Chapter 34

Ruby had been sitting trying to digest all that Casey had told her. She could see the worry and pain in his eyes and his voice and she didn't want to say the wrong thing to him to cause him anymore pain.

"Do you hate me?" Casey asked her after the long silence "I wouldn't blame you if you did, what I done its…"

"Stop" Ruby said putting her hand over his mouth "Why didn't you tell me any of this sooner?"

"Well the thing in juvie, when I got back we were going to prom and looking to the future. We were so happy and I didn't want you to hate me or be disgusted by what I had done, you're one of the good things in my life. I couldn't bear for you to reject me or look at me with horror and disgust. "

"And the stuff with school?"

"After everything that happened with your mum everything had just started to settle and I didn't want to cause anymore drama. I thought I could handle it but I guess I was wrong because it just got worse and then I didn't know what to do"

"Well for one I don't hate you, I'll be honest I am shocked but I don't hate you and I can understand how… why it happened. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like for you in there. You could have told me, I am not going to judge you or leave you because of what happened. You were protecting someone Case, it may have ended badly but you had good intentions to protect someone from a bully."

"That's what your mum said"

"Well she's right. Casey I want you to know that you can talk to me, I love you. I know things have been crazy around here lately but you need to remember that you matter as well."

"I guess I just got used to not talking that I didn't know how to open up"

"Well that's something we are going to have to work on"

"Yeah! Ummmm your mum suggested I speak to someone about things, like a professional."

"That's not a bad idea maybe you should give it a go"

"I might, we have a new school counsellor I thought maybe when I feel ready maybe I will go and see them"

"I'll support and be there for you no matter what you do. Speaking of school, you know what he said wasn't true. You Casey Braxton are going to amount to something, you're going to finish school and go on to uni to be whatever you choose to be" Ruby said smiling at her boyfriend as she pulled him into her arms and kissed him.

"Don't ever leave me Ruby, I don't know what I would do without you" Casey said relieved that he had finally told Ruby about what had been going on.

"I'm not going anywhere" Ruby said.

Braxton House

"I'm gonna kill him" Heath said as he seethed with anger at what Mr Townsend had been doing to Casey

"Heath calm down, the situation is being dealt with, maybe not the way you would like to deal with it but at least this way he's the only one getting into trouble and neither of you are facing assault charges" Charlie said. She had explained everything to them asking that they don't interrupt until she was done telling them all that had been going on.

"No one talks to my brother like that and gets away with it" Heath said pacing up and down

Charlie glanced at Brax who had sat through it all silently; she could see a myriad of emotions playing out on his face.

"Heath sit down" Brax said in a tone leaving no room for arguments

"So what's the school going to do?" He said looking at Charlie

"Gina's said she'll get back to us on the situation but I made it clear that Casey as well as Sasha have been through a lot recently and the situation should be dealt with in a way that doesn't cause any more stress or upset to them. I also told her that Casey won't be attending anymore of Mr Townsend classes. She still needs to talk to Sasha as she can back up Casey's side of things but I also saw Mr Townsend act inappropriately with Casey when we got to the school which I explained to Gina"

"So what we just wait" Heath asked irritated

"Yeah but now it's out in the open I doubt Mr Townsend will be allowed to stay in the school until the investigation is complete. Now we know, I think Casey will be more open to talk to one of us about the situation if anything else occurs" Charlie said trying to relieve the tension in the room

"Why didn't he come and speak to us sooner, why didn't he come to talk to me" Brax said feeling like he had somehow failed his brother

"He just didn't want to add any more stress" at Brax's look she put her hand up to stop him from talking "I told him that no matter what's going on he should feel he can speak to one of us and he now knows that"

"What I don't get is why is it you telling us all this and not Casey, why is he so scared to talk to me. I asked him about juvie, I gave him to opportunity to tell me about anything bad that might have happened?"

