Braxton House

"It's not looking like there's any extra hours today but if it's needed then I'll let you know. Why the sudden urge to pick up more shifts anyway?" Brax asks his brother after being asked in a desperate tone.

"There isn't one, and don't mention this conversation." Kyle says, slyly glancing towards the back door, where Phoebe was in the garden writing new music for a gig she has coming up.

"What's this about?" Brax frowns, not understanding what was going on. "You want me to give you more shifts, but I'm not allowed to mention it to anyone?"

"Brax, please don't ask questions." Kyle sighs, there was no way he could tell his brother what the real reason was, Phoebe was too much in his head over what people would think of him if it was ever released. "I just thought it would be good for me to start saving up money for my own place some day." He lies.

"Why didn't you just tell me that? You know I'd help out with money if you ever needed it." Brax says.

"Yeah, but I thought it would be good to start saving my own money." Kyle says. "But don't worry if there's no shifts, I don't mind waiting longer until something comes up."

"Right, well I'll let you know if there's any hours for you." Brax says. "Anyway, I said I was going to meet up with Casey later, are you coming?"

"Uh, not today. I told Phoebe I'd help her with her songwriting." Kyle replies, wishing he could go as he missed having Casey around, and he barely saw him these days. "But tell him I'll meet up with him soon, it's been a while."

"Okay, well I'll be going soon. We'll be in Angelo's if you change your mind." Brax says as he walks into the kitchen, just as Phoebe walks in from the garden, oblivious that the oldest Braxton was still home.

"Read through this." Phoebe says, handing Kyle some sheets of paper.

"Which song is this?" Kyle asks.

"I went back to my first idea about being in love with a great guy." Phoebe says as Kyle starts reading through it. "Oh I wish that was me in that song, I need a man." She mutters.

"This is good, I think it will go down really well at your gig." Kyle says, even though he didn't read through it properly after hearing her comment, wondering why she wouldn't just leave him for someone better.

"You think or you know?" Phoebe stares at him.

"I know, it's great." Kyle quickly says. "You'll be selling out arenas before you know it."

"I'm really great, aren't I?" Phoebe smiles. "Now get changed, I want to go into Yabbie Creek."

"Don't you have more songs to write?" Kyle asks.

"No, but you do. That's a plan, you stay here to write four more songs, and I'll go into Yabbie Creek." Phoebe says.

Kyle shook his head, not wanting to say no to her incase she got aggressive. He wasn't sure if she'd seen Brax when she came in from the garden, but he didn't want to risk it. What he wasn't expecting was Phoebe to start getting rough with him over not wanting to write her songs up, and that was just as Brax came out from the kitchen.

"Oi, will you stop being so rough with him." Brax huffs, Kyle shooting his gaze to him as Phoebe turns to face him.

"Calm down grandad, it's a bit of play fighting." Phoebe says before laughing. "Anyone would think I'm the abusive one."

"And what the hell is that meant to mean?" Brax glares at her.

"Don't think I don't know who you really are." Phoebe asks, folding her arms as she glares back at him.

"Are you alright?" Brax asks his brother.

"He's fine." Phoebe answers for him.

"Kyle, are you okay?" Brax asks again, completely ignoring Phoebe's harsh glare.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just play fighting, like Phoebe said." Kyle says as Brax's phone goes off. "Are you going to get that?"

"Yeah." Brax mutters, staring at Phoebe before walking back into the kitchen to answer his phone.

"So are you going into Yabbie Creek?" Kyle asks Phoebe, who turns to face him instead.

"No, I've changed my mind. I still expect those songs to be written, and make sure it's good." Phoebe says.

"Course." Kyle nods as Brax walks back out.

"That was Casey, he's free to meet up now, so I'm going to head off. Are you sure you don't want to come as well?" Brax asks Kyle, ignoring Phoebe as she glared at him again.

"Yeah, I'm sure. See you later." Kyle says before Brax walks out.

"Finally, I was wondering when he was going to leave. It's like he can never get the hint about leaving us alone here." Phoebe says as she snatches her song back from Kyle.

"This is his house, he doesn't have to be out all the time." Kyle says.

"Then maybe we should find our own place. There's no privacy here, we can't do anything without someone else hanging around like a bad smell. I don't understand why you can't see that they're not good for you." Phoebe shakes her head.

"Why don't you think my brothers are good for me? They've been there for me through so many tough things since I've been here."

"Do you really think they'd never hurt you?" Phoebe says.

"They wouldn't, I trust them."

"Heath has a criminal record and spent some time in prison for nearly killing a man. Brax was part of an illegal cage fighting for money and Casey, who even knows what he's capable of." Phoebe says, Kyle merely frowning at her.

"That was all in the past, they're better people now. How did you even find out about that stuff?" Kyle asks, knowing they wouldn't have come out and told her considering she wasn't getting on with them.

"I have my ways of finding things out. How else do you think I kept tracking you down after you would run away from me like a child?" Phoebe laughs.

"I was running away because you were abusive and never changed. I love it here because my brothers have never hurt me the same way you did. They haven't even hurt me." Kyle says, flinching back as she punches him in the arm.

"How can you even say that about me? And why would you want to be around people that don't like me? I'm your girlfriend, your main priority, so stop acting like they're saints. They may not have hurt you yet, or haven't even made their intentions clear, but they will. You need to wake up from this trance they have you under, they don't care about you like you care about them. Start focusing on what really matters or you'll be left all alone like some pathetic loser." Phoebe hisses.

"You don't know what you're talking about. They don't have any bad intentions, they don't even have me under a trance." Kyle frowns.

"They're using you to get what they want done. Why else would Brax have made you manager without knowing hardly anything about you, or even moving you into his house minutes after meeting you. They have an ulterior motive and I don't care what it takes to make you see that. You better hope I'm still around when that happens, although I'm never leaving you, so maybe it will happen soon." Phoebe says.

"They just wanted me to feel welcome, and he needed a manager, so I took the job. I don't think they have an ulterior motive, I really don't."

"You're so naive and I can't believe you're still making excuses for them. I hope you never find out what they're really up to because I know it will just hurt you so much more than it would now." Phoebe says, slightly shaking her head at him. "Just don't tell them we've been talking about this, I don't want to see what else they can be capable off."

"I won't, you know I won't." Kyle says, only agreeing to it so she wouldn't hit him for disobeying her.

"I'm now going out and you're going to stay here. I'll be home before you know it and I want a complete song written up for my gig." Phoebe says before walking out.

Kyle just sighed as he walked over to the couch, not having any ideas for songs that would be good enough for her. He was half tempted to not write one at all, or to even write one that wouldn't be good enough, but he was terrified of what she would do to him after. He had no idea how to get rid of her for good, but he was now getting used to having her around, it was like a safety net that he wouldn't be alone for the rest of his life.