Grian sat squished between Lizzie and Jimmy on the sofa, a bowl of popcorn in each of their laps, as they watched the TV intently. They'd finished The Hunger Games yesterday when Lizzie got home with Jimmy, and now they've moved on to The A List. It wasn't a show any of them would have watched normally, but the trailer seemed interesting enough that they decided to at least see the first episode. After that, they were hooked.
"Oh, for the love of- I thought I hated Mia, but Amber-" Grian groaned. "God, I hate shows like these," he grumbled.
Lizzie snickered. "If you hate it, why are you watching it?" she laughed. Her hair was wet from being re-dyed just half an hour ago.
"Because-" Grian paused a moment before shrugging, earning another laugh from Lizzie. "To be honest, I have no idea."
They all went quiet for a moment, then Lizzie gasped.
"Who is that?" she asked, more to herself than anyone else. She stuffed some popcorn in her mouth as one of the male characters, Dev, walked across the screen. "Oh, he's hot."
Both Grian and Jimmy began to whine.
"This is going to be Gale all over again, isn't it?" Grian said almost solemnly.
Jimmy sighed. "Unfortunately," he answered, shooting a glance at Lizzie, who couldn't hear them over her new obsession over this character. Chuckling, Jimmy grabbed a small handful of popcorn and chucked it at her.
She gasped and reciprocated the action, tossing popcorn in her brother's direction. Jimmy opened his mouth and caught a piece mid-air, which made Lizzie groan. "You little-" She took the pillow from under her bowl of popcorn and tossed it at Jimmy, accidentally hitting Grian in the process.
The only sound left in the room as Grian set his bowl aside and stood was the TV. Neither of the other two could see his face, and they exchanged nervous glances while Grian knelt down to grab the pillow off the floor.
Inhaling sharply into the silence, Lizzie slumped down into the sofa a bit. "Sorry, Grian," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to- Oh!" She gasped when the pillow collided with her face, followed by Grian saying, "Think fast!" and laughing.
Inevitably, a pillow fight started.
Jimmy had ended up backing Grian into a corner at some point. "Ha!" Jimmy lifted the pillow above his head. "I got you-"
"I'm sorry!" Grian shouted, the pillow falling from his hands as he shoved himself against the wall and slid down to curl up onto the floor. He covered the top of his head with his hands and shook while he tried to make himself as small as possible.
Jimmy's stomach dropped as he lowered his own pillow and set it onto the couch. He turned to Lizzie, who quickly rushed over just a moment later. "Hey," she whispered, hands on Grian's shoulders. "Grian."
Grian shook his head in response, whining in place of speaking. He hadn't quite been crying, but his voice quivered and he sounded on the verge of tears.
"Grian," Lizzie repeated, much softer this time. "Look at me, please." Smiling when he lifted his head slightly, she gently pried his hands from his hair. "You can relax, honey. You're safe. I promise."
Eyes still frantic and breathing still staggered, Grian didn't respond.
Lizzie let out a soft sigh before turning to her brother. "Jim, can you get my phone?" she asked, and Jimmy nodded. Lizzie looked back at Grian. "I'm going to call Joel, okay? You think you can try to talk to him?" This time Grian nodded, and Lizzie's shoulders felt a little bit lighter. "Okay."
Jimmy came around the corner. "It's only at, like, forty-three," he said as he handed Lizzie her phone.
"That's fine," she said. She didn't bother unlocking it, instead going for the emergency call button and dialing Joel's number.
"Hey, beautiful," Joel's voice came down the line. "What do you need? I'm driving."
Lizzie sighed. "Grian's having a panic attack," she said. "I got him to nod at me, but that's only because I offered to call you and let you talk to him."
"Oh." Joel paused a second. "Is he in the room?"
"Yeah."
"Put me on speaker."
Lizzie obeyed, taking the phone away from her ear to hold out in front of Grian, who had his arms wrapped around his knees, hugging them to his chest. "He can hear you," Lizzie told Joel.
"Hey, Grian," Joel said softly. Grian didn't respond. "What's going on, bud?"
Grian stared at Lizzie phone for a moment before muttered a small, "Scared."
