Reversed roles - my candy love

Social workers visit

During lunch I'm outside, trying to enjoy the bit of freedom I have left after my parents basically grounded me for life. Lunch is the only time of the day where I can relax a bit, together with my occasional free periods. As usual I'm sitting against my favorite tree, when Nathaniel sits down next to me
"You okay?" He asks sympathetically
"As much as I appreciate you, you have to admit that coming to my house to spy on my family life was going kind of overboard"
"I know. But you were being so secretive and.. Well it was kind of obvious sometimes that something was wrong. You know I care about you right?"
"I care about you too. But it was still reckless. Especially going into my room"
"Everything ended up being fine! But you are going to stop it, right?"
"Stop worrying, of course I will. Can I trust you to keep this a secret?"
"You know me. You can count on me"
"Thank you" Nathaniel smiles at me before getting up and leaving again. He still seemed a bit bothered by it all, something tells me I'll have to keep a close eye on him..

"So, since when does that guy stay with you and your idiot brother?" Castiel says as he sits down next me
"Nathaniel? He stayed over because apparently him and Adam have some kind of truce going on. Don't ask me"
"I'm just saying.. He seems awfully interested in you" He says with a smirk on his face, to which I poke his side with my elbow
"We're just friends"
"And is he aware of that?" Castiel loves teasing others. He stays with me for the duration of lunch, then we go back to class

Days pass and something seems to be bothering Nathaniel. Today he's been walking around the school, like he's looking for someone. I run into him in the hallways as I'm leaving the student council room
"Hey!"
"Oh, hi Tyler"
"You seem busy"
"I'm just.. Looking for someone"
"Right, and you wouldn't be looking for someone to tell them a certain secret?"
"Uh no, of course not"
"Good. Because it's not your problem" Nathaniel nods quickly and takes off again. He's a terrible liar. I'd go after him to stop him, but it's already been five minutes since school ended and I have to go home so dad won't yell at me. I'm almost too afraid to imagine what Nathaniel was planning..

The next couple of days not only Nathaniel, but also Castiel were acting off. Castiel has been a bit nicer, like he feels sorry for me for something. Nathaniel can barely hold up a conversation with me anymore. I'd almost think that he told Castiel about dad, but I just really don't want to believe that. If he did do that, I would feel betrayed. I trust Nathaniel. He wouldn't lie to me. Or so I keep telling myself. I'm in my room making homework when the doorbell rings. Today is dad's day off so he goes to answer it. Out of curiosity and boredom I go over to my window to see who's here. There's two people, both around their forties, at the gate. One man, one woman. They look serious, but somehow the woman still has a friendly face. The man introduces themselves to dad, who suddenly seems angry. My window is half open, so I can kind of hear what they're saying
"Why are you here? You must have the wrong address"
"No, we're pretty certain this is the right address" The woman proceeds to recall our address and then names my dad
"Sir, if you could please work along then we can have this be over faster. If this is all just a big misunderstanding, the only way we'll know if is you cooperate" Dad let's the people in, reluctantly. Right when the front door closes he calls me downstairs
"What's going on?" I can hear Mom asking when I'm at the top of the stairs
"These people are from social services. They claim someone called in with an anonymous tip" Damn it Nathaniel..

The first person to notice me when I'm at the bottom of the stairs is the woman
"Are you Tyler?" She asks, and I nod
"I'm Dorothy, this is my coworker Chris. We would like to talk to you and your parents in private" I look at mom and dad. Mom just looks confused while dad gives me a look that says 'don't you dare tell them a thing'. Then I look back at Dorothy and Chris, who are still looking at me
"Why?"
"How about we explain everything in your room?" She answers and puts a hand on my shoulder. I feel like this is one of those questions that aren't really a question. More like a gentle way of telling you to do something. It's not like I can tell them no, that would be suspicious. So without another word I turn around and walk back up the stairs. Dorothy and Chris follow right behind me. I lead them through the hallway and open the door to my room for them. It feels weird to have two strangers in my room. Dorothy sits down on my bed and Chris on the chair that belongs to my desk
"Why don't you close the door?" He asks, even though it's still not a question. I reluctantly do as they say and stand in front of the door. Dorothy pats the space of my bed next to her, but I shake my head
"Why are you here? Who are you?"
"We're from social services. Someone called with an anonymous tip that you might be in danger here. Would you happen to know about any of this?" I shake my head again
"Tyler, we need you to know that we take these matters very seriously. This is a safe space, you can tell Dorothy and me anything. Do you ever feel unsafe here?" Again, I shake my head. Dorothy sighs
"We want you to be safe. Of course this could be a prank that one of your friends or classmates is pulling on you, but we take these matters very seriously"
"There's nothing going on. Now could you please leave?" I feel myself getting frustrated. Nathaniel really went behind my back like that while I told him I could handle it. When I see him tomorrow he's dead. He's lucky Adam isn't home right now, he's with his friends
"I see you like to read" Chris says as he's looking at the books on my shelf
"I know what you're doing. You're trying to create a bond with me by talking about things I like so I'll trust you and tell you all my secrets. But there are no secrets, it's probably a joke. Just like Dorothy said. Do you have any more questions?" The two social workers exchange a look, then get up. They ask me to go downstairs with them again and I do so. Mom and dad are in the living room, mom doesn't understand what's going on

