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“You were young.” Kaleb interrupted me by taking me by the chin and turning my face so I was looking at him. “You were young, Rose, so even if you did think that something was up, you couldn’t have done anything okay?”
“Oh, I know that now, but that doesn’t absolve anyone else.”
He nodded and let go of my chin, still holding onto my hand. As hard as this was, at least I felt very grounded being between the two of them. We were surrounded by a sense of loss and missed Brett terribly, but with the two of them, I could get through this.
I continued slowly, often stopping to wipe away my tears or explain something that didn’t make sense. I felt like I needed to really show the two of them just how bad it had really gotten with Brett’s adopted dad, that otherwise they wouldn’t understand why he’d killed him and why his mom had just helped him get rid of the body.
To be honest, I still wasn’t sure that I understood it all, but I was trying so hard to be able to. The more I talked about it, the more it all made sense, and the better I could understand what happened with Brett.
“Wait, so his mom thought you saw her there?” Jackie’s voice was twisted, and I nodded at him.
“Apparently so, but I didn’t. I had no idea that she was involved in any of it, but she thought that I saw her, so she freaked out. That’s what Brett told me, anyway. That’s when things got bad with Brett. We’d always been really close, but after his mom thought that I knew she was involved…well, things went south.”
Kaleb frowned. “In what way? How much worse can it get than an abusive dad?”
I bit my lower lip and sighed before answering. “Things with Brett got strange. We didn’t hang out nearly as much as we had, but I thought he was just missing his dad. I think now that his mom was limiting the time we spent together.”
Squeezing both of their hands, I continued. I told them all about Brett killing my cat and pushing me to jump out of the tree. By the time that his mom got remarried and they moved away, I was actually really glad to see them go.
“And then you see him at school. At Taylor Prep. What happened then? Were things weird?” Jackie hadn’t taken his eyes off me the entire time I’d been talking.
“He never mentioned our past?”
Kaleb shook his head. “He told the two of us that you two had known each other when you were younger, but that was it. We didn’t know anything about what had really happened between the two of you.”
“Okay. Well, from what he told me, he talked to his mom and told her that I was here. She freaked out, of course, since she thought that I knew she had helped with his dad’s death and hiding the body. So, after that, she went to the council to have me driven out.”
Kaleb let out a low whistle. “And that’s why everyone turned against you.”
I nodded. “That’s it. I guess that once the council gets involved then there’s no going back. His mom kinda indicated that when we went to see her. Sounded like even if she wanted to get the council to stop coming after me that she wouldn’t be able to.”
“That sucks.” Jackie reached up to tuck hair behind my ear, but his hand fell back down uselessly into his lap. “So, do you have any idea about what we can do? I mean, if the council isn’t going to give up, and now they think that you killed him…I don’t see an out.”
“That’s the thing.” I exhaled. “How do we not know that this is all just a ploy by the council? I mean, I swear to you guys that Brett was still alive after the accident. And the way that they’re saying it happened – that’s not at all what happened on the road. Someone came up and hit us from behind while we were pulled off on the shoulder, and Brett was still breathing. I was watching him breathe because I needed to see it.”
“You needed to know that he was alive. We believe you about that, Rose.” Kaleb’s voice was quiet, but knowing that he understood and that he was on my side gave me strength.
“I did. And he was. That’s what’s insane about all of this, you guys. Brett was alive after the accident. He wasn’t…dead, and he wasn’t hurt, not really. If I walked away from it, then there was no reason that he wouldn’t. I don’t know why they would tell us that he died!” My voice had been getting louder and louder and I suddenly realized that I was shouting and had stood up. My fists were clenched at my sides and I was breathing hard.
“Rose.” Kaleb stood up and took both of my hands, squeezing them until I looked at him. “We believe you, okay? Really, we do. We…we don’t know what to do about the fact that they’re saying he died or how we can keep you safe when people are putting nooses in your doorframe, but…we’re going to try.”
“We won’t stop trying, Rosita. And remember that break is really, really soon.” Jackie smiled up at me from the sofa, but something wasn’t sitting right.
Suddenly, it hit me. “Break. Wait, Brett’s mom wrote him a note and it said that he needed to keep me on campus, that I couldn’t go home for break. He told me…” I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat. “…he told me that I couldn’t go home and that he needed to stay with me to keep me safe. Now he’s not here, so what do I do?” Panic threatened to grip me, but I tried to keep my cool.
Brett said that he would keep me safe.
Now Brett was gone.
Brett said that he would keep me safe.
Now Brett was gone.
“Rose.” Kaleb grabbed my shoulders and gave me a light shake, making me gasp. I’d been talking out loud, and both of them looked terrified. “Listen, we’ll stay with you, okay? We’ll keep you safe.”
I looked from him to Jackie. “Are you sure? I don’t want you two to put yourselves in any more danger than you already are.”
Jackie stood up and stretched. Normally, the sight of his stomach and perfectly toned abs would have my mouth watering, but I felt like everything was falling apart right now. As much as I loved the two of them and wanted them, I was more scared than anything.