"You're scared?" Joel confirmed, sounding like a father talking to his kid. "Why are you scared?" Grian mumbled, but nobody could understand him. "Listen, bud, you've gotta talk a little bit louder. I can't help if I can't hear you."
"She was gonna hit me," Grian said again, and Jimmy shifted uncomfortably from behind Lizzie.
"Who was?"
"M-Mu-" Grian cut himself off with a sudden sob, covering his mouth with his hand.
Sighing, Lizzie took the call off of speaker for a minute, mouthing, "Wait with him," to Jimmy before walking out of the room.
"Liz, what the hell happened over there?" Joel asked.
"We were having a pillow fight," Lizzie said quietly as she watched Jimmy kneel in front of Grian. "Jimmy kind of... backed him into a corner, and..." She let out another huff. "I think you can guess what happened next."
Joel hummed. "I've got a couple guesses," he said lightheartedly before changing back to a serious tone. "So, he just closed up?"
"Yeah," Lizzie answered, seeing Jimmy smile slightly at Grian, who did the same. She couldn't help but smile at the sight. "He just smiled at Jimmy, though."
An almost relieved sigh came from Joel's end. "That's good." There was a beat of silence before Joel asked, "Can you let me talk to him privately?"
"Of course." Lizzie walked back into the living room, handing Grian the phone and leading Jimmy out through the kitchen into the dining room.
Jimmy sat down at the table and groaned, crossing his arms and throwing his head into them. "I'm such an idiot," he grumbled into his sleeves. "I shouldn't have-" He cut himself off to grian again. "I'm so stupid."
Lizzie huffed a small laugh as she sat down across from him. "You couldn't have known," she said in an attempt to reassure him.
"Yeah, but I should've." Jimmy lifted his head to look at his sister. "It's not like I don't know that his mom beat the heck out of him." He sighed. "Besides, I backed him into a corner. I'm not even surprised he shut down like that. I just..." He trailed off, not saying anything else afterward.
Lizzie took a moment to collect her thoughts before clearing her throat. "Well, Jimmy," she began, reaching over the table to hand one of his hands in both of hers, "I don't think you should beat yourself up about it. He's almost never reacted like that to anything before, and you couldn't have possibly known that this was going to be one of the times he did." Jimmy didn't respond much other than a simple nod. "Now. Are we going to tell Father about this?"
Jimmy shook his head. "Nope, nuh-uh, no way. He will have my head on a silver platter and I think I'd like to keep it on my neck."
Lizzie snorted. "Fair enough." They sat in a comfortable silence for a while before Grian's hoarse voice came from the doorway.
"Lizzie," he said, earning both of their attention. He looked like he'd just been crying. "Joel wants to talk to you."
Smiling softly, Lizzie got up from her seat and took her phone. "Thank you, Grian," she said, and he nodded at her. "Wanna go wait on the sofa?" Nodding again, Grian scurried off to go sit on the sofa while he waited for Lizzie and Joel to finish talking.
"Liz?"
"I'm here," Lizzie said as she made her way back over to the table. "Just a sec, I'm putting you on speaker so Jimmy can hear."
"Okay." Joel waited a moment while Lizzie set her phone down between Jimmy and herself. "Can he hear me?"
"Yup," Jimmy answered instead of Lizzie.
Joel let out a huff. "Right, so, I'm on my way over right now," he told them. "I'm gonna hang out for a bit then take Grian over to the apartment, if that's alright."
Lizzie nodded even though Joel couldn't see her. "That's fine."
There was a beat of silence before Joel spoke again. "He needs help," the brunette said almost helplessly. "He needs real help, not just a couple of teenagers who have no idea what they're doing." Lizzie and Jimmy both wanted to retort to that end part, but they both knew Joel was right. "We need to get him signed up for some kind of counseling or therapy. Living with that kind of trauma does terrible things to one's mind, and Grian doesn't deserve that." A car horn could be heard from Joel's end, followed by a shouted, "Oh, fuck off, you blumming bastard," and a honk from Joel himself.
Lizzie and Jimmy both covered their mouths to try and stop themselves from laughing - or at least being heard.
