Axel
“ S heen never showed?” Phoebe asked.
couldn’t believe Sheen had played them.
“Did you try to call him?” Phoebe continued, and he hated the worry in her voice.
“The number was out of service.” hesitated on the basement steps as he heard Nick’s sharp tone coming from the kitchen.
“Fucking liar. We shouldn’t have trusted him,” Phoebe said, and Nick scoffed.
“Sheen isn’t the only one who’s been lying.”
The comment caught off guard. Phoebe didn’t reply, and ’s stomach dropped.
“Cat got your tongue? Anything you want to say to me?” Nick asked his sister.
regretted sleeping in so late. He hadn’t set his alarm—since Phoebe had climbed into his bed in the middle of the night, he’d figured they could both use a lie in. With Nick going to meet with Isaiah and Sheen, he’d thought they wouldn’t be caught.
“Other than ‘Did you eat the last of the cookie dough?’ Because I remember hiding a tub in the freezer.” The sound of ice crunching told him she was going through the freezer.
“No, that’s not it. As your big brother, I don’t want to talk about this. In fact, I don’t even want to know, but given all that’s going on, all our sanity is hanging by a thread. I didn’t expect to learn you’ve been lying to us,” Nick lectured.
“You’re being weird.” Phoebe tried to brush him off.
“We agreed no more lies, and last night I saw you going down to the basement,” Nick said sharply. “Sneaking around is beneath you, and I don’t know if this is some fuck you to Cillian, or the world or a quarter-life crisis, but sleeping with ?”
“I’m not having a quarter-life crisis! What I do and where I sleep is none of your business. I say this with love, big bro, but keep your nose out of my business,” Phoebe stated.
wanted to back her up, but this was a conversation between family. Still, he stayed close in case she needed him.
“It is my business when it affects all of us. You went to Italy with without telling any of us—just snuck off—but we were understanding.”
“I told you I went to clear out the villa,” she pressed, and smirked. It wasn’t a lie; they had cleared the villa. He did hate that they’d been lying since then, though.
He cursed himself that they hadn’t been more discreet, but with her nightmares, he wasn’t going to let her sleep alone, and since his room was furthest away from the others’, it only made sense that she stayed with him.
“That’s not all you did! You’ve been sleeping in ’s room since you both got back from Italy,” Nick said accusingly, and Phoebe went quiet. “Anita showed me the pictures she bought from the paparazzi. You both looked very cosy. I suspected had feelings for you when he wouldn’t leave your hospital room and when he kept volunteering to check up on you. I never thought he’d act on his feelings—and you should be careful. I thought you said you’d never date another rockstar again.”
wasn’t offended; Nick was just being protective of his younger sister. Nick had told him he didn’t want her dating another rockstar, which was understandable given how the last one had treated her. Not to mention how the public would react to them being together. Thankfully, Anita had thought to purchase the photos, so there hadn’t been any press coverage, but still couldn’t understand how they’d been found so quickly.
“My feelings for have nothing to do with Cillian,” Phoebe argued. “I didn’t do this to spite him. I think we both know I lost Cillian a long time ago. We were clinging to something that didn’t exist anymore.”
“So, you aren’t denying it? You’re with ?” Nick huffed.
“I’m happy. Can’t that be enough?”
listened to her pacing.
“Not when it’s only going to result in heartbreak.”
Nick’s words stung; he had no intention of breaking her heart. He was far more concerned with her breaking his, but any memories they’d made so far would make the pain worth it.
“Why do you think will hurt me? Do you have so little faith in all your friends?”
“Depends on whether you’re planning on dating all my friends,” Nick snapped.
“I know you’re upset, but that was uncalled for,” Phoebe said. “We didn’t plan this, and we didn’t tell you because we were worried how you’d react with everything going on. Clearly we were right.”
“You can’t keep dating my bandmates.”
“Don’t make it sound so bad,” she snapped.
