AUTOR'S NOTE: Thanks for the continued support in reading, following and reviewing! There is slight swearing in this chapter.
The six friends are at the park playing a bit of soccer.
It's a three-on-three game, and it is all tied up, two all, with the boys deciding that the next goal wins.
The teams are: Casey, Kyle and Ryder, and Romeo, Liam and Dex.
Kyle, Casey, and Dex all have their overnight bags with them as they were all planning on spending the night at Romeo's. Neither Liam nor Ryder were able to come this time, so it is just going to be the four of them.
"Over here Case!" Ryders calls, and Casey passes the ball to Ryder, and he manages to dribble it past Dex.
He then sends a kick back to Casey who then sees that Kyle is available, so he kicks it to him, but then just as Kyle is running with the ball he trips and lands face first into the dirt.
Liam runs over and gathers up the ball and dribbles it past Kyle and then kicks it to Dex who kicks it to Romeo who then kicks it back to Liam who dribbles it past Ryder then kicks it to Romeo who scores.
"Yes! We won!" The three yell as they get into a group hug.
Casey picks up the ball and kicks it in frustration and it lands close to Kyle.
"Get the ball," Casey orders at his older brother who is still on the ground.
Kyle pushes himself up and walks over to the ball sadly and picks it up. He drops his head and slumps over to his friends. Once again he is the reason his team has lost and although it is just a game of fun, Kyle still hates letting his team down by losing.
"Sorry," Kyle apologises looking at Casey and Ryder.
"It's okay, Ky," Ryder replies.
He knows that Kyle never means to lose. He just really struggles with any kinds of sports.
"No it's not okay! Bloody hell, Kyle! Can you stay on your feet for two bloody minutes?" Casey hisses.
"I did my best, Casey!" Kyle argues, feeling a little shocked by Casey's outburst and hates when Casey gets mad at him and his inability to play sport.
"Well your best isn't good enough! Do better!" Casey hisses at his brother who lowers his head.
"Why do you have to be such a jerk? It was just a fun game!" Kyle mumbles, still unable to believe that Casey is getting so upset over losing a fun game with friends.
"It's not just a game. Why do you have to be such a geek?" Casey argues.
"Hey, come on guys! Stop this; it's ridiculous!" Romeo says as he tries to get the two brothers to stop fighting.
Kyle completely ignores Romeo.
"I'm so sick of you calling me a geek! You're meant to be my brother and you're always calling me names and shoving me around. I'm sick of it! I get enough of it at school and then I have to come home and get it from you!" Kyle hisses at Casey.
He then chucks the soccer ball at Casey who easily catches it and then chucks it back to Kyle hard, but Kyle doesn't catch it and it hits his stomach hard winding him.
Casey takes this opportunity to tackle Kyle to the ground.
"Fight back geek!" Casey yells.
Liam and Romeo rush forward to try to pull Casey off Kyle.
"Get off, arsehole!" Kyle yells, instantly regretting the words as they came out and feeling frustrated with himself and with Casey for leading him to use such language that he detests so much.
Kyle continues to struggle under Casey, and is unable to push him off.
"Ohhh little Kylie swore! I'll tell Brax and you'll be in trouble! Turns out you're not the goody goody geek we thought you were!" Casey barks as he rubs his brother's face in the dirt.
Romeo and Liam manage to pull Casey off Kyle and Ryder and Dex help Kyle to his feet.
"And I'll tell Brax about you bullying me!" Kyle argues as he dusts himself off.
"You would, wouldn't you because you're such a wimpy geek!" Casey yells and tries to lunge towards Kyle again.
"Stop it, man! Calm down," Liam states to which Casey scowls in return.
Romeo and Liam finally release their friend.
"You know Romeo and I want to watch a scary movie tonight, but we can't because you're a baby and you would cry all night and need Brax and your monkey!" Casey hisses walking over to Kyle and giving him a hard shove in the chest causing him to fall to the ground again.
Romeo pulls Casey back again before he can do anything else.
"Not cool, dude," he says, but Casey just ignores him, glaring at his brother.
Kyle looks up at Casey sadly, beginning to feel betrayed.
"How could you say that, Case? You know that's a secret," Kyle whispers and blushes as he can feel all eyes on him.
Now all his friends know he sleeps with a monkey soft toy when he's upset. How could his brother do this to him? He pushes himself up and looks sadly at his feet.
