Yes Please || c.g. {complete}

"The Best"

33

.Carl.

Everything went blurry as I attacked my sack-of-shit father. I knocked him out of his chair and began swinging at him as we both fell onto the floor. I got a few good punches in before I felt hands on me, pulling me away from him.

The chaotic yelling around me became apparent as Lip and Ian pushed me back.

"Relax, man," Lip said gently in an attempt to calm me down, his tone in stark contrast to the rough way they were holding me back.

Frank was trying to sit up, wiping at the blood all over his smug face.

"He's not worth it," Ian chimed in, grunting as I continued to fight them.

I felt a small hand begin to rub my back, and I started to calm down. After a moment, my brothers lessened their grip and I shrugged them off.

"Well Jesus, Carl," Frank spat as he slowly stood up. "I hope you control this temper of yours around Layla here."

My fists balled up as I looked up and half laughed. I didn't even care that his outburst was no doubt the result of being high on hard drugs. I fucking hated him.

"That's enough, Frank!" Fiona admonished from behind me. I turned and saw she had her arm around Layla.

Layla. I couldn't look at her face yet. I was mortified.

"Go back to the gutter you crawled out of," Debbie sighed, her arms crossed.

Frank was eventually bullied out of the house once again. He had an uncanny knack for wreaking a lot of havoc in a short amount of time; the whole incident with him just then had likely only been about twenty minutes, but it had ruined the whole night.

.....

.Layla.

I understood now why no one spoke about Frank. He was a shit show who seemed to take great pleasure in stirring the pot. I didn't know what he had said that got Carl so upset; something about circumcision? But that couldn't be right.

I felt awful for Carl and his siblings, who were clearly used to this behavior. He wouldn't look at me after Lip and Ian pulled him off of Frank. I had rubbed his back in an attempt to soothe him, and it seemed to work.

Fiona, Debbie, and V took me out back to give the guys time to calm Carl down.

"I'm so sorry about him," Fiona sighed, and I knew she meant Frank.

"Why do I get the feeling that was not an unusual occurrence?" I attempted to laugh.

The girls laughed.

"Because you are absolutely right," V scoffed at the thought of Frank. "Dude is a stumbling disaster."

We laughed again and then it became quiet.

"What was it that made Carl snap?" I asked, looking down at my fidgeting hands.

The other three exchanged glances, making me nervous to find out.

"He...went to some extreme measures to make his ex happy," Debbie explained.

"Yeah, you could say that," Fiona half laughed, but did not elaborate.

"I'm sure he'd rather tell you himself," V smiled, rubbing my shoulder.

The back door opened, and Carl stood there with a blank look on his face.

"Let's go, Layla," he said quietly, still not meeting my gaze.

I smiled my goodbye at the girls before following him back through the house. I hugged Lip and Ian goodbye and waved to the others before Carl turned to leave.