Edited.

This was awkward.

And as proven, it could be clear that Brynn did not bode well in awkward social situations. At all.

Everyone was there, even Zayne. They were eating chicken, potato and broccoli pie, although Brynn still wasn't hungry. People really ate together like this? Eat this many times in a day?

Not wanting to disappoint Brayden though, she ate the small bites on the end of her fork.

She was sat in between Zach and Ezra with Callan, Zaiden and Silas on the other side of the dining table; Brayden and Zayne sat on either end.

As she was playing around with a piece of chicken, Ezra nudged her. For a second, she thought he was about to stab her with his fork, but he didn't.

"Don't play with your food. Eat," he ordered strictly not taking his eyes off his own plate.

Mustering up the slither of courage she had, she mumbled, "'m finished." She regretted saying anything because he narrowed his eyes at her. "I said-"

"Just a few more bites for us, hun, please," Callan subtly commanded in a gentle tone.

"I'm full," she replied in the most confident tone she could gain. "I don't have a big appetite, it's fine."

"It is not fine, nor is it healthy," Zayne interrupted, "and it will be changing, okay Brynn?" She was pretty sure the whole table had stopped eating and now all the attention was drawn to her.

She ground her teeth, annoyed that they didn't understand how she wasn't used to all this. Just two days ago she was told to stop eating so much and now she's ordered to have three meals a day. It's a lot.

"Leave her alone, Z, it's a big change for her moving in with seven older brothers, she's bound to be nervous," Zach cut in, reasoning.

"Well it's not like she wasn't aware she had brothers," Silas muttered moving his food around his plate.

Brynn lifted her head properly, "I didn't know."

All heads turned to her as her brothers stopped all their movements. Silas looked up properly, "what?"

"You didn't know about us?" Zach also questioned.

Brynn shook her head, "no." She asked herself why she didn't know she had brothers. Surely her mother had a good explanation for not telling her? Right? Did Milo know about them?

"That can't be right," Callan insisted across the table. Ezra looked at Brynn and then up at Zayne, gritting out, "I thought you told them-"

Zayne lifted his left hand up, silencing them with his eyes focused on Brynn.

"Your mother never mentioned us?"

Brynn shook her head, not sure if she should have said anything. "No."

She looked around the table at all her brothers, whom looked to all be giving Zayne certain looks. Zayne's eyes stayed on Brynn, narrowed and seemingly in thought.

"I'm sorry, was she supposed to?" she asked because she definitely shouldn't have spoken.

"Don't apologise, sweetheart. It's not your fault," Brayden spoke form his place, then looked opposite to Zayne, "we're just shocked." It felt like it was her fault.

"Fucking hell..." Ezra muttered.

"Watch your language, Ezra," Zayne warned, his attention no longer on Brynn who inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes, there's a little girl at the table," Callan warned as well.

Little girl? "I've heard much worse," she pointed out.

"From where?" Brayden questioned in a parently-like manner.. "From school," she mumbled. It was true. A british public school was a prime spot for crude language. Some people got really creative.

"Eye contact, Brynn," Zaiden scolded.

"Don't be a dick, Zai," Zach responded.

"Language, Zach!" Callan scolded and had his hands out in front of him exasperated.

Brynn kept her head down, willing herself to stop smiling as Zach gave a guilty smile to Callan.

Whilst they were distracted, Brynn subtly and stealthily slid her plate away. Much to her dissatisfaction, Silas slid it right back, "eat."

"Come on, Silas, she's had enough," Zach stood up and held her shoulders from behind her chair.

This time when she tensed it wasn't subtle and silence clouded the room, like it was the most noticeable thing in there which Brynn knew for a fact that it wasn't. It was only a small movement which led her to ask, how perceptive were her brothers really?

"Come on, Brynn," Zach encouraged sounding unsure. She got up from her seat and followed him out, literally feeling the stares as they left.

That was too close.

Zach ended up giving her a tour of the house. The endless hallways and unknown doors led to so many places that Brynn wasn't so sure she could keep up. The first floor had a lot.

The main entry hall, the kitchen with adjoined dining room, the living room, another two living rooms, a cinema room, two bathrooms and more rooms but Zach skipped most of them. She assumed that she had no business being in those rooms.

There was even a basement but Zach had warned her to, "keep out."

Brynn obviously was going to, however she still wanted to know what was down there. What would she find? A dead body?

Upstairs had a lot more rooms. There was a home gym, three bathrooms, a lot of guest rooms, a game room, even a library and a lot of other rooms which weren't mentioned but Brynn did notice they were gestured too. Probably more rooms she had no business in.

