My favourite Idiots ✔️

71) Ditching

"Livi! Oh my god! What are you doing here?"

I burst into tears.

"Oh god." Eli muttered, picking me up and carrying me inside.

"I'm sorry." I sobbed. "I shouldn't have come here."

"No, no, it's fine." Eli reassured me, sitting us down on the couch. He pried my backpack off of my back and returned to hugging me tight, rubbing my back to slow my sobs.

I sobbed for a good 10 minutes before they slowly came to a stop and I began to calm down, extremely exhausted now.

"What happened?" Eli asked, pulling back to look me in the eye.

"I-i-I ran away." I started to sob again but thankfully not for very long.

"Who did you run away from?" I took a big deep breath and explained the entire story to him. "Oh, Livi, I'm so sorry." He looked at me sympathetically. "But by the way, the glasses look great. They make you look very grown up." He smiled. "And you've seen Harvey in his glasses, haven't you? He does not read books and he has to wear glasses for reading." Eli reminded me. I forgot Harvey had reading glasses. Lucky him. At least he can still see when he takes them off.

"I can't believe I ditched school." I sighed, resting my head back on Eli's chest.

"We should do something about that." Eli sighed, lifting me up and sitting me next to him so that he could stand up and grab his phone. "I'm going to call someone, but you just stay there and watch TV." He passed me the remote before leaving the room.

**ELI'S P.O.V**

I left Livi in the living room, fearful for the response I was going to get if any of her brothers answer their phones.

I started with Jaxon considering he was technically the one who was in charge of her at the moment, but it went straight to voicemail. I thought about it for a bit then decided to call Olli, not Hunt, next.

It rang once and he answered.

"Hey Eli. Sorry I'm about to go into a test, can it wait?" Olli said in a hushed voice.

"Uh, yeah, sure mate." I said. I didn't want to distract him and cause him to flunk the test. Hunter would kill me if I did that. I tried Jaxon again, then Lachie, but once again, it went straight to voicemail. I decided finally to call Hunter and thankfully he answered.

"Eli? I'm at work, why are you calling me?"

"Uh, sorry Hunt. There's something you might want and need to know." I said, trying to let it come off easy.

"What?" He sighed.

"Livi's here."

"What." He stated. Not as a question.

"She said she walked and trained here. Some stuff happened at school." I tried to explain.

"I'm coming. I have to finish with this client, so I'll be there in an hour." He said, very seriously. He was clearly furious but trying to process stuff. We hung up and I went back to where Livi had fallen asleep with Netflix playing. I lay a blanket on her and went back to the work I was doing.

**BACK TO LIVI'S P.O.V**

I woke up when I heard loud knocking on the door, which I knew could only mean one thing.

I watched from a safe distance as Eli opened the door, to the scene of a rigid and furious Hunter.

"You," Hunter pointed his finger at me, "Are in so much trouble."

"Hunter." Eli warned, grabbing him and pulling him inside. "Livi, baby, go back into the living room."

I quickly listened and rushed into the living room as I heard Eli explain the story, ignoring Hunter's constant interjections.

"She ditched school. That is the bottom line. I don't care that those boys were idiots. She left and didn't tell anyone! It wasn't safe!" Ranted Hunter, getting angrier.

"I know that. It was reckless and unsafe, but you have to see the other side! Don't you remember all the insults you were given because of your height when you wanted to play footy in year 7. Remember how you felt? Make that ten times worse for her. She was insulted on something I'm sure she's already insecure about, and it was by boys, and her supposed "boyfriend" didn't even defend her. How do you think that felt Hunter?" Eli snapped.

"Fine. But I need to handle this the way I see it. She ditched school and it was uncalled for. She could have called me, she could have found Jaxon, and we would have done something about it, but she didn't, and there are consequences for that."

"Ok. Fine. But go easy on her okay? She's an amazing girl." Eli sighed.

"I know that. She's my sister." Hunter replied and they both walked into the living room. "Let's go. Now." Hunter said, picking up my bag.

"I'll call you later." Eli nodded, giving me a sympathetic look and a quick hug before I hurried to follow Hunter out the door.

We sat in complete silence the entire way home. I thought that he might take me back to school, but he took me straight home.

"Go to your room." Hunter said, not looking at me.

I let out a tiny sigh and went upstairs, busying my upset self with some drawing. Hunter had my school bag which had my phone and laptop in it, so it was really the only thing I could do since my book was also in my bag.

It was only about half an hour before I heard my phone began to ring. I assumed it was Jaxon because Hunter told him to come home and that I was here before hanging up and going back to whatever he was doing.

It took 15 minutes before I saw our car pull up in the driveway, and a slightly agitated Jaxon got out.

All 3 boys came inside but I couldn't hear them. I assumed Hunter was explaining everything to them, just like Eli did to them.

I stayed in my room for about an hour, feeling sorry for myself, before Hunter came into my room.

I looked at his serious stance and expression and waited for him to say something as he just stood there staring at me.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, looking down at my hands. I heard him sigh before he sat down on the side of my bed, still looking at me. "I really am." I whispered again."

"I know you are." He looked at me. "So am I, if I'm honest." He shrugged.

"What?" I asked, my voice catching in my throat.

"I'm sorry that the first option you thought of was to run away. I'm sorry that you didn't think of calling me or any of your brothers, for that fact, to come and help you, which you know they would do in a heartbeat. I'm sorry how idiotic those boys were." Hunter said and my heart sunk. "You shouldn't have done that Livi. It was reckless and unsafe. No one knew where you were."

"I'm sorry." I whispered again, feeling even worse.

"You're grounded until further notice. Also, no phone, TV or computer other than with everyone or for homework." He listed and I nodded. Fair enough.

Assuming he would leave, I lay down and faced away from him, except he didn't leave, and instead came over to my side and sat down at my feet.

"And now that I'm done being the parent, are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." I said, rolling over to not face him. I didn't feel like talking right now.