AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks so much for all the support! Heath gets a little carried away in this chapter but it kind of shows his reasons.
The starters are placed on the table and Brax, Heath, and Casey immediately start eating.
Kyle on the other hand just sits back.
Brax keeps an eye on him as he is worried about the amount of food he's eating. Heath notices as well but instead of being worried he just wants to have fun with his brother.
He picks up a wedge and holds it up to Kyle's face.
"Hey little Kylie, do you want a wedgie?" he says, waving the wedge in Kyle's face.
Kyle gulps, he's certain that his brother is joking but still even the thought of getting another wedgie terrifies him.
"Heath, cut it out!" Brax orders, knowing Kyle's smaller size and timid nature gives Heath a lot of ammunition but that was no excuse for the constant teasing.
"It's just a joke bro," Heath smirks and turns back to Kyle.
"Open up Bubs," he laughs.
Kyle obediently opens his mouth and Heath puts the wedge in.
"Good boy," he smirks and ruffles his timid little brother's hair.
Brax sighs and smiles at his little brother, reminding himself he really needs to teach the kid to understand that it's okay to say no.
It's now a bit later in the night and time for the boys to order dinner.
One of the waitresses comes over to the table.
"Hey boss; you ready to order?" she asks.
"Yeah I am. Firstly can we please have two more beers and two Coke's. For dinner can I please have the pork belly with mash spud and veggies," Brax requests, putting down his menu.
"Can I have the beef burger with chips, and some cheesy mac balls, maybe about twenty?" Casey adds, causing Brax to roll his eyes at his brother's order.
"The medium has 18 and the large has 25," the waitress replies.
"The large!" Casey replies quickly but notices the look Brax is giving him.
"Please?" he adds.
"Very well," Brax agrees.
"Can I have the steak medium rare with garlic, chips, and veggies with gravy, as well as some garlic bread, and ten onion rings?" Heath orders.
Brax once again rolls his eyes; his brothers are bottomless pits, except for Kyle.
"Can I please have a small pesto chicken pasta?" Kyle asks politely, however Brax interrupts.
"Emma, get him a side of wedges. He will also have a steak medium rare, mashed spud and veggies with gravy," Brax says.
His brother only had one wedge, and Heath pretty much forced him to have it.
"Brax! I'll never eat that much," Kyle protests; he can't believe his brother ordered him such a big meal.
"Too bad Kyle, you had no wedges or chips, and I will not have you going with so little food, it's not healthy," Brax says, as Emma walks away.
"But I don't want it!" Kyle protests.
"Too bad!" Heath and Brax both tell their little brother because even though Heath teases Kyle all the time about his size he knows that he doesn't eat as much as he should.
"You'll do as you're told Kylie!" Heath says to his little brother as he lightly grips his neck.
Kyle lowers his head and accepts that he's having that meal whether he likes it or not. He loves steak but he just can't stomach it at the moment and just wanted pasta.
It's a bit later and Emma brings the next round of drinks and places them on the table. Heath holds out his beer to Kyle.
"Since Casey's had beer, do you wanna try some Kylie?" he asks.
Kyle screws up his face.
"No thank you," Kyle replies; more than happy to wait a few more years before he starts to drink beer.
"Come on you wimp, it won't kill ya!" Heath laughs and shoves the beer closer to Kyle's face.
"Heath!" Brax barks, getting frustrated at seeing Heath continue to bug Kyle.
"He said no; leave it!" he orders, making Kyle jump slightly even though it's not him he's yelling at.
"Fine, big fella; relax," Heath huffs and takes a sip of his beer before putting it down.
Kyle relaxes in his seat and has a sip of coke.
After a while Heath wraps his arm around Kyle's neck and pulls him in close so he can whisper in his ear.
"Smile Kylie! I don't want Brax getting suspicious," Heath orders, causing Kyle to force a smile on his face.
