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Chapter 39 - the big secret

           

Juliet/Sophie:

"Hey! Did you have a good night at Bella's?" Sophie asked as Juliet strolled into the living room.

There was a moment of silence while Sophie and Jess just smiled her way yet Juliet wasn't giving anything back.

"Are you okay?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" She suddenly yelled as her hands were thrown to the sides.

"Woah, woah! Calm down." Sophie stood to her feet and began trying to approach her sister but Juliet continued to take steps back. "Why didn't I tell you what?"

Juliet stopped the moment her back collided with the wall and she remained still as her chest was rising and falling with pure anger and sadness. She couldn't control the emotions running through her as she just looked at her sister with disappointment.

"About Andrew... that he was a fighter."

Silence.

There was more silence once again, yet this time it was from Sophie instead. Her whole body froze before she then began taking some steps back and creating space. Her heart sunk, not only hearing their brother's name, which was barely ever spoken but because of the key word mentioned... 'fighter'.

"Who told you that?" Sophie asked, only aggravating Juliet more.

"It doesn't matter who told me. It matters that it wasn't you!"

"Who told you that, Juliet? Where did you find out?"

Dropping her shoulders, Juliet's hands clenched either side of her body as a way of dealing with every bit of anger she was experiencing.

"Some guy at the fight last night! He randomly approached me and brought it up. He knew who I was and he said he knew you too."

"You went to another fight?" Sophie asked, now mirroring her sister's frustration.

"Don't even try and do that. This isn't about the fight, this is about a crucial piece of information I never knew about my own damn brother."

"You promised me you wouldn't go to another one of those, Juliet. You are already in enough shit with the school and our parents. We don't need any more trouble!"

"I don't care about that right now, Sophie!" Juliet exasperated. She couldn't believe her sister wasn't listening to her and instead was focusing on something else so minor. "I want to know the truth and why my own family never told me."

Sighing, Sophie ran her hands through her hair before taking a seat back on the sofa. Jess was currently sat quietly and unsure of what to do. She suddenly felt like an intruder but didn't feel it was appropriate to make her presence even more known by announcing she was going to leave. Therefore, she just sat silently instead and tried not to look as though she wasn't paying too much attention to what was currently happening.

"Yes, he was a fighter." Sophie bit reluctantly as she tried to prevent herself from having to give out too much information.

"and... why didn't you tell me?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Sophie had desperately hoped this day would never come and had prayed that if it did, her parents would have been the one to explain it all. She had been so young when Andrew died but Juliet had been even younger and therefore, she'd been much easier to keep the whole truth of the matter from.

"Because mum and dad told me not to." Sophie exclaimed. "You were too young to remember much anyway so they didn't feel the need to share it with you."

"But it still doesn't make sense to me!" Juliet's voice continued to raise as she felt like she was getting nowhere with Sophie. She was having to force information out of her sister bit by bit and she wasn't making it easy. "Why was it such a big secret? And how did this random guy know you too? And why is mum so mad at you for being with Aaron if her own son was a fighter?"

Looking down to her hands that were entwined uncomfortably in her lap, Sophie then finally looked up at her sister with teared eyes. Thinking back to a time when her brother was around and talking about him alongside the topic of fighting was tugging at every part of her emotions. However, with Juliet looking back down at her with a desperation for answers, she had to force back the tears and deal with this in the best way she knew how.

"I used to go to Andrew's training sessions... he even took me to a fight once. That's how that guy probably knew me." Sophie began as Juliet finally took a seat on the sofa opposite. "And mum and dad didn't tell you because they didn't want to... they were probably just ashamed or something."

Although that was partly true, it was only a very minor reason for them not telling the truth. However, Sophie wasn't prepared to give the full reason to her sister. She wanted Juliet to keep the innocent mind and memories of her brother; she didn't want it being consumed with anything other than good thoughts.

He had been a good guy, minus the small side of him that had got caught up in something he probably shouldn't have done. However, regardless of all of that, he did have a good heart and he'd loved them both more than anything in this world.

"Ashamed of what?" Juliet probed, still not feeling as though she had enough information to understand.

"Of the sport. You saw how she reacted to Aaron being a fighter... they're not big fans of it."

"So you all kept this huge secret from me because they 'don't like the sport'?" Juliet mocked, clearly not believing a single word of it.

"Yeah." Sophie nodded. "...and it's not even a big secret, Juliet. It was just never brought up."

With her eyes focused on her sister, Juliet was trying to judge her facial expression but all she saw was tears. Sophie was clearly worked up by this conversation proving that there was so much more that she wasn't admitting. Juliet didn't know why they were all being so secretive and she didn't know why she had been kept from the truth however, one thing she did know was that she needed to figure it out.

It was going to drive her crazy if she didn't get more answers as the brother she once knew, no longer felt like the same person. Fighting was such a huge part of Aaron's life that she felt as though the person she remembered Andrew to be couldn't be very accurate.

Aaron spent weeks in intense training, shutting himself out from the world so clearly Andrew had done the same... so why hadn't she ever known?

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