Warnings for this chapter:
Chapter Seven
"I can't believe that you would be so stupid, Liam!"
"We trust you with a key to the house, thinking that we could trust you to look after yourself, and what do you do? You set the house on fire!"
Liam gave an annoyed sigh, arms folded and eyes glaring ahead at the wall. "Yeah, yeah. So you keep telling me."
Kurt stared at his son in horror. "Do you not know how serious this is? What if the house had burnt down, Liam?! We wouldn't have a home!"
"But I didn't burn the house down," The brunette pre-teen complained, rolling his eyes. "Geesh, I didn't even damage anything...well, besides half a curtain."
"Those were expensive curtains!"
Blaine put his hands on Kurt's shoulder, rubbing soothing circles into his collarbones. "Kurt, calm down. Look, leave this to me, alright?" With that in mind, he moved forwards, a stern look on his face as he studied their son. "It doesn't matter if it was half a curtain or half a house: you still set fire to something."
"Alright," Liam grumbled. "Fine. I'm sorry about your stupid furniture and the house."
Blaine sighed, shaking his head to himself. "It's not the furniture or the house-"
"Yes it is," Kurt disagreed.
The shorter man just continued on. "Liam, we were more worried about what might have happened to you: what if the fire had gotten worse, and you were trapped inside?" He shuddered, not even wanting to think about it. "You put yourself in danger: you nearly gave not only me and your Dad but your sister a heart-attack while you were in here."
Liam snorted. "Yeah, well. Meggie would have a heart attack anyway, what with the amount of crap she eats and then tries to throw up again."
There was a short silence, these words hanging in the air as the two men took them in.
"We're not talking about that," Blaine finally said quietly. "We're not here to talk about Meggie - we're here to talk to you. Liam, just think for a moment: that fire could have injured you - killed you even. And not only you; you had a friend over too! What if something had happened to him?"
Liam just shrugged.
"I don't even want to think about having to admit to his parents what had happened if anything had gone wrong," Kurt snapped, losing control again. "The fact that you didn't even think about your friend's safety...and to think, your Papa and I trusted you to stay home on your own."
Liam gave a bitter laugh. "Please. Meggie, though not a great person, gets home three minutes after I do. I'm hardly on my own."
"Well, now you won't be left on your own at all," Blaine decided firmly, and his son's hash façade slipped. "From now on either one of us or one of your grandparents will be home after you finish school. And, just to add to your punishment, you're grounded for two weeks: none of your friends can come over and the only time you leave this house is for school."
The pre-teen looked mortified. "That's...unfair! I didn't even do anything!" He gave an angry and harsh sigh as he stood up, glaring between the two men with an icy look in his eyes. "You know what, just 'cause you two have been pushed around and beaten up for all your life it doesn't mean you can tell me what to do!"
"Yes we can," Kurt muttered, somewhat calmly. "We're your Dads."
Liam looked between them, eyes lingering on Blaine. "You're not," He spat. "Not really. You're just Blaine. You're not my Dad - or my Papa, as you like me to call you - and you never will be."
Kurt could immediately see the hurt look in his husband's eyes appear - how upset he was due to that comment. It ignited a fire inside of him again, to protect Blaine, similar to how he supposed wild animals protected their mates. "Go to your room NOW!" He snapped shrilly. When his son didn't move, he straightened up and glared down at him. "Liam, if you don't then so help me, I swear I will bring your Grandpa Burt into this."
That was one way to make Liam Hummel-Anderson flinch, and flinch he did - even he knew an argument with Burt Hummel was the worst idea.
"Go, and don't come down until you're ready to apologize!" The tall man called to him angrily as the young boy retreated to his room. Once he had disappeared up the stairs, he turned to Blaine with a soft look on his face. "He didn't mean it. You know he didn't."
"Yeah, sure," Blaine mumbled, pulling away from Kurt. "I...I'm gonna head back to the restaurant now."
Kurt sent him a look. "But you don't have to be there for the show for another few hours yet - and we still haven't had dinner."
"I'll eat something there," The short man murmured, looking quite put-out and depressed as he grabbed his coat from the couch where he'd left it lying. "And...well, I could use the practice."
