"So you think I should call her?" I ask my mom after listening to her explain to me every reason she couldn't call Dani more than twice a month, but also all the reasons Dani needs help and all the signs she's seen, "Or what, because obviously she needs someone checking in on her at the least, right?" my mom stays silent for a few seconds and I clear my throat but she still doesn't answer, "Mom?" I lean forward, "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here, um, Justin, I just actually think that she needs more than calls," I press my lips together, realizing that she has something in mind,
"Well mom, what exactly do you think she does need?" I wait, feeling Chelsea's small hands rest on my shoulders as my mom responds,
"I think she needs someone to go out there, really help her, I really do, and I wish I had the time, but I'm so busy Justin, and your sisters and brother are too, and you know she never was really all that close with your father. She needs to not be at that college all alone. She always seemed to feel safe with you Justin. So, well... maybe if you went out there, you could find out what is happening, help her, even if that means no more college. She would tell you," My eyes widen and I sit for a second, thinking what my mom said through, but then Chelsea speaks,
"We can do that, JC and the rest of us will do whatever Dani needs us to do, don't you worry alright?" I hear my mom let out a sigh of relief but I twist in my chair, knowing a confused expression is written across my face but Chelsea just shushes me as my mom speaks,
"Oh dear, thank you. Okay, Justin, keep me updated, and just know you're an amazing brother and I am so proud of you, always. I miss you both, love you!" I hear my mom hang up, almost like she couldn't wait to, but I just sit and stare forward,
"JC, are you okay?" I hear Crawford call from behind me, and I just shake my head. I look up at Chelsea and speak, knowing she's expecting me to get mad for speaking for me but I just say,
"She's her mom, and she hasn't figured out how to help her. The doctors didn't either, clearly. We don't even really know what's wrong," I lean my head forward to rest it on Chelsea's stomach, "And to make matters worse, me, her dumbass big brother hasn't even spoken to her hardly in who knows how long until I'm wasted on Valentine's Day Eve." She sighs, stroking my hair as I think,
"I'm sorry I spoke for you but she just, she was calling with a goal, you know," Chelsea speaks and I just nod, knowing what she meant. Our parents are wonderful people, just Dani has always been different, the odd one out. My mom loves her, she just gets lost when it comes to how to help Dani most of the time. Hence how Dani goes to school in a school in the Midwest, far as hell from the rest of us, and ends up completely alone with nearly no one checking in on her, and multiple mental health diagnoses with no one who would check on her appropriately having any sort of knowledge about them. I don't know why I just let myself think she was just fine. I'm her older brother, and she didn't tell me she was struggling because someone who we were both friends with passed away, and she was worried about me.
"What do we need to do?" Crawford asks, and I blink for a second, lifting my head to look at him confused, "Well, if your mom isn't gonna help her, then we need to right? So we need a plan. A, like, firm one, because your sister is convincing as hell sometimes, she's good at weaseling out of shit, right?" I laugh halfheartedly at Crawford's determination, knowing exactly what he's talking about.
"I agree, I just don't know what you mean by 'we', y'know?" I say, biting my lip, "She's my sister, this ain't your responsibility, Crawf," He rolls his eyes a smile on his face as he begins to speak, but he gets cut off,
"Bro, I hate to burst your bubble, but Dani ain't just your sister. She's our little sister, and I wasn't really planning you or her going through this alone." Will speaks up, and I stare at him in shock, not having noticed him but also seeing Oscar and Dyl behind him, nodding intently. I look up at Chelsea, who smiles widely at me, before Crawford talks again,
"Yeah, you got all a us JC, and you know full well you got everyone else too, Nezza, Franny, Kian, Bobby, Brian, Tara, Christian, Kevin, literally everybody." I laugh, nodding, "We got you baby, come on," He throws his arms in the air, making all of us laugh, breaking the tensions. I take in a deep breath, knowing that this might actually work out.
She might be okay again.
I just need to figure out what's wrong first.
-
"I still don't understand why your mom hasn't just gone to see her, why is it six months after her getting worried and she's just now calling you?" Nezza asks, slumping back into the couch in my room next to Crawford. I just shrug in response, just as exasperated as she is, "When was the last time someone even saw Dani?" I swallow, not wanting to answer. Will and Crawford both give me a look and Chelsea just pats my leg from where she's laying back next to me, her head on my shoulder. They know just as well as me that me and my mom both fucked up.
