Forgotten

ROBBIE'S POV.

I woke up and noticed somebody holding onto me tightly. I opened my eyes a little and smiled when I saw it was Cassie, she looks so cute when she's asleep. Josh was asleep on the other side of her. I carefully wriggled out of her tight grip and she instantly rolled over and grabbed onto Josh. I sat up slowly and left the room silently, careful not to wake them. I tiptoed down the stairs, wondering where Dad was until I heard him talking in the kitchen. There was no other voice so I guessed he was on the phone.

"No, last night he just showed up. I don't know how the fuck he found out where I live."

There was a pause as the person on the other end of the phone spoke to him.

"We had a bit of a fight, he was pretty drunk though, no I'm alright, he only got one good punch on me anyway, he got me right in the head and it hurts like a bitch this morning."

Damn. Now I feel kinda guilty. We dragged Darren into his life too and now he's hurt because of it.

"I just don't know how much more of this I can take. Just Cassie being so shy with me, I haven't got a clue how to act around her, Robbie is still being kind of difficult with me but he was better last night and Josh... Jesus where do I even begin?"

So I'm difficult am I?! I'll show him difficult...

"Yeah in the middle of the night Cassie wakes me up telling me she's had a bad dream so she crawls into my bed with me, she tells me Josh has been up walking around so I go to check it out and he's in his room sat in the corner, looks like shit and he's slashed his arms to pieces! I don't know how to fucking deal with that!"

Holy shit. I moved closer to the kitchen and hid outside the doorway so I could hear his half of the conversation clearer. I was trembling a little and felt sick after hearing what was going on with Josh... how he could do that to himself I don't know.

"No it wasn't bad enough to need stitches I don't think. He was pretty shaken up, he finally opened up and told me what that sick fuck did to him. I... Jesus... I really... when that Darren guy showed up I don't think I've ever been so angry in my life. I swear to god if the kid hadn't been there on the landing watching me I probably would have killed the guy. I just got so angry, I hit his face into the wall about three times and I broke his nose pretty bad then I dragged him outside and left him on the sidewalk to freeze all night."

Well, at least he hates Darren as much as I do. I owe Josh so much, in the house if he hadn't knocked Darren out when he did, he might have... I dread to think...

"I really don't think I can handle this for much longer. I mean, my parenting skills aren't exactly the best and I just can't deal with them. I haven't got a clue what I'm doing, I... I just don't know. I don't know them, they don't know me. We haven't bonded at all, we're still complete strangers to each other and I don't want it to be this way. Part of me wishes Nicola never mentioned me, that they never knew about me and I never knew about them."

"So that's how you feel is it?" I said bitterly, walking into the room. He hung up the phone instantly and looked at me. He had a black eye from where Darren had hit him last night and he looked like he hadn't slept.

"That's not what I meant," he said. He sounded tired too.

"Then why did you say it if you didn't mean it?" I demanded. He sat down at the kitchen table, looking up at me wearily.

"I don't want to argue with you, just... go find something to do, leave me alone for just two minutes OK?"

"No! You said all that, I want to know what you meant by it! You're taking us back to the home aren't you?!" I was near enough yelled at him and he flinched as I raised my voice.

"No! I'm not! I would never do that, I promise, please just, I have a headache," he said and rested his head on the table and closed his eyes.

"Sorry."

"S'OK, just try and be quieter."

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah I just need to get my head sorted out, he hit me pretty hard and I can't really see straight."

"Ouch. Dude is it true what you said? Would you really have k-killed him if I hadn't been watching?"

"I was that angry. I can't really explain how I felt. I knew I had to protect you guys so yeah, I kind of lost control a little bit. I shouldn't have done that in front of you, I'm sorry, don't imitate my behaviour." The whole time he was speaking he kept his eyes screwed shut and his head down on the table, clutching it with both hands.

"It's OK, I won't. I can't believe you smashed his face in like that though! I mean, right into a wall, ouch..."

"Yeah well, it was the only thing I could think of, short of kicking him in the balls but he was so drunk that probably wouldn't have stopped him anyway..."

"Are you really sure you feel alright?"

He didn't answer he just sat there with his head on the table, his face contorted in pain.

