Strength

Shattered

"Wait......What?" 

I snapped my head to the door to find Tallulah holding onto the frame, it looked like it might be the the only thing holding her up. Her hair was pulled up out of her face in a messy bun, her cheeks streaked with tears and left over make up. Eyes red and puffy and darting between me and the black phone i'd thrown on the sink on my way in, full of fear. 

"He....he....recorded it?" Her voice was small and wavered towards the end. 

I pushed myself off the sink and pulled Lu into my arms. Forcing myself to stop my tears from spilling over. 

"Lu, don't worry about it ok? I promise you on everything i love, i will find him, and i will make him pay for this, ok?" 

"We. We will make him pay" Andy's voice was almost animalistic he was so mad. 

I nodded in agreement as I felt Jay and Andy wrap their arms around the both of us. We were family. Hurt one of us and you deal with all of us. Garret didn't know just how fucked he was about to be. 

After what felt like an eternity Lu asked if we would wait for her in the living room so she could shower. We gave her one last hug, a kiss on the cheek and walked out, leaving the door open a crack in case she needed us. 

We collapsed on the lounge together, my head in Andy's lap and my feet in Jay's. I let my eyes drift close and released a breath i didn't know i'd been holding. Images of Lu flashing across my mind. Looking so small, defeated...broken. That wasn't her. She was also so bright, her eyes sparkled and her smile was contagious. A memory of her trying to cheer me up after my dad left made me smile. She'd turned up at my door, no questions asked, a tub of choc chip icecream, my fav movies and enough junk food to feed a country for a month. She'd pulled me into the lounge room set everything up and just held me all night. That's who she was. She was the friend that was always there, always pushing you to be better, supporting you. 

I sat up suddenly, flinging my legs over the edge of the lounge pulling my shoes on and storming to the kitchen to grab my car keys. 

"Where are you going?" Andy grabbed my arm, forcing me to look at him.

"I'm not sitting here while he is out there getting away with this shit. He's going to pay. I'm going to make sure of it." I hissed

Andy sighed, dropping my arm. 

"I want him to pay to, trust me. Of course I do, that's my baby sister for fucks sake! But she needs us right now. All of us. I swear to you as soon as we can I'll go with you. We'll find him." 

I searched his eyes, but only seen the same hard determination i was sure was etched all over mine. Sighing i threw my keys back on the kitchen bench and flopped down on the lounge head in my hands. 

Jay's hand landed on my knee, giving it a little squeeze making me look up at him.

"Don't worry, Will, we'll get him. All of us ok?" 

I gave him a tight smile and dropped my head against his shoulder letting my eyes glaze over as i zoned out. 

Not long after that Tallulah walked out of the bathroom in an oversized shirt and sweats, hair in the same messy bun. I opened my arms immediately and she scrambled to climb into my lap head against my shoulder. 

I felt the couch dip as Andy and Jay got up together and walked to the bedroom, i could hear them talking to each other in hushed voices, I looked at the tiny girl curled up in my lap and seen her eyes drifting close. I gave her a few minutes to fall asleep properly before getting a proper grip on her and lifting her in my arms and slowly walking her to her room, i walked in just as the boys were putting clean sheets on the bed. I gave them a small smile, leaning down to tuck her in. 

I wrapped the blankets around her, brushing some loose hair from her face and starting to back away as her hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist.

"No, stay, please? All of you?" Her big eyes scanned all of us as one by one we kicked off our shoes and sat down on the bed with her Jay on one side of her then me and Andy on the other. We laughed at how squished we were but when Lu snuggled into us and finally fell into a much needed sleep we knew we couldn't complain. We held whispered conversations for a bit before we all eventually drifted off ourselves just as the sun started to rise.