Axel’s POV 

Weylyn held me against his chest as my hands clasped over my ears. His hands were tangled in my hair as I tried to block out the sound of Callum’s punches. My heart was racing in my chest and I felt like I couldn’t breathe as Weylyn whispered soothing words to try and cover up the other sounds; it didn’t work. 

Callum was going to beat us. He was angry but Callum was always angry. He was angry even back when he used to live with us at Mom’s house but he never took his anger out on anything besides just yelling for a few minutes. I could deal with the yelling. I didn’t love it and Weylyn couldn’t stand it but yelling was fine; a lecture was nothing. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Weylyn whispered when the sounds finally stopped coming through the walls. “It’s going to be okay. Everything is fine. Callum isn’t going to do anything.” He didn’t know that. Our Callum never acted like this. This new Callum is unpredictable, he could come in here and beat us right now and I wouldn’t be surprised anymore.

“We’re going to be okay. Everything is fine. I won’t let him touch you.”

“If he comes in here, get behind me,” I said as I lifted my head from his chest. He was pale and tears were pooling in his eyes, the threat of violence clearly getting to him as well. 

“I can take it,” he defended, blinking back his tears.

“If he comes in here, you get behind me. Do you understand?” He looked like he was about to argue when the door opened. Weylyn got behind me, huddled between me and the bed frame. 

I glared at Liam as he hovered at the door. He frowned at the two of us for a second before pulling a tight-lipped smile.

“Callum wants to talk to you over dinner so we should head down.”

“We aren’t hungry,” I scoffed while Weylyn put a hand on my shoulder.

“Then you should come talk to him. He wants to talk about what happened at school today.”

“Nothing happened at school.”

“I know that’s not true,” Liam said in a voice that was far too calm considering what Callum would have told him.

“We don’t want to talk to him right now.” He paused for a second before frowning.

“Is there a reason you’re trying to avoid this? We all know he’s not going to let this go and he shouldn’t. You two have caused a lot of trouble for him and the school and for yourselves. Something has to be done about this. He’s calmed down now but if you keep trying to put it off then he’s going to get mad again.”

“We shouldn’t make it worse,” Weylyn whispered in my ear but I just glared at Liam.

“Tell him we’ll be down in a second.”

“I will. Thank you for agreeing. I know it was hard.” He left without saying another word and shut the door behind him.

“What are the rules,” I asked Weylyn as I turned around to face him. His tears were back while I tried to hide the fact that my hands were shaking.

“If anything happens run back here and lock the door. Don’t try to stop it or get in the way. If you aren’t back in a few hours see if they are still down there, if they left you try and drag up the stairs, if they are still there call the cops.” I sighed as I took his head in my hands, brushing away the tears that dripped down his face.

“Good,” I said with a smile that I hoped was comforting. “It’s going to be okay. We might get lucky this time. It’s only the first offense. He might just yell. We’ll be more careful next time.”

“No next time,” Weylyn said with a glare. “It’s not worth the risk. Starting right now we are angels. No more picking fights, no more risky shit like this, none of it. I’m done.”

“Alright. No more. I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I should have known better.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was literally all my fault.”

“I believe what you told me about what happened. Based on what you said happened you had every right to lash out. Sure, we shouldn’t have tried to trade classes, but that does not give her the right to act like that, ever.” I only nodded, knowing there was no way I was changing his mind any time soon.

“You ready for this,” I asked as I took a deep breath and tried to shake away the steadily increasing heart rate.

“No.”

“Me either. But it’s going to be okay. What’s the worst he can do? Can’t be worse than Rowan right?” Weylyn flinched and I sighed. “Just follow the rules alright? Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” he said with a small pout but got off the bed anyway. “I don’t like seeing you get hurt like that.”

“I know but it’s only for a few more years; then we won’t have to deal with any of this again.”

He nodded as he took his hand in mine and I led us down the stairs.
The tension in the air was intense. Callum and his boyfriends were sitting at the table, food on their plates but barely anything was touched. They laid out plates for us too but I doubted either of us would have a chance to eat before all hell broke loose.

“Come sit down,” Callum said in a voice that was far too calm for him when he noticed we were hovering by the stairs. I was about to argue when Weylyn gripped my hand harder in a warning. I rolled my eyes but sat down anyway. 

