Lacey smelled food cooking, and heard her brother and Zee arguing, the second she walked in the front door. Emerson was sprawled across their couch fast asleep, one arm draped over his head to block out the light. There was music playing from the small radio Zee had brought down from his room. Things felt almost normal for once. More normal than it had in weeks. She smiled and walked past the couch towards the kitchen. It was going to be a good night. She could just feel it.

Her brother was making chili, one of her and Emerson's absolute favorites. Zee was dancing around the kitchen, singing loudly and being obnoxious. He was obviously having a great time irritating Dresden. Lacey looked over at her brother, who was cursing under his breathe and pretending to strangle Zee everytime the smaller man turned away from him. She laughed.

"Hey, Zee, go figure out where the board games are. We haven't done anything like that in forever." She said to the dancing boy.

"Okay!" The boy chirped happily and ran for the stairs. That would keep him occupied and out of Dresden's hair for a few minutes. Zee adored board games. They were something he'd only discovered when he'd come to live with the Edwards family.

"Oh, thank God. " Dresden sighed. "I'm not joking, Lace, I was ready to kill him." She knew better. As annoyed as Dresden got with the hyper boy, she knew he adored him and would never actually do anything to purposely hurt Zee. None of them would.

Lacey laughed again and shook her head, walking out of the kitchen. She leaned over the back of the couch and gently shook Emerson's shoulder. He groaned loudly and moved his arm just enough to see who had woken him up. He had been having the worst dream, yet all he wanted was to go back to sleep.

He moved his legs so that Lacey could sit down and she climbed over the back of the couch to sit next to him. She looked so happy. He sighed, already irritated at everything. He could barely stand to look at her.

"How are you feeling? You look a lot better than you did this morning. I'm glad you got some sleep." She smiled at him.

"I lost my job, Lacey." He growled. "I feel like shit." He curled himself into a ball and threw his arm back over his face. He didn't want to talk to her, not when he felt like this.

"Don't worry about it, Emmie. You'll find something else." She told him. "Zee's digging thru board games and Dresden made chili. We're going to have fun tonight."

"I don't know. I'm not feeling so great." He told her. "I just want to sleep."

He felt miserable. All those nights of little to no sleep had caught up with him and he was so, so tired. And he felt worthless, like everything he did was wrong. He just wanted to be left alone. He just wanted to sleep. His head pounded. His body ached. He felt hollow, empty and useless. He didn't have to feel like this if he was asleep.

"I think I'm just gonna go hang out upstairs for a bit." He told her as he untangled himself and stood up. "I want to be alone for a while."

"Emmie, please, stay." She pleaded as she grabbed his arm, stopping him from walking away. "We haven't done anything together in so long and--"

"Damn it, Lacey, just fuck off and leave me the fuck alone!" He screamed as he ripped his hand out of her grip, accidentally smacking Zee in the face as the smaller boy bent to set down the board games he had dug out. Zee hadn't been paying attention, too preoccupied with the board games to realize how tense the atmosphere in the living room had gotten when he came in.

Zee fell backwards onto the floor and stared up at Emerson, shocked, his green eyes wide in confusion and fear. Emerson was not a violent person, Zee had never seen him like this before. And he rarely yelled, never over something as silly as Lacey wanting him to spend time with them. Emerson had hit him in the mouth, hard enough to split his lip and he bit his tongue when he landed hard on the floor. Zee could taste blood. The faint coppery taste made him dizzy and nauseous. The look on Emerson's face was petrifying.

Emerson stared back down at Zee, his face twisted in disgust. "Watch where the fuck you're going, Ezekiel." He hissed and stomped past Zee and up the stairs. Zee cringed away from him as he walked around the confused boy who was still sitting where he had fallen. He loathed himself for hurting Zee. He didn't understand why he was so angry at him for it. He knew none of this was the other man's fault. It wasn't Lacey's, either, really. Emerson knew he was the one in the wrong but he kept walking, not able to bring himself to go back and apologize for his outburst or hitting poor Zee. He slammed and locked his bedroom door, grabbed his thickest blanket and climbed out his bedroom window to the roof. Emerson cried. He didn't want to feel like this. He didn't want to be angry at anyone. He was absolutely terrified. For a moment, when he had looked down at Zee he had seen himself actually hurting Zee. On purpose. Just to hurt him. The thought had come completely out of nowhere and had left him sick to his stomach and disgusted with himself. The image kept floating back up from the recesses of his mind, completely unbidden.

...

The other three sat in shocked silence. Dresden had run into the room when Emerson started screaming and had been just in time to see him accidentally knock Zee on his ass. He was furious. All he knew was that Emerson had been screaming in Lacey's face and then he'd hit Zee and acted like it had been the other boy's fault.

Zee's chest felt tight. The entire exchange had scared him and left him cold. He kept replaying what had happened in his head, trying desperately to find what he had done to deserve Emerson's fury. He didn't want his friend upset with him. He didn't want him upset at Lacey. He looked around the room.

"Wh-what, what did w-we d-do?" He stuttered anxiously. He was near tears and shivering. He didn't understand what had just happened and it was making his chest hurt.

"Nothing, Zee," Dresden assured him quietly. "You didn't do anything wrong. That was all Emerson. He's being an ass tonight. You're okay."

Lacey sighed. "I'm sorry, Zee. Im the one who upset him. He hit you on accident pulling away from me. I should have just let him go upstairs." She was incredibly hurt as well, and felt absolutely horrible about what had happened to Zee. She hadn't been going to force Emerson to play, simply ask him to hang out on the couch with them while they had game night and maybe eat something. She knew he hadn't eaten at all that day. Dresden had told her that he'd literally slept all day when he had texted her earlier to tell her their plans.

"Let's not let it ruin the night, Zee. We can still play some games, and maybe we can watch some movies later if you want."

Lacey began to set up a board game and Zee wrapped himself up in a blanket on the couch, still very upset and confused. Dresden pulled his phone out and sent a text up to his roommate as he walked back into the kitchen to turn off the stove and set the pot of chili off to the side. This wasn't going to fly. He knew Emerson had his phone off, but he'd see it eventually when he turned it back on. And if not, Dresden would talk to him in the morning.

*That was a dick move. Zee's about half way to having a panic attack and Lacey's pretty upset too. I get you're not having a good day, and maybe you're not feeling very good. But that doesnt mean you get to treat everyone else like shit. Come find me when you calm down.*

...