Braxton House

"So about us moving back to Melbourne, I was thinking we could find an apartment in the suburbs we always used to hang out in. Do you remember the places there? We broke into one once and crashed there for the night. I really liked that place and can imagine us living there, even with a kid running around screaming it's head off, and you know how I feel about kids." Phoebe says before laughing.

"Phoebe, can you please stop bringing it up? I've told you I don't want to go back to Melbourne, this is my home." Kyle sighs, not knowing what it would take for her to stop forcing it on him.

"There's nothing keeping you here!" Phoebe groans.

"My family is here, the only family I've got." Kyle says.

"They never include you in anything they do anymore, they don't even acknowledge you half the time. Wake up, Kyle, they're not interested in you. You wouldn't have to worry about any of that in Melbourne, you'd be free of them."

"I get that, but I don't want to leave this place. You wouldn't understand."

"Why wouldn't I? I understand you more than all of them put together. Just tell me."

"This is the first place that I felt like I belonged, I finally had a family that cared about me. I don't want to lose that yet."

"That's so pathetic!" Phoebe laughs. "How can you belong in a place like this with people that don't care about you anymore?"

"Just because you can't notice it, it doesn't mean they don't care. They're just busy with their own lives right now, and I'm okay with that. I'm not moving back to Melbourne, just please stop asking me to go!" Kyle says, a lot firmer than he was expecting.

"You don't belong here. We can be happy in Melbourne, what part of that don't you understand?" Phoebe shouts.

"Because I won't be happy there! I hated my life in Melbourne and I don't want to live there again. I like it here and this is where I want to stay."

"We are not staying here!" Phoebe says.

She swung her fist around to punch Kyle, this time not stopping after one. She kept laying punch after punch into him, and Kyle just let it happen, falling to the floor to shield his body from her blows. Silent tears fell from his eyes as she kept punching him, and then kicking him. Sometimes he wished that she'd just kill him so he wouldn't have to put up with her being aggressive anymore, but he didn't want to leave his brothers with that pain.

Kyle finally had a family of his own, it was the only thing keeping him going. He wondered what they'd think of him if they knew that he was being abused by Phoebe. She had put it in his head that they'd laugh at him, see him as weak for not fighting back. He hoped that wasn't true, but he wasn't willing to find out. Then before he knew it, she stopped hurting him and sat down on their bed, straightening her skirt out.

"Are you going to get up or lie down there your whole life?" Phoebe asks.

"I just need a minute." Kyle mutters, knowing he was going to be left with a lot more bruises to cover up, and he wasn't sure how he wasn't going to keep hiding them before someone got suspicious.

"Just get up already!" Phoebe shouts.

She was starting to freak out. She hadn't meant to abuse him so much and she knew people were going to start getting suspicious of Kyle's behaviour. He was in pain, she could see that from how scrunched up his face was as he stood up, and he wouldn't be able to hide that from anyone else.

"Take some pain meds and man up." Phoebe says, grabbing a packet she happened to have in her bag before handing it to him.

"I can't go on like this any longer. Can you please just leave me if you're that unhappy here?" Kyle asks.

"I'm not leaving you, you know that. Do you really think I would have spent all of those months tracking you down if I didn't want to be with you?" Phoebe asks.

"You promised me you weren't that person anymore, that you'd gotten help for this built up anger. You keep bringing up moving back to Melbourne, and how my brothers aren't interested in me anymore, and I'm really getting fed up with it. I'm not happy anymore, and I don't think this relationship is going to work." Kyle says, trying to ignore how fast his heart was beating as she stood up to face him.

"What did you just say?" Phoebe frowns, taking a step towards him.

"Before you get angry again, just hear me out. Before I left you in Melbourne, you told me how scared you were of going to prison over the beatings you gave me, so I made a promise that I would never go to the police. But Phoebe, how do you expect me to keep hiding all of these bruises when you're beating me even worse each time?" Kyle asks, and he didn't mean it in a threatening way.

"I'm so sorry, Kyle. I know I made that promise and I'm going to stick to it, you just better make sure the police don't find out. You'd be lost without me, just admit it." Phoebe says, and Kyle wasn't sure if she was meaning that as a warning, or was just making a comment.

"Are you ever going to change, or is this what I have to deal with now?" Kyle asks.

"If we could just move back to Melbourne, things would change massively. I don't want to hurt you, Kyle, you just push me too far and I snap. You're not happy here, I can see that you're not. I know you don't want to move back to Melbourne, but I know that things would change so much and you will be happy. Being here is testing my limits and I'm not sure how much longer it will go on for. You need to start thinking about what you really want, and I can tell you now, there's only one person who will always be by your side. That's not your brothers." Phoebe says.

Kyle wondered how much she would change if they went back to Melbourne. He knew it would make her so happy being there, so maybe would be likely to lay off him a bit. But it wasn't what he wanted. He thought more and more about doing another runner, but what was the point? She found him wherever he went, no matter how far he ran. And he had more to lose this time. He wasn't willing to lose his family just to escape her.

"I'll think about it." Kyle says, just to keep her happy. "I've got a lot to think through, so please don't rush me or force me into making any decisions. It's going to be a huge decision to make."

"Well I'm going to go and look at a few apartments we could rent while you make your decision. By the time it's made, I would have found the perfect place to live. Should I look for one with a pool? You know what, I will." Phoebe says, grinning to herself. "I've always wanted a pool like the one at my dad's place. Now that was more like an olympic swimming pool, nothing like these tiny ones you get around here. I don't think that would be in your budget though." She rambles on, and Kyle knew she would try and get him to say yes to moving away, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.

"We can't afford anything too drastic. And you don't even know my decision yet, so don't go making any final decisions on places to live." Kyle says.

"I think I do. You've got nothing keeping you here apart from an obligation to your family. They wouldn't think twice about ditching you, so stop being such an ass lick towards them." Phoebe scoffs.

"Yeah, well it's not just them I've got to think about." Kyle lies. "All I was trying to say was… You know what, it doesn't matter. I've got a shift at Angelo's this afternoon, are you going to be okay here?" He asks, just to try and take the conversation away from Melbourne.

"I'm not a child, I can be by myself." Phoebe rolls her eyes. "I might just go shopping in Yabbie Creek, I need some new clothes."

"Right." Kyle mutters, glancing at the bags of clothes she bought on her last shopping trip that she wasn't planning on packing away anytime soon.

"You need to go and get cleaned up before you even think about leaving this house. You just remember that I don't want the police knocking on the door wanting to talk to me, so make sure it never happens." Phoebe warns.

"I wouldn't do that." Kyle says, grabbing his work clothes before rushing to the bathroom to tend to his fresh wounds.