Dirty Secret

nineteen.

"So does karma?" the words echoed around Kylie's mind as she sat at the circular table with her family, loud conversation trailing around her, staring into space as she ignored the sound of Samantha telling her to pass the salt , her mind trying to decipher what exactly Kyle meant by karma working in mysterious ways.

And no matter how hard she tried, the words wouldn't leave her mind, not even for a second so she could actually pretend she was engaged with her family, or as if she wasn't completely zoned out and lost within her own little world, her plate of food yet to be untouched, her brother sat beside her with a smug look on his face as though he knew her mind was ticking away to try and piece together such a cryptic message. But he was waiting, he was waiting for the right time to let her know that he knew all about her late night activities with Justin.

Kyle was patiently awaiting the moment he could stride up to Justin with his hand curled up in a fist, striking it upon his face before telling him to stay the hell away from his sister, or sisters for that matter. Even though in the past he never did care about him cheating on Sammy, he had to care this time around - because he wasn't just cheating on her with a stranger that nobody knew, somebody from out of town who Samantha would never meet - no, for some reason he had chose to cheat on his wife to be with her younger sister; somebody she saw every day of her life whether she wanted to or not.

"Kylie, are you okay?" Erin asked, cocking her eyebrow at her step daughter who had barely uttered a word since leaving the house, clad with a neck full of love bites and no explanation as to how she got them; "You look like you're going to pass out or throw up." she uttered, gaining the attention of Justin who had been sat with his arm around Samantha, putting on the ever so doting boyfriend act, kissing her cheek after every word, whispering sweet nothings into her ear that made her smile and tap his shoulder, telling to stop it but not meaning it.

"Hm?" she sounded, snapping back into reality for a mere moment; "Yeah, I'm fine." she lied, glancing down at her plate, using her fork to move around the pasta parcels on her plate.

Justin looked over in her direction, smiling at her innocently, even though behind such a smile was a ton of meaning and secrets that only she would ever know.

Or, so they thought.

"Oh, remember that thing I was telling you about the other day?" Kyle nodded towards Justin, sipping from his glass of soda water; "Well, turns out, that the girl the guy is sleeping with is practically a child." he gasped, pretending he was shocking, wanting to gain a reaction from the man sitting opposite him.

Raising his eyebrows, Justin stretched his arm out around Samantha; "Oh shit, really?" he nodded slowly.

"Sixteen, to be precise." he remarked, sitting back calmly in his chair; "Can you believe it?"

"Well, you didn't tell me how old the guy was, but I guess he's older?" Justin shrugged, the entire table seemingly taking an interest in the topic of conversation, waiting to throw their two cents in and give their opinions on something that they were none of the wiser too - oblivious to the fact it was going on right under their noses.

Kyle looked around the table, a smug smirk tugging on the corner of his lips; "He's twenty two." he uttered with ease.

"Wait, that's like.. a seven year age difference?" Samantha remarked, a frown upon her face; "Is that not practically illegal?" she asked, it evident by the look on her face that she was disgusted.

"Six." Justin corrected her, staring at the rim of his glass, the situation was too familiar for it to be a simple coincidence.

Rolling her eyes at his unneeded correction; "Regardless, it's still pretty much illegal..if not disgusting - what would a twenty two year old want with a sixteen year old? Unless he has deep imbedded issues, in which case he should see a doctor, not hook up with a child." Samantha shuddered.