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Even though it was barely 2 PM, it had been a long day for Nick. He started the morning by showering and realizing he was out of shampoo, so he had to use soap instead. Then, while getting ready, he tripped on a pair of shoes lying around and landed funny on his ankle. The thought of climbing down the stairs with his recently injured ankle prevented him from getting a meal. Lastly, due to the week's busy schedule, they only had time to film Friday's car video on Thursday night. This meant a stressful editing session for Nick in order to meet the uploading time. During hard days like this, his siblings were usually there to keep him in check and make sure he was at least eating and taking breaks. Unfortunately, Chris and Matt had a meeting this morning, so they weren't around to ensure Nick was taking care of himself. With just 15 minutes to spare, Nick finished editing the video and headed to YouTube to start the uploading process. When the video was finally up, Nick allowed himself to breathe for the first time today.
The sound of the front door woke him from his thoughts, and he realized his brothers were back from their meeting. That's when it hit him that it was almost 3 PM, and he hadn't eaten since lunchtime the day before. This wasn't on purpose, but the stress of Friday's video overtook the thought of feeding himself. He can feel a headache forming from being on the computer for so long and the lack of food in his system. Just as he decides it's a good time to finally take a break, he remembers he's supposed to meet his brothers in 20 minutes to film a podcast episode. Ignoring his aching stomach, he decides the best option is to wait until after the podcast to eat. His ankle still hurts when he puts pressure on it, so he knows it will take extra time and effort to climb down and up the stairs. His brothers don't even know about his injury, so he knows they'll worry if they see him limping, and he's not ready to deal with that.
Nick heads to the podcast studio and decides to hang out to ensure his podcast notes are organized, and everything is set up correctly. A few minutes later, his brothers joined him, and they got started. Nick knows his brothers so well that he can immediately sense something wrong. Call it triplet sense or older brother alarm, but he notices the tension between his two younger brothers and prepares himself for a painful podcast to get through. Sometimes, when they are going through stressful times or haven't had a break in a while, tensions tend to rise in the house. It usually leads to pointless arguments used to get rid of built-up frustration rather than get to the bottom of an issue. It had been a loaded week for the triplets, so Nick was well aware this would eventually happen, but he was begging they could hold on until the end of the podcast. They're siblings, and they're expected to get into petty fights, but at moments like this, they felt nonstop. They love each other, and these types of conflicts don't have genuine anger behind them, but Nick knows it will be endless back and forth to get the last word. This was incredibly frustrating as he desperately tried to get through this podcast episode and rest afterward.
"Guys, come on. Back to the topic," Nick says exasperatedly. His brothers' petty back and forth was only worsening his headache, and he was quickly growing impatient. They are 26 minutes in the podcast and still need to cover the topic. Any time it starts picking up, Chris and Matt start dueling again.
"Go ahead. I'm done," Matt says while sinking further into his seat.
"Oh my god, he is so tough," Chris says mockingly, defying Matt's stare. And just like that, the fight continues.
Nick can feel his head pounding and his chest tightening. His clothes feel suffocating, and all he wants to do is crawl out of his skin. Closing his eyes, he tries to take a deep breath, but the arguing in the back makes it difficult to concentrate on his breathing. As their voices grow louder and their words more venomous, Nick decides he's had enough. At this point, it's been 30 minutes, and they haven't gotten anything done. Nick's attempts to interrupt them are pointless, and he feels helpless. On a typical day, he would've screamed at them and probably controlled their arguments to a manageable level while still carrying on with the podcast; unfortunately, today, Nick's head is pounding, his stomach is grumbling, and he can feel his swollen ankle throbbing in pain.
"CHRIS SHUT UP!" Matt yells as Chris is mocking him.
Nick swears he sees red for a second. Matt's yell feels like a stab to his brain. Done with his brothers arguing, Nick gets up and starts walking away. He ignores the debilitating pain of his ankle and forces himself to walk normally.
"Nick, dude, where are you going?" Chris asks, confused, to see his older brother get up in the middle of the podcast.
"I'm done with you guys arguing like little babies." Nick turns around to confront his brothers. "It's been 30 minutes, and all we have recorded is pointless yells and insults. We can try again when you guys resolve your issues and stop behaving like little kids."
Nick continues the trajectory to his room across the hall and slams it shut. Now alone, he quickly winces in pain and sinks to the floor. He grabs his ankle, trying to stop the pain, but does not fail to notice the throbbing pain of a headache and an empty stomach. He feels his breathing quickening and knows what's coming. Not even a few seconds later, hot tears start rolling down his eyes with no intention to stop. He feels so stressed and overwhelmed that all he can do is sit there helplessly as sobs start wrecking his body.
"Nick, we are sorry," Matt says from the other side of the door.
"Nick, please, we swear we'll stop fighting," Chris adds, pounding at the door. After a few seconds of silence, the brothers hear the pitiful crying of their older brother. "Nick? Are you crying? Are you ok?" They are only met with more crying.
"We are going in," Matt warns one last time before opening the door to Nick's room.
They spot Nick on the floor sobbing and covering his face. Chris and Matt quickly take the initiative to attend to Nick.
"Sweetheart, what's going on?" Chris asks, gently removing Nick's hands from his face and guarding protectively on his own. He lovingly caresses them in a desperate attempt to calm the crying brother.
"I- I am... I'm sorry," Nick mutters between cries.