"Oh, boo hoo! Since you're so upset, why don't you go hug your monkey? I know it's in your bag. You hide it in your sleeping bag so no one will see!" Casey hisses and unzips Kyle's bag and pulls out his stuffed monkey and holds it up for all the boys to see.
He then chucks it to Kyle but it hits his chest and then lands on the floor.
Ryder bends down and picks it up and hands it to Kyle and frowns at Casey.
Kyle takes it and looks down at it, feeling sad and ashamed.
Dex can see how hurt his best friend is and doesn't think it's the best idea to have him and Casey together tonight, not when Casey keeps saying such nasty things.
"Okay, you two need to get some space," Dex says.
"Sure. I'll go to Romeo's with you two and little Kylie can go home to Brax and cry," Casey taunts.
"Cut it out, Casey!" Ryder groans.
There is no denying that Casey can be a bit of a jerk when he gets fired up.
"Stay out of this Ryder! I know Kyle can't stand up for himself but there's no need to butt in," Casey huffs, causing Kyle to lower his head; feeling like such a loser.
"Look how about Kyle and I go to mine and Casey, you can go to Romeo's like planned," Dex says standing up for his best friend.
"You wanna hang out with the loser, be my guest," Casey huffs, giving his brother one last glare.
He had no idea why he was being so nasty to his big brother but he couldn't stop himself.
"That wasn't nice, Casey!" Liam snaps, glaring at Casey.
"Who cares! He wouldn't even be friends with you if it wasn't for me! In fact, he probably wouldn't have any friends," Casey hisses.
All of the boys are shocked by Casey's behaviour, it wasn't like their friend to behave this badly towards his brother.
"Stop being so mean, Casey!" Dex says, scowling at Casey.
Kyle looks sadly at Dex, he is really hurt by his brother's words.
"You sure it's okay if I go to yours?" he asks.
He doesn't want to be any hassle to Sid. He places his monkey back in his bag and zips it up.
"Yeah, no worries; you're always welcome. Out of all our friends you're my Dad's favourite. He loves how polite you are," Dex smiles and ruffles up Kyle's hair.
"I'll give him a quick call to let him know," Dex says as walks away to see with his Dad if it's okay.
Kyle stands close to Ryder while Romeo and Liam try to calm Casey down.
They stay quiet for a bit with Ryder not knowing what to say, but after about a minute Ryder breaks the silence.
"You okay man?" he asks.
Kyle shakes his head.
"I don't get it; what did I do to him?" he mumbles sadly and looks in the direction of his brother who still looks annoyed.
Ryder shrugs.
"Maybe something is just bothering him. I'm sure it's nothing you did," Ryder reassures and pats Kyle on the shoulder.
"I just hate it when we fight and I'm so mad at myself for swearing when I'm always the one telling you guys not too; how hypercritical," Kyle admits sadly; always having a tendency to be too hard on himself.
"Don't think like that man and don't beat yourself up over swearing; it's no biggie and happens to anyone, especially if they get mad," Ryder comforts.
Just then Dex walks over.
"Dad says it's all good. We're having takeaway tonight so there will be enough food," Dex says smiling; happy that Kyle and Casey will be able to get some space.
"Sweet; cheers, Dex."
"Is everything okay?" Dex asks his friends, concerned.
"Ky's just mad at himself for swearing and fighting with Casey," Ryder explains.
"I understand. Well you can forget about all that when we have an awesome night at my house!" Dex cheers, lightening the mood and causing Kyle to smile.
"I'll just call Brax," Kyle mumbles and pulls his phone out of his pocket to call his big brother.
"Hey kiddo, what's up?" Brax asks, wondering why Kyle was calling him. He didn't expect to hear from him for a while.
"Hey Brax. Is it okay if I sleep at Dex's tonight instead? Dr. Walker says it's okay," Kyle asks, hoping his brother won't push the issue any further.
"Yeah, that's fine. But what's up? I thought the plan was to sleep at Romeo's," Brax asks.
"Things kind of changed…Casey still is but Dex and I wanted to go back to his," Kyle mumbles.
"Did you and Casey have a fight?" Brax asks sternly.
"No!" Kyle blurts out panicked, not wanting Brax to ask questions and lead Casey into trouble, so he has to calm down.
