Song for this chapter: Lean On

- Major Lazer (ft. MØ and DJ Snake)

"Father dearest..." I start, walking into the kitchen on Sunday evening with a request needing to be approved by the one and only father.

"What do you want?" He questions, immediately getting straight to the point.

"There's this club opening on Friday night and someone that Myles knows works there and has agreed to let us in, can I go?" I ask, forcing my eyes to widen as I ready myself to beg if I have to.

"Yeah sure." He says.

"That easy?" I splutter, completely shocked at his immediate agreement when I was sure he would say no.

"Is Gray going?" He asks, finally turning his back to his precious baby frying pan to face me, his actual baby.

"Yes."

"Then of course you can go."

"What?" I ask, open mouthed, "what difference does it make that Grayson is going?" I confusedly raise my eyebrows as I stare at him.

"He's protective of you, I know that he'll not let anything happen to you." He says simply, shrugging his shoulders.

"But dad-" I start, but he interrupts me.

"I've said yes, haven't I? Why are you still bothering me kid?" He jokes, a huge grin on his face.

"I can look after myself." I mumble, looking at the ground. I notice him turning off the stove before he walks over to me and engulfs me in a hug.

"I know, baby. But I feel better when Grayson is with you." He explains and I find myself nodding my head briefly.

"So are me and Grayson allowed to go on holiday together, alone?" I smirk and watch as a frown makes its way into his face.

"Don't push your luck!" He points at me with a glare before turning back around to get on with his cooking.

"But father dearest," I taunt, "you said that as long as Grayson goes with me I'll be safe. He's protective over me." I repeat his words, smirking, "why can't I go on holiday with him?"

"Get out of my kitchen!" He shouts, holding up a wooden spoon and slicing it through the air pretending to hit me with it. I laugh loudly then exit the room, going up to my room to finish the history essay that is due tomorrow.

Non stop knocking at my bedroom door stops me from taking my history textbook out of my bag as I call for them to come in. Connor immediately strides across the room and lifts me into his embrace, my feet dangling as they can't reach the floor.

"Get off me." I groan as he tightens his arms further, it's almost like he wants to crush my organs.

When he finally places me down, I notice his solemn expression and I lean forward, wondering if I see tears in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I ask with my eyebrows furrowed.

"Nothing. I just needed a hug." He states, turning around but before he can leave, I grab his sweater sleeve.

"Connor, tell me what's wrong." I beg, pleading with my eyes as they widen at him.

"It's nothing, Lay." He says again. I pull him into another hug, wanting him to know that I'll always be here for him.

"I'm not gonna push you to tell me anything, but it might help you if you talk to someone. I'm here for you always, you know that?" I ask, tears coming to my eyes.

Connor is one of the happiest people alive, and seeing him like this makes me wonder what exactly has happened because he doesn't get upset for no reason. The thought makes me worry more.

"I don't want to bother you." He finally says and I suck in a breath. I push him to sit on my bed and stand in front of him with my hands on my hips.

"You wouldn't bother me. Listen to me," I grab his hands, "no matter where I am, who I'm with or what I'm doing; I'll always be there for you. No matter what you've done, I promise."

"It's nothing serious." He replies.

"Okay maybe not, but it's clearly bothering you."

"It's just things the guys are saying, about me being stupid because I'm still in high school. At first I thought it was just harmless banter, but it's constant. Whenever I put my hand up, someone has to say 'oh are you sure you're able to answer that college boy?' It's just so infuriating because I'm not dumb and the only reason I got held behind was for you and dad." He offloads and I nod my head in agreement, "and I wouldn't have it any other way because you're my sister and you were in a bad place. You and dad needed me." He quickly adds, not wanting to hurt my feelings.

"Con, we wouldn't have got through it all if you weren't there and I know that dad and I are so so grateful for what you gave up. You're my hero, you know that?" I tell him honestly. "And I don't mind going round to every guy who thinks they're funny by being horrible to you and telling them that." His mouth lifts up into a smirk and I smile widely.

"You prefer me to dad, don't you?" He wiggles his eyebrows. I love them equally, but I need to cheer Connor up so I tell him what he wants to hear.

"Yeah," I whisper, "but don't tell him that."

He smiles and about a second goes past before he runs off screaming to my dad about how I like him more. He's so childlike, it's ridiculous. When dad yells out in outrage, I burst into a fit of giggles, running downstairs to make amends with him before he stops me from going to the club.

"How does it feel, ass?" Connor taunts my dad, sitting at the island on a barstool, leaning his head on the palm of his hand.

"Almost as shit as when you were born." My dad retorts and I cover my mouth with my hand shouting out an 'ooooh'. "I don't know why you're piping up, the worst day of my life was you being born." He says, making me pout as Connor makes a scene.

"You're just mad that 'Con' was my first word, not 'dada'." I say, reaching around him to pick a carrot from the pile he's just chopped up. I ruffle his hair and then run to the other side of the room before he can hit me with the spatula or something.

"Why did I have to give birth to such little shits, Huh? I'm so tired of the both of you." He states, making both Connor and I laugh.

