"Grandma! Hey! How are you feeling?" Edd drops his coat and sets it on her bedside table and immediately makes his way to the elder woman.
"I'm feeling fine, dear. The doctors have been treating me very well."
"That's a relief. I...I bought you roses. I thought that maybe you missed tending to the garden and being able to smell the scent of nature so...I decided to buy this." Edd gently places down the bouquet of roses.
"Oh! Thank you very much, Eddie. I appreciate your thoughtfulness."
Susan inhales the sweet scent of the rose and holds it near her chest.
"Are you still on medications, dear?" Susan looks up at her grandson.
"Y-yes."
"It's been months now...aren't you feeling better?"
Edd's breath hitches. "U-uh...yeah...yeah, I've been doing well."
Clear hesitation filled the boy's face, quickly changing the subject, "A-anyways! Is there anything else you want or need, grandma? Water? More food? I could fill this room with flowers if you want!"
Susan's eyebrows narrow.
He isn't getting better at all. The medications obviously aren't helping. He needs some other type of help. Tom and her other grandchildren have been trying to avoid this for way too long now.
"Therapist," Susan says.
"Huh...?"
"I want you to go see a therapist, Edd." Susan hated demanding her grandchildren for something, but this was clearly needed if they wanted Edd to fully recover.
"Th-therapist? Why...?" The brunette asked, although, to his dismay, he had already known the answer.
"The medications aren't helping you, dear. They're postponing something a lot bigger for your recovery, which is to finally seek official help. That's what I want." Susan says, and with one more breath, she adds, "Can you call over Ell for me, please?"
Edd says nothing, standing up and walking out the door.
Although muffled, Susan could hear Edd's words from the other side.
"Ell, Grandma's calling for you."
~
"That's basically the gist of it. What motivated me to make this decision." Edd says, playing with the edge of his shirt.
"Oh! I remember that. That was when Grandma reminded me to always support you on whatever decision you decide to make." Ell exclaims.
You looked around the room as everyone bathed in the comforting silence. You all huddled up in Grandmother Susan's yet-to-be-emptied room after dinner to talk.
"Does anyone else wanna share what Grandmother Susan had said to them when we had alone time with her?" You ask.
"I think you're the only one left, (Y/N)." Matt points out.
You flinch. Right. You still haven't shared yours. You shift uncomfortably in your seat. What Grandmother Susan said to you wasn't exactly a shareable thing to just tell other people, but it's still a bit unfair to the others...
"I-It's a bit personal and embarrassing." You can feel the heat rising up to your cheeks as you felt all eyes were on you. "It's about a boy." All the males in the room shot their heads up high, directly looking at you. You felt your heartbeat quicken a bit at the heightened attention you were given.
You continued to look down at your pajama pants, the color red painted your cheeks. Clearing your throat, you continued, "Grandmother Susan sensed that I was a bit conflicted about my feelings so she gave me advice. She told me to take care of him and that he'll appreciate the affection and love that I'm going to give him."
You can see Tom scratch the back of his head. "Did she ever mention who it was?"
You shake your head, "No...not exactly." You weren't lying. She didn't mention who he was at all, because deep inside, it was up for you to decide who.
Tord gulped down a glass of water, "Well, do you at least have an idea?"
Once again, you shake your head.
"Do you think Grandma even knew who he was?" Edd asks.
"Uh, yeah...probably." You reply.
"...Do you think it's one of us?" Matt smiles sheepishly, turning red after he heard the words come right out of his mouth.
Ell looked at the situation in front of her and held back her laughter. Tom was chugging down his drinks a lot quicker now, Tord looked down, scratching his neck in anxiousness, Edd could not stop playing with the edge of his shirt and Matt turned away from you, distracting himself with his phone.
You played a bit with your hair, your flushed cheeks not disappearing at all.
"Alright, (Y/N), can I talk to you outside for a moment?" Ell doesn't wait for an answer as she tugs your wrist, pulling you outside of the room and closing the door.
"You know," Ell says matter-of-factly as you both walked to your shared bedroom. "You know how they feel about you."
"Y-yeah..." You open the door and you both went inside.
"For how long?" Ell looks at you with sparkles in her eyes.
"Since Edd kissed me." The butterflies in your stomach evolved into dragons, your face was so red and the fact that Ell became silent after your statement was making you so embarrassed.
"P-pardon?" Ell asks.
"No! I don't wanna repeat it again! Look, this is already so weird! Three guys liking me plus my undecided feelings for Matt is all so weird! Okay, I get it! I'm really sorry for kissing three of your brothers—I mean, technically, they kissed me—but the good news is that Matt hasn't kissed me yet but I don't know why I feel so protective of him —why I feel protective over any of them!! I-I feel really bad that this was all happening behind your back and I feel so mad at myself that I had low-key enjoyed those kisses and to mention the fact that Tom was the one who kissed me the most but I-I'm not saying that I was counting how much he kissed me but like—"
"(Y/N), calm down!!" Ell grabs both of your cheeks with her hands, making you directly look at her.
"R-right, right! I should calm down..."
"Goodness, you haven't talked this thing out with anyone, have you? You're spitting out so many new things and I'm shocked but let's just breathe, okay?"
Ell helped you inhale and exhale and once you were in the right mindset, you started to talk.
~
The boys sat in uncomfortable silence ever since Ell had excused you and basically just ditched the rest of her brothers.
