Ever After

I Can't Play This Game

James was just about to close his eyes and fall asleep for the night when Emma's name lit up his phone screen and his ringer went off.

He answered quickly as to not wake Grayson. He'd finally gotten the younger to go to sleep. James didn't want to wake him again right now. He needed to sober up.

"Hello?" James sighed out, absentmindedly starting to twist his fingers in Grayson's hair.

Why was she calling? Hopefully Ethan wasn't too bad off after he stormed out earlier. Surely he wouldn't have taken it out on Emma. She had nothing to do with the situation.

"Hey sister," Came her voice, it was soft and she sounded tired. No doubt, Ethan had given her an earful before dropping her at home. "Are you two okay?"

James wanted to smile, he was thankful that she wanted to check on them, but they were still going through a lot. He didn't see anything to smile over right now.

James sighed again. "Gray is drunk." He mumbled, making her gasp.

"He's okay. I got him to lay down, he's passed out here next to me. I just hope he sleeps through the whole night." The older finished.

Emma sighed as well, James could hear it through the phone. "I'm so sorry, James. I tried to stop him. He shouldn't have just walked out like that. It sends the wrong message. How's he feeling?"

James glanced down to the sleeping boy in his arms. She was right. It did send the wrong message. But James wasn't going to let him hurt himself or anything like that.

"I'm not going to lie to you, he's not doing good." James finally whispered. "He hasn't really been doing good for the past two weeks. Since the party. He's just been confused and he'd finally told me how he felt about me and now Ethan's found out and it's stressing him out even more." James rubbed his face.

"I don't know, Emma. I'm doing everything I can to keep him happy, but Ethan's his brother and there's not much I can do to help when it comes to him." James paused for a moment.

"You could throw the universe at this kid and he'd be alright; make him believe his brother hates him and he's ruined. It's.. really scary to watch. I've never seen him so unmotivated. I've had a time just trying to keep a smile on his face while he figures himself out. Ethan isn't helping."

James didn't want to talk about it anymore. To him, without Ethan's help he didn't think he was going to get Grayson back on track. And if he was able to do it alone, he still wouldn't be the same without his brother.

Emma had went quiet on the line. She knew the twins were close, but she didn't expect them to be this dependent on one another. Grayson 100% couldn't function without Ethan and Ethan was proving to be more of an angry pile of muscle without Grayson. They balanced each other out.

"I'm going to talk to, E. Grayson needs all of our support right now, not to be worried about how his brother feels about who he's dating." Emma said.

"Well, I just wanted to check on you two. Tell Grayson everything's gonna be alright, for me?" Emma cracked a smile even though James couldn't see.

They all just needed to be there and that's what Ethan needed to understand. This wasn't something Grayson was putting himself through; this was something Grayson couldn't control.

"I will. Thank you for calling to check in, I'll let him know you did. Goodnight Emma." James listened for her to say goodnight as well then hung his phone up and set it back on his nightstand.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Today had been going great. He didn't understand how in just ten minutes it could turn from best to worst. If Ethan would just fucking knock. Maybe James should take his house keys back.. he'd gladly give the twins and Emma the keys they had leant to him if they wanted them back.. maybe he would do that.

James got situated again, shifting just a bit underneath Grayson's hold before closing his eyes to will himself to fall asleep. He wanted this day to be over.

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short short chapter just to pass the time

i'm uploading another like rn as you read this though so hopefully that makes up for how short this chapter was

also i'm sorry about how shitty that ethema chapter is lmao like that sucks
i was trying to give Ethan's perspective on this but idk he's just mad bc him and gray are supposed to be hella close like best friend close and he didn't tell him he was bi and E is supposed to be upset about that but confused bc why is he upset over that??
does that make sense?? idk

anyway i'm sorry again for leaving you guys hanging like that, i promise i won't be gone for that long again.

i'm trying to write some outlines that way i'm not just rushing out a chapter on my day off and putting out shitty content just to put something up :/ i don't wanna lose my passion for this story

but anyway

i hope you guys are doing good

i hope you guys like this chapter

i've realized i'm not v consistent w my character development and i wanted to apologize for that lol idk it's going how i want it to go but not how i want it at the same time. make sense??? idk

i love you guys! enjoy! i'll see you soon! 💕💝💞💖