A/N-I DO NOT OWN THE NAKED BROTHERS BAND!

Hey guys!

I hope everyone's enjoying the story (:

Nat's POV

All day we got weird looks from passing students who thought the same thing Thomas did. Neither of us really paid any attention though, that is until Patrice found out.

"Rosalina, what do you think you're doing?!" She screamed as we were walking to lunch.

We stopped and Rosalina groaned. "Oh great."

"Don't worry," I reassured her. "I'll handle this."

We both turned around as Patrice stormed over. "What are you doing with my boyfriend?!"

"I'm not your boyfriend, Patrice," I said calmly.

"Not yet, but I will be when she's out of the way!"

"Hey don't talk about her that way. I love Rosalina, not you!" I said, stepping in front of Rosalina. "So back off and leave her alone!"

Patrice let out a loud frustrated groan and stormed away.

I faced Rosalina. "See? All taken care of, now let's go." I led the way into the cafeteria and over to a table where my friends were already sitting. "Hey guys, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Rosalina. Rosalina, these are the guys. You already know them."

Rosalina nodded and smiled at the guys. "Hi guys."

"So you finally manned up and asked her out, huh Nat?" Thomas asked.

"I never thought you would," David said.

"Yeah, I thought you guys hated each other," Cooper said.

Thomas got up from his spot, and patted me on the back. "Good job, dude."

I winced. God that hurt. I brushed it off again, just like I did this morning. I couldn't let any of them see.

The guys started laughing and talking amongst themselves.

"Hey," Rosalina whispered. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said quietly, nodding. "I'm fine." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked a text:

I'll be home for the evening. You both BETTER behave while I sleep

I sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"Uh…would it be okay if Alex and I came over after school?"

"Sure," She said nodding. "Yeah, of course. Dad won't be home anyway."

"Cool," I said, putting an arm around her. I kissed her head. "Thank you."

Rosalina's POV

"Anytime," I said, watching as he began talking to Cooper about something. Even though Nat dropped it, I didn't forget so easily. Why was he acting so strange? I decided that I would find out what was going on once and for all. He's been acting strange for a few days now. And I was going to find out why.

…

"Bye Nat! Bye Rosalina! See you guys tomorrow!"

"Bye Coop!" Nat called after his friend as we walked towards the middle school.

Alex ran up to meet us. "Hey Nat, hey Rosalina," He said happily.

"Hey bro," Nat greeted.

"Hey Alex," I said.

"Ready to go home?" Nat asked.

Alex's smile faded as he shook his head.

"What if I told you we were going to Rosalina's?"

Alex smiled weakly. "Okay."

We all walked to Jesse's waiting car and got inside. She drove us to my house and I let us all in. "Alex, get started on your homework, okay?" Nat said. "I'll be right back."

Nat walked away as I showed Alex the dining room. He got started on his homework right away, and I leaned against the dining room doorframe, watching. A question was tugging at me, but I didn't know if I should ask. Maybe I should leave Alex out of it… "Hey Alex," I spoke up suddenly, surprising myself.

"Yeah?" He replied, not even looking up.

"You know how a kid is supposed to feel safe at their house?" I asked, sitting across from him at the table.

Alex nodded.

"Do you feel safe at your house?"

He stayed silent for a few minutes, and then said, "Only sometimes because I'm home with Nat."

"What about other times?"

"I don't really like it when my dad is home."

"Why not?"

Alex looked up at me, but didn't respond.

"It's okay, Alex. Thank you for telling me." I stood up from the table and walked over to the bottom of the stairs. Just as I reached it, Nat walked down the stairs.

"Hey is everything okay?" Nat asked.

"No, everything is not okay because you're keeping something from me."

"Rosalina, I'm–"

"I don't think you're fine. Maybe you are, maybe you're not. But seeing as your brother doesn't feel safe at home all the time isn't fine."

"He's lying–,"

"I don't think he's the one lying Nat."

Nat sighed. "Come with me." He took my hand and led me upstairs to the bathroom. He shut the door behind us.

"Nat, what're you–?"

He sighed and stood in front of the mirror, with his back to me. He looked at me in the mirror. "I trust you, okay?"

I nodded slowly.

He lifted up his shirt so that I could see his back. What seemed to be a few days old black and blue bruises completely covered his back, along with fresh and new red marks that were quickly turning into bruises.

Oh my God. "Nat…" I was speechless. I couldn't even wrap my head around it. Who would do this? And more importantly, why would anyone do this? Especially to Nat. "How…?"

"My dad," He said, putting his shirt back down. Nat turned to face me. "He drinks a lot…and he gets angry easily. Just like I do."

"No," I shook my head. "No, no, no. Don't tell me he…"

Nat nodded, looking away. "He does."

"Nat," I said quietly, moving to hug him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't," He said, hugging me tightly. "I couldn't put that on you."

"There's nothing you can't tell me."

"I know...I'm sorry."

I pulled back and looked at him. "You'll be okay, I promise."

"It's just hard because I'm worried that I'll turn out just like him."

"That's not true, you're nothing like that."

"Yes I am. I get angry just as easily as he does. What if I become abusive? I could be putting you in danger."

"No you're not. You won't ever become abusive, and do you want to know why?"

He remained silent, waiting for my answer.

"You are sweet, and caring because if you didn't you wouldn't have taken Alex here and you wouldn't have carried me on your back…even though…you had bruises…" I smacked his arm. "Why would you do that to yourself?"

"Hey, ow! I have enough bruises!" He joked, holding his arm.

"Oh right, sorry."

"It's okay, Rosie."

"You will not turn out like that. You're nothing like that." And I was serious. Nat was the opposite of that. I won't deny that he has a short temper, but he at least tries to control it.

"But how do you know–"

"Because even though you get angry easily, you still care, and you can control it. I know that you'd never intentionally hurt me, or Alex."

"But how do you know?"

"You pushed Caleb off me that night. You protected me. You brought Alex here, instead of taking him home where he could get hurt. You care, Nat."

Nat smiled weakly at me. "I do."

"But wait…why did you take me to your house after the party if your dad is abusive?"

"You said that you couldn't go home, so I brought you to my house. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep, unless I knew you were okay, so I stayed up all night making sure my dad didn't come home. He didn't."

"You just proved my point."

He shook his head, moving to walk out of the bathroom. "Whatever."

"Hey," I said, grabbing his arm. "It'll be okay, right? Is Alex hurt too?"

"No," He said, shaking his head again, not meeting my eye. "God no, I won't let that happen."

"Nat, we have to tell the police," I said quietly.

"No," He said loudly, pulling his arm away from me. "I will not put Alex through that. And you can't tell anyone about this Rosalina."

"But Nat it's for your–"

"I know Rosalina. Trust me, I've considered it. But I'm used to it by now. I can handle it. As long as he doesn't touch Alex, everything will be fine."

"That's why we need to do something before he does–"

"I can protect Alex by myself. But you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone, especially not the police."

A/N-What do you guys think Rosalina will do? Will she tell someone? Or will she keep Nat's secret?

Leave a review!

~NatalinaFanForever~