I'd Kill You First: when bad meets bad

Chap. 33

BRODY:

"I told you she would be here," I whispered as we walked into the apartment.

I stopped short, making Matt slam into the back of me. He grunted in annoyance and shoved me, looking over my head to see why I stopped. He froze too.

The lights were off and everything was dark and silent except for the lit up TV screen, some movie playing on mute. But that wasn't what shocked me the most. Laying on the couch, in the dark, alone in the apartment, was Keenon and Soda.

"What the hell?" Matt whispered behind me, stepping around so I could close the door. "I thought they hated each other."

I just grinned and walked closer, standing over the couch. Keenon had his arm draped over the dip of Soda's back while they both laid on their stomachs, faces toward each other with noses almost touching. A blanket covered their bottom halves, but Keenon had no shirt. I eyed the situation, trying to figure out if my little sister had been at it again, but then I looked up at the screen. And laughed. Homeward Bound. Yep, nothing had gone on here. That was Soda's sick time movie where all she did was lay around being my cute little sister, all pathetic and shit. It made me like this Keenon dude even more, knowing that he would sit through such a boring movie with my sister after she went through such a rough day.

"Think she'll be okay?" Matt whispered from the plush chair beside the couch, eyeing the pair.

I was never really sure about the relationship between Matt and my sister. I knew they had something together at some point, and I knew they did anything for each other, but since I moved away, I didn't really know much about Soda. It hurt my chest in the worst way when I thought about all the ways I had let Soda down in her life. When I had finally come back and tried to start over with her, I was honestly blown away when she agreed to it.

"Yeah, she'll be okay," I replied while nodding. "She's as tough as they come."

"Got that right," he muttered, eyes landing on the TV. He let out a soft laugh and nodded at the movie. "Hey, that's Homeward Bound, her sick movie."

I raised my brows. I hadn't known Soda shared this movie with Matt. How close had they been?

"Yeah, she used to watch it all the time when she was little because..." I let my voice trail off, not willing to go there.

"Because your psycho old man beat the living shit out of her every other day?" Matt finished with a growl and pointed look in my direction.

I winced and ducked my head. "I didn't know she told anyone," I said quietly.

"Yeah, she told me," he said as he sat forward in the chair, eyes boring into me. "She told me how he almost killed her and her mom, and how you and Trace just let him."

I felt that blow all the way through my whole body. I looked up at Matt's furious face and realized he knew so much more about Soda than I realized.

"You're really close to her, aren't you?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

He snorted and leaned back again. "You could say that, but it'd be an understatement. I know her like the back of my hand. I know all about what went down all those years, about you and Trace, about those damn nightmares she gets, about her mom, about the shit she got herself into. I know how amazing she is, how she loves everyone on the outside, but deep down, she really does hate us all. Who can blame her, you know?"

I sighed and sat down on the chair next to him, looking at my little sister as she slept in another man's arms. "Look, I realize now that I must seem really shitty to you, but I came clean about all that, I apologized to Soda. She forgave me, we are doing good. I hate myself for leaving her with dad, I do, but I can't change what I did. So stop hounding me about it. So instead, tell me why you put my sister on a strip pole."