My Best Friends Brother

Chapter 99

"But why Mum? I'm not tired!" Heather keeps saying that but she's been sleeping on Han for the last ten minutes so she definitely is.

"Sweetheart, we're all tired, do you want me to tuck you in or Dad?" Aleah asks, trying to prise her daughter off Hans lap. That girl isn't stupid, she figured out pretty quickly that Han and Charlie are pretty much the biggest push overs in the world and all she had to do was bat her eyelashes at them and they'd give her anything she wants.

Charlie has already driven down to the corner shop twice to get her more sherbet but he's not complaining, apparently she's too much of 'a doll' to say no to, in his words.

"I want Dad...  Can you carry me yet Daddy?" Heather extends her arms towards Jayce and I can actually see the pain on his face that he'll have to say no, his arm is out of the sling now but there's still no way he could pick her up.

Miles pushes up from his seat next to Liam but Han beats him to it, keeping Heather in the same position but letting her head fall back onto his shoulder.

"I've got her man, which room is she in?" The blow to Jayce's ego is evident, he doesn't even bother to answer just nodding his head towards the hallway and walking in that direction with Han following closely behind.

Charlie rises to his feet and says goodnight to everybody in turn, obviously missing out Brie but making sure to hold Steve in his embrace for twice as long as he did the rest of us. At the end of this weekend either those two are going to be best friends or one of them is going to be tied to a rock at the bottom of the lake. Place your bets people.

"So which one of you two drew the short straw?" Al asks, rocking Chase back and forth whilst looking between me and Miles. We both look at her slightly confused, a look which she returns. "The bed situation? Which one of you got the giant one and which one is slumming it with the single? One of you is definitely not going to be sleeping well this weekend."

"I don't think either of them will be getting much sleep this weekend babe." When will Brie learn to shut her fucking mouth? She doesn't seem to realise what she said until after the words leave her mouth, looking up at me and Miles like she's trying to apologise but the smirk on her face tells me that she doesn't really fucking mean it. "I just mean, we've got so much planned, I'm sure when they're done with all the activities they'll be sharing that they'll be doing more passing out than actually sleeping."

If she keeps making digs like this all weekend, I'm going to tell everyone about that time she got food poisoning on the drive home from Atlantic City and me and Kallie had to make her sit on a fucking plastic bag. If she won't keep my secrets then I've got an arsenal on her that I'll fucking release.

"Yeah, so many activities. Brie, remember all the activities we did on that trip before Kal left for Oz? Those shows, the gambling....  that food contest you won." Her eyes instantly shoot open, shaking her head and pleading with me that she has clearly received the fucking message loud and clear.

"You entered a food eating contest?" Steve asks, taking down the last of his beer from the bottle.

Brie gives me her 'I'm going to slash your tyres' look now but she needed a fucking reminder that her closet is not free of fucking skeletons.

"Liam, little man, you look so tired. Do you need Josh to take you to bed? Like right now? And maybe he needs to go to bed too because he's so very very old?" She fires towards Liam in an attempt to change the conversation.

"I'm like two months older than you Brianna!" Satisfied that she's got a reaction from me, she immediately snuggles herself back in next to Steve, glancing over at May who's been unusually quiet for the last hour, her attention completely focused on her phone that doesn't seem to stop blowing up.

Miles looks over at her and she looks back, the two of them giving subtle head movements that appear to be a secret language that the rest of us will never understand.

"I'm gonna go crash. Night." May jumps up from her seat, rustling Liam's hair and kissing baby Chase's head before going off into the hallway at the other side of the room. Miles gives her a look which she responds to but when I look back to him he just shakes his head. He explained to me one night that May has her own struggles, things I don't think even Brie realises about her, but clearly they have an understanding between the two of them and it's enough that they don't need to communicate with words.

Liam yawns, his little head leaning against the side of my chest with his feet draped over Miles' thigh. I know he wouldn't go long without wanting to get to bed.

"You ready for sleep little man?" He nods, his closed eyes so heavy now that he can't even open them when he answers me. "Just lay down by here for a minute, I think I left your inhaler in the car because it wasn't in your bag."

"You stay with him, I'll go get it." Miles says, looking down at a very tired Liam. "Where are your keys?" I try to reach around into my back pocket to get them but Liam's head is kind of weighing me down. Miles has that cheeky grin, reaching his hand underneath Liam and slipping it into my back pocket, he grabs the keys but makes sure to squeeze my ass before pulling them back out again. Fucking tease.

He manages to slide out from under Liam's legs, resting them back down gently on the couch and making sure he's still covered with the blanket before stretching out and spinning my keys around his finger.

"I always really liked that car, mind if I take it out for a spin before I give it back to you?" He winks, making me chuckle but all the laughter from the room disappears as the walking pit of misery strolls back in.

"Don't say shit like that Milo. It's not fucking funny." Jayce lowers himself back down on the seat next to Al, taking the remote control and turning on the TV, not caring that the rest of us were happily in conversation.