"Well we saw her at the beginning of the summer, remember?" Christian speaks up, making Dyl, Oscar, Brian, who just got back from wherever they went after the party last night, Kevin, and Franny both nod. They all came over with Christian, because we texted them. I need help here, the boys were right. We have this friend group for a reason.
"I called her like a few weeks ago, but I hadn't seen her since then either, because I wasn't here for those couple days, remember, when she flew in for the concert in December and y'all did JC's naughty or nice stream, y'know," All of our faces drop, because we totally forgot about that. She was only in the house for a night, waiting for her friends to fly into LA and then they were going to San Francisco together for a concert,
"Yeah wait, she sat over there on the floor, right?" Chelsea nods, and I shake my head,
"Remember how freaking awkward it was, because she was in the room, literally hiding and we had to act like the dogs weren't going over to her and looking at her because we were live?" I say, laughing dryly, even though it isn't funny. She didn't know when she asked that we had that planned and she felt so bad, but there was no one to hang out with her since everyone was doing the live,
"And remember how when I got here I was sitting over there for like the first half because I felt so bad for her and we were talking, trying to stay so absolutely quiet," Chelsea smiles sadly, and I squeeze her with the arm she's laying on, knowing how much she really does love my sister. It warms my heart. It's kind of ironic how not close the rest of my family is with her, but my friend group that's like family treats her like it every day they see her or talk about her.
"Do you think that's what she was all freaked out about, on the phone?" Christain asks and I tilt my head confused, "When she called last night, do you think she thinks someone heard her on the VODS channel video from that stream? Have you checked? Cause I think that's the only time she's ever even been in the room for something live, am I right?" I keep looking at him, frantically take out my phone, along with Franny and Crawford at his words, nodding along,
"Yeah, yeah bro you're right. She always goes into my cloud room if I'm streaming or we're filming and she's here. I just felt bad that time because it was the only way I could spend any time with her at all," I try to pull up Twitter, blanking for absolutely no reason on where I put it in my phone,
"Did you say she got diagnosed with OCD?" Brian asks, looking at Chelsea and I as he asks and also stands to walk over towards my minifridge to grab a drink,
"Mhm," I answer as the same time as Chelsea says,
"Yeah, I don't know what type or anything, but..." I look up and see him nod, almost everyone else looking at him too as he considers something,
"If she's scared something is gonna happen, and if she's been getting worse or like other things are bringing down her mental state, have been," He says, gesturing now with the drink in his hand as he stands in between the ends of the two couches, "And if something, anything, happened that could have confirmed what she's been scared of, like the 'intrusive thoughts' I think they're called, that would send her into a spiral right. Like, after that phone call happened, she could be worse than she's been, and your mom was worried about her then, y'know. That's what makes me nervous, personally," We all stare at him, and I can feel my anxiety rising as I realize how right he is. I see Franny with her mouth hanging out, her eyes darting between me and Brian like she's waiting for him to be done. Once she notices that I'm refocused on her, she jumps up to show me her phone screen and starts talking,
"Someone took the audio from the VODS channel video and clipped and enhanced it JC, they're right, they know someone was in the room, they heard her and Chelsea talking, and then someone else I guess found something in an old, old video of you guys right after O2L ended," I think for a minute as she takes a breath,
"Dani would've been... 14, and oh, fuck," Franny nods,
"Yeah. She was here for like a while I'm guessing?" I nod slowly, remembering that Dani's one request that year was to stay with me here from when school got out to when it started. I think Kian and I even took her school supplies shopping that year, actually, "Someone found parts of old, old videos and pictures from then that have stuff that can't be you guys' and just random stuff and because that clip has Chelsea and Dani talking about what they each got JC for Christmas, they know she's your sister JC. And there's theories everywhere and... They also figured out that she was there during Season one filming for reality house, like in one of the rooms, she was on camera for a split second. That's bad, JC," I nod, not quite able to speak, while Crawford speaks up,
"How is that possible, y'all, no actually, all of us, we're so careful. It's impossible that she was on camera. Like, fuck wasn't she asleep before we even did the montage stuff floor the party that almost got us kicked out?" I bite my cheek, nodding slowly. I can barely comprehend any of this, I don't understand how this is all happening and we had no idea,
"How is this happening and we had no idea?" Kevin asks, scrolling through twitter visibly, on a thread that is purely stuff about Dani, "Like its everywhere, why didn't anyone notice it?" I shake my head, Nezza speaking,
"Well we've all been partying and stuff, like we've all been busy. Today is Valentine's Day, yesterday was the Super Bowl, like I don't know about you guys, but I've barely been on my phone," She shrugs. I sigh, scrolling now on my own phone.
