The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden(101)

“No way,” Jackson says to me. “You are not leaving me here to be smothered by mom.”

“Shouldn’t you be in Florida or whatever?” I ask with rage and unsteadiness in my voice. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”

He messes with his hair as he gets up from the kitchen table with the pie tin in his hand. “We had a last minute change of heart.”

“Didn’t you have to work?” I ask derisively. “Or did you just quit another job?”

“I have a f*cking job, Callie.” He tosses the tin into the kitchen sink and glares at me. “So quit being a cunt. I don’t know why you always have to talk to me like this.”

“Hey.” Kayden steps in on my behalf, moving in front of me. “Don’t f*cking call her names.”

“I can call her whatever I want,” Jackson retorts, folding his arms over his chest. “You don’t know the shit she put this family through. Her little issues or whatever they are have made my mom basically crazy.”

Caleb watches me with interest, waiting for me to react. I can’t look away from him. I want to, but he’s overpowering me because he knows what my issues are—he put them there. I slowly start to die, wilt into pieces like I’m a Night-Blooming Cereus, the flowers that bloom only once a year at night and die before sunrise, their lives and happiness short lived.

“Leave her alone.” Caleb arches his eyebrows at me with a smile surfacing at his lips. “Maybe Callie has reasons for the way she acts.”

Take me out of here. Take me out of here. Save me. Save me. Save me.

Suddenly, my legs are moving and I’m being dragged somewhere. The back door swings open and I’m hauled down the stairs into the center of the driveway.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs and in the light of the porch, Kayden observes me with uncertainty in his eyes, his hands on my shoulders. “What’s wrong? You have this look in your eyes…”

I let out a strangled breath. “I don’t like my brother very much.”

The muscles in his neck move as he swallows hard. “Callie, I know what fear is. Trust me. I’ve seen it on my brothers’ faces, felt it many times. You’re afraid of him. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Afraid of my brother?” I play dumb, praying to God he won’t find out, fearing what will happen if he does.

“Don’t do that,” he says sternly, placing his hand on my cheek. “You’re afraid of Caleb. He was… he was the one who did it to you?”

“Yes.” I don’t even mean to say it, it just falls out into the world. I stare at him, listening to my heart thump inside my chest, to the wind sing, to the sound of someone breaking somewhere in the world.

He forces a lump down in his throat. “Callie… I… you need to tell someone. You can’t let him keep going around living his life.”

“It doesn’t matter. Too much time has gone by and even the cops can’t do anything about it anymore.”

“How do you know?”

I shrug, feeling detached from the world. “Because I looked into it once to see—to know that I no longer have any options. What’s done is done.”

He shakes his head, his jaw set tight. “This isn’t fair.”

“Neither is your life,” I say, wanting my moment back. I want it back. Please, God, give me it back. ”Nothing really is.”

Silence builds and it all crumbles out as I collapse into his chest, tears spilling out as the secret I’ve carried with me breaks into lighter pieces. He scoops me up against my protests and cradles me against him as he carries me up the stairs and into the room as I sob out every tear I’ve been holding inside me.

He lies down on the bed with me and I bury my face into his chest. Somehow, I stop crying and we lie, unmoving, feeling each other’s pain. Eventually I fall asleep in his arms.

Kayden

After she falls asleep, I watch her breathe in and out, trying to make sense of the world. Rage washes through me like a f*cking wave crashing against the shore. I want to kill Caleb. Beat him to death in the most painful ways.

When I hear her brother and Caleb leave the house, laughing as they get in the car and drive away, talking about going to a party, something snaps inside me. All the rage I’ve channeled ruptures and suddenly I know what I have to do.

Callie saved me that night from a fight that would have probably left me dead, but she also saved me from myself. Before her, I was dying inside; there was nothing in my heart, but an empty hole.