Our little brother

Chapter 42

*starting before Noahs panic attack/meltdown*

Nicholas POV:

Sitting for dinner, I pull out a chair for Soph to sit on and then sit in the one next to it. When everyone's sat down, I see Noah still glaring at Sophie. What is going on with him? He's never been this rude to anyone he's met. Thankfully Sarah distracts him by making faces at him and he starts smiling again. Reid abruptly leaves the table and Hunter follows him, he's definitely about to be sick. Sebastian makes an uncomfortable face also knowing why Reid left the table. We all continue eating, knowing that Reid would feel awkward if anyone else went to check up on him, Noah tries to get down from his seat, but stops when Sebastian tells him he'll fall. I get up and bring him over to sit with me, maybe this time he'll actually be nice to Sophie. I sit him on my lap, but he wiggles around to turn his back to Sophie, and starts telling me about his sleepover again. Before I can say anything, he freezes when Sophie taps his shoulder. She asks if she can hear about the sleepover too, and politely tells her no. This kid, seriously? I mean yes he used his manners, but still. Soph looks at me and I know that I have to say something now, earlier his little glare was cute, but now it's just rude. "Hey you're not being very nice to Sophie, she's not done anything to you for you to act like this." I tell him and tears well up in his eyes. Atlas tells me to stop, but Noah needs to learn that he can't disrespect and be rude to people because he's decided for no reason whatsoever he doesn't like them. In this case especially since Sophie has been nothing but nice to him, there's absolutely no reason for him not to like her, so I continue.

"The way you've been treating Sophie isn't nice Noah. You'd be really sad if everyone treated you that way. You know, if you're good, Sophie and I have a surprise for you."I say and he loses it. I freeze for a split second barely noticing everyone at the table jump into action. Atlas ushers everyone out while Noah begs me to forgive him. I try to tell him to calm down but it doesn't work. Atlas tries to take him from me but he ends up kneeling in front of me desperately apologizing and hyperventilating. He won't let anyone near him, and Atlas spends the next 10 minutes trying to soothe him from far. Eventually he's able to get near and pick him up, taking him out of the room. I sat there not knowing what to do or how to help, and now I still don't know what to do or what to think. I've never seen him that terrified, there was no need for him to react that way. I'm not even sure what triggered him, all I was doing was what we've always done. Teach right from wrong, and the way he disrespected Sophie was not okay with me, so I made sure to tell him. I wasn't forceful in my words but I was firm. He needed to know it was wrong.

Sophie sits in her seat and silently sobbing to herself and I pull her into a hug. She cries into my chest and I look to Sarah, only to find her glaring at us. "Nick what the hell was that?" She says and I sigh, trying to explain that something triggered Noah, before I can finish she stands up fast, the chair screeching against the floor as she scoffs. "Something triggered him? That's not what I'm asking, I know a panic attack when I see one. Nick you triggered him what the hell is your problem? So what he didn't want to talk to Sophie? He wanted to talk to you! And Sophie I love you, but Noah politely told you he didn't want to tell you about his sleepover, that doesn't mean you give a look to your boyfriend to reprimand his baby brother!" She all but screams at us. "Woah hold on, this wasn't mine or Sophie's fault. He's been rude to her since he met her and that's not okay, plus he'd already told me about the sleepover, she tried to talk with him and he basically told her no!" I say and Sophie exclaims that she didn't give a look when Noah didn't want to talk to her. Hunter walks in with a look on his face that means he has questions, lots of them. Sarah sees him and marches towards him. "Your brothers a dick, talk some sense into him, and while you're at it, maybe talk some sense into my sister too." She says storming out of the kitchen.

"Please tell me you're here to say that everyone is overreacting?" I say and Hunter looks at me in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" Is all he says and I close my eyes rubbing my temples. "Hunt, he was being disrespectful and rude, you saw it earlier and you saw it when we sat down, Soph hasn't done anything to deserve that from him. Plus he's never acted like that before so I told him it wasn't right. That's all, I get that something triggered him and he had a panic attack, but that doesn't excuse how he's treating Sophie." I say firmly. Why does no one care about how he was acting before his panic attack? "Nick are you hearing yourself? You're angry that he wouldn't talk to Sophie? He wasn't being disrespectful from what I hear, she asked to hear about the sleepover which might I add would be the second time he's tried to tell you about it, and he politely told her no. Why does it matter if he tells her about his sleepover? He's never met her until today. Sebastian said that Noah couldn't stop talking about how excited he was to tell you and Reid about his sleepover. And are you really that hurt that he wouldn't talk to you Soph? It's only been a few hours, maybe he hasn't warmed up to you yet. You couldn't just let it be and let him come to you when he was ready to befriend you? Are you that self absorbed? And that something that triggered him, was you Nick. He was triggered by you saying if he was good, implying that he'd been bad. You know the details of his past and how he grew up. You know how often he asks if he done a good job, or if he's been good. You know being good is a reassurance he constantly looks for. How could you ever use that against him? Whether you did that intentionally or subconsciously, I can't believe you're actually sitting here thinking you've done nothing wrong!" He spits out almost yelling at us. "You think I did this on purpose!? I was simply trying to explain to him that he can't treat people like that! It's what we've always done, for all the boys growing up, we teach them right from wrong, how is that wrong? Tell me what would you have done?" I argue with him. How could he think I would want to send Noah into a panic attack? "I would've fucking stopped when Atlas told me too. He told you not to push it Nick, but you had to go on. It didn't need to be dealt with that very second, it could've been a conversation to have with him privately after dinner, and with me there." He says and I shake my head, this is going no where, he's not seeing where I'm coming from, I've told him I get where he's coming from, but it doesn't take away that bottom line of him treating others poorly.