"Now a little later I'll offer you a drink again, this time you will have a sip or else I'll give you another dose of today for being a dorky little wimp," he whispers in Kyle's ear.
He then pulls away from Kyle and lightly ruffles his hair and leans back in his chair taking another sip of beer.
Emma comes to the table and hands Casey and Brax their meals and then goes to get Heath's and Kyle's.
Casey and Brax immediately start digging in.
When Heath's and Kyle's meals arrive, Heath starts eating right away but Kyle's a bit slower; slowly eating some of his mashed spuds and veg and then a few wedges but then slows down further as he's getting full.
Brax notices Kyle's moping and looks at his brother concerned.
"Kyle, I know you like steak; eat it up," Brax instructs as he notices the steak is not touched.
"I'm really not hungry," Kyle says pitifully and rests his chin on his left palm while playing with his food with his fork with his right hand.
"He wasn't hungry at lunch either, the poor little guy could barely get his favourite meal down," Heath says innocently, while Kyle glares at him.
Heath knows exactly why he couldn't eat his lunch.
"I might take you to Dr. Walker, see if somethings up," Brax says with concern as he sees Kyle's plate still has plenty of food on it.
Kyle drops his fork and runs his hand through his hair.
"I'm not sick, I'm just not hungry, there's a big difference," Kyle mumbles.
"Don't be smart, Kyle!" Brax scolds his brother.
"Next week I'm going to take you to see Sid and that's it. Now eat!" he orders.
He watches as Kyle eats more veggies.
"The steak Kyle, you're a growing boy who needs protein," Brax orders.
Kyle looks up at him.
"There's protein in veggies," he argues.
Brax rolls his eyes frustrated.
"But there's more in steak; now eat your steak! I don't want to tell you again," Brax orders and Kyle obeys, moving on to the steak instead.
Heath notices that Kyle is still moping so he runs his hand through his hair.
"The big fella is only looking out for you Bubs," he says, "now how about a sip of my beer, yeah? I know that you already said no, but a bit can't hurt; can it?" Heath asks, smirking at his little brother knowing that he won't say no.
Kyle swallows, knowing he has to have a drink because there is no way that he's going to have a repeat of today.
"Sure, I'll try one little sip," Kyle replies as he grabs Heath's beer and takes the smallest sip.
He immediately screws up his face and gags slightly.
"That's disgusting! You pay to drink that?" Kyle asks, appalled, causing all of his brothers to laugh.
Heath reaches over and ruffles up his brother's hair.
"You're adorable Kylie! You're just not used to it," Heath chuckles.
Casey smirks at his older brother.
"You are a bit of a wimp Kyle," he laughs at his brother, causing Kyle to glare at him.
"Casey, don't call your brother a wimp!" Brax says, scolding his baby brother.
He then sees Kyle poke his tongue out at Casey.
"Don't retaliate and eat your dinner, Kyle," he smirks.
His two youngest brothers often tease each other and poke fun at each other, mostly in good fun.
Brax watches as Kyle slowly continues to eat his dinner.
Brax is happy that he doesn't have to worry about one of his little brothers drinking anytime soon; Casey on the other hand was a different story.
"Brax, now that Kyle's had a sip of beer, does that mean I can have some?" Casey cheekily asks.
Brax glares at his baby brother. "No; you do not need to try beer seeing as you've already taken it upon yourself to have some. Do not think I've already forgotten that you stole some from me also," Brax tells him firmly.
"I know you don't forget," Casey grumbles then sulks and continues to eat his dinner.
It's later in the night and the boys are all ready to go home.
There are three plates completely empty, and the only things left on Kyle's plate is a quarter of his steak and a handful of wedges.
Brax reaches over and ruffles his hair.
"Good boy," he smiles.
All he wants is to make sure his brother is healthy. Brax stands up and goes to pay the bill and Casey goes to the toilet.
Heath uses this opportunity to playfully slap Kyle's stomach causing him to yelp in pain.