"You gave birth to us?" Connor questions and my dad turns around and throws a small cut up piece of pepper at his face.

"Child abuse!" Connor calls at dad, pointing his finger at him.

"Oh? You wanna see child abuse?" My dad yells with a huge smirk on his face as he raises his mighty spatula. Connor screams before running back upstairs to his room and I do the same before my dad can even point the weapon at me.

Man, I love my family.

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Monday mornings are the worst days to wake up on, and what makes them even worse is a bucket of ice cold water being the method used to wake you up. Yet again, Grayson and Lydia stand at each side of my bed looking down with fearful gazes.

I feel my eyes well up as tears start to fall down my face, but Grayson quickly wipes them away and hauls me out of bed.

"Stop being dramatic."

"That water was freezing! Why the hell did you put ice cubes in it as well?" I ask outraged, my shivering body and probably purple lips are evidence of the sheer coldness of that water they just threw on me.

"Want me to warm you up?" Grayson flirts and I glare daggers in his direction. It's way too early for him being in my presence.

"Don't bring him next time." I say to Lyds, pointing my finger at him, watching as his green eyes narrow and he takes one step forward, reaches his arms out and effectively picks me up, before walking me into the bathroom and placing me fully-clothed in the shower.

"You smell." He states. I gasp dramatically, obviously knowing that I don't smell since I only showered yesterday, but my eyes narrow anyway and I reach forward to whack him around the head. He grabs my hand, reaching around me and turning the shower on. The water at first is freezing, and I whimper as I press myself against the wall in attempts to get away from the ice cold temperature.

"That was unnecessary." I groan and then push him away, he runs out of the bathroom laughing and I strip, taking a shower as quickly as I can because I hear Lydia shouting at me to hurry up.

When I leave the bathroom, I notice my clothes left on my bed. I love how Lydia does this every morning, it's like she doesn't trust that I can pick out my own clothes. Maybe she's afraid of me not matching her if I pick them out because she literally colour coordinates us. Psycho.

"Did you bring the goods?" I ask Grayson with a deep voice and he raises his eyebrows at me before grinning and holding up the Starbucks bag.

"You," I point at him, walking forward to retrieve the bag, "are a legend." I finish pulling him towards me to hug him. His arms wrap around my waist and he lifts me up from the ground slightly before putting me back down a second later and letting me go.

"C'mon, lets go." Grayson says, taking my hand and Lydia's arm and dragging us behind him. Lydia complains all the way until she's sat in the backseat of the car and I frown in confusion at the whereabouts of Myles and Reece.

"Where are the boys?" I ask. Lydia looks out of the window and I frown on confusion. I wonder if her and Myles are still in a fight.

"They're riding together." Grayson says simply, not willing to tell me anything else when he clearly knows more. I respect him not telling me his friends secrets but when Lydia is in the backseat pouting out of the window, I'm curious to know what's up.

However, despite the urge to interrogate him, I remain quiet. I place my lips firmly together to stop my curiosity getting the better of me and look out the window to distract myself.

"Why are you being grumpy?" Grayson questions, laughing. "It's not my place to tell you, don't be angry." He mutters and I smile widely at him.

"I'm not angry, I was just trying to stop myself from asking questions." I giggle and he rolls his eyes. I grab his phone and play his playlist, thinking it would be fair to finally let him listen to his music rather than One Direction like we listen to every other morning. FML by Arizona Zervas plays causing Lydia to scream from the back seat in excitement.

"You're annoying." Grayson states, looking through his mirror at Lydia in the backseat.

"You love it really, Gray Gray." She sings and then starts screaming the lyrics. Grayson winces and turns to send me a grave look but winks when he notices me already looking at him.

When we reach school, Myles and Reece are waiting by the car and we park next to them. Reece smiles when he sees Lydia but she completely ignores him and her brother and walks straight into school, not bothering to wait for me.

"Uh Lydia?" I call, manoeuvring my bag into my shoulder after I've stepped out of the car, but she continues to walk. "I'll see you guys later, I guess?" I say and watch as all three boys nod their heads before I run off to catch up with Lydia.

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We're told about the music concert during music, Grayson immediately looks over at me asking whether I'd wanna duet and I shake my head, not sure whether I'll be ready for that or not. I'm sure he'll talk to me about it later.

History class drags, feeling like it lasted five hours as we revised the civil war for about the hundredth time.

Don't even get me started on math class. I genuinely feel like I would've died before it was over and I didn't understand any of it.

I spend lunch with just Lydia on the quad after her telling me that she didn't wanted to cause any trouble between Myles and Reece and her so she wanted to stay away to give Myles time to cool off. I want to have a chat with Myles but I didn't want to get involved when perhaps she didn't want me to. I could tell it was eating away at her though.

I decide to go to the music room after school, wanting to use the room's acoustics with my voice. Everyone usually goes straight home on a Monday after school so I basically have the entire school to myself. No one will be disturbing me.

"Hey."

Except for Grayson Reed, I guess.

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