Nurses and doctors frequent the room. None ask us to leave, accepting our existence without an argument. We aren’t family. We aren’t supposed to be back here, but it seems we are the only ones here for her now.
“No one should be alone,” one of the nurses says. “We haven’t been able to reach any of her family.” She offers me a settling pat to the shoulder before leaving.
Of course, you haven’t. They’re worthless.
How did we get here? At what point did everything turn south? Since the beginning, Byron has been dead set on clawing his way to revenge. He’s not the only guilty party. I was thrilled at the prospect of finding out who was responsible for Reed’s murder.
Until her.
Palmer changed everything. She changed me before I had a chance to stop her.
“He took it too far this time,” I whisper, leaning back in the chair, fixed on Breaker’s reaction.
“You think?” He gestures to Palmer’s lifeless body. “His intentions were in the right place. The delivery ended up being a bit fucked in the end.”
“You think?” I scoff, angry and discouraged.
We’re no saints. No one is looking at us with hero worship. We are the guys you call when you need something discreetly handled, and at our own discretion. Pain isn’t something we shy away from, and we certainly don’t buckle at our knees to anyone.
But this? For the first time, I’m ashamed of us.
“You’re in love with her.” Breaker breaks me away from the flood of emotions taking over at the memory of the last few months. Every game of cat and mouse between us. Orchestrating hatred with our classmates to alienate her. Treating her like she was nothing, when, without realizing it, she became everything without even trying.
“I don’t know if I’m capable of loving anyone.” If there aren’t any truer words in the world, I’d be stunned.
“But . . .” He knows me too well.
“She consumes me,” I admit, watching her tiny chest rise and fall. “She has since we found her on the floor of Reed’s dorm, covered in her sister’s blood. Since that moment, I’ve wanted to wrap myself around her to keep her safe, and now, look what I’ve done.”
“Good thing you were there to save her then, huh?” He stands, pats me on the shoulder, and leaves, nonchalant like the rest of them, because it isn’t theirs in the bed, broken and beaten.
This is new to us, a foreign territory to navigate. We may be a unit, but at some point, we’ve started making our own individual decisions. The others be damned. Byron made his. I cemented mine the second I went to Palmer’s dorm after we’d humiliated her in front of an auditorium full of people.
I lean my head back on the chair. A little bit of sleep will do me some good, I think. When she wakes up, I’ll be here.
Allowing the darkness to take over isn’t easy though. I’m haunted by my own choices. Some demons don’t go quietly.
“When it comes to her, I’ll always choose her. Even over all of them!” Byron shouts.
I stand back, held in place by Breaker, watching the shiny blade lift and pierce into Palmer’s thigh. She struggles to stand, and I push forward, blocked by Breaker’s body. He holds me by the waist, and I fight to get to her. Her body wobbles, descending towards the edge. Byron is in reach of her, able to grab her.
He stands, unmoved, watching her fall. Maybe he’s too stunned to actually do anything. Perhaps this has been his twisted plan all along. Breaker loosens his hold in time for me to rush across the rooftop. Palmer’s calves catch the side of the roof, and she stumbles, her body lost over the edge.
Halfway dangling off the roof, I wrap my hand around her forearm, catching her before she falls from the two-story building. She dangles, lifeless, now a part of me, connected in a way we’ve never been before.
Breaker mirrors me, helping me pull her up. We lay her down on the cold rooftop. I peel off my coat, covering her body, and apply pressure to stop the bleeding. She goes in and out of consciousness, pleading with me not to let her die.
Breaker pulls out his phone, calling 911. Byron stands close to Dixon, their heads tucked in close, him reeling from what he’s done while his brother tries to talk him down.
“I’ll handle this,” Byron explains through a sharp tone. The knife coated in Palmer’s blood is still in his hand.
“You’ve done enough,” I bark. With my ear next to her mouth, I listen for a breath. They’re shallow, barely there. When I straighten, I glare at Byron. “If anything happens to her . . .”
Something tightens around my hand, and I jerk, startled out of slumber. I push out of the chair, panicked to get closer to her. Her face contorts in disgust at the sight of me.
“Don’t.” A tear sneaks out the side of her eye, slipping down her cheek. Her trembling hands ghost over my arms. I’ve destroyed her, broken what little faith she had in me.
“You have questions,” I whisper, checking every inch of her face, closing my eyes, and opening them to make sure she’s real. She’s awake and alive in front of me.
“Why?” She reaches for the pink cup on her bedside table. I hold it to her lips, helping her to take a sip. “Why did you all do what you did?”
“It’s not that simple.” I set the cup down and rest on the side of the mattress. “There’s too much to tell you.”
“Simplify it then.” She shifts a little bit away from me. Her reserve isn’t a surprise. She’s earned it, the fear she feels this close to me, under my watch.
“Before Reed died or whatever, we were certain she knew something. We didn’t know what it was. She kept hinting at something, became skeptical of everything and everyone on campus. When we found you in her dorm, and the blood splattered everywhere, we knew it wasn’t an accident.” I swallow the lump in my throat, reliving the past year. “We isolated you for a reason. I wanted to reach out, to make you understand we had your back, but . . .”
“Let me guess, Byron?” She shakes her head, a flood of memories taking her mind hostage.
“Partially. He can’t be blamed for everything, Palmer. We all played our parts.”
“Keep going.” She circles her finger, eager to know the truth that’s landed her in this bed with knife wounds and several other injuries.
“We realized pretty quickly that whoever murdered Reed had access to our campus. Your sister was targeted right under our noses.”
“Why, though? Who would target her?”
“That’s where you came in.” I scrub my hand down my face. “We thought that maybe we could use you as a way to draw whoever it was out.”
“I became your bait.” She shifts, attempting to find a comfortable position. When I try to help, she hits me with an icy stare. “Don’t touch me.” She braces herself, using every ounce of upper body strength to find a spot where she no longer winces with each move she makes.
So, she believes what I’m saying, but that doesn’t matter. She knows what these hands are capable of, and all trust is lost.
“Yes, and at first, we were all fine with it. We could live with whatever happened to you because we’d have answers. We’d finally know what happened to Reed.”