Braxton House
"Morning." Phoebe says as she sits up, Kyle lightly smiling at her as he gets changed into his work clothes. "We're going into town soon, you need to get changed into something nicer." She says as she gets out of bed to start getting changed.
"I can't today." Kyle replies, glancing over at her to see she was looking up and down his body.
"You should also start going to the gym, maybe bulking up your muscles some more will make you attractive." She casually says as she pulls her skirt up, straightening her top out over it.
"If you've got a problem with what I look like, then go be with someone else." Kyle retorts, feeling grouchy after having barely slept through the night. "And I'm dressed like this because I've got a double shift today, so I can't go into town with you."
"Why is it you always get a say in what I look like, but I'm not even allowed to make a comment about your appearance?" Phoebe glares.
"I have never made comments about your appearance because I would never expect you to change anything for me, it's not who I am." Kyle defends himself, not in the mood for another one of her arguments, especially how the last one ended up with him being kicked in the ribs.
"You keep believing that." Phoebe laughs. "Now get changed, we're leaving soon."
"Phoebe, I've already told you I can't go because I've got a double shift today. I'm not bailing out on a shift, especially when I'm due to start soon."
"You are not going to work, now get changed." Phoebe hisses, taking a step forward, Kyle just standing still. "Now!"
"I have wor-"
Before Kyle could finish his sentence, Phoebe swung her fist round, punching him in the face. Kyle stood there in shock, not even sure why he was so shocked by it. She hit him before many times, even worse than that, but somehow he thought she really had changed this time, he wanted to believe she had. He just wanted her to change.
"Get out." He mutters.
"Kyle-"
"Please, just get out." Kyle says a lot louder.
"I'm so sorry!" Phoebe says before bursting into tears. "I never meant to do that, I didn't want to hurt you."
"You've said that before, why is it any different now?" Kyle sighs.
"I've changed, I really have. I love you so much and I can't bear to lose you. Please believe me when I say that was an accident, please!"
"I-"
"Please, Kyle, I'm nothing without you. I'm so lonely when you're not around and I don't know what I'd do without you. I promise it won't happen again." Phoebe cries, holding his hands in hers. "Please!"
"You can't keep doing this, I can't keep doing this." Kyle says.
"You won't have to, I made a mistake. You love me, you're no one without me. Just admit it, Kyle, you won't leave me like this. We can be happy together."
"Fine." Kyle mutters. "But I'm not bailing on my shift, you'll just have to go alone this time."
"That's fine, you'll come next time." Phoebe says, wiping her tears away before walking to the bathroom to do her makeup.
"Yeah." Kyle sighs.
Grabbing his phone from the side of the bed, Kyle decided to leave for work early so Phoebe wouldn't be able to force him into going into town with her. He knew she'd be angry about him leaving without saying goodbye to her, he just had to get out of the house before she realised he really was going to work.
Surf Club - Angelo's
Kyle had been at work now for a couple hours and was glad that his brothers hadn't been up yet. He knew it was only a matter of time before Brax would come up for his shift and would notice the red mark around Kyle's eye. He'd already thought of some excuses to use, trying to work out which one would be the most believable. He came across as clumsy when he first moved in with them, he still did at times, so he was leaning towards that one the most.
He couldn't see Phoebe's manipulation, not even after she had abused him in the past. It had gone on for years and each time he escaped from her, she somehow managed to find out where he was. He knew that wasn't an option this time, he couldn't run from her without losing a family he'd grown to love. He'd grown so used to having a family, he wasn't about to give that up for anything. He just hoped she meant it when she said had changed.
"Oi, you there?"
"Huh?" Kyle frowns as he comes back into reality, Heath and Brax staring back at him.
"You good?" Brax asks.
"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I zoned out for a minute there." Kyle mutters as he glances at his watch.
"What happened to your eye?" Brax asks. "You're going to have a pretty big black eye when it starts bruising."
"Oh, that was nothing." Kyle quickly says, having briefly forgotten his excuse until it suddenly came back to him. "I was still half asleep when I got changed this morning, and then I walked into a door. It's nothing."
"You sure about that?" Brax asks.
"You have seen him walk into doors before." Heath laughs, having seen it plenty of times. "He's the clumsiest one out of us."
"You say that like it's a good thing." Kyle lightly rolls his eyes, feeling a little embarrassed from all those times he had really walked into a door when he hadn't been paying attention.
"And then there was that time you face planted the floor after tripping over the bench outside the Surf Club." Brax smirks.
"That wasn't funny, everyone was staring at me!" Kyle groans, but was glad his lie was believed. "And you promised to never bring that up again."
"Hey, what about when you hit your head getting into my car, and then spilling coffee all over yourself." Heath grins.
"That wasn't funny either. I bet you're clumsy as well, you just don't like to admit it." Kyle huffs, always managing to do the stupidest things even though he'd never noticed it with any of them.
"I'm too handsome to be clumsy." Heath shrugs, smirking at Kyle's face.
"Case can be clumsy, but you win when it comes to it." Brax says.
"Well I am going to prove that you two can be clumsy as well, there's got to be something. I'm sure Ricky or Bianca will have some stories to tell me if I ask them nicely." Kyle says, knowing they'd release anything embarrassing about his brothers if he tried hard enough, or maybe not even a lot if he caught them on a good day.
"Good luck getting anything out of Ricky, she'd never give away anything like that about me." Brax says, grabbing the rota from the side of the bar.
"We'll see about that." Kyle mutters, seeing the blonde walk through the door. "Talk of the devil." He smiles as she walks around the bar.
"What happened to your eye?" Ricky asks, gently rubbing her thumb over it.
"I walked into a door." Kyle says. "Apparently neither of these two have done anything similar."
"Oh, is that right?" Ricky raises an eyebrow. "Go get some ice to put on your eye, and then I'll tell you everything you want to know." She grins, Kyle quickly walking into the kitchen to get a back of peas before walking back to the bar, sitting on a stool.
"Think very carefully about your next words, Sharpe." Heath stares at her.
"I'll start with Heath, now there's plenty for him. I don't really have much about Brax, he's not as clumsy." Ricky says, Brax and Kyle smiling while Heath shakes his head. "This one's from when we were kids in Mangrove River, I think we were about 15 or 16 and bunked off school for the day. We were just hanging out by a lake when Heath thought it would be a good idea to climb a tree-"
"Ricky, don't you dare." Heath glares.
"No, carry on." Kyle says. "Did he fall out of the tree or something?"
"He managed to climb it well, it was getting down when things took a turn." Brax smirks.
"Heath's trousers got caught on something and then he was left hanging up a literal thread about half way up this tree. Eventually his trousers gave way under the weight and he fell to the ground butt naked." Ricky says, unable to hold in a laugh as Heath went bright red.
"You refused to leave the house for weeks after that happened." Brax laughs.
"Only because you went around telling everyone, including my crush, that I was a nudist." Heath glares. "She never spoke to me again after that."
"That's definitely a winner over my clumsiness." Kyle laughs, Heath huffing something under his breath before walking out.
"I've got to sort next week's rota out, I'll be in the office if you need me." Brax says, grabbing what he needed before walking away, Kyle and Ricky talking some more.