“Did you really kill her?”
“Yes.” I had been hoping that somehow, Mitch was lying. That Keiran didn’t kill his mother. But if he didn’t know…
“Why?” He looked up at me again, his eyes void of emotion or feeling.
“Why not?”
“Because she was innocent.”
“Was she?”
“But –”
“There is no such thing as innocence,” he barked. “How many mothers do you know would let their child be taken without even trying?”
“So you killed her because of it?”
“I didn’t know she was my mother when I put the fucking bullet through her fucking skull,” he spat.
“Are you even sorry for it?”
“I don’t regret what I can’t fix. She’s dead – you don’t come back from that.” He stood up, hurriedly and the momentum pushed the desk back a few feet. He was walking past me and had reached the door before I realized what was happening.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m done talking.”
“But what about Mitch? He knows where you are now. He knows where all of us are.”
“I know,” he said as he turned his head around to face me but kept his hand on the door. “You were almost killed because of me. I do regret that, which means I can fix it.”
“How are you going to fix it?” I asked suspiciously.
“I’m letting you go,” he said and slammed out of the room.
*
I was left standing alone in the dusty classroom. I’m letting you go. The reality of his words didn’t hit me until I was left standing alone with the feeling of my heart breaking. Before Keiran I didn’t think a heart was capable of breaking so many times. After everything he’d done do I just let him leave? Before I could stop myself, I stormed out into the hallway.
“So that’s it then?” The hallway was full of people heading to their first class and when I yelled down the hallway at him, they all stopped to watch us.
He turned back to face me. “That’s all I’m willing to give you.”
“You torment me for ten years, fuck me silly for the past two months, and make me fall in love with you. Then, if that’s not enough, you almost get me killed because of your asshat dad, and you think you can just walk away because you think it’s the right thing to do?”
“I don’t give a fuck about what’s right. It’s safer this way.”
“Says who?”
“Says my brother who is lying in the hospital fighting for his life because of me!” he yelled. The hallway erupted with whispers and shocked sounds at his outburst. No one knew yet that Keenan and Keiran were actually brothers.
“So you’re going to walk away from him too?”
“If that’s what it takes. He’s still out there.”
“Because you chose to save your brother’s life!” He didn’t react. I was right and he knew it. I couldn’t see much of anything that night but I knew Mitch was close enough for Keiran to kill him easily. Instead he concentrated on putting down the men who shot Keenan and so Mitch was able to get away. “You love your brother, Keiran…and you love me, or else you wouldn’t care.”
He shook his head and turned away. My breathing escalated at the same time that my temper skyrocketed. Fuck that. I looked around and noticed Quentin holding a basketball and watching us with sad eyes. I walked up to him and snatched the ball away before he could stop me. The next second it was flying through the air and hit Keiran’s back. I was on him before he could turn around fully and pushed him with all the strength I could find, and even though I knew my strength didn’t match his, I was too pissed and emotionally wrecked to care. I was willing to make a fool of myself for him. I had been for the last couple of months.