"Hey, nothing to be sorry about. We are here for you. Can you breathe for me?" Matt asks with a sweet voice to calm down Nick.
After 2 minutes of Matt helping Nick breathe and Chris holding Nick in his arms, he was finally back to his regular breathing pattern, and the tears were coming in less frequency.
"Come on, let's move you to the bed," Chris says, and Matt stands up to help his brother.
Helping him up, they're startled when Nick winces in pain and reaches for support from his brothers to avoid falling back down.
They notice Nick resting most of his weight on his left leg and reaching for his right ankle with his hand.
"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" Matt asks in a tone of concern while helping a limping Nick onto the bed.
When Nick is finally situated in bed, he decides to try and formulate his first sentence, "…I tripped this morning and twisted it… it's not too bad. It just stings a little bit," Nick says, avoiding his brothers' eyes. This was a lie. Nick knew it was hurt way past a simple sting, but he already felt enough shame from his breakdown.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Chris says while kneeling down to inspect Nick's injury more closely. When he rolls the sock down, he gasps at the sight of a swollen and purple ankle. "Nicky, that's not just twisted. That looks like a sprain, baby," He says while pocking at the swollen area. Chris and Matt make eye contact in concern to see their brother hiding a painful injury from them. They wonder what else his brother was hiding from them, probably what led to his outburst.
Nick feels his eyes dwell with tears at the sweet tone of his brother. He's embarrassed about his clumsiness and sudden vulnerable position in front of his younger brothers. Not to mention, the pocking only aggravates the painful aching. Seeing them share concerned glances makes him feel guilty about hiding stuff from his brothers. He knows how much they care about him, but he didn't really mean for it to get this bad. He was just trying to keep it together until after the podcast.
"Hey, it's ok. Don't cry, Nicky, we'll take care of it. Matt, can you go grab an ice pack, please?" Chris directs his attention to Matt, who immediately turns toward the kitchen.
In the meantime, Chris encourages Nick to lie against the headboard and rest so he can elevate his ankle with pillows. He gets the ACE bandage from their first aid kit and carefully wraps it around the ankle. Once settled, Matt returns with an ice pack and gently places it on Nick's ankle. Nick winces at this, and Matt sends him an apologetic smile.
"This should do for now. I still want to get it checked out by a doctor, but we can wait until tomorrow. You should rest until
then," Matt says, making his way to sit beside Nick. Making eye contact with Chris on the other side, they signal to each other that it's time to get their brother to speak.
"Sweetheart, can you tell us what happened? I know that breakdown was more than just an injured ankle. You walked out in the middle of a podcast episode, and we found you crying on the floor." Chris starts the conversation and decides to take Nick's hand to encourage him.
"I just…" Nick trails off, unsure how to articulate everything in his mind.
"Nicky, You are safe with us and we want to help you. We never want to see you going through stuff alone when you have us beside you," Matt adds, gently caressing his thigh.
Nick takes a deep breath and starts, "I just had an awful day. I ran out of shampoo, and then I hurt myself. I haven't eaten in so long, and I'm starving. I had to edit today's video with minimal time, which made me really stressed. And then, while I was trying to get through the podcast, you guys kept fighting, and I just couldn't handle it. I have a headache, and my body aches, and I feel so stupid for having a breakdown. I'm sorry. It's not fair for you guys to see me like this. I feel like such a failure of an older brother," Nick rambles without pause, spilling everything at once. Silent tears start adorning his face, but Chris wipes them.
"Never apologize for being human. You have every right to feel stressed; I'm sorry you had to go through it alone. You can always trust us. We could've uploaded the video late and apologized or moved the filming of the podcast to another day," Chris says, comforting his brother.
"Yes. And I'm sorry we were so grumpy. I guess we also had a stressful day and took it out on each other. Your feelings are completely valid. Anyone would've been frustrated in your position," Matt adds, and Chris nods, agreeing with him.
"And we could've not asked for a better older brother. Even though you are only older by mere minutes, you always take the responsibility of taking care of us. But Nick, that doesn't mean you should neglect your emotions. We want to be there for you and help you the way you help us," Chris says.
"I'm sorry… our fights don't usually get to me, and I usually even participate in them… but I just can't deal with anything today. I feel like such a baby, " Nick says, fidgeting with his hands.
"Stop apologizing. We all had a stressful day and had difficulty dealing with our emotions. We love you, Nicky. We never want to see you suffer in silence again," Matt says while opening his arms to his brothers. They all join in a group hug, finally seeing eye to eye again.
"How about we order food and watch some movies" Chris suggests and is met with enthusiastic responses from his brothers.
They order pasta, Nick's favorite, and watch Nick's movie choice. They spent the rest of the afternoon cuddling and enjoying each other's company.
The following day, Nick wakes up with his loving brothers cuddling beside him. He admires them and feels nothing but gratefulness for having such caring and amazing brothers. They all have a fulfilling breakfast and help Nick to the doctor's office. Unfortunately, he was given a brace with crutches and was told to keep off from it for two weeks. Nick grows anxious since this could interrupt their schedule, but Chris and Matt quickly notice their brother's overthinking mind and reassure him everything is fine. They all return to the house and record a successful podcast episode free of tension and fights. Despite the arguments and disagreements, Nick stares at his brothers lovingly and knows they will always have his back. He could've not asked for better brothers.