"Mister Hunter, can we talk to you in the kitchen please?" Chris does the same thing to dad as they did to me. He has no choice but to comply, or it would look weird. Dorothy and Chris go with dad into the kitchen. I sit down in the chair across from mom, we sit in silence and listen to the muffled conversation in the kitchen. It doesn't seem like they're getting much out of dad either
"Is this your way of getting back at your father and I for grounding you?" Mom asks eventually
"No way. As if I were that dumb"
"You better be speaking the truth right now, if your dad's work finds out about this whole ordeal they might give him a demotion. Or even fire him"
"I'm telling you, this wasn't me" Another couple of minutes later, the three leave the kitchen and they ask to talk to mom. Dad sits down in her place and waits until they're gone to talk
"What the hell did you tell them?"
"Nothing. You?"
"I told them it was all a big misunderstanding. You better pray this goes away quickly" I don't answer, I'm scared. If dad looses his job we're screwed. And if Adam finds out he'll be so confused.. When mom, Chris and Dorothy leave the kitchen the social workers say goodbye to us. I have to shake their hand before they leave. They don't seem convinced at all by our lies, but they don't have any proof. Dad could have thrown them out when they were still at the gate. But he knew that would only rise suspicions. When the two strangers are gone, dad sends me to my room. I don't get dinner that day, which I'm strangely grateful for. I really didn't feel like seeing my parents anymore

The next day the headmistress calls me and Adam into her office the second we arrive at the school. She tells us to sit down on the chairs opposite of hers and calls our parents. She informs us that they're on their way here, but won't tell us anything else. We sit in silence for a solid ten minutes. I'm still frustrated with Nathaniel. In fact, the longer I don't see him, the madder I get at him. When my parents finally arrive they sit down next to us. The headmistress sits up straight and starts speaking in a serious tone
"This morning I got an email from social workers that they've been to your house for reports of abuse. I would like for you to know that we take the well being of our students extremely serious. School is a safe place for them all, and if they no longer feel safe at home this is something we would like to directly address with them and the parents"
"Listen, there is nothing going on. Yes, social workers came over but it was all just a big misunderstanding. We're all fine. Thanks for your concern" Dad blatantly interrupts the headmistress. The two of them continue to talk for a couple of minutes before the headmistress politely asks me to leave the room. I gladly do so

The second I open the door I see Nathaniel standing against it, he was listening in on our conversation. I close the door before talking
"Are you completely out of your mind?! What's your problem? Don't you think you've already caused enough trouble?"
"Wait, Tyler, please let me explain. You gotta understand that I was worried about you"
"I know you were, but that's no excuse! My dad could loose his job thanks to you, my poor mom and Adam are so confused"
"I was trying to help"
"The only way you could have helped was to literally do nothing, and you couldn't even do that. Have you ever heard of something called 'boundaries'? This is none of your business. All you had to do was not get involved. And here we are. Do you have any idea how many problems you've caused? It's like you don't see further than the tip of your nose"
"Please don't get mad at me, all I wanted to do was make sure you were safe" Before I can respond, the door opens behind me and my parents and Adam leave the room
"Come on Tyler, we're leaving. This school has no idea what they're talking about" The four of us leave the school. Luckily there are barely any students present yet at the school, but the ones that were there saw everything. I just hope Nathaniel doesn't tell anyone else anymore

When we're home Adam is immediately off to his room. I do the same thing. I shut the door behind me loudly and throw my backpack into a corner
"Fuck.." I sigh while throwing myself onto the bed, my face looking at the ceiling. At the moment I just feel so betrayed by Nathaniel. He told me I could trust him, he said he wouldn't tell anyone else. How could I ever possibly trust him again after this? I told him I would handle this! Now thanks to him dad could lose his job, Adam and mom are sad and I'm in a constant state of fear. Dad thinks I'm the one that called social services, because he doesn't know anyone else knows. Mom and Adam go grocery shopping in the afternoon, dad enters my room
"I've decided you're staying home for a couple of days. Just until this all calms down a bit"
"What about school?"
"Listen up young lady, I'm the adult here. You do what I say, no questions asked. I just need this all to calm down so we can go back to normal"
"If you say so.."
"See? If you were always so easygoing we wouldn't be in this mess" Sure dad..