Breaking the Rules [BoyxBoy]

26.1 | вαcк αrσυn∂

[a/n: it's been a while, trust me, I know. This chapter is the longest of all the chapters which is why it will be broken into two parts. This chapter also features a POV we've never read before. This is the first time in the KB series that I am doing a POV change within a chapter and it is also the first time I am giving the POV of someone who isn't the two mains. It is, however, imperative to the plot, so the new POV isn't just for kicks. Enjoy <3]

What did I do to deserve this
Tell me the truth and don't lie

Chapter 26.1 ~ Back Around

Owen Bailey

I was never one to get emotionally attached to people.

How could I when my mother abandoned me at a young age, and my father withdrew from me in retaliation? I knew from young that I really couldn't depend on anyone. The only person I could love was myself because I would never let myself down.

Because even though I had accepted Liam's presence in my life as my brother at age eleven, it didn't mean I accepted him as someone who meant something to me. He was just a little kid that happened to make me laugh sometimes, not a brother who I loved and cared about. That was, of course, until he almost drowned under my supervision.

After an entire day of "playing", which was mostly on Liam's behalf because he was an eight year old with a wild imagination, and I was a thirteen year old with a strange obsession with the changing pitches in my voice, we somehow ventured to an old bridge in the middle of the woods, built over a rushing stream with a dangerous current. I don't remember how we got there—probably through an outrageous game of tag—but I wasn't nearly concerned about our whereabouts as I was about receiving the hottest girl in the eighth grade, Jenny Lavo's text message.

"Dude, can you slow down?" I asked, annoyed.

"Why?" Liam asked, whipping around to face me with his turquoise eyes widening in curiosity. "There's no time to slow down, Owen. We gotta go, go, go!"

I rolled my eyes in response and tugged out my phone from my back pocket. "We're supposed to be back by now, anyway. Mom's gonna be worried."

"Please, can we stay?"

I glanced at the boy ahead of me. "Five minutes."

"Five minutes?" Liam bit back, "but—"

"Five minutes," I reiterated with a stern reverence in my voice. "I got stuff to do, and you need to go back home."

Liam pouted for a brief moment, but that did nothing to stop his happiness. Almost as soon as he dropped it, his smile reappeared, bigger now than ever. He skipped to the midst of the bridge and did his best to peer over the edge of the wooden railing by standing on the tips of his toes. I watched him strain for a moment or two before turning my back to him and glancing down at my phone again. Jenny Lavo had finally texted back with a simple 'hey' and a flirty wink.

I hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out how to respond. Jenny Lavo was a big deal, so I needed to think this through—if I said something dumb, she would surely forget about me and find someone else who was worth her time.

As soon as I figured out what to say, nearly three minutes later, I typed away at my flip phone. I was only seconds away from pressing send when I heard a shrill shriek sound in the otherwise soothing summer air. At that very instant, my hands loosened their grip on my phone, allowing it to fall to the ground, in between the bridge's floorboards, and into the rushing stream. I whipped around to search for the little boy, but he wasn't standing against the railing as he had been just minutes before.