Adopted By The Sidemen

|Chapter 29|Whole?|

Scarlett's POV

Me and Josh sat in my room and spoke for a good hour, about everything. I say spoke, it was a long hour filled with tears, and breakdowns. And now? I was stood in my bathroom, looking in the mirror, my eyes red and sore, my arms in just as much pain, and my heart, as cliché as it sounds, was aching, it really was, I'd gone from being completely numb, to this pain, everywhere, I felt exposed and vulnerable, like I had when I was with Mark. And that's when I realised, that all these feelings I was having, I wasn't numb to, I just didn't want them to be real, I'd supressed them this long, and these boys, the ones who mostly seemed to love and care about me, were bringing the soft side back in me. I hadn't told Josh about my eating habits, I didn't want to, I was getting skinnier, and there's nothing wrong with that right. He'd gone to talk to the guys 'to see what the best way forward was', he said he wasn't gunna involve Simon, he didn't think he should get a say. What Simon said sent me spiralling, it was one of the things that I spoke to Josh about the most. He'd called the others to meet at the house, that was about 20 minutes ago, so they should be here pretty soon. Normally I'd be excited to see Ethan, and I wanted nothing more than to run up to him and jump into his arms, but things were just too awkward. I heard the front door open and Tobi shout for Josh, plus murmurs coming from the others, and a knock at my door, I threw my hoody back on and opened the door, "You ready?"

"I guess,"

"Cmon then," He gestured for me to follow him, so I did, we walked down the stairs and a murmur of "hey"s and "hi"s could be heard,

"Hey, let's all sit in the kitchen yeah," We walked in and I tried my hardest to avoid eye contact with Ethan, I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

Once again, Josh explained what was going on and all the guys decided that the best course of action was for me to be 'put on watch' until I wasn't a danger to myself anymore, I really wanted to get better, so I was going to at least try,

"There is one more thing," Josh looked at me and pulled an awkward face, I nodded, knowing what he was about to do,

"Go on then," Ethan said, sounding concerned,

"It's about Simon,"

"What the fuck has he done now," Ethan was quite evidently getting wound up,

"Well obviously the whole thing with new year, well, he tried to talk to Scarlett, and she refused to talk to him, so he, uhm, grabbed her arm, quite tightly, and re-opened her cuts, that's how we found out actually, but then Scarlett poured her heart out and he basically told her to fuck off, and that she was a waste of space, I don't know what's going on with him but he's not himself,"

There was silence over them as they all knew what the problem was, but no one dared say it, "It's me," I sighed, "I'm the problem," Josh hugged me, then the kitchen door slammed shut, and fast, heavy footsteps could be heard going up the stairs, my eyes darted to where Ethan was stood and I realised it was him, I launched myself after him, and basically ran up the stairs after him, "Ethan stop," But by the time I'd made it up he was already in Simons room, yelling, and probably hitting him, Tobi came up behind me and wrapped their arms around me, turning me to face them and bury my head in there chest, as they did, JJ and Josh went into Simons room. He practically dragged me into my room as I tried to fight against him to see what was happening, "Scarlett, chill, c'mon," He sat me down, and as he did I heard someone yell out in pain, and once again, my anxiety began,

Ethan's POV

As soon as those words left her mouth, I lost all control of my anger, and before I knew it I was in Simons room, "YOU ARE THE BIGGEST FUCKING DICK I HAVE EVER KNOWN IN MY LIFE, YOU'VE MADE HER FEEL LIKE A PROBLEM, YOU'VE MADE ALL THOSE THOUGHTS SHE GETS TEN TIMES WORSE TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER ABOUT WHAT YOU DID, GET A FUCKING GRIPN SIMON,"

"Don't you dare come in here pointing fingers when you made her feel like she wasn't enough in the first place when you left her, she told me allll about how that made her feel, in her words, 'utterly worthless' so check yourself before you go round acting like the superhero," And just like that we were fighting, not verbally, but physically, Josh and JJ came racing in, JJ pulling me away and Josh standing in front of Simon,

"Ethan man, cmon you know how this is gunna make Scarlett feel,"

"No he doesn't, he doesn't are about her feelings at all, isn't that right Ethan, that's why you left her alone to cut, starve herself, be abused and raped," I lunge at him once again and hit him straight in the nose, he yelled out in pain, as it cracked, JJ grabbed me again,

"Cmon, forget it man, he's not worth it," I nodded, "Lets go make sure she's okay yeah," I walked out the room with JJ,

"Where is she,"

"Her room with Tobi, I'll leave you alone now man, don't stress too much ok,"
"Cheers bro," I walked into her room and saw her crying into Tobi's side as he tried to calm her down, as he saw me he stood up and let me sit,

"Ina bit man,"

"Yeah," At the sound of my voice she jumped up and ran to hug me,

"Are you okay, I thought you were hurt, I heard a yell, and I thought, I thought," She stopped and froze,

"Tee, look at me okay, I'm okay, just a few bumps and bruises," She looked up at me and nodded,

Scarlett's POV

I saw a bruise starting to form on his cheek, and raised my hand to trace over it, I realised that things were still a bit awkward and started to take it away, but he took my hand and gently placed it back on his cheek, I smiled shyly, and looked down, he brought me into a hug which I returned, hugging as tight as I could without hurting him. We stayed like that for a while, Ethan whispering to me every so often, reassuring me that he was ok.

When we pulled away he stayed close, he raised his hand to my cheek and brushed my hair behind my ear, "You're beautiful Scarlett, don't let anyone convince you otherwise, you mean the world and more to me and the guys as well, always remember that," I nodded my head and leant that little bit more into his hand, in an instant his lips were on mine, it seemed like an eternity till we separated, but when we did, Ethans smile was priceless, he looked like a little boy in a sweet shop. I smiled back, this kiss felt different, it felt more genuine, and it gave me those cliché butterflies everyone in the films get. For a second I felt whole.

Hi, I kinda owe you all an explanation, my boyfriend of 10 months dumped me, and it spent me 'spiralling' and I lost all motivation to write, especially lovey dovey things, but I'm back, I'm still a bit broken, but we're getting there, I'm going to try my hardest to start updating more, also, question to old and new readers, who do you think Scarlett should end up with, I haven't decided yet, and who better to ask than the readers xx

-Katie