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She’s angry. She’s not willing to listen to anything other than “Let’s go kick Kaitlyn’s ass!” But still, I try to reason with her.
“I’m not picking her over you. But if those bruises and her arm being in a sling weren’t caused by you, the next probable suspect is Ryan, and that means she’s probably being abused,” I say.
Beside me, Aiden’s jaw clenches. He knows all too well what it’s like to be abused, especially at the hands of a Simms. He of all people knows what kind of violence Ryan witnessed as a kid, and what he’s probably replicating.
“I can’t believe you.” Her leg bounces like she’s about to jump out of her seat. “I’ve always had your back when she pulled her shit on you at school!”
“I still have your back,” I insist. “I’m not saying any of this is your fault. But there’s a difference between her trying to embarrass me with stupid and cruel pranks and her coming to school with a black eye and a sprained wrist. You’ve always had my back and I love you, but intimate partner violence is serious, and she needs help. If we help her, she might even clear your name and admit who really did that to her.”
Annalisa leans back farther into her seat with angry resignation. “If you think she’d ever help us, you’re delusional.”
“The only way you’ll be allowed to come back to school is if she tells her mom you didn’t touch her.” Aiden backs me up.
“Guess I’m going to have to get used to the fact that I’m going to graduate as a Silver, alone,” she huffs, then continues when Julian is about to say something. “And no, I don’t want any of you to transfer.” She gives Julian a pointed look and his shoulders slump, as they’ve had this conversation already.
I’m about to tell her that she’ll never be alone when her phone rings and she answers it. The conversation continues around us, and I decide to go to the kitchen to get some water.
“Anyone else want something from the kitch—”
“You weren’t supposed to kill him! It’s game over now!” Shouting from upstairs interrupts me.
“Hey! Boys!” Aiden calls up to the twins, but the arguing continues. Aiden leaves the room and runs up the stairs, and the shouting stops when I assume Aiden arrives.
I leave the room to grab a glass of water, still thinking about Annalisa. I’m not taking Kaitlyn’s side in this. Of course not. Annalisa didn’t deserve to get expelled, but no one should feel scared or trapped in their relationship. I know what it’s like to wake up terrified of someone hurting you every day, and I wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone. There has to be a way to help Annalisa and Kaitlyn.
“Hey, k-bear, wait up,” Mason calls to me, and he emerges from the hallway into the kitchen.
My heart warms at his affectionate nickname. There’s a cool breeze coming in from the open sliding door and his hair ruffles a bit, giving him that messy-on-purpose hairstyle.
“Hey, want something to drink?” I open the fridge, grab a sparkling water, and hand it to him.
“Yeah, thanks. Actually, I know this probably isn’t the best time to ask with all of this going on, but we haven’t hung out in a while. You wanna do something this weekend?”
Do I want to do something with Mason? Of course I do, but I’ve been avoiding him ever since I found out about our parents. But now, looking into his chocolate-colored eyes, I know I can’t keep avoiding him. I miss my friend, and I want our relationship to go back to normal.
“Yes! Let’s do something this weekend. I’ll even let you challenge me to a mini-golf rematch since I always kick your butt.”
“Did you kick my butt? Or did I let you win since the winner treated the loser to ice cream?”
“You did not!” I love how easy it is to fall back into our normal, bantering friendship. “Next time the loser’s going to treat the winner to ice cream, and we’ll see if you really ‘lose on purpose.’”
He laughs with me, but before he can reply Annalisa pops her head in the kitchen. “Hey, that was Ray, he works at the bar my brother used to hang out at. I asked him to check the cameras that night for clues about Luke and he found something. Julian and I are going to go check it out. I’ll message the group with what I find.”
Before either one of us can reply, she’s out the door, rushing to find out what she can to free her brother.
Mason and I return to the living room, where everyone else still sits minus Annalisa, Aiden, and Julian.
“Mason and I are going mini-golfing this weekend. Anyone in?”
“Amelia.” Aiden reappears. He hovers at the threshold, close to the stairs. His face is unreadable. “Come here. Now, please.”
What? Am I in trouble? Seriously?!
I follow him out of the room and down the hall to the front of the house. “You can’t possibly be mad that I’m going out for mini-golf with Mason. It’s not a date.”
Aiden seems confused, then shakes his head. “I don’t care about that. You need to hear this.”
That gets my attention. He leads me up the stairs to his bedroom, where the twins are sitting together on his bed. Jason is hugging himself nervously and Jackson looks like he swallowed a bug.
“Tell her exactly what you told me,” he instructs them.
“Are we in trouble?” Jackson sniffles.
“Jackson wanted to tell you before but I convinced him not to say anything,” Jason jumps in.
Aiden’s face softens, but I can still see the anger simmering underneath. “You’re not in trouble. I promise. Just tell Amelia.”
Jason bites his lip and hesitates for a second before he says, “We lied before. I’m not getting bullied. I just said that because Jackson was going to blab.”
Jason looks for reassurance from Jackson, who nods.
“We know who killed Greg,” Jason says, then takes a deep breath. “We did.”
