Chapter 86: Understanding the family

The four brothers sat in the lounge room of the Braxton house. Kyle sat and glared at his 'supposed brothers' not uttering a word.

"Start talking mate!" Heath pushed.

"The name's Kyle!" Kyle snapped. "Like I said I don't have to talk to any of you! You can't keep me here!"

"Wanna bet?" Brax pushed. "Tell us what you know about Danny Braxton?"

Kyle ignored them.

"Oi! He asked ya a question!" Heath snapped.

Kyle glared at Heath and Brax. Casey for the moment had chosen to stay out of it and stood behind the couch and listened.

"As far as I know he was my Dad. I don't know much else. I didn't even know his name was Braxton, I thought he was a Bennett like me."

"How do you even know he was your Dad then, if you barely knew anything about him?" Casey questioned.

"Because when he came to visit me when I was growing up he told me that I was his son...I only wished he'd of treated me like one." Kyle turned quiet.

"What do you mean? What did he do?" Heath questioned.

"Look, what difference does it make?" Kyle snapped.

"Look Dad was big on treating his kids like crap. He spent his life with us beating us." Brax explained.

Kyle frowned at Brax. "Dad was never like that with me. I mean when I saw him that was. It just seemed no matter what I did he was never proud of me. The only time I thought he was proud of me was when I started bullying him at school." Kyle pointed to Casey.

"Have you any idea what that done to me? I hope it was worth it!" Casey snapped.

"Casey" Brax warned. "Go on." Brax encouraged Kyle with a head nod.

"When Dad found out who it was that I was bullying he...he slapped me across the face."

"Sounds like Dad alright." Heath scoffed.

"It was the first time he ever hit me. Other than that he only slapped me one other time."

"Lucky you kid. He was probably too busy giving us a flogging." Heath continued.

"I spent my whole life wanting my Dad to spend time with me but all I ever got was the occasional moment with him and I was made to believe I was never good enough for him! That he never visited me because of something I did!" Kyle yelled.

"Yeah, you're not wrong there, you were a bully." Casey mumbled.

Kyle shot out of his seat ready to attack Casey. "Look I didn't even know who you were! You were just an easy target!"

"That doesn't mean you had to take it out on me just because Dad hated you!" Casey yelled.

Brax jumped up and pulled Kyle away whilst Heath pushed Casey back and whacked him on the head. "Hey!" Casey protested.

"Shut up you idiot!" Heath warned.

Casey glared at his brothers and Brax gave him a warning look.

"Sit down." Brax ordered Kyle and pushed him back down before he turned back to Casey.

"Casey you are not five years old anymore so stop acting that way." Casey gave a frustrated gasp.

"Brax I can't believe you're taking his side! We don't even know him!"

"He knows too much about Dad and his experiences are similar. Besides if Dad went to visit another kid over us, there had to be a reason."

Casey huffed and turned away.

"You know what? I'd of thought you would have remembered more about what I did for you at the group home rather than some stupid bullying!" Kyle snapped at Casey.

The words rang through Casey's mind as he tried to forget what happened to him at the group home.

"How did you know I was at a group home?" Casey questioned.

"Because I was there after I got sent away!" Kyle yelled.

"That doesn't surprise me." Casey mumbled.

"Casey enough!" Brax snapped. "What were you doing in a group home?" Brax asked.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "With all my efforts to impress Dad, I got into stealing and argued with my Mum a lot, in the end she couldn't handle me anymore and sent me away."

"You might be Danny Braxton's kid after-all hey." Heath smirked.

"How can you say you helped me? You did nothing for me. I spent days in that place before I ran away!" Casey spoke.

Kyle glared at Casey. "Who do you think helped you run away? Or let me remind you, does the words 'I wanna go home to Brax' ring a bell or how about the time they made you sit in the hall in front of everyone?"

Casey's mind flashed back to his time at the group home. "Shut up! Just shut up!"

"Case calm down mate." Heath stood up to restrain his brother. "Get off me Heath!"

"I'm right aren't I? Yeah just as I thought." Kyle replied.

"Why don't you just back off and go back where you came from, no-one wants you here!" Casey yelled.

Brax stood up, clearly annoyed at the arguing and saw Kyle's withdrawn reaction from Casey's comment.

"Fine! I told you it was a waste of time coming here!" Kyle went to stand up but was pushed back down by Brax.

"Casey I don't care what has happened in the past! We are talking about the now and its hard enough trying to get my head around this without you provoking fights! Now get out of here. I don't want to see you back here until you've calmed down, understand?"

Casey glared at his brother and huffed. Heath took his arms off Casey and let him go. "Fine!" Brax and Heath sat back down and continued to talk to Kyle.

After much discussion Kyle finally gave up talking. "If we're done here I'd like to get back to my caravan."

"You living in a caravan?" Brax questioned.

"Yeah, the guy that owns it let me stay there after I got away from the group home."

"Brax what are you thinking?" Heath asked as he watched his brother's quizzical look.

"How long will it take you to pack your stuff?" Brax asked.

"Why?" Kyle questioned.

"Because you're moving in here with us."

"What? Brax are you serious?" Heath asked surprised.

"Yeah dead serious. If you are who you say you are, then your family and in my books family stick together, so you're moving in, no questions asked. Heath can help you move your stuff."

Casey walked through the door and looked at his brother's faces and knew he had missed something. Kyle turned to Casey and added, "look I can't, it doesn't seem right."

"Oi, if ya worried about 'im we'll sort him out." Heath spoke.

"What's going on?" Casey asked.

"Case I've asked Kyle to move in with us." Brax explained.

"What? Brax are you crazy? How can we trust him?"

"Casey I'm not about to argue this with you. Kyle is our brother and we stick together and that's final, so I'm sorry if you don't like it but tough you are just going to have to learn to live with it." Brax explained.

Casey felt rejected that his oldest brother had turned his attention onto this 'new brother'. Someone whom he'd just met hours before. Casey huffed and stormed into his room and slammed the door.