"You are such a little dick!"
Liam sent a cold glare to his older sister. "Shut up, Meggie."
She just continued to look disapprovingly at him. "How dare you say that to Papa?! Were you dropped on your head?!"
"Oh, piss off," He growled. "No one asked your opinion!"
"You are turning into such a little douche lately," Meggie hissed, folding her arms. "Setting fires, getting into fights... It's time you grew up."
And that was it. Liam really didn't care anymore.
"Grew up?!" He snarled, stepping forwards threateningly. "Grew up?! What?! So I can be like you are: a depressed, lonely little wreck who can't even get a boyfriend?!" When his sister fell silent at that, eyes wide, he continued. "God, Megs... And by the way, I found that book underneath your bed: the one you're writing down your weight in. Just face it, Meggie: you're never going to be a popular, beautiful and skinny person. Get used to it."
With that Liam turned away, knowing deep down that he had been quite rude and harsh unnecessarily - but at that moment, he just wanted to hurt her...not for being angry at him, though. No; he hated that she was so perfect - at least, in her school work and things like that.
"Meggie's predicted straight As."
"Meggie's doing a show next week with her dance troupe."
"She's so clever."
"Megs got on the cheer team."
Honestly, he was sick and tired of hearing about Meggie. So he wasn't as smart as her and he didn't do shows with a troupe: for once he just wanted people to listen to him - and definitely not refer to him as "Meggie's younger brother" or "the other kid of the two gay guys".
He knew it was a pathetic reason, but that was really how all of this 'bad' stuff he'd started taking part in had happened: he wanted people to pay attention to him, to notice him for some other reason than being the youngest of two children with gay parents or the younger brother of a teacher's pet.
Why couldn't he just be, 'Liam'?
Thomas honestly looked forwards to getting to have a sleepover with his friends; sure, it was only once every month or so but...still, it was fun and one of his favourite parts of the weekend.
"Okay!" Pepper said brightly, giggling to herself as she curled up in her sleeping bag. "I think we should watch Spiderman next!"
"No way," Brodie disagreed. "Batman is way better."
Thomas grinned to himself, looking down at his lap: it wasn't a sleepover without the usual Pepper-Brodie argument on which film or character was better, and he was more than happy to listen to it with amusement. However, when he looked up he spotted Meggie looking quite down, just staring at her own sleeping bag.
It's odd, he thought, frowning to himself. She hasn't said a word all night.
"...We are watching The Amazing Spider-Man and that is the end of it!"
"You only want to watch it because of Andrew Garfield!"
Pepper huffed and folded her arms. "Fine. Tom; you never choose a film. Choose one."
He blinked, not used to being put on the spot like he was now. "Uhh..." He shrugged, still worried about Meggie somewhat. "I...Let's watch Ratatouille. There. Stop arguing and put it on."
Pepper and Brodie both pouted slightly but got up to search through the DVDs in Pepper's room. The fact that Pepper's dad even allowed her to have three friends - two of them boys, for that matter - stay the night at the same time was amazing to Thomas...then again, it wasn't like they were actually doing anything.
"Let's open up the popcorn-"
Meggie gave a gasp, cutting Pepper off completely. "I...uhmm..." She suddenly stood, suddenly looking very pale. "I need the bathroom."
"You know where it is," Pepper told her casually before grabbing the television remote. "Do you want us to wait for you?"
Meggie shook her head hurriedly. "No, I've seen it tons of times; besides, as long as I don't miss any Linguini parts then I'll be fine."
And then she was gone, practically racing out of the room. Thomas just frowned more to himself; he'd never seen her act like that in his life before and it puzzled him...She seemed guilty, for some reason, and actually worried. Any reason for her to be worried was alarming to Thomas, so he quickly stood up as well.
"I need the bathroom too," He lied instinctively when Pepper and Brodie looked up at him. "I'll go downstairs...start without me."
Brodie shrugged. "Your loss, dude."
Making sure to close the door behind him, Thomas started a fast pace down the hallway and towards the bathroom - whatever was up with Meggie, she probably wasn't actually using the bathroom for its required purpose. His theory was proven correct when he pushed his ear up against the wood of the door seconds later and heard nothing but heavy panting noises.
