Bare Yourself (Consumed)

She closes her eyes, then shakes her head. “It’s nothing,” she says softly.

“The fuck it’s not,” I growl again. “Damn it, Willow, get off the ground.”

Her eyes meet mine and they plead with me. “Tegan, please.”

“Please what?” I ask, and take another step. “Please let him go free? Please don’t kick his ass for everything he’s put you through? Please let him continue to manipulate you?” I shake my head. “I can’t do that, Willow. You mean too much to me to let him continue to do that.”

“Lo,” Bryan says, his voice stronger than a few seconds ago. It grates on my nerves. “What did… what did he mean you almost got raped?” She looks from him to me, then back to him. She reaches out to touch his arm, but he flinches away. “Answer me!” he says louder.

I force my feet to stay in place, but I still snarl, “Watch your fucking tone with her.”

She swallows, looks down at her hands, then back at him. “The day you called me to come help you. One of…” She glances to the side, then looks back, a swirl of emotions in her eyes. “One of your friends was there. You were passed out on the couch. He cornered me against the wall.”

“Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Bryan mutters, then leans over, falls to his hands, and starts puking.

Willow scoots out of the way, but stays close enough to rub her hand over his back. It should be him comforting her, not the other way around. This bastard’s hurt her enough, and he’s still doing it right now.

I’m about five seconds away from pulling her away from him and taking her inside, when he looks up. Spit and God knows what else is on his chin, and he wipes it off with the back of his hand. Had I had any compassion as far as he was concerned, I’d feel sorry for him. Devastation is written all over his face, but all I can feel toward him is malice.

“Please tell me he didn’t—”

Willow cuts him off before he can continue. “No! I was able to get away.”

“With no help from you,” I spit out, and he brings his bloodshot eyes to me. “She screamed for you, you fucking bastard, but you were so fucking high you didn’t even hear her.”

He sits back on his heels and grabs fistfulls of his hair, pulling hard.

“Stop it, Tegan,” Willow says angrily, pointing her eyes to me. She reaches out and tries to pull Bryan’s hands from his hair. He starts rocking back and forth on his knees.

“He needs to fucking know what he’s done. He deserves to know it.”

She stands up. “Not right now. Not like this. He needs help.”

I stalk over to her, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a slight shake. “You’re right,” I tell her. “He does need help, but he has to want to be helped. You can’t save someone that doesn’t want to be saved. You know this. You’ve tried already.”

More tears pool in her eyes, then slide down her cheeks. “He does want help. He told me so.” She drops her eyes down to Bryan, who’s still rocking on his knees, moaning to himself, then brings them back to me. “Please Tegan. I can’t just leave him like this. He’s my brother. I love him.”

Fuck it all to hell and back. I pull in a deep breath to rein in my temper. I want to kick the ever-lovin’ hell out of him. I want to rage in his face and tell him about every single hurt he’s caused Willow over the last several years. I want him to hurt with the knowledge that he’s hurt his sister. I want to leave him on the ground to rot away in his own vomit. I want to gather Willow in my arms and never let her go, protect her from assholes like him.

But I can’t do any of that. I can’t because I love her, and I know she’ll never forgive me if I turned my back on him. It’s not about giving up on someone. It’s not about looking the other way while someone suffers. It’s about knowing when to give up and realize you can’t always help the ones you love. Willow’s been trying to help him for years and has gotten nowhere. He better hope to whatever God he prays to that he doesn’t fuck this up. Because if he hurts her again, if he makes her shed one more fucking tear, I’ll tear him apart.

I cup her cheeks and lean my forehead against hers. “As much as I don’t like it, we’ll do what we can. But it’s not just me you have to convince. Logan is going to be just as livid as I am about the situation. He hurt Minnie, Willow. Logan’s not going to like him not being punished for it.”

“Oh fuck,” Bryan mumbles from the ground. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.” He looks up at us both. His cheeks are red and wet with tears. “Please tell her I didn’t mean to hurt her, Lo. You know I would never hurt Minnie.”

She releases me and squats down in front of him. “She knows,” Willow says quietly.

Bryan nods, but he still seems to be upset about it. It’s obvious he doesn’t like the thought of Minnie hurting, especially by his hand. He should have thought of that shit before he did what he did.

I may have just agreed to help her loser brother, but I don’t have to like it. I curl my lip up in disgust as I look down at him. His head hangs as Willow murmurs comforting shit to him. He doesn’t deserve her sympathy. I get that he lost his dad, and that shit will mess a person up, but she lost her dad as well. He should have leaned on Willow and Minnie, and let Willow lean on him as well. Not pushed her away and hurt her.

“Umm…” Willow says, looking up at me. She looks nervous. She gets to her feet, but bends at the waist and says something in Bryan’s ear. He nods, then climbs clumsily to his feet as well. She puts her arm around his waist when he stumbles. The fucker is high as we stand here.

“Tegan.” She looks at Bryan, then turns to me. “This is my brother, Bryan. Bryan, this is Tegan, my—”

I cut her off before she can finish. “I’m her boyfriend. The guy that’s going to kick your ass if you fuck this up.”

His eyes meet mine, and in them I see determination, but also fear. I don’t know if it’s fear because he’s worried about hurting her again or fear because of what I’ll do to him if he does. It doesn’t matter though. He needs to know exactly where I stand.

He holds my stare and nods. “I won’t, but if I do, then do whatever the fuck you want with me.”

Relief has Willow’s shoulders slumping. Her arm leaves Bryan and she walks over to me. I hold my arms out to her and she walks straight into them. I still keep my eyes on Bryan and he watches us with a curious expression. After several seconds, he drops his gaze.