A House Full of Brothers

Chapter 38

  The next day and the argument between me, my brothers, and Blake had begun to take it's toll. A few days later and I was a mess. Blake had been very consistent on trying to get me to talk to my brothers and the more days that passed, the more it seemed like a good idea. It had always been a good idea but now it was a good idea that I had actually been considering.

  So now, it was eleven in the morning and I had just woken up, that seems normal for some people, but that was not normal for me. I was curled in Blake's bed under the covers, moping. I was laying there for a good ten minutes before Blake came into the room. He looked at me with pity while also sporting a look that a mother would give their child when they failed to listen and got hurt as a result.

  "Okay. I am not suggesting it, Brooklyn, I am telling you to go talk to them." He crossed his arms. His face still held the pity but the 'I-told-you-so' look was now replaced with annoyance.

  "I don't want to." I mumbled and hugged the pillow closer to my cheek.

  "As I said, I am not asking." He repeated. "Look at you. You are sulking in my bed, into a pillow already drenched in tears, with your hair tangled after not being brushed for four days, and your teeth slowly rotting away because you won't brush them. Which is really gross by the way." He judged and, to be quite frank, I did too. He just stared at me before sighing, his eyes softening completely. He pulled my body onto his lap and brushed his thumb across my cheek, still somehow being able to look at me as if I was the most beautiful thing in the world.

  "Please just talk to them. You're breaking." He whispered. I sat in silence before slowly nodding, only doing so because I felt guilty for making Blake upset. Blake smiled and kissed my forehead which honestly disgusted me, it was probably covered in sweat and my dried tears from constantly shoving my head into my pillow that I had reserved for crying.

  I didn't give him another glance as I trudged to the bathroom so I could make my appearance more bearable. Looking in the mirror was a shock. My eyes were circled with dark purple and my cheeks were red. My lips had swollen from the constant cries leaving my mouth and my skin was dry from all of the salty tears dehydrating my face. My whole body felt grimy considering I had barely moved for days, only standing to go to the bathroom and sitting up to force water and a spoonful or two of food into my mouth.I felt gross, physically and mentally.

  After my shower and  brushing my teeth, I felt better. Barely. I just didn't feel utterly disgusting on the outside anymore. I had barely gotten dressed, into the clothes Blake had washed for me, when Blake knocked on the door to his own bedroom that I had taken over. He had at some point gotten ready and was holding the keys to his car.

  "Ready?" He asked while swinging the keys around his finger. I nodded while picking at my bottom lip; my stress-reliever that inevitably damaged my lips. He gently pulled my hands away from lips and held my hand as we walked down stairs.

  "You're gonna be there with me, right?" My head jerked to face him as soon as he started the car.

  "Would I be allowed to?" He asked calmly while leaving his gated community.

  "You better be. This is basically what started the whole argument." I huffed and looked out the window as my anger built up again. Our hands were still intertwined as he rubbed his thumb over my hand to help me relax.

  "We've been over why they acted that way, Brooklyn." He sighed, not wanting to get into this conversation again.

  "There were other ways to deal with this, Blake." I mimicked him. I heard him sigh again but he didn't reply this time, understanding that my thought process and emotions weren't in the best state at the moment.

  We pulled into the driveway and I was already having second thoughts. Blake pulled the keys out of the ignition and looked at me expectantly.

  "No. I don't want to." I began to bounce my leg and my free hand went up to pick at my lips again. Blake exhaled heavily and grabbed my other hand so our wrists were now crossed. 

  "Nothing is gonna happen, you have no reason to be worried. They're waiting for you, Brooklyn." He looked at me with his shocking blue eyes that had somehow managed to look soft and gentle.

  "Why would they be doing that?" I asked skeptically. He threw his head back.

  "I told them." He shrugged.

  "Why would you do that?" I shook my head in disbelief. "What if I wanted to back out?" I narrowed my eyes.

  "Exactly. You can't" He smirked which was something I haven't seen for a while.

  "They're mad at me. I don't want to see that." I dropped the anger and went back to worrying.

  "Everyone's mad at everyone. You lied and did what they told you not to, they gave you little to no choice in anything, and I dated the one person they said I couldn't." He let go of one of my hands to rub his fingers down my cheek.

  After a few minutes of coaxing me out of the car, we were in the living room, talking everything through. My brothers were quick to forgive me as I was still the 'baby sister that could do no wrong' in their eyes. Now we were working on fixing the problems between Blake and the boys. They had failed to notice that I was still mad at them as I was still standing hand in hand with Blake as they worked things out.

  "I will make your life hell if you hurt her, I will genuinely make your life miserable." Jackson threatened. He was obviously still pissed. Blake put his free hand up in defense.

  "Please do, I'd deserve it." Blake responded to the threat with a similar tone.

  I rocked back and forth on my feet, waiting for their apology to me. It took a while for them to notice that they hadn't been forgiven. Cole had been the one to notice. He stood up to walk over to me and give me a hug which in turn made Blake let go of my hand.

  "I wasn't a big part of this, but I'm still sorry. You just are still the 6 pound baby from the hospital in my eyes so I didn't want anything happening to you." Cole laughed lightly during the last sentence as he squished my cheeks. The rest of the boys followed suit and gave apologies. Some had very small apologies because they played little to no roll in the drama, whereas Jackson actually teared up because he couldn't explain, or even comprehend, why he had been so protective and gotten so mad.

  The apology was sweet but I had to let out a small smile when Jackson teared up as he always was the one to put up the stone-cold facade as he felt it was his duty to take the place of a father.

  Most of us had been forgiven, only Blake still had a few friendships to build up again.

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