22

irl

kaia hangs up the phone and slides down the wall, collapsing to the floor.

"kaia? kaia, open the door!" chris shouts.

she chokes out a silent "no" before entirely bursting into tears.

nick and chris both turn towards james who is standing there awkwardly, still trying to get kaia's attention.

"explain to her." chris demands.

"dude, what? no. i don't care if she finds out, she'll always need me no matter what you tell her. you're all sick." james hisses.

"get the fuck out." nick points towards the door.

"what? no! she's still my girlfriend!" james argues.

"not anymore, she isn't. you need to leave." nick demands again.

james stands there analyzing both their faces and begins to look angry. before james can try anything, nick pushes chris out of the way and socks james in the dead center of his face.

his nose immediately starts bleeding and is very obviously broken, as well as a black eye starting to form.

"fucking faggot." james spits and turns around to open the front door.

chris picks up a steel toe boot that nate left at their house from his job, and hucks it at the back of james' head.

james immediately falls forward onto the pavement and is hilariously further injured. nick snaps a picture and slams the door shut.

chris stays by the bathroom door while nick watches out the window to see james eventually stand up and walk away.

"kaia? you okay?" chris asks quietly.

no response. just the sound of her crying on the bathroom floor.

"i'm getting mom." nick whispers to chris.

as nick is heading up the stairs to get marylou, she is already on the way downstairs.

"i was sleeping and i'm woken up to all this noise, what on earth are you guys doing? destroying my house?" marylou asks nick.

"no, mom. james was cheating on kaia with his ex girlfriend and she just found out. she locked herself in the bathroom and called matt and he told her everything." nick explains.

"oh, my. kaia talked to matt? wait, that still doesn't explain all the noise. where is james?" marylou asks.

"i might have punched him. and chris might have thrown nate's work boots at his head." nick says in a guilty voice.

"my boys." she smiles, walking the rest of the way downstairs and stopping at the bathroom.

"sweetie, it's me. would you just open the door so i can talk to you? i won't let nick or chris in." marylou speaks quietly to her.

"fine." kaia sniffles and unlocks the door.

marylou opens the door and nick and chris take a few steps back.

"do you want me to close the door so we can talk in private?" she asks kaia.

"no, it's fine." she sniffles and sits up.

marylou sits down on the bathroom floor next to kaia and puts an arm around her.

kaia is quick to hug back, and once fully embraced, she begins sobbing again.

marylou sits there and hugs kaia while she cries. nick and chris sit down on the floor outside the bathroom to be there for her.

jimmy walks downstairs, also awoken from his nap.

chris sees him and whispers and motions for him to leave.

"you sure?" jimmy whispers back.

chris nods and he returns to his and marylou's room upstairs.

"if it makes you feel any better, he's got a fucked up nose, one, maybe two, black eyes, and the back of his head is bleeding." nick says to kaia.

she giggles through the tears and marylou runs a gentle hand over her hair, brushing it out of her face.

nick and chris also laugh along with kaia and simultaneously ask if she's gonna be okay for now.

"yeah. i just need to sleep." kaia yawns.

"you can sleep here, sweetie. we don't wanna risk james showing up at your house or anything. i'll call your mom, okay?" marylou offers.

"okay." kaia sniffles, wiping tears from her eyes.

marylou stand up and goes to her room to call kaia's mother.

kaia stays seated on the floor and grabs toilet paper to wipe her nose.

"do you wanna sleep in one of our rooms or on the couch?" chris asks.

"i don't care. wait, matt's coming back, i need to leave." kaia quickly stands up in a panic.

nick hugs her to hold her still and comforts her to calm down.

"i will call matt right now, i promise he's not gonna bother you. you just need to fall asleep." nick explains.

"okay." she breathes deeply.

nick walks away to privately call matt and chris stays with kaia.

"whose room do you want to sleep in? i can take the couch if you want my bed." chris offers.

"nick, is matt coming back early?" kaia asks him from the living room.

"i'm trying to get him not to. either way, he's atleast 3 hours away." nick answers.

"if he's not gonna be here, can i sleep in matt's bed?" kaia asks.

"i'm sure he wouldn't mind." chris shrugs.

"i feel like i'm gonna pass out. i can't believe that all just happened." kaia says.

"hey, sit down." chris helps her back to the floor of the bathroom.

he sits down next to her and she rests her head on his shoulder while she begins to cry again.

she quickly slumps over and is crying with her head in chris' lap, he's tucking the hair behind her ears and out of her face.

kaia's hearing has gone to static while uncontrollably crying, it's difficult for chris not to also start crying by seeing her like this.

her mind races through every reason she might've deserved to be cheated on, maybe the way she acted? did it have anything to do with her dad impacting the way she was? the way her mother raised her to be a woman? everything kaia did as a child leading to her dating life inevitably failing once reaching adulthood?

please, picture me in the trees. i hit my peak at 7.

chris starts to tear up but wipes it away as he's focused on just comforting her, not his own emotions.

he debates whether or not he should call chloe, but decides he'll wait until morning.

he just sits there with her, and she eventually calms down and ends up falling asleep with him. after nick is done on the phone, he walks back to the bathroom and sees her asleep on chris.

"we need to get her to bed." nick whispers.

"she said she wants to sleep in matt's bed since he's not here." chris whispers back.

"he will be in a few hours, i couldn't get him to stay." nick responds.

"well, i guess matt is sleeping on the couch." chris shrugs.

they wait until she is fast asleep and work together to quietly carry her up to matt's room. kaia is a deep sleeper.

chris pulls back the blankets and they set her down in matt's bed. nick takes out her hair elastic and sets it on matt's nightstand.

he pulls the blanket back over her and she is fast asleep in matt's bed.

nick and chris go back downstairs to talk. they discuss everything that happened and what to do about james at school.

they end up watching a movie in the living room together.

after the movie was done, nick put on rupaul's drag race and chris went on his phone. they had to stay awake until matt got home so he wouldn't go in his room.

when they heard the car pull into the driveway, the boys turned around and saw justin and matt walk in the front door.

matt ran up to them and immediately started asking questions.

"where is she? is she okay? where's james? what happened?" matt asks repeatedly.

"calm down, matt." chris says to him.

matt sits down on the couch with the boys.

"james has been delt with. he's gone. and kaia is upstairs sleeping." nick explains.

"oh, okay. yeah, that's good." matt sighs.

"in your bed." chris adds.

"what?" matt asks, fighting the smile that's tugging at his lips.

"she didn't think you were gonna be here, so she said she wanted to sleep in your bed." chris states.

"actually?" matt questions.

"yes, actually." nick laughs.

"you can sleep in my room." chris says.

"fine." matt rolls his eyes.

nick says goodnight to his brothers and goes to bed in his room downstairs.

matt and chris walk upstairs and head towards chris' room. matt wants to peak in his room, but chris tells him not to.

the brothers fall asleep in chris' bed, and matt dreams about kaia.

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