"Be quiet, it was just a little slap," Heath smirks as he places an arm around his shoulder.
Casey walks back to the table just as Brax finishes paying the bill.
"Let's go home boys," he smiles as his three brothers make their way out of the restaurant.
Kyle holds his stomach as he walks. Not only is he in pain from his horrible pink belly but he is also so full of food.
Casey slings his arm around Kyle's neck as they make their way to Brax's Ute and Heath's Ute is parked next to it.
"Okay who is coming with me?" Brax asks.
Casey replies before Kyle can and Casey jumps in the front seat. Kyle starts to walk to the back seat when Heath grabs him from behind and wraps his arms around Kyle's chest.
"You aren't going to make me drive alone are you, Kylie? I'm hurt," Heath says sadly and instead of getting in the backseat Kyle sits in the front seat of Heath's Ute.
As soon as Heath is in the car, he gives his little brother a wet willy.
"Ugh; really?" Kyle groans and rubs his ear; why does Heath insist on doing that?
"Yes really, Bubs," Heath laughs as Kyle starts sulking.
"Hey come on Kylie! You and I had fun today!" Heath smiles.
"Fun? I don't find pink bellies fun. I find them painful!" Kyle mumbles sadly as he looks out the window.
"Well, I found it fun," Heath smirks.
"Reminds me of the good old days," he says, remembering all the good times he had in high school beating up all the weaker kids.
Kyle looks sadly out the window. He is well aware his brother was a bully in high school, having heard stories of Heath boasting about it at times when Kyle and Casey were just little kids.
"It doesn't mean you get to bully us," Kyle argues quietly.
He hates how much pleasure his older brother gets out of making his and Casey's lives hell.
"I don't bully you; I help you build character!" Heath replies annoyed that his brother is answering back to him.
"So those kids you picked on in high school you were helping them build character?" Kyle retorts, before he can stop himself.
Heath pulls over and slaps Kyle once on the abdomen causing him to squeak.
"Don't you dare ever answer back to me, or I'll give you something to really cry about!" Heath hisses, feeling his own frustrations take over, before he gets back to driving leaving Kyle with tears in his eyes.
"Anyway, one day me and my buddies gave this nerd the worst bullying experience of his life. We dragged him to the boy's locker room and stripped him of all his clothes including his dorky briefs just like yours. We then put him in some 2XL briefs and pulled all the sides up until they were over his head. The little nerd cried like a little baby. So, we decided to wash his face but first we all left a little treat in there for him. It was hilarious!" Heath says howling with laughter.
Kyle on the other hand was miserable and looked horrified, this was not a story he'd heard before and he wonders how on earth his brother could treat another kid that way, but his brother wasn't done yet.
"After the swirly we gave the geek an atomic wedgie and punched him in the stomach before kicking him in the nuts a few times. He was bawling his eyes out and we were howling with laughter. We pinned him to the ground and gave him a nipple cripple. His nipples were so bruised and the dork was crying so much he peed himself. We then gave him a pink belly, even worse than yours. By this point the kid was struggling to breath so we decided to give him some gas so both Jimmy and Harrison farted right in the kids face. That made him take a breath," Heath says howling with laughter.
By this point Kyle had tears in his eyes, that poor kid! No one should ever go through something like that.
"After that we dragged him by his braces to the basketball field and taped him to the basketball pole. We grabbed a permanent marker from Harrison's bag and wrote pink belly or nipple cripple on the abdomen causing him to squeal. Then we left him there, practically naked in an atomic wedgie with a pee stain on the front of his briefs. Throughout the day kids would beat him up," Heath says proudly, making Kyle more scared; how could Heath be proud of his actions?
"Anyway, this geek was my favourite! I would always call him names like loser, fart head, brace face, pizza face and we would always humiliate him by pulling down his jeans in the middle of the school corridor. We made him feel like nothing he did mattered…." Heath says but suddenly he starts to think about something else.