She learned that her room was in the same hallway as her brothers' which was excellent news. Her room, in particular, was right next to Ezra's and opposites Zayne's which was even more excellent.

And when she and Zach came to the hallway with the single door at the end of it, he reminded her about the third floor.

"Off limits, alright love? Completely boring business stuff up there."

Brynn nodded, "yeah, I understand."

Zach smiled and started walking away, expecting Brynn to follow. She did.

He walked down the main stairs, pausing so Brynn caught up and was right next to him. "So, do you have a favourite show? Because we are going to binge whatever it is," he asked, grinning. Brynn almost halted. Favourite show?

Before she had the chance to embarrass herself by telling him that, in fact, she didn't even know any shows, the front door opened. A man, who looked around the age of thirty, entered and first saw Zach. He had slight stubble, grey eyes, blonde clean cut hair, a six four muscular build and was dressed in an extravagant suit.

"Hey bud, have you seen Zayne? I have to talk to him about a ship-" he was cut off by Zach's rather loud cough. The man seemed confused so Zach nodded his head towards Brynn and the man followed his nod.

His eyes widened and he let out a small gasp, "Brynn!" Jogging closer to the two, he pulled the surprised girl into his arms. She didn't want to seem rude, but she didn't know who this man was. He, evidently, knew her though so she just stood awkwardly while he squeezed the living daylights out of her.

He pulled away, "I'm Jacob, I remember you from when you were in nappies," he chuckled bringing his right hand to the side of her head and looking at her face. Just like what some of her brothers did. Maybe it's a thing here.

She blushed at what he said though. He chuckled at her embarrassment and Zach butted in. "Zayne's in his office on the third floor," he informed 'Jacob'. Jacob nodded at him.

The latter grinned at her, "I'll see you soon, piccola and tell me if this idiot annoys you, I'll sort him out for you," he winked, already walking up the stairs and past them. Brynn smiled, not knowing what he called her but it sounded nice.

Zach rolled his eyes as Jacob fake-groaned, "teenagers." He got to the top of the stairs and disappeared.

"Ignore him, he's old therefore has no clue what he's talking about," Zach grumbled grabbing her hand. Her eyes narrowed in on the action but she didn't move away, she could get in trouble for that.

"Let's go find something to watch, love," he pulled her down the stairs and into the living room.

"Turn the tv on for us and I'll get the covers," Zach said to her. She believed it to be an order so she did as told, going over to the couch where the remote thing was as Zach went over to the storage cupboard.

She knew what one of these things, she'd catch Milo watching television often. To turn it on he would...

Press the red button, yes.

He'd also point it at the television so Brynn did that too. It turned on, revealing a homepage to something. It had a lot of colours, vibrancy radiated off the screen into the dark room.

She sat back on the couch, watching as Zach rooted through the draws before pulling out a thick white blanket. Coming over to the couch, he sat to her left and had his full body up, draping the blanket over Brynn and then himself.

She watched what he did, his back against the back of the couch and remote in his hands. Mimicking it as best she could, Brynn's back was also against the back of the couch, blanket draped over her legs and half of her torso. She didn't know what this was exactly but it was different. She's usually never allowed to sit on the couch like this. Comfortably.

Zach pressed on some of the buttons on the remote and then the television read a title.

"Have you ever watched it?" Zach asked. Brynn shook her head, her head still looking in the direction of the screen, and whispered, "no."

"Me neither, it's always looked cool. Figured we could try it together first and if we don't like it, we'll find something else. Sound good, love?"

Brynn was glad the room was dim because her face went red. Zach wanted to watch something with her first? Her?

She found herself nodding profusely, turning her head around to face him, "yes, that sounds good." Zach smiled and pressed play.

Brynn looked at him for a second longer. Maybe Zach wasn't trying to trick her. What if he was just actually nice. Was this what nice was? Because if it was, then she'd experienced more of it being here for not even a whole day than she ever did four years with Milo.

Thinking of him made her quiver inside and rub her left wrist roughly, not even realising she was doing it until she jolted when Zach pulled her wrist away and inspected it.

"What's wrong?" he inquired, taking a look at it. He was so close to seeing the burn marks.

His other hand went to pull her sleeve up, "hey what's-"

Brynn pulled it away with a shell-shocked look, eyes widened. She pulled the sleeve down far as Zach constricted his eyes suspiciously, "Bry-"

"I'm going out, does anybody need anything from the shop?" a voice interfered with their interaction, Brynn welcoming it as she looked to the living room entrance where Callan was coming up to them, in a dark grey suit probably just coming down from working.

