'Dysfunctional: not operating normally or properly'
That was one way to describe Clara Campbells family. Dysfunctional; not operating properly. That was just what happened when your older siblings leave you.
Or that's what Clara had always believed...
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| Greyson Campbell |
I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't stand here, switching between the two rooms of my older brother and little sister, then to bracing myself for the hug that Wyatt needed from me. Every time he slammed into my body, I was bracing the tears that I swallowed back down.
I knew that I was partly at fault for the reason that my sister was in there, and my brother as well. For the past two weeks, almost three weeks at home, it had been argument after argument. Whether it had been about the school situation with Clara, or about the drugs that Elias and Colton had been taking, or that our father had reappeared and was trying to get our mother out of jail, there was always something to be said.
Clara would say that we weren't quiet people, but when we had all left home, none of us had spoken to one another for a few months at a time. Auston would say that the dinners brought us together, but even then, we only spoke about the bare minimum. There was usually a few of a us missing, so we had never had the chance to discuss the situation with our parents or anything serious.
It was always talk, but never deep. That was what we did best. We avoided things better than confronting the real issue head on. The issue here, was that Clara had been hiding her injuries for longer than we expected. She had shown Auston, after the girls had bullied her in the school bathroom, but I was shocked to know that Auston hadn't picked up on this.
He was a doctor for crying out loud, he would have been able to see the signs. But, I knew he was trying to step away from that, and to be around more for Clara, but from what I had heard, he had started drinking and didn't go anywhere near her. That had been another topic, as Auston would come home from work, usually a bottle in hand, and shooing us off to bed, but eventually, we didn't budge.
Our brother hadn't drunk like this before, to the state where he had bruises on his stomach and chest, and a few scratches along with them. I had my theories, but my brother would never want to hear them, and dismiss them. But, when he awoke next, I wouldn't be letting him get away with it. This wasn't fair to him, our big brother.
A body slammed into mine, and for once, it wasn't Wyatt. I knew it wasn't the little boy that had looked after my sister after I had left, before he too, left her. I felt no hate for him, as he had done everything he possibly could have done, before he was blamed for a murder that we all knew he didn't do.
Cameron, Auston and I all knew majority of the story, and that had been the reason for what had started the arguments. That the Fallon Case was starting to come back up and people had started digging, and one of them was my little sister. She knew that there was more to the story and had flagged it with Auston, before he came and told us. He had also said to Mackenzie to stay away from the house for a little while, and to not bring Ryland over.
It was a big mistake on his behalf, but I knew he was trying his best. "Why won't she wake up?" the voice cried into my chest, and my heart lurched. If it could squeeze any harder, I was sure that it would combust for the little girl in that bed. We had been ordered out of the room as the nurses needed to do another checkup, and Auston's would be next, and I wasn't sure I could handle it anymore.
