You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you'll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk." —from They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

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Chapter 8:

Huey:

The boys walked home, while being alone Huey explained what happened.

"Why didn't you tell us?"Louie asked.

"I didn't want you to have to deal with my problem".

"Huey...your problem is our problem"Dewey said "If something happened to us, you'd want us to tell you."

"I know".

"So why is it any different?"

"Because....because!  I'm supposed to be the oldest, I'm supposed to be someone for you to look up to not pity..."

Louie placed a hand on his big brothers shoulder "Not pity Huebert. Help, we want to help you because we...care about you or whatever. You are my big brother and I will always look up to you."

It was weird seeing Louie express the fact that he cares,"Thanks"Huey said.

"I wish you just told us"Dewey said, "Nobody messes with my family."

"I know I'm sorry".

They arrived at home, for a while they just stood there by the gate pondering their next move.

Dewey decided "We need to talk to the adults, we need to tell them what's going on".

Huey stressed "We don't have to-"

"What do you mean? Of course we do...right?"Dewey asked turning to Louie.

"Well yeah...we should..right?"

"I don't want them to know"Huey said.

"Why not?"

Webby and Lena were walking back from wherever the heck they were doing, catching them off guard. "Hey, it's the three musketeers"Lena joked.

At first Webby smiled at Lenas joke but turned around to see Huey's eye "Oh my gosh, Huey are you ok? What happened? Who do I need to kill?"

Huey looked her dead in the eye and just said I'm fine, Talk to violet".

They walk inside and Webby asked "What do you think he meant by that?"

"I don't know"Lena said "But we're going to find out."

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Huey, Dewey and Louie snuck into their room so they would have a couple minutes alone.

"Why don't you want the rest of the family to know?"Dewey asked.

"It's not the rest of the family"Huey said.

That's when it hit him "This is about mom isn't it?"Louie asked.

"I don't want her to think her son couldn't handle things on his own...that I wasn't strong enough."

"This was why you didn't tell us isn't it?"Louie said, why did he have to be so smart?

"I knew you were both dealing with Del-Ahem- Mom, in your own way. Dewey, you seemed so happy and louie, still adjusting. I didn't want to build on that"Huey sat down head in hands.

"I guess we never really talked about it"Louie mentioned.

"You're not alone"Dewey sighed sitting on the bed next to Huey "I know I haven't shown it but I'm adjusting too, I try to be the best I can whenever I'm around her because I'm scared if I disappointed her she might leave again. I know she wouldn't do that but..I still have empty feelings...Like I have no control, I'm trapped. I've never felt that way before."

"Yes, we're still adjusting But we're doing better, all of us. It takes time"Louie said.

"It still isn't easy"Huey said, "I didn't want you overwhelmed".

"Huey, I was a brother before I was a son. You come first."

"I'm sorry we weren't there to begin with...that we didn't see the signals"Dewey said.

"It's not your fault. I should've known better, I should've been honest."

"From now on, we trust each other, it doesn't matter what trauma we're going through ok?" Dewey asked  "Deal?"

"Deal"Huey and Louie said simultaneously.

"So now what?"Louie asked.

"I guess, I talk to the adults."

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He walked slowly downstairs, not looking forward to what's happening next, on the plus side he didn't have to tell the adults anything, he just had to show them his eye, then they'll ask the questions, he's not sure how he'll answer the: 'how long as this been going on?' Or 'Why didn't you tell us sooner'. The truth was, he could tell Uncle Donald but then Dell- Their Mom- His Mom, would know.

He wished things could go back to normal, Uncle Donald, Uncle Donald was normal, he was easy. Huey knew exactly what Donald was going to say and what he'd do, first he'd ask him if he was ok, take care of the damage that was done then ask what happened, and then figure out how to solve it, it's happened so many times before, the routine is practically ingrained in his memory. Now that Del-His Mom and Scrooge were involved, he wasn't sure what will happen.

He couldn't imagine Scrooge doing anything different then Donald except maybe add a lecture about standing up for yourself and how violence solves everything, Donald would disagree then they'd fight about it for fifteen minutes.

But then there's Della...

She was the most complicated thing in his life, one minute she's giving some bizarre advice about skateboarding and getting into mischief. Then she lectures Louie on scheming.

The only 'parental' advice she gave him was 'Get out of your comfort zone'. She's just like Scrooge, they're constantly trying to 'Correct' behavior that isn't wrong.

It didn't matter how he felt at the moment, He had to be the responsible one again, show his brothers that it's ok to approach an adult if something is wrong, even if he didn't want to.

He finally made it downstairs and was immediately noticed by Donald "Huey what happened?"

Scrooge and Della heard and followed him.

Violet:

She couldn't express how she was feeling, not even on paper, she just hid in her room the rest of that day, her parents talked to her but respected that she wanted to be alone. She'd cry if it would help but right now she just wanted to do the day over.

"Violet, you have visitors".

"Visitors?"She asked, like more then one? It's not Huey right?

She left her room and answered the door. "Lena? Webby?"

"Hey, can we talk?"Lena asked.

"Come in"She said, they walked into her room so they could talk in private.

"What's going on vi?"Lena asked.

"Did Huey tell you?"She asked.

"He hasn't told us anything, the black eye told us a fraction"She said.

Webby looked at her with sad eyes "Violet, we're your friends, you can tell us if something is wrong."

Friends? Since when?

"I'm sorry I snapped at you"Violet said.

"We were being inconsiderate"Webby said.

"How?"Lena asked.

"Lena..."

"No, she's right, it wasn't an excuse, I treated you both terribly."

"We're not mad vi but we'd like to know what's going on. We deserve the truth."

"It's a long story."

"We have time"Webby smiled.

So violet took a deep breath and finally confessed, she explained what happened with Rachel and Erica and how Huey got involved, up to today's events. Lena and Webby both felt their hearts sink to the bottom of their chest.

"I'll deal with Rachel!"Webby said.

"Not yet pink" Lena said: "I'm sorry vi. I was overprotective of Webby, I forgot that you have feelings too and you didn't mean to hurt her.

We should've at least tried to understand what you were going through, we should've stuck by you like family, and you know what, from now on we are family".

Violet wasn't sure what to say, she didn't want to cry in front of them.

"Do you want to know the difference between a friend and a family?"Webby asked.

Violet turned to Webby confused.

"A friend is a temporary companion to distract you from your pain.

A family helps you fight through it."

This gave her a lot to think about. "Thanks"She said, Webby and Lena both hugged her, for once violet didn't feel like a third wheel.

Huey: 

Donald gave Huey an ice pack for his eye then he was asked the multiple questions he knew were coming.

"Tell us what happened lad"Scrooge said.

"Are you ok?"Della asked, she gently moved his head towards her so she can look at the damage, not making this any easier.

Della and Scrooge asked more questions but Huey couldn't catch all of them.

"Stop!"Donald spoke up "Huey, who did this?"

Donald knew what He could handle.

"Someone at school.."He said.

"Are you being bullied?"Della asked.

He couldn't look Della in the eye when he answered but he nodded facing the other direction.

"Why didn't you tell us?"Donald asked, Huey looked at Della- then turned away 'Don't look at her, what is the matter with you?'He thought, hoping she didn't notice.

But she did, then she left the room.

As sad as it was, it was easier to talk when she wasn't around, but he also knew that he'd have to talk to her sooner or later.