He had a look in his eyes which Brynn couldn't place as they travelled from her to Zach to her again and back to Zach.

When he was right behind the couch, Brynn watched cautiously as he brought his right hand up to the left side of her head and moved his thumb back and forth. Why was he doing that?

"No, we're good," Zach answered his question, his face and eyes still on Brynn. Brynn kept herself looking up at Callan, already feeling Zach's stare not needing to see it.

"You sure?" Callan looked from him to Brynn. Zach nodded, "yeah thanks."

Callan's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he noticed the look Zach was giving Brynn. She looked down at her lap and shifted uncomfortably.

Callan's hand forced her head up to look at him, "would you like anything, hun?" Somehow Brynn didn't think he made her look up at him just to ask that, if his eyes were anything to go by.

"No, thank you." Her words dissipated into the air once they were spoken. The air that suddenly became extremely thick.

Callan removed his hand and smiled down at her, "well then. I'll go." He looked towards Zach and gave a nod before exiting the room.

Brynn quietly sighed, that was closer.

She turned back to the television, feeling her heart pound against her chest. Please just leave it.

"What do you like to do?" She wasn't expecting that question.

She looked at Zach oddly and then shrugged. She didn't really have much to do, nevermind something she liked. She cooked sometimes, but that was only for Milo and they were only oven things which took twenty minutes.

She did homework from school, that wasn't a hobby though, was it?

It sort of hit her. She had never had anything to do. Nothing she wanted. She didn't have something to do like most kids her age did. They had clubs and friendship groups. While, yes she knew this, she'd just started to really know it. She had nothing special about her, just like Milo always said she didn't.

Her answer though, was "not much."

Zach looked thoughtful, "hm." Then he appeared to be thinking more, "got a favourite school subject?"

She shook her head, she'd never given it much thought. She just showed up to school and did as told.

"No. What about you?" she countered, wanting the questions to be aimed away from her.

Zach didn't seem to have any hesitance when he answered. "Languages. It helps that we learnt them at home. What's your favourite movie?"

She hadn't watched one in years, "don't have one. What about you?"

"The Exorcist. What was-"

A loud noise from the show sounded throughout the room, having both their attention and apparently ending the conversation because Zach seemed invested. And slowly, Brynn became invested too.

---

The two were hooked after two episodes, hardly noticing when another person entered the room. Well, Zach didn't. Brynn was hyper aware of almost anything, more so being in a new environment.

Zaiden entered and sat himself in the rounded chair.

"Brynn," Zayne's strong, authoritative voice came through the room. That made Brynn tense.

She looked to the big living room entrance. Zayne stood in the centre, straight-faced, Callan to his right, analysing, and Ezra leaned against the entrance frame on his right, scowling at the floor. Brayden was next to Callan with a concerned look and Brynn's breath hitched. She could even see Silas watching on. This didn't look good. At all.

"Your brother tells me you have a mark on your shoulder," Zayne spoke, his voice deeper than Brynn remembered and she remembered that it was already deep.

She looked towards Ezra for two seconds before looking at Zayne, responding far too fast, like a guilty person would. "I don't."

"Liar," Ezra muttered bitterly.

Stop it.

She saw Zayne's disappointed look. Her stomach recoiled a little. She didn't know why disappointing him upset her so but it did for some reason.

"I just banged it on the door a few days ago, it's not a big deal," she lied.

Nobody spoke for three seconds. Exactly three seconds. One could say the three represented the holy trinity; the father, the son and the holy spirit- things Brynn wanted on her side right now.

Zayne gave a look to Zach and then Callan behind him. What did that mean?

Zach turned his whole body to me, "come on, let's finish this episode."

She wasn't too sure why he was saying this now. Was he not aware of everybody else in the room right now, not taking their eyes off her?

However, she soon found out why he did so. A distraction.

Having her full attention on Zach, she hadn't noticed Callan coming closer. Closer and closer until he was at the back of the couch, creeping his hand to her left shoulder and holding her jumper fabric between his finger tips.

The moment she felt his presence, she flinched away, not getting far when he used his other hand to hold her right side still and Zach held her left arm in place.

All her brothers' eyes darted to the sickly looking, discoloured skin on her shoulder, bumpy marks going over it, like thick scratch marks- which they were.

Now how does she get out of this one?

---

<3