Darling & Foster

Thirty

Nobody heard from Lilian for weeks. The whole school was up in arms, I could tell it was getting to Foster. He would sit by me and the voices would cloud him. I'd have to repeat things. Clint usually passed by, kicked dirt or something, made the air bitter. But this day wasn't like the other ones, he lingered around for a while, so long that Foster looked up. 

Clint didn't skip a beat, "She gonna end up just like Fiona? Did you kill Lilian too?"

I expected Foster to snap, express himself with his fists, turn all red and breathless, but he just buried his head in my shoulder and sobbed. Clint stood there smirking.

He lifted his face, "You know how I felt about her." 

I knew he was talking about Fiona, he was tracing her name over and over again on his jeans, blurry-eyed. 

"I loved her!" Clint took a step closer, but I held Foster's face away. I half-thought that he would spit on us. He probably would have if I wasn't there. "I was the only person who ever gave a shit."

In the middle of their argument, another one of Clint's friends showed up. I couldn't shield him from that. This guy didn't know me, he would just see me as groupie, because I know it doesn't seem like it, but everybody wanted to get close to Foster. Even if they just wanted to find out if he was a murderer or find out where the scars came from. This guy probably wouldn't hold back. 

But he just lifted his eyebrows, stared at me straight in the face, gave me the most mischievous look I'd ever seen and said, "Family dispute?" 

Foster flinched, "Fuck off, asshat." 

"What is he talking about?" I moved away from Foster a little, just a little, because in this moment, I needed to be independent. I needed to be strong in myself, and not in someone else. 

Clint quickly got in Foster's face, I got up, ready to run, ready to do something. I wouldn't watch him hurt, I was gonna protect him this time for all the times when I couldn't. And then something unexpected happened.. Clint squeezed his arm around Foster while roughly pulling on his shoulder, laughed sarcastically and said "Oh, you haven't told her, bro?" More laughing. "That's funny, I'm supposed to be ashamed of you, not the other way around."