My New Home

46. Brothers Love

"O..W..E..N." He tugs of me tighter and nuzzles his head in my hair. "I...can't...breathe." Instead of letting me go like a sane person, he holds me like I'll blow away in the wind if he loosens his grip even a little.

"Owen!" Both Hank, who had been making his way to the other side of the car and Liam; who had rushed out of the house, yelled.

Liam grabbed Owen's shoulder and pulled him off of me; in turn, Hank took me and wrapped his arms around me. Considerably less tight as Owen.

Owen snapped his head in Liam's direction and points at him in the gut. "Oh I'm sorry, Is being concerned for my sister that bad?! I mean I've been worried all day about her and all you guys have done is say 'not to worry' and 'she's going to be fine' some brothers you are!"

He looks furiously at Liam, it was clear that he's letting his emotions make the decisions for him right now. Something that never ends well.

"Look dude, I love her just as much as you-"Owen scoffs loud enough to wake the dead and crosses his arms. "That's a fucking lie." Liam rolls his eyes.

"Owen, let me finish. I was saying that I love her but look, she's fine, so calm down and so she'll tell us what happened." Owen doesn't respond, he looks too mad to.

"Liam's right, come inside." Hank wraps an arm around his belated son and attempts to tug him toward the house- he doesn't budge.

"Carrie," he turns me. "I want to know right now- what the hell happened last night?" He sounds slightly more calm- maybe I could tell him the "true story" aka the one Elliott and I came up with.

"We were getting robbed, or at least they tried to but he saved me. Elliott- he was shot." Owen eyes widened and got teary. "I-will he be okay?" It was little more than a whisper, almost as if he didn't want to know.

I was honestly surprised that he cared but they were friends for a really long time- he might say he hates Elliott but there's has to be some level of sympathy there.

"He'll be okay, I saw him today." I instantly felt regret saying that; Owen's demeanor went from somber & cold to angry again.

"You went to see him?! Why the fuck would you do that?!"

I loved Owen. So much. But sometimes I can't handle his brash/emotional states- I can barely handle my own right now.

"I can't do this, talk to me when you aren't a raging wreck." I didn't mean for it to come off as harsh as it did but I needed alone time.

I booked it away from the three and ran inside the house where all the other boys, excluding Eric, were waiting in the living room.

"Carrie!" One of the guys said, I didn't stop or turn around. I just needed to be alone.

I sprinted up the stairs and stumbled into the bathroom, I shut the door. I grip the counter of the sink and rock myself back and forth.

Why can't everything go back to good, why did my father have to go and ruin everything?!

I slammed my hand on the door and groaned. I needed to calm down, I needed to-

I opened the sink cabinet and fumbled around for something to use- anything would do. Even a toothbrush at this point.

I settled one of Owen's copious amounts of razors; I silently thank God for having Owen have facial hair at age seventeen for him to shave.

Then I do the deed, one I'd rather not think about.

I washed the razor and put it back where it belonged, where it shouldn't be touched by anyone but Owen.

Fuck, Hank would be so mad at me if he knew I was doing this. But there's no other choice. He doesn't need to know anyway; doing this is way better than having our whole family die because of my father.