Hi! Before you start reading, I highly suggest listening to Already Gone by Sleeping at Last on repeat during this chapter. Also, there will be more mention of sewerslide this chapter and slight mention of self-harm. Ok, that's all I have! Bye!!

I stood there in shock as I felt a tear well in my eye.

There are two types of people in this world. The first person gets angry and unleashes it on anything on anyone they can find. The second becomes overwhelmed and unwillingly cries.

I am a mix of them both.

Luciano and I held eye contact for what seemed like hours. I stared into his eyes that I haven't seen in 2 years. The eyes that saved me.

I felt a tear drop start to escape from my eye and roll down my face. I ignored it and turned to Antonio, who was staring at us weirdly.

"Can you give us a minute?" I asked quietly.

Antonio looked between me and Luciano and realization came over his face.

"Is he who you were-" He implored before I interrupted him.

"Yes! That's him. Now, please. Leave us." I snapped.

Antonio looked taken aback but nodded and slowly left the room.

Luciano and I stood in silence for a while.

"How have you been?" He asked me to break the silence.

"Why?" I questioned under my breath.

"Well, 'how have you been' is a common greeting for those who haven't seen each other in two years." He joked.

"And whose fault was that?" I deadpanned, causing him to go silent. "Why did you leave? I didn't even say goodbye. I thought you died. I thought that Sebastián had finally gotten to you. That after all those years of you protecting me from him, he finally stopped you. For good."

"Marls-"

"You don't get to call me that anymore. That name is reserved for close friends. My brothers. Not you. Not anymore." I uttered quietly, but he still heard me.

"Let me explain. Please. I did it for you. I didn't want to go, but I didn't have a choice. "

"You always have a choice. You made a choice in either leaving me or staying. And if what you're saying is right and you had my best interest at heart, then you would have stayed. You left me alone." I exclaimed.

"Sebastián made me leave." Luciano admitted.

"Sebastián has told you to do many other things and you never listened. Why did you listen then? What did he threaten you with? Or-or offer you?" I demanded.

"He told me that he would make your training harder and have you go on more missions. I was tired of you showing up at my door bloody and bruised, so I said yes."

This time I was the one who went silent.

"What did you think would happen? That if you left me with him that he would suddenly start to go easy on me? He tricked you, Luciano. He lied. And you believed him."

"It was a mistake!" He proclaimed.

"A mistake that almost cost me my life." I stated bluntly. I looked at him and shook my head. I turned around and walked out of the kitchen. As I was wondering aimlessly this morning, I did happen to stumble upon the gym.

I need to let some anger out and knew that I needed to hit something. I walked in and saw that none of my brothers were there. Perfect. I saw some tape sitting on a bench and wrapped up my hands. Not properly because I was never taught how to. I just watched people do it.

I walked up to a bag and threw the first punch. That felt good. I hit it again and got into a steady rhythm. I started to slowly fall into a deep trance as I mutilated the bag, Sebastián's words ringing through my head.

"Where did your little boy toy go?"

"No one is here to protect you now."

"You will never leave me."

"You're just a stupid, worthless piece of shit."

"You will never amount to anything."

I felt someone's hands on my shoulders and force me to stop punching the poor bag.

"Marls. Hey, hey, hey. Look at me." I heard Lorenzo's voice start to break through the wall of thoughts in my mind. "Marlowe. Marlowe, snap out of it."

I felt everything start to come back to me. I looked up at him and tried to pull away from his grip. He kept his hands on my shoulders so that I couldn't run away.

"Marlowe. Hey, stop. I need to look at your hands." He started to pull me towards one of the benches. I sat down and let him look at my hands, which I didn't even notice were bloody. The wrap must have slipped off while I was letting out all of my anger on the bag.

I watched as he slowly took off the wrap that was just loosely hanging on my hands. I winced as a piece of it brushed over one of my torn up knuckles.

"What were you thinking?" Lorenzo started to lecture me. "There are other ways to let out your anger. Blast music. Scream. Yell. This isn't the best way."

I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth. "I needed to feel something."

Lorenzo stopped looking at the wounds on my hands and snapped his gaze up to me. "What do you mean 'you needed to feel something,' Marlowe?" I didn't answer him. Instead I turned my head away.

This wall looks really interesting right now.

"Hey. Look at me. Marlowe." Lorenzo got between me and the wall.

I stood up and pushed his hands off me.

"No. You aren't running away. We are going to talk about this." Lorenzo's voice trailed after me as I speedwalked to the door.

His hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his chest. I pulled away and started lightly punching it.

"Let me go. Please." I pleaded.

"Not until you tell me what that was all about." Lorenzo told me.

"I can't! I can't tell you." I cried.

Lorenzo let go of my wrist and instead wrapped his arm across my back and pressed my head into his chest with his other hand. I stopped pounding on his chest and relaxed in his hold. I came undone. I sobbed into my brother's chest as he held me upright. I calmed down slightly and listened to his steady heartbeat.

Slowly, my breathing became normal and I pulled away. I couldn't meet his eyes.

He must think I'm so weak.

"I'm sorry." I muttered under my breath.

"It's okay, kiddo. What's going on? Is this about what happened this morning?" Lorenzo asked me quietly.

I shook my head. "I just saw someone I haven't seen in years."

"Where did you see them? You haven't been out since we came back from lunch?" Lorenzo questioned.

"He's Antonio's friend. I went downstairs and they were in the kitchen." I said quietly.

"Luciano?" Lorenzo asked.

