Always

14.

Nirva brought me to her bedroom. It was quite a nice room actually.

"Sit down wherever you want to. The thing is in my closet."

She smiled before disappearing into her closet. I sat on a hanging chair. It was comfy. I saw some photos on her wall. One was of her and Asrael as kids. Her and her friends. Her and her mom. Cute.

"Okay, I found it. It's a box of old things of my brothers. Since I'm the only girl I was left out a lot from the games those two would play. I kept a few of their old things though. When Conrad first moved out he took almost everything of his and sold it. So I kept some of his stuff for him. Kade sold about 50 percent of his things when he moved out. His other things are still here."

"Wait. Where do you three all live? None of you live here or with your dads."

"Oh, well Conrad is a Senior like Stolas so he bought an apartment as soon as he turned 18. Stolas's parents and my mom pay for our apartment. And Kade...Kade is Kade. He was at school then jail so...no one has had to pay for his anything. Well, Conrad paid his bail. That surprised me actually."

Nirva pulled out old photos of the two boys, old sticks and kid toys. Then a stuffed animal.

"This was Conrad's. He gave it to Kade, but Kade didn't like it so I took it for safe keeping."

She handed me a stuffed animal, elephant. I held it on my lap. I would of never guessed Conrad had an elephant stuffed animal as a kid.

"Tell me how you and Kade know eachother? Before you dated."

I looked up from the elephant to Nirva.

"New York. We went to the same school. Then we both left the school and saw eachother for work purposes from time to time. Then I guess, I just didn't see him for a few years and that was that. I met him again at our school. We talked. He was nice to me. And he asked me out. I thought he was good looking at the time so I said yes. I broke up with him on the first phone call I got from him in prison."

"Oh...why'd you break up with him."

"I didn't want to date a guy in jail."

I shrugged.

"Plus I don't really think I ever thought of him and I in a long-term relationship."

"I can't see him ever in a long-term relationship. Which is sad, but some people are just better off by themselves."

"Yeah."

I smiled.

"Yeah, you're right. Not me though. I went around the school hooking up with different guys, one main one, these past three months. I quite all of that as soon as Conrad came back. He was kind of like a sign for me to stop before I got myself in trouble, you know?"

"Mhm. I get that. Conrad's always been described as some like peace maker. Or something like that."

"He is. He really is. It's almost always peaceful when he's around."

"Almost. Just not with Kade around. Those two are complete opposites. Maybe Kade was right...Maybe Conrad's just jealous we had our dad growing up and he didn't. And mom I guess. Conrad never really got a lot of attention from her because she was dealing with Kade."