The Trouble With Family

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

'I can't believe you could all be so stupid.'

I was sandwiched between Lexi and Blake, one was fidgeting nervously by my side while the latter had an angry tic in his jaw. Blake's fingers drummed a beat against my thigh with untapped energy. He wanted to be doing something, anything to keep his hands moving. I'd discovered over the course of our relationship that with any strong emotion, like anger or anxiousness, he needed to work it out of his system. He usually did so by committing to a job on his computer, or running off to the gym.

'Where the fuck were you two?' Paul shot accusing eyes and Blake and I. Pressing myself backwards into the couch, I hoped to disappear in the fabric and avoid the glare Paul was pinning me with.

Blake twitched, his scowl deepening as he locked eyes with his father, 'Zeke and Ed were being stupid, this has nothing to do with Callie and I.' Blake shot back, his whole hand joined his fingers in the tapping. I wanted to smooth his hand flat against my knee, but I knew it wouldn't help, instead I sat frozen, head downturned, feeling the shame as if it was warranted.

'You're one of the oldest, you should have told them to stop. Now, not only do I have one ungrateful son who refuses to work for me, but I have two more out of the job until they're capable to doing what I need. God knows how long that is going to be!'

'Zeke is older than me, and no one can tell Ed what to do. They were idiots, they've learnt their lesson.' I was proud of Blake for ignoring the comment that was blatantly directed at him. Paul didn't realise what he was destroying, that father-son bond was hanging by a thread and the further he went; the closer he got with the scissors. 'They'll be fine.'

Ed was even in the room with us, awkwardly squished between his twin and sister, his ankle strapped and currently between icings a bad sprain. He looked guilty, but he was staring his father down with a burning rage, he looked like he was seconds away from defending Blake. Zeke wasn't so fortunate, or perhaps the opposite was more accurate with the way we were being subjected to the "principal's office" treatment. He was the lucky winner of an overnight stay at the hospital for monitoring purposes. They were worried he had a concussion with the way the side of his head had been busted up, I wasn't surprised. Ed had fallen on his brother, which had broken the fall for him, but made it substantially worse for Zeke.

'You have a responsibility to this family...'

'Stop.' Blake's fists clenched into tight balls and my intake of air was the only audible sound for a tense moment. 'Just stop.' He growled through clenched teeth. 'I am not responsible for the actions of my brothers.' The tension, in his posture, in his words, froze me in my spot and I could hardly breathe. 'They are both adults, they knew what they were doing. I will not sit here and listen to you blame me for something I had no control over. Not again.'

My thoughts snared on the not again. Blake did talk about family, but I was starting to realise that he didn't really talk about family. He had enough family members to create the illusion that I knew lots about them, when in fact I knew about lots of them. The important ones, like his father, I didn't really know much about. For Paul, I knew that he was strict and at times over bearing, and Blake had a tough and hard-to-define relationship with him. He never really told me why, or how bad it was, and I never really thought about it; because when he could have been telling me about Paul, he had been telling me the great things about the rest of his family.

Without me realising, Paul had become an enigma.

Blake didn't wait for his father to choke out his response, he was on his feet before anyone else could spring together more than a few words, and Paul turned an ugly shade of purple as his whole body shook with rage. I scrambled to follow after him but he was gone before I could make it out of the room. I wanted to turn around. I wanted to scream at Paul, I wanted him to know what his constant disappointment did to Blake. I wanted to tell Paul how amazing Blake was, to make him see what he was really missing out on, but I didn't. I didn't want to go back in there, I didn't want to face that emotional fire storm that was sure to leave me burnt.