“Arden keeps telling me I have anger issues. Ariana told me to play in traffic. I’m nobody’s favourite person at the moment.”
“I’ll take responsibility for everything but the anger issues. You were born with those,” I murmur.
His blue eyes sparkle with relief, but there’s no smile. “You didn’t swing back. Not once. What areyoutaking responsibility for?”
Sleeping with your sister.
I don’t say that. Despite what you might think, I do not actually have a death wish.
“Everything that lead you to do that.”
He stares at me, his fingers tapping against the can. “Whydidyou do it?”
Shit. Hard question.Toohard of a question.
“I can’t explain that to you,” I admit, and he rolls his eyes. “Fork, it just happened. She came into my life like a tornado, and I held off until I realized I couldn’t. I tried, man. I wanted to be around her more than I wanted to fucking breathe, but I tried.”
He winces, shaking out his shoulders. “She has that impact.”
“I was wracked with guilt over it. I’m not going to sit here and play stupid, pretend I was so wrapped up in it that you didn’t enter my mind. You were in the back of my mind the whole time, even in the moments I didn’t want you to be.”
“Okay,that’sfucking disgusting.”
“Not like that, you idiot,” I grumble, leaning against the counter. “I mean, I’d be having the best night of my life with her, looking at her and wondering how the fuck someone like her exists, wondering what the hell she sees in me, and there you’d be. You’d pop up and remind me why it could never be what I wanted it to be.”
His eyes burn into my face. “What did you want it to be?”
“Forker.” I sigh, running a hand through my hair.
“Nah, I want to know.”
“Tough shit,” I seethe, whirling on him. “You aren’t entitled to that. I’m sorry, alright? I’m apologizing for breaking your trust, but you donothave a right to those answers just because I hurt you.”
“I don’t?”
“No,” I bite out. “Not when it’s things she hasn’t heard. I’ll be damned if the first time I say them out loud, it’s to your ugly ass face.”
We stare at each other. Seconds pass, his face expressionless. Then, suddenly, he throws his head back dramatically and looks at the ceiling.
“Oh shit, she poisoned you.”
I blink. “What?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her. She’s insane,” he says, shaking his head. He’s still staring at my ceiling, head hanging off the back of the chair. “She’s probably been putting it into your smoothies. It’s affecting your vision. If you thinkI’mugly, it must be really bad. We should get to the hospital.”
He lifts his head, a gentle smile on his mouth.
I can’t help the smirk from forming on my still-bruised face. I wince at the stab of pain, biting back a hiss, and his smile falls completely. He scans me over, and for the first time in my life, I see regret in Forker’s eyes for throwing a punch. Many punches.
“I’m sorry for beating the shit out of you,” he says quietly.
I meet his eyes. “I can’t say it wasn’t deserved.”
“Maybe two of those punches were. The rest? You’re my brother. There is no excuse for me to hurt you like that.”
“I think your reason was pretty good, Fork.”
He swallows, and something in the air shifts. I feel it. I see it. One of my closest friends in the whole world. The best dude with the worst temper. He’s always remarkably unbothered, heart on his sleeve, goofy and loveable. Until he isn’t. He clears his throat, blinking quickly, and remarkably… There are tears.
