Lonely Nights and Sweet Talking - [boyxboy]

seventeen

"If you aren't allowed to come back home...does that mean we stay here or we go with you?" He asked, his head cocked to the side. Between him and Andrew, he was the nicest, but that didn't make him any less of an annoying brother.

"It all depends," I told him quietly. He sighed and nodded before leaving out of the room, following behind the other two. I stayed sat on the bed for a few more minutes before gaining up enough courage and confidence and deciding that I should probably go downstairs. I took the stairs slowly, hearing that it was dad who had walked in through the door. I could hear him talking to the twins and Alex, asking what they wanted for dinner.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to the kitchen where all of them were. Dad glanced over at me and stopped what he was doing. Honestly, I expected him to be angry and look pissed that I was here, but instead, he looked surprised.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, setting a grocery bag on the counter.

"Um, Aunt Melissa wanted me to come and uh, talk to you," I said slowly, dad nodded slowly and told the twins and Alex to go into the living room so we could talk in private. I was not going to lie, but I was scared. He didn't hesitate to hit me once, so he could do it again.

"Okay, you're here, so talk." Dad said, removing things from the grocery bag.

"I don't want to come back, but I don't want to not see my brothers and sister," I said. He sighed and stopped, resting both hands on the counter and looking at me.

"I said that out of anger, Alan. Your brothers and sister need you more than anything and forcing their older brother away is obviously not the right thing to do," He said. "You not being here for them these past couple of weeks as affected them in more ways than one, but it's not all my fault, you're the one that doesn't want to come back."

"I don't want to come back because we'll just end up in the same situation! Mom might be changing for the better good now to you, but to me she can go back to her old ways at any given moment, and I'm not going to be here and be stuck going through it all again." I said, crossing my arms.

"Your mother is trying! It's not like it really matters if you're here or not! I don't care if you come back but obviously your brothers and sister do! You can stay at Melissa's house for all I care, and you can be there for the rest of your high school career and it wouldn't hurt me one bit, Alan." Dad snapped, slamming his hands down on the counter.

I stood there, feeling my chest aching, but I didn't say anything. My eyes burned but I refused to cry. Slowly anger boiled up in me and I stared at dad. He obviously didn't care anymore, and really, I didn't either. With a muttered "okay," I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where my siblings were sat. All three of them turned to look at me, a hopeful look in their eyes.

"So, are you staying?" Andrew asked.

Slowly I shook my head, watching as all of them, even Alex who probably didn't understand what was going on, looked so hurt and broken.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly, feeling my throat tighten.

"But you- you- you promised us! You said you weren't leaving and you are! You said you'd never let us go!" Anthony screamed, jumping to his feet. He was crying now, throwing things around. "You promised!"

I hated this, I hated myself even more as I apologized profusely as I headed to the door. I probably overstayed my welcome here and decided it would be best to leave. Andrew was still sat on couch, crying for the first time in a very long time, Anthony was still screaming and crying while Alex looked around, watching as everything happened but turned to me as I opened the door.