Oh Brother

Coincidental

Even after Grayson had come back upstairs at nearly two in the morning, I stayed up for another 30 minutes waiting for Ethan until I fell asleep myself. So Grayson and I were in for a surprise when I walked down the stairs and there Ethan was sitting at the kitchen table.

There he sat, looking exhausted, with his hands wrapped together on the table. He was looking down so my first thought was he was in trouble.

I walked down another two steps and saw Grayson sitting across from him, and Mom in the middle.

Oh no. My heart dropped. Did Grayson tell Mom? I told him not to. But even worse; did he tell Ethan?

The stair I was standing on must have creaked and announced my presence to make Mom and Grayson snap around and look right at me. Ethan didn't move. He stayed looking at his thumbs with a mournful look on his face.

"Bailey, I think we should talk about some of the things you told Grayson last night." Mom said looking at me with a face full of sympathy. She turned back around.

I stare at Grayson who's struggling to make eye contact.

"Grayson? I told you not to tell anyone? Did you snitch on me?" I ask, my voice showing my disbelief.

"It's not snitching Bailey, you need help." He argued his point, as he hung his head back down.

"That's-. That's just unfair. I get my ass kicked
for snitching and you just go and do this?" I stammered.

No one says anything. Grayson is the only one who can seem to look at me.

He broke my trust over something so sensitive to me? I was crushed.

"You know what? Fine- if everyone seems to be okay with snitching now i'll join in too. I don't have a phone, at the moment. Wanna know why? Tell her E!"

Ethans head snaps up at me, I look over at Mom who's looking at Ethan now at me. And Grayson now  has his head in his hands.

I felt like I couldn't prepare myself for what I was about to tell Mom, but I couldn't stop it.

"It's because he broke it. He smashed it on purpose with every intention of breaking it." I continued.

Everyone went silent.

"Ethan? Really? You and I are talking about this later." Mom sighed, Ethan nodded.

"I love you Bailey. You scared me last night and I just want you to get better and get help if you need to." Grayson interjected, changing the topic back.

Ethan looked back down at the table

"I think she obviously needs help, Grayson." He mumbled.

"Shut up! Shut up Ethan! Can you ever say anything nice?" I answered, flailing my arms around.

"I-I was trying to be nic-."

"Yeah right. You're never nice... ever." I shot back.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, I'm gonna go to school. And I don't need help, I packed a lunch last night and Grayson and I made a plan to help, so he didn't need to tell anyone in the first place." I muttered, walking down the stairs.

The plan that I had arranged with Grayson was just a deal to get me to eat.

From his spot in the cafeteria, he would sit and watch me to make sure I had something to eat at lunch and actually ate it.