room 207 | shyland ✓

nineteen

ryland's pov

"you're fucking my brother?"

the punch had thrown shane to the ground of our driveway, the front door where austin once stood swinging back and forth in the harsh january wind. dread flooded through me and i looked up at austin in fright, my heart and head thumping wildly beneath my skin. his dark hair was flailing in the wind and his chest was heaving in anger as he yanked shane up by the collar of his shirt.

"austin, stop!" i yelled and grabbed at his wrist, my hands quivering as i pleaded with him to let him go. ignoring my begs, he pushed me backwards and shoved shane roughly, causing the auburn boy's eyes to darken maliciously and shove back.

"you're a fucking queer and you're sleeping with my brother? i read your text messages on ryland's phone, all about what you want to do to my fucking brother, you're meant to be my best friend, but you've– you're a fucking faggot!" he screamed in shane's face, their noses millimetres apart. my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach at his words and panic seeped through me as i realised i had left it at home and thought about everything he would have read.

"austin get off him! please!" i struggled to pull austin away and he suddenly spun on me, looming over my small figure.

"don't even get me started on you. my own brother, my own fucking brother, is a fucking poof!" he yelled, his words stinging my cheeks as he went to hit me and i cowered.

shane grabbed his wrist before it could hit my face and squared up to my brother, nostrils flaring in anger. he was a few inches taller than austin, and he used this to his advantage as he glared down at the boy with daggers, blood trickling from his nose and running down his lips. it looked like something out of a horror movie and i just wanted to crawl out of the screen.

"berate me all you want, but don't ever talk to him like that again." shane demanded and moved forward so their foreheads were against each other, clearly not scared of the quarterback in the slightest. i stood frozen, silent, unsure of what to do, shaking from their words. they weren't listening to me, and if i got my mom or dad then they would find out everything, and that was the worst outcome possible. both boys towered over me height wise, i was small and skinny and had absolutely no chance in winning a fight against anyone, yet here the two most athletic boys in the whole entire school were standing head to head, seconds away from a scrap.

"i knew it." austin bitterly began and smirked, not breaking eye contact with the boy i'd just confessed my love to. "you direct a couple of theatre productions, see a few shirtless male leads getting changed and suddenly you like it up the—"

shane bit his lip and backed away a little, before scoffing and slamming his knuckles directly into austin's forehead and sending him flying backwards onto the bonnet of my dads car, setting the alarm off as it's piercing rings shrieked in my ears.

he fell to the ground and pulled shane down with him, punching him in the stomach and winding him completely as shane choked for air. within seconds austin was crawling on top of the red headed boy and sitting on his chest, preventing him from moving at all as he repeatedly collided his fist onto his pretty skin.

"stop!" i screamed at my brother and grabbed his shirt, trying to pull him away as shane's face grew bloodier by the second. his head smacked against the tiled concrete with each punch, and no matter how hard i yanked at austin he wouldn't back down, instead hitting harder and harder.