“I want to start off by saying that I’m disappointed in the two of you. You didn’t even last a full day before I got a call; it’s pathetic.” Weylyn ducked his head in shame as I looked anywhere but our brother. “But I also know there has been a very big change. We aren’t used to living with each other anymore and you’re having to get used to living with strangers, on top of starting at a new school; I know it’s stressful because I did it too. I made it a week at camp before I got into a screaming match with a teacher. Trust me, I get it but we can’t do that again. Your actions don’t just affect you. They reflect on me as your guardian; too many incidents like this and you could be moved and put into foster care. I don’t want that for you.”

My heart raced in my chest. I hadn’t even thought of the possibility of getting moved. I gripped Weylyn’s hand harder under the table.

“We’re sorry,” Weylyn whispered as he stared at the table. 

“I hope you are,” Callum said in a stern voice that I couldn’t help but flinch back from. “I don’t feel like I can trust you enough right now to believe that but I hope you are sorry. Regardless, you need to be shown that there are consequences to your actions. We are not going to have a repeat of Mom’s house. I’m not a child anymore and you two know better; we aren’t just going to yell about it and have pancakes in the morning anymore. That’s not helpful for any of us. Do you understand?”

“Are you going to hit us?” The question slips out before I can stop it but I don’t bother trying to take it back. I needed to know. I needed to give Weylyn a chance to get away. Sure he seemed calm now but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t turn violent at the drop of a hat like Rowan.

No one said anything for a while. The whole house seemed to be holding their breath as they stared at the two of us. When I couldn’t stand the silence anymore I looked up.

Ryder looked like he was about to cry and wanted to lunge across the table and hug us. Liam was unreadable but tense. Carter looked like he was somewhere between wanting to murder something and wanting to wrap us in bubble wrap. Callum though, Callum was shaking. He had tears gathered in his eyes that he refused to let fall and was shaking so hard he was rocking the table; whether it was out of anger or something else I didn’t know. 

“Why would you think he would hit you,” Liam asked after a while of no one speaking. I shrugged but he didn’t allow us to move on.

“I don’t know. He’s mad. Mad people tend to hit things. He was hitting the punching bag earlier. I didn’t know if he got all of it out of his system yet or not.”

“I need you to understand something,” Callum said, cutting off whatever Liam was about to say. I looked back at my brother. The shaking had stopped but there were still tears in his eyes as he looked at both of us with more sadness than I have ever seen come from him before. “I will never hit either of you. Ever. I need you to commit that to memory. Repeat that back to me, please. I need to hear you say it.”

“You will never hit us.” My voice was shaky and I didn’t believe him, not entirely, but I didn’t want to ruin his kindness right now. Callum closed his eyes and sighed for a second, surely seeing the distrust in my eyes and hearing it in my voice. 

“I was going to ground you,” he said after a few more minutes. “No new lego sets or books for a month. That seems fair right?”

“That’s it,” I asked even though I regretted it the second it left my mouth.

“You want to get a worse grounding,” Liam asked, clearly dancing around the word ‘punishment’. 

“I don’t know if ‘want’ is the right word, more like ‘expecting’.”

“That’s it,” Callum said. “Like I said I know it’s been hard to adjust to everything and acting out is a response to that. If something like this happens again worse consequences will come but I will never hit you. None of us will ever hit either of you.”

We all went quiet again before Ryder cleared his throat.

“We should start eating before it gets cold,” he said with a tight smile before picking up his fork. Callum followed his lead. I wanted to eat, I wanted to pretend like this was just a normal dinner like we’ve been having for the past month but the knots in my stomach wouldn’t let me. Weylyn seemed to have the same problem.

Nothing but the sound of silverware scrapping plates could be heard and with every second the tension seemed to get worse. I pushed food around my plate at random before standing from the table, Weylyn’s hand still in mine, and walking towards our room. 

Weylyn followed like a lost puppy but no one tried to stop us. I heard Callum sigh when he could no longer see us. Ryder whispered something sweet, Carter walked right out the front door, and Liam just watched like he always did.

I didn’t understand these people. I’m not sure I ever would or if I even wanted to. 

Our door was locked that night and I didn’t sleep a wink.