Five Words

Chapter 2

~Cher

"You're kidding," I mutter and back away to sit on my bed.

"Do you now know why I want you away from him?" He kneels in front of me and holds my hands.

"But he says he didn't do it."

I don't know why I am saying this, why I'm defending him but I just am.

"If he didn't do it, then why did he go to juvenile?"

"I don't know. Do you know?" I ask him.

"He raped her—"

"Do you know who the girl is?"

He stops for a second before answering me, "No."

"Do you know the whole story?"

"No." He sighs.

"Then don't accuse him of anything that you know nothing about, Adrian."

"Look if you know what is best for you, you'll stay away from him." His eyes are pleading me to go along with what he was saying.

But I don't want to misjudge him, I don't even know him.

"Adrian, I can't just ignore him. He's staying here."

"Mom, just get out. NOW!" Ace barks and I can feel the vibrations of his voice through the door.

"He can't even keep his temper under control. He lashed out at you as soon as he had the chance."

"Because I said something that made him think that I am trying to protect myself from him, but I was just informing him. But since I didn't know why he was in juvie, and you didn't care to mention to me, I hurt his feelings."

"That man can care any less about what you say." Adrian tells me, "And if you think you can go talk to him and be a friend to him, he will shut you out and will not even give you a chance to understand him."

"Like you would know." I roll my eyes at him.

"I am serious, Cher. I tried. I tried being a friend to him, but after whatever happened to him, he is closed off and if you feel like you can change that then you are wrong." Adrian stands up and walks in circles around the room.

"When did any of this happened? You never mentioned anything to me."

I can't believe that he has never cared to mention any of this to me, and we don't hide anything from each other.

He sighs and takes in a deep inhale. "Ace is my relative from afar. I wouldn't say I hated Ace from the moment I met him. But I never really liked him. That guy gave me the creeps. But whenever I was in Texas for the summer..."

He's from Texas too? That's...odd. He doesn't look like it definitely, and the way he talks.

"I had to speak to him, engage with him. I didn't know him, because I never had the interest in knowing him. But at January or so, after school started, and I was back in Washington with you, my cousins and my friends back home hit me up and told me that I need to come back to Texas immediately. They told me that a terrible thing happened to Sarah."

"Sarah? You said you didn't know the girl." I say to him.

"I know that I lied, Cher. I did lie to you because I didn't want to say any of this to you. I wasn't planning on retelling the story. I closed that book a long time ago."

"Seriously Adrian? Since when do we lie to each other and hide things?"

"You must have secrets too." He retorts.