Meet You There

Chapter Fourteen: The Way She Holds Her

I don't figure anything out.

I stay with Kyra, and she texts Megan and Brody telling them to come to Fairchild Haven straight from school. I don't think telling Brody is a good idea, but Kyra insists on it.

She also insists telling Megan the truth, that the only reason she knows about Anthony being abusive is because she accidentally read her Facebook message. Neither of us know how Megan is going to react to this, but Kyra decides she wants to be honest with her best friend, even if she might not want to speak to her.

When they get here, Megan seems to be in a pretty good mood, which is good to see considering how down she's been of late because of Anthony. I just hope this doesn't upset her too much.

Brody just looks tired. He collapses on to Kyra's bed, the same way he does on mine. “What's this about, Ky?”

Kyra paces around her room. She looks at Megan. Megan looks back at her, blinks, then smiles.

“Okay. Earlier today, I was going to check my Facebook. I saw that I had one message. It wasn't until I'd clicked to open it and read it that I realized your Facebook was still logged on, Megan, I read one of your messages. I'm sorry, I know it's a total invasion of privacy, but... It was from Anthony. We know he used to hit you.”

Silence, until Brody clears his throat and sighs, holding his head in his hands.

Megan squints and looks down, as if she's deciding what to think.

“Ky, I don't like that you read my Facebook message, but it's fine, I just-”

More silence, until Megan stands up from Kyra's armchair and falls in to her friends arms. The way Kyra holds Megan is the same way I hold Brody; full of protection.

I realize Kyra and I have a lot in common. We're both introverts. We're both not from here. And we both want a Kennerley sibling we can't have.

Kyra strokes Megan's golden corkscrew curls, and Megan begins to sob. Brody looks like he wants to stand up and hug his sister, too, but he decides to let the girls have their moment.

“I'm sorry,” Megan sniffs, her voice muffled by Kyra's jean jacket. She looks so small and weak when she cries. Not the bubbly, fierce dream girl I know her as. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you,” she pulls away from Kyra and turns to Brody and I. “Any of you. I should have broke it off with Anthony and told y'all about it when it was happening.”

“Don't apologize,” Brody stands up and walks over to his sister, pulling her in to a hug. “You've done nothing wrong. I should have protected you from that piece of shit.”

Megan dries her eyes with her sweater sleeve. “It's over, anyway. He's out of my life for good. I just hope he doesn't do the same to another girl.”

“Oh, I'll make sure he doesn't,” Brody says. I don't know how he plans to do that, since he isn't the violent type.

Later, Brody and I go to the woods.

“I should have known,” he agonizes. “I saw bruises. At first, I thought Dad had started on her, but when I asked her about it, she told me they were from cheer leading accidents. I believed her. I should have realised Anthony was dirt and broke it off.”

“It's not your fault. Megan doesn't need you to be her protector. Remember when you told me that? Megan broke it off for herself. You couldn't have done that for her, no matter how hard you tried.”

It's just unfortunate she didn't break it off sooner, when he first started hitting her, which she told us was about a month after they had made it official.

“He asked why I was always talking to Louis. He's one of my best friends. I told him that. He just told me to stop acting like a whore and then slapped me, but it got worse, more frequent,” she had told us at Kyra's. “Then, he stopped slapping me and started punching me and knocking me over.”

When we get back to the farm, I say goodbye to Brody and start walking towards the barn, when he grabs my arm to stop me.

“Can I stay with you tonight?” he asks, his hand still around my arm.

I love spending time with him, but I hate how I can't hold him, touch him, kiss him. He said we should just be friends. Obviously I'm fine with that, because it is for the best, but it's so hard sometimes to keep myself away from him.

“Sure.”