Numbers.

{ READ AUTHOR'S NOTE ITS IMPORTANT. }

*Oli's P.O.V*

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Tom's voice echoes through the kitchen, startling both Lee and I.

"Shit!" Lee curses under his breath, turning to my brother. "Look, Tommy-"

"Shut the fuck up, Malia." Tom hisses, getting up in Lee's face. "You wouldn't have even told me, you shifty little bitch."

"At least I didn't throw my brother to the side for a fucking cheap whore." Lee snarls back. Lee never, ever gets angry the way he is now, and I decide that it's time for me to intervene.

"Whoa, guys!" I say, quickly walking over and stepping in between them before things get too heated.

"And you!" Tom turns to me, a murderous look in his eyes. "How DARE you betray me! Our family trust! All I want is to help you, and you repay me by lying? What kind of shit brother are you?" He asks, grabbing me by the sleeve of my shirt and pulling me towards the stairs.

"Watch your fucking tone, Sykes!" Lee defends, lightly pulling me away from my brother, and stepping towards him. "Keep your goddamn filthy hands off him!"

"I'll touch my own brother if I want to." Tom smirks. He leans back, and I can tell he's about to lunge at Lee. Can't have that, can we? Right as my younger brother is about to start swinging, I step in between them, taking the first blow to my stomach. Luckily, there wasn't another bruise there, and he didn't hit as hard as Mike.

Just as I bit back a groan of pain, the other guys walked into the kitchen, looking panicked but still had sleep filling their eyes and messy hair.

"Lee, please take them back into the living room. I don't want them to see this." I say, pleading with my eyes. Lee gives me a doubtful look. "I got this."

He sighs and nods. "If things get too intense, I'm coming back in."

I nod back, deciding I had to lie really quick. "If you must."

He leads the guys out of the room before they get to see too much and break us up. Honestly, I just want to beat the shit out of him right now. Who does he think he is? Like I'd ever just let him lay a hand on a sweetheart like Lee.

I turned back to face my brother, and things got going quite quickly.

*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

After Tom and I had finished our little brawl, he was left passed out on the floor with a cut on his eyebrow, and a bruise on his jaw. I only had a split lip, and he managed to stab me in the thigh with a fork. He got it in there pretty deep; straight through my jeans and everything. Didn't hurt too bad, not much worse than getting my ribs tattooed.

I stumbled out of the kitchen, smiling at the guys pacing in the living room. "Hello." I say.

"What the fuck happened in there?!" Nichols asks, walking over to me and wrapping his hands around my wrists as he pulls me to the couch. I sit down in between Jordan and Nichols.

"Tom and I got into a fight." I shrug, not feeling very good when Nichols' face gets all red.

"You what?! Oli, he could have seriously injured you!" He exclaims, hands moving all over my face and limbs to make sure I didn't have any broken bones.

I gently pull his hands away. "'Seriously injured', my ass. Fucker stabbed me with a fork." I motion to the four blood outlined holes in my jeans.

"Are you serious?" Lee bursts out laughing, coming over to examine my little fork holes.

"Well, he picked up a knife first, so I should be grateful he traded it for a fork." I answer, laughing under my breath. "Could someone give me a ride home? I really think I've had enough brotherly bonding for a couple months."

Nichols nods and pulls out his keys. "I gotcha." He smiles and helps me up off the couch and over to the door. I pull on my shoes, and say my goodbyes to the others.

As we got into Nichols' car, he started asking questions.

"What did you guys fight over?" He asks, pulling out of Tom's driveway and into the street.

"Uh, nothing really. We do stupid shit like that a lot when no ones around." I lie, focusing most of my attention onto watching the passing street lights. "It helps us get rid of stress."

He only hums in response. For the rest of the ride, it is quiet. When we get back to my flat, I give him a smile, say goodbye, and get out of his car. I begin my short walk up the walkway and go as gingerly up the porch steps as I can. I pull open the door, and find Josh teary-eyed and curled up on the couch.

"Hello." I say shyly, my voice shaky and weak. I was nervous, to say the least. How was he going to react? I gently took off my shoes, and went to sit on the couch, hoping my limp wasn't too evident.

"Oli, what's happened?" He asks, his voice soft and dulled out from crying. I can hear the stuffiness of his nose, and right now I just want to float up to space and never come back. "Are you okay?"

The fact that he even still gave a shit about me was breathtaking. Just like the rest of him.

I nod quickly, not wanting to concern him. "M'fine. Brother and I got into a bit of a scrap. Nothing to be overly concerned about." I tried to shrug it off like it was the most nonchalant thing in the world.

"I...I-I'm going to turn the l-light on, okay?" He asks, standing up and rushing to the light switch. Panic sets in and I don't know what to do. I have to lie.

"N-No!" I rush out, but I quickly clear my throat to keep my calm in check. "Please don't, Josh. I look like death and I'm pretty sure you'd be grossed out." Scratch that, I look AND feel like death.

"Oli, I have to check you out and make sure you aren't hurt too badly." He sounds regretful as he flicks the light on, the bright illumination immediately burning my eyes. My eyes adjust quick enough though.

Josh's gaze is trained on my face, before trailing down my body. Not only making me feel really selfconcious, but my heart dropped when I heard him gasp. I looked down to where he was looking, and found the source of the problem. The blood from my fork holes had dripped down my leg and was currently pooling and overflowing in and down my sock, surely staining our carpet.

"My brother just stabbed me with a fork, it's nothing." I attempt to ignore it, act like it doesn't feel like four holes being burned into my flesh, it was nothing.

"We need to get you cleaned up." He states affirmatively, walking over to me and taking my right hand in his left, as he guides me to the bathroom.