"Jayce, I was just fucking around." Miles says with an exasperated breath, clearly this is something he's fucking used to.

"Well don't. We don't need you turning anyone else's car into a fucking cube." Miles doesn't even bother to answer him, pulling the door closed hard before leaving the lake house altogether.

I'm really starting to have enough of Jayce taking out his shit on my fucking man.

"Why do you always have to bring that shit up with him? Don't you think he feels bad enough about what he did?" Al and Brie both look over at me, I'm trying to keep my tone calm but this is seriously starting to piss me off.

Jayce doesn't even bother to answer, just shrugging before continuing to scan through the shows. Al has always been the kind of person to stand by her husband but even I can see that her patience is growing thin with him at the moment.

"Josh is right Jayce, we've all made mistakes and you can't hold this over that boy forever." Al doesn't look at Jayce when she talks, focusing on Chase in her arms but her words still hit him.

"You need to stop babying him Lee, you always give him a fucking pass. What he did was fucked up." He's seriously telling Al that Miles is the one that always gets a fucking pass?  Can he not see the irony in that?

The door opens again and Miles walks in carrying Liam's inhaler, it actually crushes me that he doesn't look angry or upset that his brother is going in on him again, he's just so fucking used to it that he doesn't realise how unfair it is anymore.

"Is this the right one?" He asks and I nod, shuffling to pull Liam onto my lap before lifting his sleeping body into my arms. I really should have got him changed into his pyjamas earlier, trying to get Liam changed when he's sleepy is like trying to push wet spaghetti through the eye of a needle.

"Night guys." It's still early for me too go to bed but I just can't be dealing with much more of pissed off Thompson today. Miles says goodnight to them all as well and begins to follow me through to our side of the house, but of course that prick has to get the last fucking word.

"Make sure you get your keys back Josh, wouldn't want him going on a midnight joyride and adding another charge to his rap sheet."

Okay. Now I'm fucking done.

I can hear Al and Brie giving him a ear full but there's something he really needs to fucking hear from me.

"Can you take Liam up? I'll be there in a minute." I don't actually wait for an answer, moving Liam off my chest and onto Miles before he can say no.

"Josh, don't. You said that you just wanted a nice weekend with your mates, don't do this because of me. He isn't going to change Josh, this is who he is now."

He's so used to not being anyone's priority that he doesn't even realise how wrong it is for him to be used to being treated this way. Jayce Thompson needs a fucking reality check and I'm more than happy to be the one to fucking give it to him.

"I'll be there in a minute." Miles nods, adjusting Liam onto his shoulder before walking down to the room at the furthest end of the hall. I turn back around and walk over to the family room, happy to hear that the girls have started without me.

"You really have to get your shit together Jayce, last week you were going in on that boy like a fucking animal, the week before that you were trying to get down my fucking throat, and don't even get me started on the way you've been talking to the guys on your team! I'm your public relations consultant Jayce, it's literally my fucking job to make you look good and you're making it really fucking hard at the moment." Brie shouts, now leaning all the way forward as she snatches the remote control from Jayce's hand when he continues to ignore her.

"If I'm making your job so hard then feel free to fucking quit Brie, you know fuck all about what I'm going through." He stands to leave but Al grabs hold of his shoulder and shoves him back down into the seat, lowering Chase into his basket before moving to sit on the coffee table in front of him.

"What about me? Are you going to tell me that I don't understand what you're going through? I'm your fucking wife Jayce, I know everything that you're going through. I know that you're in pain all the fucking time, I know that you haven't slept properly in months and that even when you're awake you feel completely fucking lost in a world of pain and exhaustion. Babe, we are all trying to be here for you but you can't just keep shoving us all away. I don't know why Milo has become such a fucking target but it has to stop."

"He's not a fucking target!" Jayce screams, only lowering his tone when Chase starts to stir. "It's just pissing me off that he seems to have fucking everything handed to him and he still doesn't appreciate what he's got! I know I shouldn't have done what I did on the court that day, but since then you've all basically treated me like I'm the fucking criminal! He could've killed someone that night, he could've fucking died or lost a fucking limb but he doesn't even seem to care about any of that!" Jayce doesn't really raise his voice anymore but I'm starting to see it the old Jayce Thompson slipping out of him more and more lately.

"Of course he fucking cares, he feels shit about what he did Jayce. When we went to see him in the hospital and you saw him all banged up like that you were in pieces, you probably didn't even see the way he was looking at you but I did, he was so fucking scared that you would be disappointed in him and you've proven those fears right. You two haven't been okay for years but ever since the crash it's been worse and I just don't understand why. We've all made mistakes Jayce, you included." Al tries to lean her palms down on his knees but he just springs up to his feet out of her grasp.

"I've made mistakes Lee but I would never fucking drink and drive."

"Bullshit." Everyone's head whips to me and I realise I've been quiet long enough.