"Anyway," Joel said, ignoring what had just happened, "with the idea in mind to get Grian help, how the hell are we going to do that? I don't make enough at the shop to even think about paying for it, and I doubt Grian is registered for any kind of medical insurance."
"We could ask Dad about it," Jimmy suggested. "He would probably know what to do."
Joel sighed. "That's true," he agreed. "I just-" He let out a frustrated grunt. "I'm worried it's going to get worse from here."
Lizzie shifted in her seat, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she exchanged a nervous glance with Jimmy. "What do you mean?"
"He's been having nightmares."
"Of?"
"Us hurting him," Joel said plainly. "He has this idea in his head that he's a bother to us and that we'll end up being like how his bitch of a mother was."
Jimmy glanced over into the living room. He could only see Grian's feet on the the end of the sofa, but he could tell he was lying down. "He doesn't think we'll kick him out, does he?"
"Unfortunately," Joel breathed. "Even more unfortunately for me, though, he thinks I'll be the first one to do it."
"What?" Lizzie asked. "Why? If anything, you'd be the last person on Earth to do that."
Sighing, Joel shifted about, the noise loud and static-y on Lizzie's end. "I wish I knew, love." He let out a pathetic laugh. "All I know is that's the next thing to eat away at me for the next month," he joked, and Jimmy dropped his head into his arms again. "Alright, I'm pulling into the driveway. I'll talk to you more when I get inside."
Joel hung up before Lizzie or Jimmy could say anything else, and he was practically tackled to the ground by Grian as soon as he stepped through the door.
"Woah, there," Joel said, laughing as he landed on his behind with Grian hugging him tightly. "Hey, bud." Grian responded with a painful sob, and Joel's smile vanished immediately. "Hey, hey, it's okay. Look at me." Grian shook his head and Joel sighed. "Grian, please look at me." This time Grian listened. "Why don't we go to your room and we can talk some more?" Joel glanced up at Lizzie, who stood at the other end of the hall watching them.
Grian nodded and climbed off of Joel. "Okay."
Joel ended up staying the night and taking Grian back to his apartment the next morning.
"I can't tell if I want to keep him home from school tomorrow or not," Joel said to Lizzie as he stood outside his truck.
Lizzie hummed. "I'd say wait until tonight then ask him if he wants to," she suggested.
Joel nodded, glancing in through the window to check on a sleeping Grian. "I don't him to think I'm treating him differently, though. He really hates that."
"Well," Lizzie said, pausing to lean in and press a kiss to her boyfriend's cheek, "even if he does throw a fit, at least you know he's comfortable." She winked at him and he laughed.
"That is true," Joel agreed. He went quiet as he stared at Grian for a moment. Sighing, he turned back to Lizzie and pulled her a bit closer to him. "I'll text you when I get home."
She smiled up at him. "Alright," she said before lifting herself onto her toes, her hands on Joel's chest, to kiss him. She'd meant for it to be a quick one, but Joel's hand slipped into her hair, the other wandering down to her waist. She hummed into the kiss, smiling as Joel chuckled against her lips. "What are you laughing for?" she asked when they parted, giggling a bit herself.
Joel smiled down at her. "Nothing," he said as he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "You're beautiful, dear."
"Hm, you're not bad looking yourself," Lizzie said back, and Joel gasped.
"Now, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing."
Joel leaned down to kiss her again, though this one was much shorter. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Reluctantly letting go of his girlfriend, Joel sighed. "I'll see you... tomorrow, hopefully," he said, opening the door of his truck. "Goodbye, love."
"Bye, Joel." Lizzie watched as Joel drove off, disappearing down the street. "Be safe."
* * *
You thought you were safe with that nice beginning, didn't you? You thought that you'd escaped the angst for a chapter at last. BUT YOU DIDN'T MUAHAHAHAHAHA /lh/j
Ahem, anyway. All jokes aside, I hoped you enjoyed (or, maybe I should say I hope your heart didn't break to much to) this chapter, and I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your morning, day, or evening, and I'll be back in another 48 hours with another chapter ready to go ;)