"...God, was it that obvious?" Tom ran his fingers through his hair, a bit frustrated with himself.
"What's obvious?" Edd asks, looking over to his older brother.
"The fact that we were curious over what boy (Y/N) could be talking about." Matt joins in.
"I wasn't curious, just trying to help her know who it could be." Tord shrugs, gaining unamused stares from the rest of the boys. Tord sensed this and looked over at the judging eyes looking down on him. "What?" He asks, "I was just—"
"Tord, just shut up." Tom narrows his voids at him.
The Norwegian male rolls his eyes, "Whatever."
"Do you guys think there's a chance that...it's one of us?" Edd asks.
"I mean, we are the only boys she's been hanging out with since September. I doubt it could be a random guy from campus. So all I'm saying is that one of us has a chance." Tom explains. "I don't mind being her first choice."
"Definitely. After pulling her into an indirect kiss, she'd be head over heels for you, I'm sure." Edd chuckles a bit then widens his eyes at his own words, not meaning to say his thought out loud. "Ah—Tom, I'm so sorry, it just came out! I don't actually—"
"It's kinda ironic how you did the same thing, but the only difference was that you and (Y/N)'s lips actually touched," Tord smirks.
"Tord! You're still not over that? I'm telling you, it was the medicine and that I'd never do that kind of thing to her consciously!"
"Yeah, you aren't any better, Tord. Both Tom and Edd weren't in their conscious minds when they did that. But you? You kissed her when she was vulnerable, you knew what you were doing, and when she rejected you, you played it off cool." Matt says, earning concerned looks from both Tom and Edd. The two looked at Matt, and then at Tord. Disbelief in their expressions.
"You did what?" Tom asks.
Tord sharply glares at the redhead, "How did you know about that?"
Matt felt his heart drop to his stomach. He wasn't thinking clearly, seeing his brothers be backed into a corner by Tord, knowing full well what he did was worse. He just couldn't help himself.
What was it with them not being able to keep their thought straight tonight? Their thoughts are slipping past their tongues before they can even decide if that's okay to say!
The ginger-haired male gulped as he chooses his next words carefully, "We have thin walls here. It's a bit easy to know what happens in the next room." Matt couldn't meet eyes with Tord, scared of the sudden change of aura within the Norwegian male.
"How many times has this happened anyway?" Edd asks, furrowing his eyebrows.
Tord sighs heavily, "Two. One was when he had our movie night. Two, was after you kissed her. I got heated and was a bit aggressive with her during that time but that was the last I tried something with her."
Tom stands up, "You sure do like forcing yourself on her, huh?" The eyeless male crossed his arms, a stern expression on his face. "She should be crazy if she chooses you. You keep trying to force her to return her feelings without her even knowing it like the coward you are! So scared to face the fact that she's not interested!"
"Pfft! Me? A coward? Look who's talking! Only depending on his pathetic drinks so that he could have the guts to make a move on her because he knows damn well that when he's sober, he won't be able to do anything! Why? Because YOU, brother, are the coward!" Tord wasn't supposed to say all of that. He was sure he was trying to choose his words carefully, but all of that just ran off the tongue like he was meant to say it. Although, he does feel a bit better inside after letting all of it out.
"Guys, look. Let's all just take one deep breath and—" Edd tries to get in between but gets cut off by Matt, "Goodness, Edd! Stop trying to interfere like you always have control of the situation! Just because you went through the most out of all of us doesn't make you in favor of (Y/N)'s feelings! You have her attention all the time! Get off your high horse, would you?!"
"I'm not on a high horse, Matt! I don't think highly of myself at all! Do you think I wanted to be like this?! God, at least give me some credit for trying to make her fall for me! What have you done? Nothing! Like you always do! And yet somehow, I see a glint of interest in her eyes whenever she looks at you! You should be the one getting off the high horse! Everything was already spread out for you and yet you do nothing about it! You're so infuriating sometimes!"
"I'm infuriating? Just look at you! If anyone here is infuriating, it's you! Always trying to butt in to make yourself feel better and to boost your ego! I can't believe I used to look up to you when we were kids!"
"Matt, I think you should stop—"
"No, you should stop, Tord! You and Tom! You guys were always so selfish! Hogging all of the love and attention from mom and dad! I was always the background character! Someone who was there just because! I wanted their attention too! You two always had—"
"THE WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU, MATT! THIS WHOLE MESS DOES NOT ONLY INVOLVE YOU." The eyeless male heaves a deep breath, shocked at the harsh statement that slipped through his mouth. He didn't mean to let it all out so suddenly...
Matt flinched at the volume of Tom's voice. He was surprised. So much so that his vision began to blur due to the tears welling up in his indigo eyes.
It was powerful. So powerful that it was scary.
"Tom..." Edd says, fear laced into them. "Y-your eyes..."
~
"I cannot believe we drugged our own children."
"The drug will last for only 15 minutes, Pauline. I can hear them already yelling at each other from upstairs. This will give us the perfect opportunity to the point where they'll be distracted enough and leave her out in the open."
"...Oliver, What does the drug do anyway?"
"It's something that causes the negative thoughts of the individual to have more emphasis to the point were they couldn't resist and have to say it out loud."
"And what does that have to do with the a distraction? What is this distraction you're talking about, anyway?"
Oliver smiles at his wife, then looking back at the dishes he had in his hand.
"Tom."