I’m so shocked all I can do is blink at them. They’re children. How can children kill a person, especially a grown man like Greg? But Aiden’s serious face tells me this isn’t a joke. My heart pounds.
“What? How? You guys weren’t even home.”
Jason fidgets in his seat but Aiden says, “It’s okay. Tell her what you told me.”
“We were at Tyler’s house, and we told him that Aiden got us the new Return of the Zombie Aliens video game. We wanted to play, so Jackson and I walked home to get it.”
Aiden’s jaw is clenched. He’s heard this story and doesn’t like it.
Jackson continues, “We know where Aiden keeps the key, so we just let ourselves in to get it.”
I try to paint a picture in my head, and remember that Aiden keeps the key under a brick in the walkway near the door.
“We got the game and locked the door, but when we turned around, a bloody, angry man came up to us.”
This can’t be real. Two nine-year-olds did not overpower and kill a grown man. Aiden’s staring straight ahead, but it’s clear his mind is running a mile a minute. It looks like he’s trying to take steadying breaths.
“What happened next?” I ask them, even though I feel like I’m holding my breath.
“We recognized him as Greg . . .”
Jackson picks up when Jason trails off. “We knew he used to hurt Aiden, and we were always scared of him.”
Aiden’s hand clenches and body stiffens. He thought he’d protected the twins from the truth. He thought they didn’t know Greg abused him.
“He—he wasn’t normal,” Jason continues. “His eyes looked weird. And he was saying stuff about us belonging to him. Then he grabbed me. He was trying to pull me away from the house.” Jason’s crying now, and my heart breaks.
I sit beside him on the bed and he buries his head in my shoulder. Aiden walks out of the room and I hear something glass break. Someone calls up to ask if everything’s all right, but I block out Aiden’s reply to focus on the twins.
I feel like crying, but I hold it together so they don’t see me scared. “It’s okay, Jason. You’re okay.”
These poor kids have already been through so much: Greg, Andrew. It’s a wonder that they’re not terrified to leave their house. Aiden comes back in the room seemingly calmer, but then I realize it’s not just anger in his eyes, in his rigid posture, in the set of his jaw. It’s fear. Fear that he could’ve lost his brothers. And fear that they’re going to be taken away now.
“Tell her what happened next,” he prods them.
“I was trying to get him to let go of Jason, but he wouldn’t,” Jackson continues since Jason is still sniffling. “So I ran behind him to try to stop him from taking him, when Jason slipped out of his grip. We looked at each other and we . . . I mean, we do this all the time on friends and stuff and no one’s ever died!”
“What did you do?” I ask him gently, imagining a bunch of different scenarios where the outcome is Greg’s death.
“When Jason slipped out, I was already behind Greg. So I just . . . dropped down to my hands and knees behind him—”
Jason continues, sitting up from where he was leaning on me and dragging his sleeve over his nose. “And I shoved him while he was trying to grab me.”
The scene unfolds in my head; I can picture it. Greg grabbing Jason, Jackson running around behind him. The two boys locking eyes, already coming up with an unspoken plan. Jackson dropping to all fours behind Greg, and Jason pushing him backward over his brother. Greg falling . . .
Jason hugs himself and looks down, the memory of that day filling his mind. “He fell and . . . we hadn’t put the brick back in the walkway from when we got the key. It was out, and when he fell . . . his head . . .”
“It exploded on the brick,” Jackson states bluntly.
My mouth drops open. Jason and Jackson literally killed Greg by accident? They start speaking practically at once.
“We didn’t know what to do! We put the brick back and ran to Tyler’s house.”
“Jason wanted to tell you but we didn’t want to get in trouble. We were sure he was fine. I made him promise not to tell anyone.”
“But we can’t take it anymore. We keep arguing over if we should tell you or not,” Jason says. “I promised Jackson we would tell you after the beach house because it was Christmas and we didn’t want you to worry.”
They’re looking back and forth between me and Aiden, waiting for us to say something. Aiden’s face is still a hardened mix of anger and careful calculation, and I’m too shocked to process.
Honestly, I was kind of convinced Luke did it.
I turn to the two scared boys. “Listen to me. It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t mean to hurt Greg. It’s the very definition of an accident.”
“You did a good thing telling us,” Aiden says, putting his hand on Jason’s shoulder. “I’m going to take care of everything, okay? You don’t need to worry about a thing, you’ll be just fine.”
“Are we going to jail?” Jason whimpers.
Not on my watch.
“You guys know that your brother will do everything he can to protect you. You’re not going to go to jail. We’ll figure everything out.”
Jason and Jackson say nothing, leaving me to stare at Aiden. What are we going to do?
“Let’s keep this between us for now, okay, guys?” Aiden says, his voice softer than before. “Don’t tell anyone else, got it?”
They nod, and Aiden continues. “Perfect. Why don’t you guys go grab some snacks or something, okay?”
They take off out of Aiden’s room, leaving Aiden and me to stare at each other. I don’t know what to say, what to think, how to process this.
“Fuck.” Aiden slums onto the bed beside me. “We are so fucked.”