"I think Romeo and Casey want to watch some scary movies and Dex and I aren't that keen to watch them, so instead of being bored or uncomfortable, we're going to go to his place instead and hang," Kyle says and he hopes he's convincing.
"Sure, but I want to talk to Casey; make sure he doesn't plan to watch too scary movies. Call him over," Brax instructs.
Kyle's head drops.
"Casey!" he calls, "Brax wants to talk to you."
Casey comes over and he doesn't look happy about it.
"What did you tell him?" Casey whispers.
"Nothing," Kyle mumbles.
Casey rips the phone off Kyle and shoves him down.
"Hello," Casey answers.
"Kyle mentioned you and Romeo are planning on watching scary movies, now Casey, look: I don't mind you watching scary movies but nothing rated R18, you understand?" Brax orders, causing Casey to huff.
"No worries, Brax; we won't," Casey replies.
"Okay then, have a good night and say the same to your brother," Brax says.
"Sweet; will do. You too Brax," Casey replies and hangs up the phone.
He then passes it to his brother who is on his feet again. He grips Kyle by the shirt causing Kyle to squeak in fear, but Casey just smiles and releases him.
"Read a book on soccer will you Kylie, maybe then you'll be less of an embarrassment."
Casey walks away and he and Romeo walk towards Romeo's house.
Kyle walks over to the other boys and smiles slightly; he is happy to get some space from Casey, when something is clearly bothering him that he takes it out on him.
"See ya later brainiacs," Liam laughs ruffling both Dex's and Kyle's hair.
"Kyle, don't worry about Case, whatever issue he's having at the moment has nothing to do with you. So just forget about him okay?" Liam smiles and slaps Kyle affectionately around the head.
"Yeah man, he'll see sense soon. Just chill out with Dex and have fun," Ryder smirks and fist bumps both the boys.
"Thank you both for helping me and sticking up for me, even if it was just with Casey," Kyle say.
"Anytime dude," Liam smiles.
"Always," Ryder adds.
The two friends walk away, leaving Dex and Kyle alone.
"I'll call Indi," Dex says and pulls out his phone as Kyle looks up.
"What?" Kyle says and he can't help but smile.
He has a huge crush on Indi. Ever since he was a kid he thought that she was beautiful, sweet and smart.
"Indi will pick us up. She is in the surf club with some friends," Dex replies simply.
He then looks at Kyle who is blushing and he rolls his eyes.
"Dude! Stop crushing on my sister," Dex laughs and sends his sister a text.
"I'm not," Kyle protests.
"Tell that to your face," Dex chuckles and taps Kyle on the cheek.
Kyle rolls his eyes but plays with his hair slightly and pulls out his phone to use as a mirror. It had been ruffled up pretty bad so he had to fix it.
"Are you fixing your hair for my sister?" Dex asks, laughing.
His best friend sure did like his sister.
"No!" Kyle blurts out panicked, "I just like my hair to be tidy."
"Sure, I believe you mate," Dex smirks, rolling his eyes.
Just then Dex gets a text.
"She wants us to meet her at the surf club," he says and picks up his bag and starts to walk.
Kyle picks up his bag and catches up with him.
"What was up with Casey?" Dex asks on the way to the surf club; he has seen Casey and Kyle fight before but never like that.
"I couldn't tell you," Kyle sighs.
He had no idea what was up with his brother. He understands that he loses a lot of games but Casey blew it way out of proportion.
Dex lowers his head and then looks up again, there is something he needs to get off his chest.
"So.. the monkey," Dex starts and looks in Kyle's direction.
He sees his best friend lower his head in shame.
"I know it makes me sound like a baby, but it just helps me relax. I like that feeling of comfort," Kyle admits.
"I'm also a massive scaredy cat so I need that support to help myself calm down."
"That cool man. When Indi was eighteen and I was thirteen she used to watch all these scary movies. One night when she was babysitting me and Sasha and I begged her to let me watch it with her. Let's just say I slept in her bed that night after I had a little accident in mine," Dex admits.
Kyle is the only person he would ever admit this to, he trusts Kyle so much and knows he'll never tell anyone.
Kyle looks up at Dex and his smile widens.
"You're the best friend I could ever ask for Dex," Kyle praises.
"I know you're so lucky and so am I to have a friend like you," Dex says smiling, as he places an arm around Kyle's shoulder.