Elijah sighed and hugged Bram. "Were you nervous your father wouldn't let you come over after that argument yesterday? Or were you too excited you forgot you were supposed to let me know ahead of time?" He smiled weakly.

He then glanced over at Anthony  "I am sorry about this."

Anthony was now a bit too confused and irritated to even be smug anymore. Seems that the lovely evening they had planned together was now ruined. Again. He tried to hide just how disappointed and angry he was.

"It's fine. Really," he said, taking the cloth away from his nose. The bleeding had stopped for the most part by now.

"I really wanted to come over, and I forgot." Bram said, hugging Elijah. While Elijah was facing the other way, he stuck his tongue out at Anthony. Anne grabbed the boy's arm and tried to pull him away.
"Well, you can't. Let's go home."
She turned to Anthony. "I am so truly sorry," she said. "I really believed my brother was in danger. I would never have attacked you if I didn't believe he was. I'm very sorry."

Elijah hugged Bram before letting Anne take him. "You know I love your company, Bram. But I think you should let Ben know in person. He is mad at me and we don't want him thinking I kidnapped you, do we?"

He looked at Anthony. "I'm glad it stopped..."

Anthony stuck his tongue out right back at Bram. "It's fine," he said to Anne, even though it was absolutely not fine and he won't forget this for a long time. "just trying to protect your brother. I get it."

Anthony nodded as Elijah spoke again. So much for a good evening with nothing to ruin it.

Bram nodded, but glared at Anthony. Elijah was his friend!

Anne dragged Bram along. "I'm really sorry, Elijah."

The children left.

Elijah waved to the children. "Visit me soon, but let me know!" He felt bad all around and the situation would have been comedic if it hadn't  been so painful.

He turned to Anthony and looked really sheepish, "I am so very very sorry. I did not want you to meet them this way.. are you alright ?"

Anthony felt like he was in hell. "I mean, yeah, I'm alright," he said, almost as if he wasn't crying his eyes out mere minutes before this. He was kind of angry and irritated about this whole situation. More than anything, though, he just felt extremely embarrassed.

Anthony didn't really want to be mad at them because, they're just kids, but he was mad and disappointed and tried his best to hide it. "teenage girls are fucking fierce, you know." He shrugged, putting his hand to his nose again to stop what bleeding there still was.

Elijah shrugged and nodded. "They seem to have a bit of  fighting side to them. It wouldn't have happened if I had introduced you to them. Things are busy and I know at least Ben wouldn't probably like you. He's a little strict."

He frowned looking very apologetic and sad how it had turned out. "I understand if .. you want to just go to bed and sleep it off. This was not how I wanted t odsy to go."

So that's four Wards who probably don't like him, then. Anthony doesn't know whether to be proud, frightened  or something else entirely. "It's fine, I've had worse things happen to me," he shrugged. While just sleeping it off was tempting, he didn't really...want to.

"I mean...me neither," he admitted, even though it was extremely obvious. Their bad luck just never ends, huh? "it's fine, though. The day isn't over yet, right? We can still make it a fine day. Maybe not a good one, but...fine or okay." Optimism? From Anthony? Impossible.