"Do me a favor, pass me the box of painkillers of the side?" I grabbed them and passed them to him. Just as I was about to get him a glass of water he pulled the tablets out of the box and took one with no water.

Josh walked into the room ruffling up his hair a little and looking still half asleep.

"You alright?" he asked, noticing Dad sat at the table, clearly his head really hurting him.

"No," he said through gritted teeth.

"Shit man what do we do?" I asked Josh.

"Uh... call somebody?"

I grabbed his phone up off the sideboard and flicked through the address book on it.

"Frank?" I asked.

"Nah Mikey or Ray," I nodded and found Ray's number and hit call.

It rang five times and he picked up.

"Hello?" he asked groggily.

"Ray? Can you help us with something?"

"Yeah sure little dude but do you know what time it is?"

"I don't really care what time it is. Look, Dad hit his head, what do we do?"

"What did he hit it on?"

"A fist. Darren showed up last night and they had a bit of a fist fight."

"Ah. Urm well, is he talking?"

"Yep."

"OK, give him painkillers, get him to lie down and get some rest, is he alright? What's he doing right now?"

"He's sat with his head on a table, he just took painkillers. So what do we do? Drag him to his bed?"

"Anywhere to lay down."

"OK, thanks dude."

"No problem kiddo, take it easy." He hung up and I put the phone on the table.

"OK, Dad he said you need to lie down. Come on, get up." He didn't move so Josh and I pulled him up out of the chair and led him to the hallway.

We practically dragged him up the stairs and were met on the top landing by a small form in pink pajamas.

"Hey sweetie," said Dad.

"Morning Daddy."

"I'm going back to sleep, I have a bad head OK?"

"OK," she skipped past us and down the stairs.

"You gonna be OK?" asked Josh as we let go of him and he dropped onto the bed.

"I'm fine," he said, pulling the blankets over himself.

"Shit. No I can't go to sleep, you guys need breakfast," he went to get up and we both pushed him back down.

"We got it, don't worry, just get some rest." He nodded and we left the room, closing the door behind us.

Once we got back downstairs we found Cassie sat on the couch watching music videos. Paramore was on and she was watching Hayley's every move intently, a fascinated expression on her face.

I heard a buzzing noise from the kitchen and got up to check it out. Dad's cell was ringing. The call ID was just a number so I didn't know who it was.

I watched it ring, itching to answer it but I knew that it would have been intruding. I sat down at the table and watched it ring out four more times before I answered it.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Bob?" came a man's voice. It sounded a tiny bit familiar.

"Uh... no, It's his... cousin, he's kinda in the... uh the shower right now, can I take a message or anything?"

"Kid, I don't mean to be rude or anything but you guys couldn't be anymore obvious," said the man.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Look, theres not much time if this is going to work. We saw you with Bob at the show last night, we put two and two together, we need your help, you're perfect for the job."

"What? What job? What concert? I don't know what you're talking about dude... who is this anyway?"

"Sorry dude! It's Nathan."

"Huh? Who?"

"Nathan Leone, from Madina Lake. We're in a bit of a sticky situation and we need your help."

"To do what? What do you mean?"

"Well, my brother and I, we have to be somewhere for a family reason and we kind of had this show we were meant to be playing... we need a pair of twins to cover for us, just for one night."

"But we don't know any of your songs!"

"Not a problem, you have two days to learn it all."

"But we can't!"

"Yeah sure you can kid, simple enough. Just gotta lighten up your hair a little and cut it like ours, some good make up, make you two look like us, nobody will know the difference."

"Neither of us can sing."

"Yeah you can, anybody can sing, I'll teach you, it's easy enough."

"No. Dude look, how many people are going to be there?"

"Uh I'm not too sure but nobody will get close enough to spot that you're not me. Come on kiddo, your Dad owes us one anyway, how old are you, fourteen?"

"I'm fifteen. I can't sing. My voice is all unsteady."

"Yeah but, that wont matter, just come along and we can give it a try later today alright?"

"O-OK." I felt I could say nothing else. He had me persuaded, the temptation of being up on stage performing was too much for me.

"I'll call over there later with Matthew and we'll teach you some stuff OK?"

"Uh.. alright..."

"Bye kid, thanks," he hung up and I put the phone down on the table.

What the hell had I just gotten us into?