I was left in the dust after Veneer ran off into the sunset with glittery tears in his eyes.
I looked towards Branch and John Dory and I shook my head as they tried to approach me.
"Look Floyd I mean I didn't mean to hear it-"
"No it's not the fact that you overheard! It's the fact you shouldn't have told us! That stuff was super personal and we even begged you to stop telling us!" Bruce spoke up in our defense against John Dory and I looked towards Poppy to see her eyes as wide as dinner plates as her tears seemed never ending.
"He's probably out there so scared and alone... I have to go after him!" She started to move pacing around in panic as Branch begged her not to,
"We'll find him together Poppy, let's go." I took one final look at all my brothers before gripping poppy by her deep pink hand and pulling her out the door.
John yelling at us to stop and that he's not worth being killed over and I turned my head and looked him in his eyes before saying,
"John, if my boyfriend is dead because of you be prepared to fucking join him because I will annihilate you." I snarled before leading Poppy out the front door.
We tried to follow his footsteps that he left in the dirt, we kept walking and Poppy started talking,
"I wanted him to tell you at his own pace but I guess things don't go as planned." Her eyes were glued to the ground and I couldn't stop the globs of tears escaping my eyes at how betrayed he was at my brothers and ran off.
I tried to shut out my brother as he told us the details but some snippets of their conversation were too loud for me to tune out like how Veneer had suffered so much more and for much longer than I expected.
I wanted to just grab him and tell him that I still loved him and this would't change anything between us but he ran off too fast before I was able to do anything about it.
"I'm so sorry about John, Poppy, he just didn't know how to shut his mouth-"
"Tell me exactly what happened and how much you heard."
"Well this all started because John had to go to the bathroom and Branch told him it was upstairs so I guess he stumbled into your conversation and he heard about velvet's cruelty towards him and... he told us about your ex boyfriend too but anything before he didn't hear."
"I'm going to punch him so hard regardless of if we find Ven or not." I watched as she kicked a rock hard enough for it to break under the pressure of her kick.
I felt bad for John, he was certainly going to have something on his person broken if that kick was anything to go by. Which I know that no one will come to his defense from the Pop Queen's wrath.
"Queen Poppy! I need your help!" A large troll carrying a worm called out to us, I stared in horror as his pants were painted in glimmering reddish pink blood.
"BIGGIE WHAT HAPPENED!" She screeched at the sight of blood on him and I couldn't help but glance off to the side to see a matching long blood trail.
I started to hyperventilate as Ven's foot prints led to a large jagged rock and followed by the thick blood that was smeared into the dirt.
"Me and Mr Dinkles found a Troll, he was really badly hurt and was nearly killed by a heart spider!" My chest felt tight as I could feel sobs quietly leaving my mouth at the realization that Veneer was the injured Troll who nearly got killed.
"What did he look like Biggie?!" She shook the larger Troll as she sobbed at the thought of Ven losing that much blood.
"Pale skin, green hair uh.. blue eyes and he was wearing a glittery black jumpsuit." That was basically Veneers exact description in simplistic terms including his outfit and I quickly cried out,
"Is he okay?!" Poppy ran over and held me in her arms silently pleading Biggie to answer us and he started tearing up,
"The doctor was able to help him and he is fine but he did loose a lot of blood and fainted." I was suddenly held in a vibrating grip as Poppy let out tears of joy at the relief that he was alright.
I let out a shaking sigh of relief as well because he was safe, probably unconscious but safe.
"Can you take us to the clinic?" Poppy sniffled as she helped me up from the cold ground. Biggie nodded his head and started to lead us to the doctor's pod. I could barely walk without my legs wanting to collapse in on themselves. Poppy only hugged herself as a form of comfort until we reached the large mushroom and was led in.
"Queen Poppy thank goodness Biggie was able to find you, we have someone who fainted, I had to stitch him up but he's awake." My stomach turned and I could feel acid climbing up my throat as the same glittering red covered the surgical gown she was wearing.
"He's awake!" She giggled in joy and smiled at me probably thanking the highest entity there was that he was okay and I couldn't help the happy sigh that my boyfriend was perfectly fine besides his damaged leg.
"Yes but please don't overwhelm him-" she was cut off as Poppy ran into the room and quickly started screaming in joy and tackling him in a fierce hug.
I stood in the doorway as I fully took in the picture he made,
His hair had loads of sticks and twigs in it, there were pinkish purple eye-bags underneath those glittery royal blue eyes, his leg was elevated by a few thick pillows as it was wrapped in multiple layers of gauze.
He was excitedly telling Poppy how he fought off the spider and her squeezing the life out of him.
Suddenly those big blue eyes were placed on me and I couldn't stop my from going to his opposite side and holding him as he hugged me back.
I sobbed as I could feel his tears drip onto my shoulder as we just stayed like this,
"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have run off-"he said whilst looking into my eyes and I quickly captured his lips in a kiss effectively leaving him in a silence as I let go.
"No Bubblegum, I'm sorry about my dumb brother who doesn't know how to keep things to himself." He looked down and started twiddling his thumbs and glanced at Poppy before she nodded her head and walked out of the room to give us some privacy.
"Look... I am sorry about running away, I.. didn't want you to judge me.."
"Ven why would I ever judge you"
"Because I'm weak! I couldn't protect myself from my own sister... I was ashamed, I felt so weak and pathetic because I just took it! I let her hurt me because I loved her so much! and if I feel like that I'm sure that all of you would feel that too and leave me." He wiped his bloodshot eyes while hiccuping out sobs. I took his face in my hands and forced him to look at me and spoke with a gentle firm tone,
"Veneer, I love you, that will never change and we will always be here for you especially me and Poppy. Furthermore, What she's done to you will never ever be your fault and what you've done to protect yourself will never change my perspective on you. You're one of the most strongest people I know and I'm sorry that you had to stay strong for so long." I put our foreheads together as he quietly hiccuped as his tears slowed.
"I don't know what I want to do with my sister anymore, sometimes I want to hurt her just as badly and make her feel everything I felt. There are some other times where I just wanted to have a monitored one on one with her and ask her why? But there's the rare one where I want to force her to go to therapy and have a normal relationship with her where for once we were normal siblings." He wiped his nose with the blanket and my heart twinged in suffering because I know the last one wasn't the realistic choice. That was all he wanted from her, to be normal siblings who supported each other and gossiped about boys and were there for each other no matter what.
I hugged him again and when we departed I smiled at him before saying,
"You may not have the sister you were given but you do have one, she's right out that door waiting to gossip with you about my baby brother and how magical he is." I watched as he nodded his head and I kissed him again before calling out to Poppy.
I watched as she hopped on the bed and lightly shoved him while giggling,
"Move your bum bum, I got us a magazine to read while we wait for you to get discharged." She moved her body next to Ven and he lifted the blanket to cover her legs shielding them from the cold.
I joined them as I pulled up a chair and sat down to their right and happily watched as Ven rolled his eyes at one of the models horrible sense of fashion with Poppy enthusiastically adding input on how the outfit could be changed to be better.
I sighed with happiness as their soft chatting was blurring as I watched them as they rapidly flipped through pages.
I couldn't wait to bring him back home, I have plenty of magazines that he'd like.
Today may have been a disaster but I'm glad that both him and Poppy are alright.