Everglow

Chapter Four: Detention

Rowan's POV

After managing to escape to my bedroom from Hunter's and Maddox's questionable stares, I made sure to take a quick shower and get rid of the slight tint of blood that had seeped into the strands of my hair.

That was a close call with Hunter trying to steal the hat from me because Victoria was right, a lump had formed on the side of my head; it felt sore and bruised. Hopefully it won't be so noticeable once I've dried my hair. I'd rather not burden my family with yet another problem of mine.

Just as I sat down on the floor in-front of my mirror, with the hairdryer in hand, my bedroom door swung open.

"Family meeting, Ro." Asher announced.

"Alright but you're going to have to wait for me to dry my hair first."

"No, dad wants us all in the living room now." Asher shook his head sternly.

"Tough, I'm drying my hair first." Before he could argue back again, I switched the dryer on; drowning out any words he tried to fire back at me.

I watched through my mirror as he rolled his eyes and walked away, leaving the door ajar.

They're just gonna have to wait.

It didn't take too long for my hair to dry. I gave myself one last look in the mirror and double checked that the lump on my head was well hidden by my hair before I made my way downstairs.

I almost felt intimidated, walking into the living area, with Finn, Hunter and Maddox sat on the couch, Asher sat on the armchair and Aaron stood next to dad in front of the fireplace. All eyes had fallen onto me as I entered the room.

"Took your time, sweetheart." Dad said as I took the only available seat on the couch, next to Maddox.

"I was drying my hair."

"Didn't you have a shower this morning?" Maddox questioned me.

Shit.

"Yeah but I wanted to warm up, it's cold outside." Nice save, Rowan.

"Anyway." Dad clapped his hands together, thankfully switching the attention onto himself. "Now that we're all finally here, I called this family meeting because I've got some business to attend to."

Nothing new.

"Is that it?" I asked. "You go away on business all the time."

"Ro." Maddox nudged me in the ribs with his elbow.

"This isn't just another one of my three day business trips out to Italy." Dad sighed. "There's a.. I guess you could say, an issue which I need to resolve, which could take up to a month, maybe longer."

"A month?!" I felt my eyes widen.

I looked around at each of my brothers. Why isn't anyone else reacting the same as me? Dad's never gone away for that long before.

"Why am I the only one who's shocked by this?" I felt a frown settle upon my face.

"They already know." Dad said.

"Then what's the point-." Before I could finish my question, I was interrupted by dad.

"The point in this meeting being altogether is that we're going to go over some ground rules. I'm going to be gone for a month, maybe more, so I want to make it clear that just because I'm gone, it doesn't mean things will be much different."

Our father seemed pleased with the silence that he received from us, meaning he could get right into telling us these ground rules.

"First off..." He looked to Aaron.