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Something was up with her, and no matter how much I wanted to just enjoy our time here, we needed to try to figure out what her problem was. Maybe it was something we could fix, but I had a feeling that it was bigger than the two of us.
We’d try, anyway.
I wandered back into the kitchen to find Brett pouring us two glasses of lemonade. He handed me one and we sat at the counter next to each other. Even though I was bursting with things I wanted to say, I felt like it was a good idea to give him the chance to speak first. Biting my tongue was hard, though, and when he didn’t say anything for a few minutes, I pipped up.
“I think we need to talk about what’s going on with your mom.” The words were barely out of my mouth before Brett scowled, a frown darkening his face.
“You mean the fact that she hates you, has completely lost her mind, and was willing to sell you out to the council without looking back? I really don’t know what there is to say about that besides the fact that I thought I knew her and I guess I didn’t. Not really.” He drained his lemonade and set his glass down on the counter so hard that I winced, thinking it was going to crack.
But it didn’t. Nothing in Brett’s life cracked, and even if it did, he would just somehow put the pieces back together again.
“No.” Reaching out, I gently took his hand away from the glass and slipped my fingers through his. “That’s not what I think we need to talk about. We need to talk about the fact that she was apologetic and scared, Brett.”
He scoffed. “What in the world are you talking about?”
I paused for a moment while I thought about the look on her face and the way she had leaned towards me, lowering her voice. “She feels bad, Brett. Maybe she didn’t know that the council would go this far and she’d be unable to make them back off, or maybe they have something on her and now she can’t get out from under them. Whatever it is, I really think that your mom is scared.”
“My mom’s never been scared of anything.” He sounded so sure of himself that, for just a moment, he reminded me of him as a young boy, trying to act brave even when I knew that he was going home to daily beatings.
Shaking my head, I squeezed his hands tighter. “That’s not true, Brett, and you know it. She was scared of your dad. Now I really think that she may be afraid of the council. I think that…I think that maybe she knows that if she goes back to them things won’t work out well.”
“She called you a whore. She said some unforgivable things, Rose, and I really don’t see how you can sit right there and defend her when you had to face what she said! She…she was supposed to welcome us with open arms and invite us into her house, not make us stay in the guest cottage so that nobody even knew you were here.”
“Maybe that’s the point.” He wasn’t listening and I was getting tired of trying to explain it. Brett was obstinate on a good day, and right now it was definitely not a good day. “Maybe she didn’t want people to know that I’m here with you. Do you have any idea who’s on the council?”
He fell silent and I could tell that he was thinking hard. Brett and I didn’t have all the answers, and it felt like we were stumbling through a puzzle together, blind and clueless, trying our best to make it out alive. The only saving grace is that I had him with me and that I wasn’t trying to navigate it on my own. Together, I knew that we could do anything.
By myself? By myself I would be screwed.
“I’ve never met the council.” For the first time since we’d started talking about his mom, Brett sounded unsure of himself. He had been convinced that she was out to get me and that nothing would make her back down, but now he didn’t sound so sure. “I have no idea who’s on the council. Do you think that they may have some dirt on my mom?”
Shrugging, I pulled him to me. He stood and wrapped his arms around me, then we went to the sofa to snuggle. The leather squeaked under us while we got comfortable, but as soon as I was tucked under his arm, I knew that I wasn’t going to move anytime soon. “I think that, given the way she was acting, it’s entirely possible that she may be afraid of someone on the council and that we need to take that into consideration. Your mom isn’t a bad person, Brett.”
He was silent.
“She did what you asked her to, and now she may be dealing with the consequences.”
Still nothing.
“Brett, are you even listening to me?”
He sucked in a deep breath and I turned under his arm to look at him. There was a glimmer of a tear in his eye, but he squeezed them tightly shut and it disappeared. “My mom has had a shit life, Rose. I can’t bear to think that it could be any worse due to something that I’ve done, you know? I went to her to tell her that you were at school because I was scared that you would tell people that I had killed my dad.”
Now it was my turn to be silent.
“But then she was worried that you had seen her and would tell someone. I…I didn’t think that you had.”
“I hadn’t.” My voice was a whisper. He already knew that I had only seen him, but I felt compelled to say something—to say anything.
He ignored me. “But she was so worried that she wanted you out of Taylor Prep. And now…now it’s gotten bad. I don’t know what kind of reach the council has or how they can make people act the way they do, but I don’t know if they’re going to stop.”
His heart was racing in his shirt while he talked and I felt mine speed up to match his.
“And now I’m worried that other people won’t walk away. The rogues and I—we walked away, Rose. You were worth it to the three of us to stop and to walk away, but what about everyone else? What about the people who don’t love you the way we do or who are more afraid of the council? What about them?”
He was asking, not only about the other students at Taylor Prep, but also his mom. I knew that, but there wasn’t anything I could say.
“I think—” I began, but I was cut off my stomach rumbling. Brett started to laugh so hard that I had to sit up so that he could breathe. “Are you okay? Do I need to call someone?”
