Surf Club - Angelo's
"The night out tonight is going ahead, so I'll cover for Lucas." Kyle says as he picks the rota up.
"Do you not want to go with them?" Ricky says. "We can try and find cover for you."
"No, I'm not in the mood for a night out." Kyle says. "And George told the girl he's dating about the night out, so now she's going with her friends as well."
"What's that got to do with you going?" Ricky frowns.
"She's best friends with Emily and I really don't want to face her right now." Kyle says.
"Just because they're best friends, it doesn't mean she'll be going tonight. Are you really going to miss out on having fun with your friends just so you can avoid her?" Ricky asks.
"It's one night out, I'll go on the next one." Kyle says.
"Kyle-"
"Ricky, I'm trying to move on. Also this is the first shift back since Brax kept swapping them, so I'm going to cover for Lucas considering he covered a couple for me." Kyle says. "Now can you please stop trying to convince me to go on this night out because it's not going to happen. And tell Brax the same when he looks at the rota." He says, seeing his brother walking through the door as he went to check on some customers.
"What was that look for?" Brax asks his girlfriend, frowning as he's handed the rota.
"Kyle is now covering tonight's shift for Lucas so he can go on the night out instead." Ricky says. "I tried convincing him that they could both go, but he didn't want to."
"Is he still using the excuse of 'moving on'?" Brax asks.
"Yes he is." Kyle says as he walks back over, handing the empty plates he was carrying to another waitress.
"It's been a week since you last spoke to Emily, are you sure it's what you want?" Brax asks.
"You've changed your tune." Kyle mutters.
"You were happy with her, that's all I mean by it."
"She wasn't happy with me, that's why she was always with Brent." Kyle stares at him. "Now will you all stop talking about it because I am trying to move on."
"Okay." Brax smirks.
"Why're you laughing?" Kyle asks.
"I wasn't laughing. It's just you've said you're moving on pretty much every hour since you last spoke to Emily, yet you're always mentioning her, or even looking at pictures of you both on your phone." Brax says. "Normally people wouldn't keep talking about them, and would delete pictures of them if they were really moving on. I'm just wondering if you want to move on from Emily, or move past this with Emily."
"What do you mean by 'move past this with Emily'?" Kyle asks.
"You still love her, we can all see it." Ricky says. "You said she told you her version, and you wanted to believe her, but you also didn't want to be hurt again. You need to think about what you really want, so if that's being with Emily, go get your girl." She smiles.
"I can't just ignore the fact that she didn't do anything about him being so obsessive." Kyle says.
"She can't help it if a guy is obsessed with her. I couldn't and now we're thinking about marriage." Ricky says, not having meant to bring the marriage thing up around his brothers just yet.
"So you think she'll end up getting with him?" Kyle frowns.
"No… I just meant she can't control what this Brent guy is like about her." Ricky says.
"Yes there is. If she was that uncomfortable because of how he is, then could have reported it to anyone. It's basically harassment and stalking." Kyle says.
"He's got a point." Brax says. "She'd do something to stop it if she really wanted to."
"Exactly." Kyle says to her. "Now stop talking about it and tell me why you mentioned marriage when you are with Brax, who might I add is against anything like that." He says, being whacked around the head by his brother.
"Things change." Brax says. "We've spoken a lot about it recently."
"I think we've found a witness." Ricky says to Brax, them both knowing what it meant.
"More like a victim with how he's been." Brax says.
"Why are you calling me a witness and a victim?" Kyle asks, them both smiling at him.
Braxton House
"I spoke to Ricky to see if she could talk Kyle around, but I don't think she's had much luck." Casey says.
"So Kyle's not coming tonight?" Lucas asks. "I thought he was going to find me cover, not that he would be the cover."
"I think it's more because Emily is going to be there tonight." Casey says, Lucas looking confused.
"What's Emily got to do with our boys night out?" Lucas asks. "She wasn't going to be hanging around us, just be in the same bar."
"You have noticed that he's still madly in love with her, haven't you?" Casey asks as Kyle walks in, but his triplet didn't see him or Brax standing there.
"Then why won't he do something about it?" Lucas asks. "If that was me, and I thought something could be saved in the relationship, I'd try to do something about it."
"It's more complicated than that." Kyle says. "But thanks for backing me and being on my side."
"Kyle." Lucas gasps as he faces him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by it."
"Didn't you?" Kyle says.
"Kyle." Brax warns, not wanting to deal with the fallout of a fight.
"You love her and if you thought it was really over, you wouldn't be looking at old pictures of you both." Lucas says. "I want you to be happy, and you were happy with her."
"I look at old pictures because life for me was so much simpler back then and it reminds of how hard things are now. I was happy with her, but she was happier with Brent, so I'm not going to go after a girl that can't even be straight with me. But sure, if it keeps you happy, I'll ruin my life even more." Kyle snaps, walking to his room and slamming the door.
"I didn't mean to upset him. I want what's best for him." Lucas says, glancing down. "He doesn't like having me around, does he?"
"Of course he does, things are just complicated for him." Casey says.
"But he said his life was simpler in his old pictures. Most of them were taken before he knew about me, which means I'm making things more complicated for him."
"Lucas, stop overthinking this." Brax says. "He's torn over whether he should talk to Emily again so they can come to some sort of… I don't even know what he's calling it. He kind of spoke to Ricky about it but he wouldn't say what he was going to do about it."
"Fine." Lucas sighs, still not convinced.
"I thought Kyle was covering your shift?" Casey frowns at him.
"Well I thought he said he was." Lucas says, glancing over at Brax.
"Something else has come up so someone else is covering for you." Brax says.
"You know how unconvincing you sound." Casey says to his eldest brother.
"Kyle's helping me with something, so someone else is covering the shift." Brax says.
"What's he helping you with?" Casey asks.
"Me and Ricky just thought we'd take his mind off his break up, so I'm going to keep him occupied for a couple days." Brax says. "Now stop asking questions cause I've now got to try and get through to Kyle again." He rolls his eyes, walking into the hallway to his brother's room.
"I'm sorry." Lucas calls into the hallway.
"Don't take it personally." Casey says. "Yes, he really loved Emily, but he's been cheated on in the past more than once. He doesn't think life has become complicated since you arrived, it will be since this Brent guy started making Kyle feel small and have doubts."
"But he's not, he's the best guy for her, for anyone." Lucas says.
"We know that but Brent wanted to be with Emily so bad and was doing everything to break them up." Casey says. "I thought they were endgame. They were so good together but maybe it wasn't enough if there was no trust."
"Are you always this…" Lucas starts, struggling to find the right word.
"Normally I'd be telling Kyle to get over it, and if this happened a year ago, I'd be saying he deserved it. He's been through too much and he deserves to be happy." Casey says.
"He does, and that's what I was getting at." Lucas says as there is a knock on the door, seeing a guy neither of them recognised.
"Can we help you?" Casey asks.
"I'm looking for Kyle Braxton, he lives here?" They ask.
"Don't tell me, you're another secret brother?" Casey jokes, smirking at Lucas.
"No, I'm Emily's brother, Reece." He says.
"Oh, I'll go and get him." Lucas says, not wanting to be left with the awkwardness.