't say with what. Jack was the only one to reply on a daily basis – My heart ached with how out of touch I was with all of them, and, deep down, I feared that this was the beginning of the end.

I tried to cover it up by putting my phone away and engaging more with my family, but my grandad still detected that something was wrong – Maybe it was partly because I wasn't on my phone, which was normally on additional attachment to my body.

He'd sat me down, asked me what was up, and I let it all out – I didn't know how the others were so easily secretive. It was no fun to keep everything inside. I told him about what had happened with Andy, and how weird and scary it had been, and how I still felt like it had been something bigger than heatstroke.

I told him about what had happened at Slough Station, and what had really happened at the show on Sunday; that Rye wasn't just ill like Blair had advised us to tweet. I told him how I was afraid that we wouldn't come back from this, that, just as suddenly and as quickly as it had began, that it would crash and burn.

Once I had finished, he leaned over and clasped my hands within his.

"It sounds like a lot has gone on," he began. "And you don't need to pretend as if it hasn't. It's okay to not be okay, and if you need to talk to somebody about it, then just let me know. And as for the band, it does sound like things are a little rocky right now, but that doesn't mean it's the end. It's not always going to be good times, all the time. If anything, you'll probably come out of this stronger. But if, for whatever reason, that doesn't happen, then you pick yourself back up and start trying again. You've got a whole lot of talent, and you were made to do big things. No matter what, I'll always be proud of you."

He always had way of knowing just what to say – He wasn't like me, always stumbling and tripping over words. I'd always aspired to be like him – He was even the reason why I'd gone to trial for Road Trip for the first place. I leaned over and hugged him.

"Thank you, grandad."

"You'll be never be alone, you hear me?" He said. I nodded.

Sometimes when you look at the sky, and it's covered with grey clouds, you think, "Oh, it's going to rain." But then a couple of minutes later, it's thunder and lightning, a whole storm you never saw coming. This was what the past few days had been like that. Finding Rye and Andy that night had been the clouds, and the storm that followed was brutal and unexpected, and I hadn't even brought an umbrella.

Being away from everything was a bit of a relief, but it was more like finding temporary shelter – The storm was still raging on just outside.