Minute-By-Minute (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 13

"Julian has a sister?" Nina and Bradlee say at the same time, looking at me with identical shocked expressions. I immediately shush them since we were only one room away from where the rest of the kids were, studying for their exams that were coming up.

"Be quiet! We don't want the kids to know," I tell them, looking around to make sure no one had heard us. Bradlee lets out a chuckle, setting his paintbrush down on the plate that we were using to hold the different colors.

"Oh, whatever, they're in the other room. So he has a sister?" He asks, still shocked beyond belief, which is exactly how I still felt ever since I learned about it. I nod my head, letting out a sigh as I sit in one of the chairs that were still in the circle from support group last week. Nina and Bradlee do the same as they wait for me to speak.

"He has an adopted sister. Her name's Nora, she's been here a few times before and now that I think of it, it was probably to get to know him. I'm assuming his parents don't talk good of him or they don't talk about him at all, so she must've wanted to see for herself. But she showed up to the house when Julian wasn't there, so I took her home," I tell them, running my hands over my jeans to get rid of the sweat that was starting to form on my palms.

"Oh, no," Nina whispers, suddenly looking horrified. "you met his parents?"

"I didn't just meet his parents," I tell her, motioning to my nose and she lets out a gasp before covering her face with her hands. The bruises weren't as visible as they were yesterday, but I know the kids were worried when they saw me as soon they got here after school. Julian and I just made up a lie that I ran into the front door, but I had a feeling that not everyone believed that.

"Oh my god, Miles," Nina says, sounding upset as she pulls me into a hug. She holds me tightly, not letting go until she had maintained control of her emotions. I know she has a soft spot when it came to Julian and his family since she actually knew them for about a year before he came out to them. She was there with Andrea to support him through that difficult time and even if she never talked about it, I know she still worried about him because of it.

"It's alright, I'm alright," I tell her as she pulls back from the hug, trying not to look too upset or embarrassed. Bradlee glances at her from the corner of his eye and I can tell he wants to say something, but when I set my hand lightly on his shoulder, he gets the hint. He looks at me instead with a questioning look.

"So what happens now?" He asks.

"Well," I say with a sigh, taking hold of Nina's hand to give her some support. "Julian wants me to press charges, so I am. Mr. Caldwell will probably spend some time in jail since he already has other charges against him by the cops. I don't know if I can even do anything about Nora since I don't think there's a way to get her out of the house if it's only emotional abuse. I know it's hurting her, but I don't think CPS will do anything, except check in themselves," I tell them, feeling utterly useless in this situation. Not only was Nora hurting, but so was Julian because his parents were back in his life.

"Would you take her in if you could?" Bradlee whispers, sounding absolutely shocked since it did kinda sound like that, even though I didn't mean it that way. My eyes move to look at Nina, who is giving me the same expression as him. I just run a hand through my hair before letting out a heavy sigh.

"I don't know anything anymore. I don't know who I am. I don't know what to do. I just want everything to go back to the way it is. I want to be engaged to Julian without having to worry about his family fucking everything up or having to be worried about a girl that just randomly showed up in our lives," I say, trying my hardest to not raise my voice since I was starting to get angry at the whole situation.