Foster Brother

Chapter 15 : The bullies

"Jeff-"

"W-why!? Those are private!"

"I just wanted to help."

He turned to leave, but I grabbed his hand before he could go lock himself in the bathroom, which is what I was guessing he was going to do.

"Jeff."

"Let me go!"

"Stop. Calm down."

I made Jeff sit down on my bed. He was red in the face, and he seemed so upset.

"Jeff, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know what the notes said. I wanted to help. Why are you so upset about it?"

"It's so embarrassing!" He said, starting to finally cry.

I pulled him into a hug.

"Jeff, you have nothing to be embarrassed about, ok? I don't know what you're so upset about. I'm not going to make fun of you for it. I just want to help."

"It's just... Nobody ever stands up for me. So I just deal with everything. And when people find out my secrets, they use them against me, and everything just turns into a big mess, and it's miserable!"

"Jeff. Look. I told you, let's tell someone about this. We'll get those guys in trouble, and you won't have to deal with it anymore."

"You're not going to make fun of me for everything they said?"

"Jeff, they're just calling you stupid stuff. If you can write down all their names, we can go to the office, and tell a guidance counselor and get it taken care of."

Jeff held onto me even tighter.

"We can end this, Jeff, ok? You don't have to deal with it anymore. I just want you to feel comfortable talking to me about these kind of things. I just want to help you. I won't try to make you feel bad or embarrassed."

Jeff nodded into my shoulder.

"Can I get dressed now?"

"Yes, Jeff. And then we'll do our homework, ok?"

"Ok."

Jeff finally pulled away from our hug, grabbed some pjs, and went back to the bathroom to change. When he was finished, I made him write down the names of the people who were bullying him. And then we did our homework together.

Later...

Emmy POV

Jeff and I were cuddling in my bed. My head was on his shoulder. We'd just gotten settled to go to bed.

"Are you stressed out at all?" I asked, quietly.

"Yeah..."

"I could tell. You seemed stressed all day. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well... Now that we talked about my bullies and stuff... I guess I feel a little more open... But you have to promise me you won't judge or laugh or anything at all."

"I won't, Jeff."

"Ok... I'm super stressed because of a few things... First... I'm scared for tomorrow..."

"Why?"

"If I tell on them... I'm scared they'll just make everything way worse. They'll call me a tattletale, and they'll call me a baby."

"Jeff. You're not a tattletale. And I'm guessing that after we tell, if they do anything, we can just tell on them again, and they'll get in even more trouble. They won't bother you anymore."

"Will you come with me when I have to tell on them?"

"If you want me to."

"Yes, please..."

"Then yeah, of course I will. What else is stressing you out?"

"My dad... I just want him to take me back home with him, and then let me be able to see my mom..."

"Jeff, I don't want you going back home."

"Why?"

"Because he'll hurt you again, Jeff."

"But I can deal with it! It's ok!"

"No, it's not ok, Jeff. It's 100% not ok that he's hurting you. This isn't something you need to deal with."

"I don't care! I just want to go back home!" He said, starting to cry.

I sighed. I feel bad for him. I don't know what to do to help. I don't want him going back home.

I cuddled closer to him, and kissed his cheek gently. He cried harder, and buried his face in my shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Jeff... These things are difficult to deal with."

I was out of ideas to make him feel better. But at least we're handling the bullying tomorrow. That's one less problem. Hopefully.

I pulled the covers over us. Jeff wrapped his arms around me tightly, and settled down. And we fell asleep like that.