"Brax he was scared" Charlie said trying to explain things

"What of me, there's no reason for him to have felt like that"

"He was scared of you being disappointed in him. You know he looks up to you; he didn't want to see the disappointment on your face once you found out. Brax we all know your main goal with Casey is to make sure he doesn't live the life you and Heath had, that he has more… an education. He feels he's let you down with all that's happened and he felt that if you found out about what happened when he was away you may be even more disappointed in him"

"He was looking out for someone, I'm not disappointed about what he's done. He's got enough good in him to feel bad about it. I'm just disappointed he didn't come and talk to me about it"

"Brax his heads all over the place and after everything's that happened I guess he felt he couldn't talk to anyone but it's out in the open now so let's just be there for him and help him"

As they sat in silence, Heath and Brax trying to take everything in they were brought out of their thoughts by the door opening. Ruby walked in ahead of a hesitant Casey.

"Ruby, how about we go to Leah's and see if Darcy is ready to come home." Charlie said wanting to give the brothers time to talk

"Umm okay" Ruby said realising that her mum wanted to give the boys time to talk. Ruby was reluctant to leave Casey but knew that they needed to talkut knew that they needed to talk; taking his hand she kissed him on the cheek and whispered "It'll be all right, they're your brothers, and they love you. I love you" she let go of his hand as she walked out the door with her mum.

As they made their way to Charlie's car Ruby pulled on her mums hand to bring her to a stop. Charlie was surprised as Ruby unexpectedly wrapped her arms around her to give her a hug.

"Hey, what's this for?" Charlie asked as her daughter held her tight in her arms

"Thank you" Ruby said kissing her mum on the cheek and pulling back from the hug "Thank you for helping Casey, he told me how you spoke to him and what you did at the school, your reassurance and sticking up for him, it really helped him"

"No thanks you needed, I am just glad that I was able to help him and hopefully things will get better for him" Charlie said as they resumed making their way to the car.

Sitting in silence the brothers didn't really know what to say, not really being big talkers when it came to feeling and not wanting to say the wrong thing.

"Can one of you just say something?" Casey said feeling worried by their continued silence

"Honestly Case I want to go smack that teacher in the face" Heath said still feeling angry about hearing about how he had been treating his brother

"It's being dealt with so don't go getting yourself into trouble, you got Darcy to think about" Casey said not wanting his brother to do anything that would get him into trouble with the police

"Why didn't you tell us" Brax said finally speaking

"About…..?" Casey asked

"Well firstly the school situation" Brax asked

"We've just got back to normal, with everything that's been going on I didn't want to tell anyone about it. At least at home everything was finally alright, I thought I could handle it and then when it got too much I just thought at least when I come home everything's finally good. I didn't want to rock the boat."

"Case you should have told us, no matter what is going on you are important if anything's bad, if anyone is troubling you, you talk to us got it" Brax said to his brother never wanting him to feel like he can't talk to him

"I guess I needed reminding of that, but I know that now. I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I spoke to Gina about it all now"

"I just wish I could have been there for you" Brax said looking to the floor

"That's alright, you should have seen Charlie she handled it all really well. Mr Townsend tried to manipulate her when she caught him talking to me rudely in the corridor. She was having none of it and with Gina as well, it helped that she would go out of her way to stand up for me. She really stood up for me even though she didn't have to, she could have just passed the situation on to you two but she didn't and I suppose it helped me to feel like I wasn't as worthless as I thought"

"Casey don't ever feel like that, don't let anyone make you feel like that. I may not say it often but you are the good one out of us three. I may not have been supportive about the whole school thing in the past but you are going to make something of yourself Casey. You got the brains out of the three of us" Heath said upset that his brother ever thought that about himself

"With juvie and then Mr Townsend I just started to believe it, I started to think that maybe it was true. What I done….. , that guys face is scarred because of what I done" Casey said as he fiddled with his hands not wanting to look at his brothers

"Casey why didn't you tell me, I asked you when you came out if you wanted to talk about anything that may have happened while you were in there?" Brax asked still not understanding why Casey didn't speak to him about it.

"When I first got out I went to prom with Ruby and we were talking about the future and I just wanted to forget. Then everything with Charlie, you were so lost and broken Brax I couldn't talk to you about it"

"What about me?" Heath asked, even though he knew that Brax and Casey were probably a lot closer especially because Brax had taken on the role of parent as they were growing up but he still felt like Casey should have been able to go and talk to him.

"You were finally stepping up Heath, being there for Brax and then taking care of Darcy. I just felt like I couldn't talk to anyone and I didn't want to. I didn't want for anyone to hate me for what I done, I didn't want Brax to be disappointed in me"

"Casey we are family, your my baby brother and always will be. No matter what, I am always going to be there for you and just for the record I am not disappointed in you. You stood up for someone, that's you always wanting to stand up for people."

