Always There

Chapter Twenty-Two

Songs for this chapter:
• breathin - Ariana Grande

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Bryce's POV

My dad and Elena both shoot up from their seats at the sound of the doorbell ringing.

"Everyone else feel free to continue eating. We'll only be a moment," Elena says to the room as my dad takes her hand, the two of them heading out of the dining room and into the foyer.

Glancing over to Blossom, I find that she's watching me closely as she shovels another forkful of rice into her mouth. She chews slowly, swallowing before she notices my eyes on her. I watch as she gets a nervous smile on her face, and I can't resist the urge to lean in and kiss her on the cheek.

"Do you think he's okay?" Blossom asks softly, genuine worry evident in her tone.

I nod, smiling at her as I allow for one of my hands to rest on her thigh, and she tenses as though her parents are going to be able to see from where they're sitting across from us at the table.

Adriana and Addison are seated right next to Kathleen and Johnathon, and so they have a view of every single damn thing that Blossom and I do. It feels as though their eyes haven't left my face the entirety of the dinner, the only exception being when I made eye contact with them.

They were suddenly extremely shy in that moment, apparently.

"Should we go say hi to him at the door too to ask him how he's doing?" Blossom then asks in a whisper, resting her hand on top of mine.

I contemplate her question for a moment before quickly deciding that she has a very valid suggestion. Although it's still fucking hard to wrap my head around the fact that I have a goddamn brother, I guess that I need to embrace it sooner or later unless I want my dad to be pissed at me for my whole entire life.

I suppose that the first step I can take towards not completely hating Mateo could be being nice to him when he's going through shit like this.

Nodding down at Blossom, I answer her, "That's a good idea. Let's go, baby."

She grins at me, and I see a glimmer of hope in her eyes for some reason. She's been very insistent about me making amends with Mateo after all of the rude shit that I said and did to him in high school, and so I'm pretty sure that she's fucking ecstatic over the fact that I'm showing some empathy towards the blond bastard.

Blossom and I stand up from our seats, and to my surprise, she immediately reaches for my hand. She briefly informs her parents of what we're doing before she tugs me out of the room and into the foyer.

We walk in to find Elena with her arms around Mateo, who has his face buried into the crook of his mom's neck. My dad is off to the side, watching them with a small and sad smile on his face as he keeps his hands tucked into his pockets.

I can barely see any of Mateo's face, but I can already tell that the poor guy is a wreck. His blond hair isn't pushed back the way that he always wears it and his eyes look red, presumably from crying and not weed considering that he has tears staining his cheeks.

Once he hears Blossom and I's footsteps, he glances towards us for merely a moment before he presses his face back into Elena's hair.

When Blossom's grip on my hand tightens the faintest bit, I look down to find her wearing a frown. She looks genuinely distressed, and I frown myself upon seeing her sad.

She shouldn't have to be sad anymore. So many things have happened to her to the point where I wish that I could just erase her ability to feel any emotions that aren't happy.