He never realised before, but the way he used to treat those kids was exactly how his Dad treated him; like he was a loser, a waste of space, someone who didn't have the right to be alive.
His Dad always made him feel so worthless. He hates thinking about how his Dad treated him and now because of his little brother he's reminded of it.
He angrily pulls over and unbuckles his seatbelt and lifts Kyle's shirt up, which causes Kyle to yell out in fear.
"Please don't Heath!" he begs, but Heath completely ignores his little brother and gives him two hard and fast slaps to the stomach causing him to squeal and tear up slightly.
"No! You don't get to cry! You brought this on yourself! Never question my motives!" Heath hisses angrily and slaps Kyle around the head and then starts to drive again, he looks over at Kyle and sees that he is crying and feels slightly guilty, but he's more angry over the memories.
When they arrive home, Heath sees Kyle's eyes are red.
"You go along with my story yeah?" Heath says to Kyle, who nods his head sadly.
"Good," Heath says as he gets out of the car.
Kyle is terrified, he has no idea where that all came from one minute Heath was talking happily and then the next he snaps.
Heath bangs on the window to get him to hurry up. Not wanting anymore trouble Kyle gets out of the car and walks inside with Heath.
"What took you boys so long?" Brax asks, he then sees Kyle's red eyes.
"Has he been crying?" he asks, furiously at Heath.
"Yes! But I did nothing! He's upset because he thinks you're mad at him for not eating properly," Heath lies.
Kyle looks up at Brax and mumbles a quiet: "it's true."
Brax walks over to Kyle and kisses the top of his head and pulls him in for a hug. It takes Kyle all the strength he has not to squeal when his bruised and beaten stomach collides with Brax's body.
"I'm not mad Kiddo, I'm just worried. Now I've got to talk to Casey, you get ready for bed," Brax orders lightly and kisses Kyle's head once more. Kyle then goes to clean his teeth.
Brax turns to Casey.
"I can't believe you stole beer! Why would you do that?" Brax questions sternly.
"Romeo was over and we thought it would be funny, so we grabbed one and both had a taste. We then made Kyle promise not to tell. We threatened to give him a swirly if he ever told," Casey confesses and then sees the look on Brax's face.
"We were never going to actually do it! We just wanted him to think we would," Casey says quickly in defense, in hopes to not anger his brother further.
He remembers it like it's yesterday.
Casey, Kyle, and Romeo walked into the house and Kyle immediately went to his and Casey's room.
Casey nudged Romeo; he knew exactly what they were going to do. Both he and Romeo wanted to try beer and Casey knew this was their chance as Brax was working until close and Heath was working until five.
"Dude. Now is our chance, let's take one of Brax's beers and have a taste," Casey snickers, which caused Romeo to turn around.
"What about Kyle?" Romeo asked.
"Dude, he can't lie. If Brax asks him where the beer went, he will squeal, you know what he's like," Romeo said.
Casey nodded slightly, Romeo was right Kyle would never intentionally get him in trouble, but he couldn't lie.
"We just won't tell him," he said smiling.
"Aren't you worried Brax will notice a beer missing?" Romeo asked.
Casey shrugged, "He'll probably think Heath took it and besides it's just one."
The two walked over and grabbed a beer to share. Casey was the first to take a sip.
"That's not bad," he commented, giving a little cough and handed it to Romeo who took a sip as well.
"Could get used to this flavour," Romeo laughed and Casey joined in, taking the bottle again and taking another large sip.
"What are you two doing?"
They heard from behind them, they turned around to see Kyle staring at them in shock.
"Nothing you need to worry about," Casey replied and passed the beer bottle behind him to Romeo, but Kyle had already seen his brother taking a drink.
"You can't drink beer, Casey; you're only fifteen!" Kyle gasped.
"Oh yeah and what are you going to do, tell Brax?" Casey asked, walking over to his brother and glaring down at him.
"No, because I know you'll get in more trouble, and I'm giving you a chance," Kyle replied.