"What are you going to do, JC, like what can we do?" I look up, listening to Christian and just stare forward, not sure what I can even say,
"I don't even know. Like, if this was any other situation I'd just post and address it, but I'm less worried about the fans and more about Daniella, y'know?" Everyone nods, a nervous air in the room, "Should I call her, now, or should I wait and... I don't even know, dude," Franny bites her lip and Brian sighs, Will shaking his head,
"You need to call her man, you need to get a feel, because if she isn't okay... We need to do something, because I know her, and I know we all do," He looks around, making everyone nod, "If she's reading this stuff, I don't know if she should be alone or even just out there. If you add, what is going on..." Christian shakes his head,
"I'm worried man, I'm gonna be honest," I nod, moving through my phone to find her contact,
"Does, um, does Kian know?" I close my eyes at Brian's question, hearing everyone sigh, all of us knowing that Kian won't take kindly to this whole situation. I shake my head, and that's met with silence, knowing no one else wants to tell him either.
"Does she live with anyone? Like, I haven't talked to her, in I don't even know how long, but she used to be in that dorm, right?" Franny asks and I shake my head before nodding,
"Yeah she used to live with a girl named Lyla, her ummm, her freshman year, but Lyla was really, um, not a good roommate, that's why she had me flying her out so much in 2019 and then up until Covid before she went and stayed back in Texas. Sophomore... year... oh yeah, what the fuck, I paid for her and these other two girls to live in an apartment," Nezza's eyes bug out, a laugh escaping her lips,
"What! I didn't know that!? You, like you paid... all of their rent?" I laugh dryly, everyone staring at me
"Yeah, well, apartments that are like 'marketed' by the school I guess," I use my hands to make air quotes, "Those are like cheaper, but yeah." I push my hand through my hair, a sad smile growing on my face, "Let's just say Dani's friends found out everything, like her tuition and room and board, everything was being paid by her older brother, y'know, me, because I didn't want her to have student loans or any of that shit, and she's so..." I search for the right word before Keven speaks for me,
"Dani, she's so Dani," making me smile and nod,
"Yeah, she's so Dani, they talked her into asking me to pay for all of them, and she was so anxious about it that I just did it, I don't know. She's always been my baby sister, plus she's Dani," I give everyone around me a look, "Don't pretend you wouldn't do it if she asked you and you could," Brian and Franny laugh, everyone nodding,
"No, what's so frustrating is I would still be doing it, a year later if that kid asked me," Crawford says, making everyone laugh, including Chelsea who nudges me, giggling,
"Well..." Nezza gasps again,
"You're not JC, are you serious?" I shrug, looking down at my phone, at Dani's name, again,
"I need to take care of her, and I apparently haven't even been doing that, the way she needs it at least, although I tried, until now. So, I'm gonna go call her, can you guys like try and find whoever has met her... ever, and ask them not to say anything," I look around, trying to think of who should do the hardest job but I know I can't ask anyone to do it, "I'll call Kian right after I call her," I sigh again, "I don't know how long this'll take so if anyone needs to leave or anything whenever just go," I smile weakly around at my friends before standing up, my hand still wrapped around Chelsea's. She squeezes it before letting me go as everyone calls after me,
"Good luck, J," Will says,
"You got this, it's all gonna work out," Franny smiles,
"Go help our girl, Papa Bear," Christian says, making everyone laugh,
"Text us if we need to book flights," Kevin says and I nod, nodding slowly over and over as I walk down, going around the hall and down the stairs to the living room.
-
A long one but I hope you guys liked it!
This is where the story starts moving a little faster.
Let me know what y'all think!