The room falls silent and my jaw drop in shock at Zac's words. Sydney appears in the room but remains in a corner, obviously hearing her brother. No one speaks for a moment and I reach over to take Zac's hand in mine but he dismisses my comfort.
"I..." Max pauses and tugs at his shirt collar. "I can explain."
"Why don't we talk about this in the kitchen?" Simone suggests, rising to her feet. Her glare never leaves Max as he complies, Ian and Zac follow quickly behind him. I exchange a glance with Sydney and we hurry after them, leaving the rest of the party in the dining room.
"My sister." Zac spits, shoving Max and he stumbles against the kitchen counters.
"Don't hurt him." Sydney pleads but he takes no notice of her.
He shoves Max again. "The same sister you've known since she was five, we used to babysit her and not only did you fuck her, you dump her for someone else."
Each word earns Max another shove until his back hits the wall and his head made an unpleasant thump when it collided against it. He winces but Zac doesn't seem bothered. "Zac, come on I didn't mean for it to-"
"What did you expect was going to happen?" He grabs him by his collar so their faces are inches apart. "You think you can do that to my sister and expect me not to be pissed? You even bragged to me about sleeping with some woman before you met Olivia." Olivia is Max's new girlfriend, I haven't met her.
My eyes flicker to Sydney who is looking at her hands in shame and Simone and Ian, they look upset and angry. Ian is still holding Alika, but his eyes haven't left Max. "I wasn't talking about her I promise." He musters to Zac quickly. "Look, I didn't know she would get so attached I thought we both knew it was casual-"
"Casual?" Sydney looks up and frowns. "Nothing about it was casual Max."
Max looks shocked. "It was nothing more than sex-" And with that Zac's fist met his face. I gasp as he fell down onto the floor, holding his now bloodied nose.
Zac inhales sharply and his jaw clenches as he looks down at Max. He purses his lips together and I glances over to me. I don't know what to do and I think my face shows that. "Get the fuck out of here and don't ever come back." Is all he tells Max, before leaving the kitchen.
On his journey, he takes my hand to pull me with him. I don't protest and follow him upstairs to his old bedroom. I shut the door while Zac paces around, his hands in his hair. I take a seat on his bed and watch him. "Zac."
He looks over at me, I hear a sniffle and lean to switch on his bedside lamp. That's when I see the tears down his cheeks. Zac hastily wipes his eyes and sighs. "Zac." I say again and take his hand in mine, he sits down beside me and hides his face in his hands but I notice his shoulders shake.
I wrap my arms around him and kiss his head. "I don't even know why I'm crying?" He eventually says after a few moments of silence. He lets out a dry chuckle and wipes his eyes again.
"You just found out your best friend hurt your sister." I say. "He hurt you too."
Zac nods. "What he did wasn't right and I don't know if I can get over it." He says. "If he was dating Syd, I would have gotten over it because we're together but to just use and then dump her."