"Good, but to make sure. If you tell Brax, we will give you a swirlie," Casey threatened with a hint of panic, as he did not want Brax to find out about his and Romeo's experiment.
Casey gave his brother a push for good measure.
Kyle looked up in panic.
"You wouldn't," he said in fear.
"Try me," Casey said and turned to Romeo and smirked.
"In fact, let's give you one right now," he laughed and grabbed Kyle by the hoodie and dragged him towards the toilet.
"Casey!" Romeo called out in an attempt to stop his friend.
"Casey, please stop it," Kyle begged as he tried to get out of his brother's grip, but it wasn't until Kyle's head was just about near the toilet bowl that Casey let him go.
"Just kidding bro but remember this is a warning. You squeal and I will give you a swirlie," Casey threatened and he was happy to see his brother nod in reply.
"Good," Casey smiled.
He walked back out into the lounge to finish the beer with Romeo. Kyle however pushed himself up and quickly washed his hands before making his way to his and Casey's room again.
He knew that he would find it hard to keep his mouth shut, but he also knew he had to try.
The last thing he wanted was another swirly after the one that the years twelves gave him three years ago and especially from his younger brother.
Brax nods his head lightly.
"Never threaten him like that again Casey; I mean it! You know how timid he is, I don't want that used against him," Brax orders.
"I wasn't thinking. I just didn't want you finding out about it," Casey admits.
Brax shakes his head.
"How's that working for you? You should know I always find out things, Casey and in this instance, you told me yourself," Brax said with a smirk.
Casey hangs his shoulders and sighs as Brax takes a breath and carries on.
"Now your punishment," he says then pauses, not knowing how to punish his brother, because he did tell on his own accord, eventually, but he also still stole and drank underage.
"How about he helps me at the gym on Thursday afternoon. I'm closing that night so he can help me tidy everything up," Heath suggests, having been listening in to his brother's grilling and he knows Casey hates any kind of work especially when he's cleaning up a mess that isn't his.
"Good idea Heath!" Brax smiles and nods his head, while Casey looks so annoyed.
"Come on Brax! I was just curious to see what it tasted like, please don't make me; can't you just ground me instead?" Casey begs.
Not only does he not want to help tidy up the gym, but he also doesn't want to be left alone with Heath.
"You have to understand what you have done is wrong and grounding you over something that happened a while back isn't going to teach you anything! Now I know you were just looking for a bit of fun, so I'll let you off without a lecture. But you are not to drink alcohol again until you are eighteen, unless Heath or I let you, under our supervision," Brax orders and then looks at his watch.
"Start getting ready for bed. I'll be in soon to say goodnight to you boys," Brax smiles.
"But how is helping Heath going to solve anything?" Casey argues.
Heath snickers and pulls Casey towards him.
"It's your punishment; so, suck it up."
"But…"
"Enough, Casey; go and get ready, as I've asked. I already told you I wasn't going to lecture you about what you did, but if you keep arguing with me I might change my mind," Brax warns, calmly.
Casey huffs and goes off to clean his teeth before Brax did change his mind and decided to give him a lecture.
Meanwhile in Kyle and Casey's room Kyle is looking sadly at his bruised stomach in the mirror. It is a dark shade of red. He hears footsteps and quickly pulls his shirt down just as the bedroom door opens.
"You get in much trouble?" Kyle asks hoping his brother didn't get too badly told off. He grabs his oodie and slips it on, wanting comfort tonight.
"Not too bad, but I've got to help Heath on Thursday afternoon at the gym," Casey sighs annoyed, not really wanting to do it.
"That sucks, being stuck with Heath isn't fun at all," Kyle mumbles.
He jumps on his bed and grabs his book.
"Yeah, you're telling me," Casey chuckles, expecting Kyle to join in his laughter but when he looks at his older brother he sees him wearing a big frown.
"Hey Kyle, wanna wrestle?" he asks.
