Kian & Ascian

chapter 5

~ Kian

One moment before Ascians brother had shut the door right in front of him, Kian had seen something in his eyes that made him do how the boy told him. There has been a serious look on his face, and in his eyes was fear. Pure fear. When he returned home and walked straight back into his room, he thought about it having to do something with the footsteps he heard coming to the door. And he tried puzzling it together with that weird sentence about Ascians' parents. But it wouldn't work, so Kian let it be. He was more confused over the way Ascians brother acted. He seemed to be okay, but when he met him the last time, he just got a bad feeling about him. Kian didn't know why he acted so different today, so he made a note in his head to ask Ascian about this later and continued to observe the driveway up to his best friend's house.
Half an hour later, Kian saw a car driving away from Ascian's house. He'd spent the time scrolling through Instagram and playing some games on his phone, but he was very glad that Ascians parents left. Now, he could finally ask the question, which stacked up in his head while waiting for them to leave. He walked downstairs, not bothering to tell his mother where he was going.
On the way to his friend's house, Kian tried to sort out the thoughts in his head, but after a few steps, he came to the point that he better just would try to improvise.
When Kian came up to the door of Ascians house, he hesitated to ring the doorbell. He was kind of scared of Ascians brother. Who would know if he wouldn't just act the same as the evening when Kian came over to get away from his family for once? He thought about going back to his home, but he remembered the fear in the eyes of his friends brother, as her told him to come back later when his parents would be gone. So, just theoretically, he was told to come back so Ascians brother couldn't be rude since he told him to come back, right? Right. He rang the doorbell and waited for somebody to open the door.
Ascians brother opened the door and immediately smiled at him. "You came back!"he cheered. Kian smiled back awkwardly. "Yeah, you told me to, so.." Ascians brother looked away from him for a second, and a small stroke of guilt appeared on his face for a short time. "Well, I'm Zak, by the way."he said then with a small smile. "And I'm very sorry for my behaviour when we first met. I just, I thought... Yeah. I think I shouldn't explain this. It should be done by Asc."he digressed while zooming out a little. Then he seemed to get back to reality, and Kian started to feel very left out of this. Now he practically got told that Ascian was keeping secrets from him. But he shouldn't complain about that, right? He himself kept secrets from Ascian.
When he entered the house after Zak, Kian saw how he tensed up a little. "I probably should, uhm, warn you?", Zak said in an uncertain tone. "And what would that be?", Kian asked with a small frown. "I, uhm, Ascian got beaten up a little?", Zak answered while trying to not meet his eyes. Kian immediately knew that it was the truth, but he was a little scared that it was Zak who beat Ascian up. "And do you know by whom?", he said as he took a small step back. Zak's gaze shot up from where it was glued to the ground. "Holy hell, I didn't do that to him! I'm his fucking brother!", he said in a harsh tone. Then his voice trembled a little. "But I do know who did it." Zaks eyes went back to observing the ground in front of Kians feet. Kian, who was very glad that he wasn't confronted with a bat, stepped forward and layed his hand on Zaks shoulder. "I won't judge.", he promised even though he knew that he shouldn't made such a promise. "I wouldn't bet on that.", Zak answered dryly. Then he looked straight into Kians eyes and said with a sad smile: "It was our father."
Kian was taken aback from that answer. He always had been convinced of Ascians father being a nice man. "Well..then thanks for the warning I guess?", Kian said. He didn't really know how to feel about that or how to react to such an answer. "I don't really know how to react, to be honest." Zak nodded and shrugged at the same time. "That is acceptable, I think. But we can go up now, if you want to." Kian nodded. "Yes, that's the main reason I'm here." Zak chuckled for a few seconds and started to make his way upstairs, to Ascians room, having Kian in tow.
They stopped in front of Ascians closed door and Kian was already in the movement to open it, when Zak grabbed his arm. "I really want to warn you.", he said in a very serious voice. "Thank you, but I think I'm prepared.", Kian answered as he smiled at Zak over his shoulder. Then he opened the door.