The doors in Pepper's house didn't lock properly, he knew that. He knew it would have been polite to knock, but if he knocked then Meggie might have hidden what she was really doing and then there might have been a fight...
So instead he just pushed the door open and looked at the sink where his friend was standing.
Meggie's eyes widened at the same time his did. "Tom..."
Thomas could only stare at her, eyes drawn to her left arm; from the wrist upwards she had some rather fresh looking slashes that didn't look too deep but still looked rather painful and self-inflicted. One was bleeding, the scab probably peeling away within the last few minutes, and Thomas could now see that the arm of Meggie's pyjama shirt had a blood stain on it.
"What the fuck?!" He whispered, voice hoarse.
Meggie flushed bright red. "I... Get out."
"What have you done, Meggie?!"
And suddenly she was flaring up at him. "Get the fuck out, Tom!"
"Not until you tell me what the Hell is going on!"
Meggie's eyes flickered to the doorframe. "Shut the door. Now." Thomas did so, giving her a pointed look as he waited for her to spill; when he faced her again, he was giving him a pointed glare. "How much did you see?"
"Oh, I dunno... Just your arm covered in cuts!" Thomas seethed, enraged and upset by the whole ordeal. "You've been cutting, Meggie: and all this time, you've been telling me not to!" He folded his arms. "Why? Why the hell are you doing it?!"
His friend straightened up. "It's none of your business," She snapped half-heartedly. "And for your information, it was you doing it that gave me the idea of doing it!"
Thomas was absolutely stunned by this, not sure if she was serious. "Me?! You're blaming it on me?!"
"No!" Meggie hissed, tears appearing in her eyes. "I just...Tom, I can't cope anymore: I'm sick of being treated like shit at school. I'm sick of that fucking bitch Tammy insulting my appearance every cheer practice, and I'm sick of hating myself!" She gave a small sigh. "It's just... You seem to cope by doing it. You said it helps, a-and so have other people...I've been on the internet, and people say that it's h-helping them..."
Thomas shook his head, anger disappearing immediately. "Meggie...when I said that it helps me cope, I didn't mean...I didn't want you doing it! I know that it's wrong but I can't help it... It's like an addiction, you know! Once you start, y-you don't stop!"
"I know," She murmured, looking down at her arm; a tear rolled off of her nose and onto the basin of the sink. "I know. You can't tell anyone - especially not Pepper and Brodie. They...They'll call me a freak if they find out." She seemed to curl in on herself suddenly, looking terrified. "And you can't tell my D-Dads or brother either."
Thomas hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder so that she'd look up at him. "Meggie," He said softly. "You haven't told anyone about me doing it; I think it's only right that I don't tell anyone about you doing it." He reached down and clasped one of her hands in one of his. "It'll be our secret."
Meggie gave a sniffle, holding back her tears. "You promise?"
Thomas nodded. "I promise."
He was many things, but a promise-breaker? No. Not even he broke promises.
I'm publishing this chapter in aid of SIAD tomorrow (1st March wherever you are) - please raise awareness of Self-injury and break stereotypes... Wear something orange, write 'love' on your wrist, draw a butterfly to reference the 'butterfly project'...please, do whatever you can.
For those of you who don't know: Yes, I am a self-harmer and I am depressed. It's not easy to admit that, but if I hide it then it's not possible for others to come to me for help. This chapter was rather difficult to write for me on a deeply personal level, especially the last part, and I'd really appreciate it if no one left any flames such as "Self-harm is for losers" or "eww...only freaks do that" (but you're all nice, so...hopefully I'm worrying for nothing).
If any of you are struggling with SH or an eating disorder or ANYTHING please don't hesitate to contact me through tumblr or the PM service on her or SOMETHING.
On another note, another chapter finished! Hooray! :D I feel things are heating up, so... I'd like to clarify that this story is going to be somewhat similar to Glee in the sense that it will tackle a wide range of issues in today's society and help raise awareness of them.
Hope you girls and guys enjoyed!