He can see that Kyle is really mopey and sometimes when Kyle is mopey a play wrestle, cheers him up but other times it upsets him further, Casey hopes this time it will help cheer him up.
"No, I just wanna read," Kyle replies as turns his page.
Casey looks at the book Kyle is reading and huffs. He is reading: The Fault in our Stars.
"Dude! That's a girl's book!" Casey grunts and rips the book out of Kyle's hands and holds it up high with one hand.
Kyle jumps up and tries to get it back.
"Oh yeah, I'm totally going to be arrested for reading it," Kyle says sarcastically.
All he wanted to do was read his book, he likes this book; it's one of his favourites.
"Don't be cheeky, Ky," Casey smirks and throws the book across the room.
"You're a jerk," Kyle mumbles under his breath and starts to walk across the room to get his book when Casey grabs him from behind and wrestles him to the ground.
"Cut it out Casey!" Kyle moans in defeat.
He sometimes finds this fun, but at the moment he doesn't. He's in a lot of pain and he just wants to read his book and be left alone.
"Come on Ky, it's fun," Casey chuckles and playfully hits his brother in the stomach but gets a massive shock when Kyle yelps in pain.
He always playfully hits Kyle and he never makes a sound.
He gets up and holds out his hand for Kyle and pulls his brother to his feet but grabs him by his shoulders and makes him look at him.
"What's wrong?" Casey asks.
Kyle sadly lifts up his shirt and oodie showing Casey his dark red belly.
Casey screws up his face.
"Dude! That's the worst pink belly I've ever seen. What happened?" he asks.
He looks at his brother who is looking sadly at his feet.
"Heath happened," Kyle replies miserably and his shoulders slump and he looks sadly at Casey.
"I came out and he was here. He told me he was going to continue teaching me a lesson. He pinned me down; gave me several wet willies and a few times he licked his hand and rubbed it all over my face. He then lifted up my shirt and gave me the pink belly. It really hurt," Kyle says with tears in his eyes.
He's so happy he can tell Casey about this stuff because he has experienced it himself. All Casey wants to do is hug his older brother but he knows it will only cause him pain.
"Is that it?"
Kyle sadly shakes his head.
"On the way home he whacked my abdomen again, only a few times. He whacked me once to start with because I answered back to him. Then he started reminiscing about how he used to beat up a kid. He was so enthusiastic and then he snapped. He pulled over and whacked me two more times hard and quick. I don't know why," Kyle says miserably with tears in his eyes.
"I do, it's because he's a jerk!" Casey barks loudly causing Kyle to yelp in fear.
"Not too loud Casey. If he finds out I told you, I'm in so much trouble," Kyle pleads in fear as he looks at the door praying it doesn't open.
"You need to tell Brax!" Casey protests, there is no way that Heath should get away with this.
"No, just leave it Casey. Please, I'm begging you, please, please, please, please!" Kyle begs with tears running down his face in tears.
Casey's heart breaks at the sight of his brother and deep down he knows that he should tell Brax but ultimately, he decides to listen to Kyle and not tell Brax.
"Okay, only because you asked, but I still don't agree," Casey mumbles and the two boys jump in bed.
Casey watches as Kyle tries to get comfortable, but it doesn't look easy, he also grabs his stuffed monkey.
Casey frowns at his brother and just wishes he would tell Brax what happened.
Just then there is a knock at the door and Brax walks in.
He walks over and kisses both of them on the top of their heads.
"Love you both! See you in the morning."
"Night Brax!" Casey replies with a small smile, he is thankful he's not in too much trouble with his big brother, but he still isn't looking forward to helping Heath.
"Night, love you too," Kyle replies sweetly, causing Brax to smile at the timid boy.
Brax walks out the door and shuts it behind him.
"Night Case," Kyle yawns and snuggles down in his bed still feeling a stinging feeling coming from his abdomen.
Soon both the boys are asleep.