Hope.

• Chapter 17 •

"A random telenovela," he mumbled, sheepishly. "My sister likes watching them. She's a bit of a dweeb,"

"Your sister, huh?" I asked, snickering. "I thought you said you were watching it with her,"

"Fine, fine, you got me," He said, chuckling softly in defeat. "I like telenovelas. Lock me up,"

"Where are my handcuffs?" I said, in a weird deep voice before we both burst into a fit of laughter.

I heard my door open. "That sounded wrong," the voice of my older brother chirped and I immediately felt my face turn red. Why would he even think that? Corrupted piece of shit.

"Who was that?" Luca asked, sounding confused.

"My stupid older brother," I hissed, a scowl twisting on my lips.

"I am not stupid," he retorted, dumbly. I simply rolled my eyes before flipping him off. He let out a dramatic gasp. "I will tell mom,"

"I will tell mom," I mocked, sticking my tongue out at him.

I heard Luca snickering on the other end of the line making me remember that he was still there. "You are weird," he mumbled, and I felt my heat rushing up face.

"Shut up," I muttered, and my brother gasped again. "I was talking to Luca," I snapped at him.

Luca's laugh echoed into my ear again. "Talk to your brother, I'll call you later,"

"Yeah, okay. Bye, Luca."

"Bye, Tyler,"

The line went dead and I groaned in frustration. "You're so annoying," I hissed at Lucas.

"You flatter me," he said, laughing slightly.

"Shut up," I mumbled, folding my arms over my chest.

I heard Lucas walk towards me before ruffling my hair, affectionately causing me to roll my eyes. "Don't touch my hair," I snapped, whacking his hand away.

"Ouch," He yelled, pulling his hands away. "You're a meanie,"

"You're just plain dumb," I said, flatly.

"I'm the best brother ever and you know that," he teased, a smirk clear in his tone. It had a week since the whole breakdown he had. He kept claiming that he only said that stuff because he was wasted. But sometimes you do the things you really wanted to do because you are intoxicated.

"Whatever," I mumbled, shaking my head in disbelief though my mouth had a ghost of a smile on it. "What's up?"

He cleared his throat rather awkwardly causing me to raise my eyebrow at him. Why the sudden change in demeanour? "Right, about that," he mumbled and I heard him creak down on my bed.

I turned to face in his general direction, gesturing for him to go on. "Tyler, are those boys still bullying you?" He asked, his voice dripping with concern. I sighed, letting my gaze drop.

"No, not really. Why?" I said, biting my lip as I fiddled awkwardly with my fingers. Honestly, I was scared of them. I couldn't defend myself in a fight at all.