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Chapter 20

Devin
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I took a peek from behind my blinds and saw Liam,Eric and Layla. A little family reunion. Layla had one hand on Eric's chest and the other on Liam's. I didn't like how it was looking. Eric was more on the scrawny side. I still considered Eric my friend and I didn't want him to get hurt by Liam.

Storming out of the house I made sure that mom was okay and that dad wasn't getting drunk again, as usual that would make her take the bat out. Once the bat is out it's out.

I made my way over to the Jackson's and pounded on the door. Klaus opened the door he had a cast on his left arm and a few bruises on his faces, which I'm guessing was from the accident. I pointed upstairs and he nodded.

"Yeah go ahead, Liam just got back from Lacrosse practice." Klaus closed the door behind him.

I went up the steps up to Layla's room and saw Liam yelling at Eric. Eric yelled at him back. When I arrived Liam and Eric looked at me.

"What the fuck are you doing here? How do you always end up in my house?" Liam inched a bit towards me and Eric pulled him back continuing their yelling.

Layla wondered off and ripped a piece of paper out of her notebook and wrote down something. She gave the paper to me and it said 'I don't know what the fuck is going on, but you guys need to work this out!'

I sighed and showed Liam the paper which he skimmed through and showed it to Eric.

"And what are you going to go about it?" Liam and Eric said in unison towards Layla.

Layla took a chair and sat in front of the door with her arms crossed looking at all three of us.

"You know I could just punch you and walk right past you?" Liam retorted.

"You aren't laying a fucking finger on her you hear me. Let's just work this shit out and get the fuck out."

We all groaned and I walked over to get a notebook from Layla's desk. Then we all sat down on the dark grey carpet.

'Let's start with why we all broke up in the first place. Why we stopped being friends.' I wrote down on the notebook and set it in the middle.

Eric sighed and nodded. " I guess I'll go first." There was a brief pause then he continued. "Honestly Devin and I never had any problems. Liam you kind of held us all together. I don't hate him. But Liam, I know you hate me for my reasons. It was out of my control what happened that day." Eric looked at us with sad eyes, I was good at reading people.

Suddenly Layla started clapping slowly and pointed to Liam, mouthing 'Your turn.'

Liam rolled his eyes and spoke up, "Eric you know what happened that day with Klaus and your father. You hid here another time because you didn't want your father to beat you up again. I get it, but when you came here. You knew your dad was going to do something to him and the thing that really hurt me is that you did nothing. So, he ended up in the hospital for a week."

Then Eric spoke up, I could feel the tension. "What he did to Nicklaus wasn't even a large percentage of what he does to me Liam! He beats me, He still puts a knife up to my throat and threatens to kill me. He hates me! You have absolutely loving parents who care for you. And I'm stuck with a Damn psychopathic father!" Eric was about to break down but I draped my arm around his neck ruffling his hair. I looked at Eric and saw that his knuckles were bruised and that around his eye was yellow. It was probably his father.

Liam recollected himself and spoke again, "I understand Eric I really do. But Klaus was only 5, you should of been the responsible one to stand up for him. You're saying that he is like a little brother to you right? Brothers don't do that to each other they take the hit for one another and you were acting like a coward."

Eric opened his mouth to respond but then nodded in agreement. "I know I am a coward."

I guess I should try changing my ways now, I did really want to be there friends again. It won't change that I'm still a freak but I wanted us all to get back together again.

Liam and Eric looked at me I nodded and opened my mouth, no words were coming out.

"Uh.... Yeah as Eric said we don't have problems, Liam you were the glue to this little group. Liam you were the reason I went mute. You made me feel useless and awful. You made me do this to myself." I pulled down my bracelets relieving my self-harm scars. "There are more on my legs and my chest." I said ashamed, I don't really know why I said that, they probably think I'm more of a freak.

Liam gaped his mouth open and shook his head no. "I'm sorry, Devin." Liam's eyes seemed a bit glassy as if he was going to cry but he didn't. "I don't have anything against you Devin, it's just that you're exactly like Shane. Every Time I look at you I see him hanging. So I pushed you away, I called you names. I didn't want to see you anymore." Liam started looking at the floor.

But there was a type of rage inside of me that was uncontrollable. "YOU KNOW WHAT LIAM? IT DIDNT JUST AFFECT YOU, I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE THOUGHT THAT MY BROTHER IS DEAD. MY PARENTS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING MISERABLE EVER SINCE HE LEFT." My voice cracked when I was yelling since I haven't used it in a while. "You got the best of all of us, you were the one that treat us like shit Liam. You are blaming us for things that are not in our control!" I lost it towards the end, I had that bottled up inside me, it felt good letting it out.

Liam looked ashamed, "I'm sorry guys, I'm selfish."

All of us looked up at each other and gave one another a hug.

"Can things go back to where they were?" Liam asked.

All of us nodded In unison and proceeded to talk, but a normal conversation, like the conversations we use to have, without the drama, without the problems...