Arthur Sakho

I couldn't help but smile when Trevon walked into the room. He smiled when he saw me. His sisters and their fiances followed him.

"Have you had anything to eat?" Brittany asked my mom.

"I'm okay," my mom said.

"She hasn't," I said.

"Why don't you go get something now," Brittany said. "Trevon is here to look after Arthur."

My mom nodded tiredly. She gave me a kiss on the forehead and then left.

"Give me your phone," Trevon said. He held out his hand.

"Why?" I asked as I placed my phone in his hand.

He immediately handed the phone to Brittany. "Remove it," he said.

"Remove what?" I asked.

"Are you sure?" Brittany asked. "If it wasn't for that app, we would have never heard you place that call to 911 and we wouldn't be here."

"I would have preferred that," Trevon said. "The more I think about it, the more I think you posting all that information on Arthur's social media without his permission was wrong. You've never respected my privacy and I've come to accept that. I thought you had bugged my room or something, not put an app on Arthur's phone where you could listen in on our conversations. That is a gross invasion of his privacy and I won't allow it."

Brittany took my phone from him and scrolled through it. "We weren't listening to all of your conversations," she said. "You make it sound like we are creeps. It was just programmed to record and alert us once certain words were used. In this case, it was when you said 911 that triggered it."

I tried to think of a time they could have put something like that on my phone. The only thing I could think of was when I was there for Christmas and they were looking at pics on my phone.

"You never should have put that program on his phone anyway," Trevon said.

"But we were able to post all that evidence on Alice so everyone knows how evil she is," Kylie said.

"The police would have gotten all the evidence anyway. It would have all come out. Don't ever invade Arthur's privacy like this again. I mean it."

"You're so hot right now." It slipped out before I could stop it.

He turned to look at me with one eyebrow raised. His sisters and fiances smiled.

"Scolding my sisters is turning you on?" Trevon asked.

I nodded.

He shook his head, but a little smirk came to his lips. "You're such a satyromaniac." He used that word again, but I didn't know what it meant. I was just going to assume it meant I was awesome.

"The app has been removed," Brittany said and handed the phone back to Trevon.

"I'm going to check," Trevon said, "so it better not be a trick."

"It's not," Brittany said. "We didn't know you would feel this strongly about it. We were just trying to help."

Trevon sighed. "Look, I do appreciate that you care about me and Arthur. I'm grateful that you came all the way out here to make sure we were taken care of and I'm grateful you got rid of the sheets before I got home so I wouldn't have to see the blood, but you should have allowed me to be the one to call you and tell you. You should have let me be the one to decide to ask for your help or not. You definitely should not have been spying on Arthur or me. I'm an adult now. You need to let me have control over my own life."

"But then where do we fit into your life," Kylie said sadly. Leo slid his hand in hers.

"You're still my sisters," Trevon said. "I'm not cutting you out of my life. My asking you to stop spying on us and letting me have control over my own life does not mean I don't want to ever see you again. You're my sisters. I love you."

Brittany and Kylie immediately hugged him. Mark and Leo hugged all of them. When they pulled away, Trevon said, "Now say goodbye to Arthur and go back home. You have work and a life you need to get back to. Arthur is fine. I'm fine."

"Okay," Brittany said. She hugged me and said, "Goodbye, Arty. I hope you know everything we did we thought was in your best interest."

She pulled away and then Kylie was hugging me. "Forgive us if we over stepped our bounds. We think of you as family now and only want to protect you."

"Thanks," I said, "but Trevon is right. Don't spy on us anymore. We'll call you if we want help."

"Okay," Kylie said and pulled away. Trevon led them to the door and watched as they all left. Then he came back to my side.

"Sorry," he said. "I still can't believe they put that on your phone."

"How'd you find out?" I asked.

"I pestered them until they told me," he said. He sat next to me and took my hand in his. "How are you feeling?"

"Better overall," I said. "Alice was arrested."

"I heard," he said.

"I still can't believe all this is happening," I said. He squeezed my hand.

There was a light knock on the door. "May we come in?" Sam asked. Danny stood just behind her.

I smiled. "Come in," I said.

"Are you alright?" she asked me as she came in and sat in the chair my mom had sat in earlier. Danny put a hand on her shoulder.

"I've had better days, but I'm okay."

"It's all surreal," Danny said.

They stayed for about a half hour just chatting about dance classes and what the other students were saying. Some of the freshmen now felt foolish that they had ever believed Alice.

They left shortly after my mom returned. A nurse brought dinner in. Soup again. I wasn't thrilled with it, but Trevon fed me so how could I not eat it?

My dad and Eva showed up while I was eating. They stayed a little while until I made them take my mom back to my apartment so she could rest. She protested at first, but Trevon said, "I'll take care of him. Don't worry."

My mom smiled and patted his cheek. "We liked you before, but you've certainly proven yourself now. Welcome to the family." Then she left with my dad and Eva.

It was shortly after that when I received a text from Gareth.

New Best Friend: You're just so awesome that the world had to conspire against you. Seriously though, are you alright?

Me: I'm okay.

New Best Friend: If we can do anything for you, let us know. All of us have been worried about you. Vincent and Alex even headed out to see you when they first got the call from Trevon, but then Trevon told them not to come when his sisters showed up.

My heart warmed to think about how many people cared about me.

"What are you smiling about?" Trevon asked.

"Gareth telling me how much they all care. Vincent and Alex were going to come?"

He nodded. "I would have rather had them here than my sisters. But I guess I wouldn't have found out that they had put that app on your phone so maybe it was better this way."

I stared at him while he stared at me. I knew he loved me and I loved him too, but this incident just made us love and cherish each other even more. As if he read my mind he said, "I love you, Arthur." And there was so much emotion in those words.

"I love you too, Trevon," I said with just as much emotion.

Our lovely moment was interrupted when my phone rang. It was a video call from Joseph. I answered to see not only his face, but Marie's, David's and Jade's.

"Uncle Arty, are you okay?" Jade asked with a little pout on her face. I pulled Trevon closer so he was on the screen too.

"I'm okay," I said.

"You've looked better," David said dryly.

"Hospital gowns don't agree with me?" I asked and shifted slightly on the bed to model the gown.

"It's fantastic," Marie said with a slight smile on her face.

"We just wanted to see your face," Joseph said.

Words weren't needed as I looked at my older siblings through that video call and they me. I knew they loved me and had been worried.

"Uncle Arty," Jade said. "I've gotten really good at dance. Do you want to see?"

"Yes," I said.

She got off Joseph's lap. Joseph angled the phone so it was now squarely on her. She did a few small steps and twirled. Then she smiled proudly into the phone.

"It was wonderful," I said.

She rushed back to Joseph and crawled into his lap again.

"You'll come to my recital right?" she asked.

My heart dropped a little. "In the summer," I said.

"He still has school he needs to attend," Joseph said.

"Okay," Jade said, but she seemed a little bit sad about it.

"How's Lizzy?" I asked Joseph.

"Good," he said. "She's at work right now. We wanted to come out and see you, but that's difficult with our jobs and everything."

"I know," I said. "Mom told me. It's alright. I'm going to be fine."

"We should let you go," Marie said. "You look tired."

"I do feel a little tired," I said, which was a lie. I was exhausted.

We said our goodbyes. Jade blew me a kiss so I blew one back. We hung up.

Trevon stroked the top of my head affectionately. "You do look tired," he said. "Sleep," he said.

I closed my eyes, but said, "Don't leave me."

"I won't," he said. I heard the scrape of the chair against the floor and then his hand encompassed mine. With him next to me, I drifted easily to sleep.