After having no luck talking to Kyle when he got home the day before, Brax had left it until the morning. By the time he woke up, Kyle had already left with Phoebe, leaving a note to say they had gone into Yabbie Creek for the day as Phoebe had an appointment, so to not bother him about needing to cover any shifts if someone called in sick. Someone had in fact called in sick, so Brax had to go in and cover for them as Ricky was already working her own shift.
Surf Club - Angelo's
"You okay?" Ricky asks him between serving customers.
"It's just all this with Kyle." Brax says, having thought a lot about it. "I don't know what to do."
"Is this about him getting angry at Casey yesterday?" Ricky asks.
"Partly. You haven't noticed anything else that I haven't, have you?" He asks, wanting to know that it wasn't just him and Casey who were now suspicious.
"Yeah, I've noticed quite a bit. Phoebe has been very forward when talking to me, she makes her opinions known. She has also tried telling me what to do a couple times, but you know me, I didn't stand for it." Ricky smiles, and Brax could help but smile as well.
"You never told me she was trying to boss you around." Brax says.
"I don't need you going in to fight my battles, I can handle her easily." Ricky says.
"There's no doubt about that." Brax nods.
"If she's been that forward and bossy with both me and Denny, I wouldn't put her past it with Kyle. He used to take time out of his day to talk to me about any old rubbish, but now I barely get a hello when she's around. When she isn't, he'll happily have a quick conversation, but not like we used to. He's changed, and I don't like it." Ricky says.
"So you have noticed." Brax sighs.
"Maybe we should hold a family meeting to find out if the others have noticed anything that we might not have. Now would be the ideal time with Kyle and Phoebe in Yabbie Creek, so we wouldn't have to worry about them suddenly rocking up." Ricky says.
"Yeah, I think that's a good plan for now. I'll go down to the gym to get Heath and Casey, and I'll also get them to call Bianca and Denny to come as well. We can't have this getting out to Kyle or Phoebe or it could just make things worse." Brax says.
"If it can get worse." Ricky mutters as he goes to let them know.
Within ten minutes, Brax, Ricky, Casey and Denny were sitting at a table near the back of Angelo's where it was the quietest. As Brax didn't tell them what the meeting was going to be about, they had guessed while they waited for Heath and Bianca. Although Casey had a good idea what it could be about, so did Denny. Then a couple minutes later, Heath and Bianca walked in, joining them at the table.
"What's this about? Or do we need to wait for Kyle?" Heath asks.
"Kyle's not coming." Brax says, slightly frowning at what Heath thought this meeting was going to be about.
"But it's a family meeting, he should be here." Heath frowns.
"This is a family meeting about Kyle." Ricky says.
"You better not have told him there was a family meeting." Brax glares at him.
"Nah, I haven't spoken to Kyle today. And I'm taking that as a hint to not tell him either." Heath says.
"Yeah it is. Neither Kyle or Phoebe can know about this meeting. And we need you to take this seriously." Brax firmly says, them all nodding in agreement.
"Has he done something bad?" Casey asks, wanting to know if anything else had happened since he last saw Brax at the gym the day before.
"No, nothing he's done. It's Phoebe, something isn't right about her, and Kyle's changed a lot since she's been around. I can't work out what's wrong, but there's just some things that aren't right. Have you noticed anything, no matter how small?" Brax asks, needing more to go on.
"It might not be relevant, but he's covering up more." Bianca says, them all looking at her. "It's nearly summer and he's still wearing hoodies and jumpers."
"Actually, I've noticed that too." Casey says as he thinks about it. "That day we hung out on the beach when Phoebe was away at the gig, he wouldn't take his jumper off even though I could see that he was sweating. And then that comment I made about it yesterday, he bit my head off for it."
"I remember that day now." Brax sighs, never having thought anything of it at the time. "Anything else?"
"What about him suddenly skipping shifts?" Heath says. "He's always gone over the top for this job to impress you, now he's bailing any chance he's got."
"I'd hardly say it's to impress me. He wanted this job just as much as I needed a new manager." Brax says.
"You're telling me you've never noticed?" Casey scoffs.
"Noticed what?"
"How much Kyle looks up to you." Bianca says. "You took him in without even knowing him, accepting him into this family without second guessing it. Then you gave him a job, a manager's job at that, and didn't expect anything out of it. You've seriously not noticed?"
"I did that because he's family. I wasn't going to kick him to the dirt like dad." Brax says.
"You're telling us, truthfully, you've never even slightly noticed it?" Ricky asks.
"We're not here about that. Is there anything else I need to know about Kyle?" Brax asks, not sure if they were bluffing or not as he had never noticed it. "Anything?"
"Apart from the fact this has all happened since Phoebe turned up?" Casey comments. "And we all knew how much Kyle loved Victoria. I honestly don't think they would have broken up if Phoebe never showed up in town."
"I tried talking to Victoria when I saw her after that happened, but she was having none of it. Something was said to her, possibly by Phoebe." Brax says. "I need you to all keep an eye out for anything, and make it discreet. We don't need Kyle or Phoebe to find out we've spoken about it, or it could massively backfire." He firmly says, them all nodding.
"You know I wouldn't say anything, there's only one person who doesn't seem to believe us." Casey mutters.
"Will you just shut up, Casey!" Heath moans. "After hearing all this I realise it's more than I thought. So maybe I didn't want to believe that Phoebe isn't who she makes out to be, but Kyle wouldn't still be in a relationship with her if he didn't want to be!"
"It's not that simple, Heath." Brax says. "I can't go into it, but I don't think Kyle would simply break up with her. Phoebe is holding something against him, she has to be."
Brax didn't even have a single thought that Phoebe could be the abusive ex girlfriend of Kyle's, it hadn't even come to mind. He knew something was off with her, but he had no idea what. He knew if he could sit down and talk with Kyle without anything, or anyone getting in the way, he'd be able to find out what was going on. But that wasn't an option, not with Phoebe turning up out of the blue all of the time.
"Nah, cause there's something you know that you won't tell us, and neither will Kyle." Heath says. "Don't you think if it's got something to do with Kyle acting like this, you should be telling us?"
"No, I don't. Kyle trusted me to keep it between us. No matter how serious it is, I can't betray his trust like that, it's the only thing I'm counting on right now. If Kyle doesn't think he can trust us, what good is that going to do?" Brax says.
"It will just push him further towards Phoebe, and that's what we're trying to avoid." Ricky says. "All we need to do from now on is discreetly try and work out if there's anything going on in their relationship that explains Kyle's behaviour. We're still his family, and he needs us."
"I know I don't live at home anymore to notice as much as you, but maybe some days I could stay the night so Kyle knows it's nothing against him." Casey says, hoping it would somehow help.
"Yeah, that could work. If we can bring this family back together, we might be able to find out what's going on more easily." Brax says.
"Well I could try and befriend Phoebe, see if that helps." Ricky says, Bianca agreeing with her.
"Yeah, that's a good thing to do." Brax nods. "So are we all clear on what needs to happen from now on?" Brax asks, getting a yes from all of them, so they all get back to work with a clearer plan on what happens next.