""But Brax the guys scarred" Casey said still feeling bad for what happened

"Teaches him a lesson for bullying people" Heath said feeling like he got what he deserved if he went around pulling knives on people and bullying them

"HEATH!" Brax said giving his brother a stern look "Casey he could have killed your friend, if you never stepped in then someone could be burying their son, you were looking out for someone. That's what you got to remember okay"

"I'm trying to, Charlie said that I need to remember that someone is here because I stepped in and who knows how seriously hurt Tyler would be if I didn't do anything"

"Well Buckton's right Casey so just remember that okay" Heath told his brother

"Sounds like she gave you some sound advice" Brax said glad that she had been able to talk to Casey and find out all that had been going on.

Leah's House

Leah and Charlie had been catching up over a glass of wine sitting in her kitchen as Ruby helped Darcy and Vj with their assignment in the living room.

"It's good doing this again" Leah said as they sat at the table with wine and snacks "I do miss living with you"

"Aww Leah I do as well but it is nice living with Brax, not to sound to mushy but it's wonderful waking up with him by my side in the mornings"

"It's not mushy, I know the feeling" Leah said wistfully

"How are you coping without Miles, I know it's been a bit of time but something tells me you still miss him"

Sighing Leah played with the rim of her wine glass "I do miss him, not only did a relationship break up but I lost one of my best friends" Leah told Charlie feeling upset that she had lost a really good friend from her life.

"Given time you could get the friendship back, they do have phones over there or you could e-mail him."

"Yeah, but I think maybe he needs his time to heal from all that happened between us"

"I think your right, but remember you were both really good friends before you got together, given time you could salvage that if your both willing to try" Charlie told her as she placed her hand on Leah's and gave it a squeeze. As they sat chatting Bianca came walking past the kitchen window and knocked on the door.

"Hey Bianca" Leah said as she opened the door to let her in

"Hi, ummm hi Charlie" Bianca said looking to her once best friend

"Hi" Charlie said as she took a sip of her wine.

"Can I get you a glass" Leah asked Bianca

"I'm not really staying long I just wanted to ask you a favour" Bianca asked feeling a little awkward. Although she and Charlie were civil they hadn't really spoken properly.

"Okay, what's up?"

"I wanted to ask if you would do the catering for mine and Liam's engagement party. We didn't really want to have one before with everything that was going on so decided now would be a good time."

"Well I would be delighted to do the catering for you, where are you holding it?" Leah asked pouring out more wine into her glass

"Ummm we're not sure yet, still in the process of sorting that out"

"I would of thought you would have done it at Angelo's, Liam could try to get mates rate plus a staff discount on hiring the place" Leah said laughing trying to lighten the tension in the room

"I'm not sure whether that's possible but we're looking into venues"

"Have you asked Brax about using Angelo's" Charlie asked speaking directly to Bianca

"After the last time we ran into each other I didn't think it would be a good idea"

"That's was weeks ago, despite how he might feel about you Liam is a friend of his so I think he'd be fine with you guys having the engagement party there. Well that's if you want it there"

"Angelo's would be a lovely venue, I'll talk to Liam. Right well I better get going. Bye Leah Charlie" Bianca said as she exited the house.

"Well that wasn't awkward" Leah said

"I haven't really seen Bianca, I suppose it's just weird since we used to be such good friends and now I'm not even sure what we are and then there's the tension and awkwardness. It's weird to have been so comfortable and at ease around someone that you don't have to think how to act then to go to not knowing how to be with them at all. Does that make sense?"

"I get what you mean. Maybe like you said about me and Miles, given time you could salvage your friendship if your both willing to try"

"I suppose your right" Charlie said giving Leah a warm smile, Charlie had been more focused on dealing with other things that she hadn't really given the situation with Bianca much thought. "Leah it's been great but I think we should get going it's getting late" Charlie said as she called into the front room for Ruby and Darcy to get ready.

"Come round more often okay, I miss our chats. We're gonna have to make more of an effort now we're not living together" Leah said as they embraced at the door

"I will and you're welcome to come round anytime as well" Charlie told her as she, Ruby and Darcy made their way to the car.