“How do you want me to make it sound? How do you think the media will react when they find out?”
“I don’t care about the media, I only care about all of you.” Phoebe’s words came out in a frenzy. “I never wanted to do anything to hurt you, but I love him. I don’t know how he feels, but please don’t ruin the one thing in my life that’s going right.”
She loved him . ’s eyes widened as she said it. He couldn’t remove the grin from his face. They hadn’t even said that to each other. He wanted to burst through the door and wrap his arms around her, but knew he should let Nick adjust before he tackled his sister with kisses.
“You love him? This is serious?” Nick’s tone softened.
“I do, and I really didn’t see this coming. You have to believe the last thing I wanted was to fall for another rockstar, but he is so much more than that. I know you’re worried about how the world will react and you want to protect me, but no one is going to find out until we all want them too,” she explained.
“You’re both going to be the death of me, but I can’t do anything about who you love,” Nick grumbled. “I suppose you could have picked worse, and I’ve suspected his feelings for you had been going on for a while, so I know he genuinely cares for you. This is probably my fault for insisting you move in with us—but still, promise me no more secrets.”
felt his shoulders drop for the first time. He wanted his friend’s acceptance.
“No more secrets,” Phoebe promised.
“Are you sure you have to be in love with ? There isn’t anyone else?” Nick asked.
“Sorry,” Phoebe chuckled.
opened the basement door and found Phoebe hugging her brother. Nick tensed when he first saw him, but then his expression softened, silently telling him it was okay.
“I hate to interrupt this bonding moment, but keep your paws off my girlfriend,” said, and Phoebe looked around her brother to stare at him. He winked, and she blushed as she realised he’d heard everything.
“Fine, but remember that older brother trumps boyfriend,” Nick said, releasing her.
“She’s your what?” August asked , returning from his run with a box of donuts.
“My girlfriend,” answered plainly.
“Finally! I was beginning to wonder how long it’d take you to come clean,” August said, putting the box on the kitchen table.
“You knew?” Nick asked August, who shrugged.
“You didn’t? Phoebe’s been going down to the basement for weeks. holds her hand any chance he gets, and he follows her around worse than Bart.” August took a glazed donut. “I just wanted to see how long it would take them to admit it. Now that’s out of the way, I got jam and sprinkle donuts. Sorry Phoebe, they were out of Oreo.”
The others just stared at him. had been worried about August’s reaction most of all, but he seemed the least bothered.
“Why are you staring at me? Did you not want donuts?”
“Donuts are great, thank you.” Phoebe walked over to him and kissed his cheek.
“We’re good?” asked Nick as Phoebe grabbed a donut.
“Break her heart, and I break your legs,” Nick said sternly, wrapping his arm around ’s shoulders.
“I’ll even give you the baseball bat to do it,” said, sure that day wouldn’t come.
“But I should probably be thanking you, for loving her. It’s good to see her happy about something, and I’m glad she has you to protect her,” Nick sighed, looking at Phoebe smiling as she sat with August.
“She has all of us in her corner. We aren’t going to let anything happen to her,” assured him.
“I know, but I wish Sheen had shown up this morning. Isaiah said he’s going to go by his place and see if he can find him, try and get him to open up without any of us around to intimidate him,” Nick said, revealing more to him than he had Phoebe. “He’ll be by when he knows why he didn’t show up. I don’t know how much more bad news she can take.”
“She’s tougher than all of us. You should have seen her go after Sheen at the gallery—she’s a fighter, and once we find out who’s doing this, I’m more afraid of what she’ll do to them,” said, trying to ease his worries.
Nick let out a long exhale, but didn’t look convinced.
“Promise me that if anything happens to me, you’ll protect her,” he said.
rested his hand on his shoulder. “Nothing will happen to any of us. We’re going to figure this out, and one day this will all just be a bad memory.”
Colour came back into Nick’s cheeks, and hoped he’d brought him some peace.