I slightly nodded.

"Did he do something?" Lorenzo started to become protective.

I shook my head. "It's more of what he didn't do."

Lorenzo sensed that I didn't feel like talking about it and put his hand on the small of my back and guided out of the gym. He led me to the kitchen. Luciano and Antonio must have went up to his room or something. I sat down on one of the bar stools and Lorenzo got me a glass of water.

I slowly drank it. There was a small gift bag sitting on the countertop. He grabbed it and set it down in front of me.

"I got this for you. After we got home from lunch, I drove to the mall. I was going to give it to you, but I think that you could do to have it now." Lorenzo told me while giving me a small smile.

I took the bag's contents out and was met with another box. But not just any box, a phone box. I looked up at him. "Thank you."

He nodded. "Of course. I added a few modifications so that the Spanish won't be able to track you or anything. I put all of the boys' numbers on it, including mine. If you ever need anything, just call one of us."

I got up from my stool and walked over to the other side of the counter. I gave him a hug. There was still a big wet spot on his chest from my tears.

"I'm sorry for ruining your shirt." I told him sheepisly.

"It's okay, Marlowe. I have a lot of shirts. Speaking of that, follow me." Lorenzo walked up to his room, with me following right behind him.

He opened the door and told me to sit down on his bed. I did as I was told while Lorenzo shut the door.

"We need to talk about what happened in the gym." Lorenzo started.

I slowly nodded.

I am so not ready for this conversation, but here we go.

"How do you know Luciano?"

"We met when I was 8. He was 11. I was tired of everything. Sebastián, training, school, life. I wanted it all to end. One night, I snuck out of the house and went to a bridge. I sat on the edge for a while. I was about to let everything go when a boy walked up to me and sat with me on the ledge. We didn't talk for a while until he finally broke the ice and introduced himself. He told me that his name was Luciano. We talked until the sun came up. I knew that I was going to need to go back home, so we decided to meet at the bridge again the next night. We started going there every night. One night, I talked back to Sebastián and he gave me a particularly bad beating. I had a really nice shiner. Luciano made me tell him everything. He started asking me every night if Sebastián had touched me again. He saved my life."

"What did he do to you that made you become so upset when you saw him again?"

"He left. Without warning. One night, I went to the bridge to see him and he never showed up. For weeks, I kept going to the bridge and was there alone all night. Finally, I gave up. I stopped going to the bridge. After a while, I accepted the fact that I would never see Luciano again. I thought he died."

A tear dripped from my eye. Lorenzo quickly wiped it away.

"Is this the first time you hurt yourself to relief stress or anger?" Lorenzo continuted with his questions.

"I used to go to a fighting ring at home and I would take my anger out on other people. After Luciano left, I was like a powder keg that was just waiting to explode. I would start fights at school. I would get angry easily. I started talking back to Sebastián more and defending myself against him, too. But to answer your question, no. That isn't the first time I've used punching something or someone to let out some steam." I explained to him.

Lorenzo shook his head. "You're just like Antonio. He thinks he's so sneaky when he tiptoes to the gym in the middle of the night, but I hear him. I also heard you guys sneak into the house in the middle of the night. Where did you two go?"

Shoot. We fucked up Plan A. Time for my Plan B. Lie.

"Nowhere. I think you need to get your hearing checked or something." I responded with a snarky tone.

He gave me a weird look, like he knew I was lying.

Nahhh. I have a perfect poker face.

"Ok. Last question. Would you be interested in talking to someone? Someone that would be able to teach you healthier coping mechanisms."

I immediately shook my head. "No. I don't need to talk to someone."

"Are you sure? I can set something up with a click of a button."

I nodded. "I'm sure. I'm not into that kind of stuff."

Lorenzo nodded and gave up. He walked over to the door and opened it.

"Why don't you go downstairs and get something to eat."

I nodded and left.

I walked down the stairs to the kitchen. I heard laughing coming from the living room.

I changed my course of direction and started walking towards the laughter. Luciano and Antonio were sitting on the couch playing a video game.

The Luciano I knew didn't like video games.

I watched as they played. After their game was over, I cleared my throat. Both boys' heads snapped towards me. "Luciano, could I talk to you?" I asked him.

He nodded and slowly got up, setting the controller on the couch. We walked to the kitchen. He leaned up agianst the counter and I stood there, hugging myself with my arms.

"I just wanted to say, that I'm glad you're okay. I really thought that something had happened to you." I admitted to him.

"I'm glad you escaped." Luciano told me. "I know you always talked about doing it, but never did because of me and Haidyn. I'm glad that you were able to gather up the courage to finally leave."

I chuckled. "I bruised a few ribs in the process. And killed someone."

Luciano stared at me with questioning eyes. "Wait, who did you kill?"

"Well, I didn't kill him, but I might as well have. His name was Eric and he helped me escape. It was my fault he died." I looked down to the floor, then back up. "And I definitely killed Raphael Diaz."

Luciano laughed. "When did you do that?"

"This morning."

Luciano stopped laughing. "Wait, really?"

I nodded. "His body might still be in the basement, actually."

"Damn."

We stood in silence. I finally walked up to him and hugged him. He returned it almost instantly. It felt nice to finally be in his arms again after 2 years.

I finally felt like I was home.

-

lol hiiii!! so I am hopefully going to post those other chapters. so if you guys get lucky, this so won't be the only chapter posted tonight.

question of the chapter: who's your favorite brother so far?

mine is probably either Antonio or Orlando.

alright, that's all i have! bye!