The Brother

9

Today, Ms. Chamber’s called me and told me Seth was getting out of his short time jail time. The bail fee was $1000. She sounded furious on the phone, but said he needed to talk to me about something very important.

It had to be the thing Jared wasn’t telling me.

I was so anxious and nervous words could not describe. I had no idea what he could tell me. Ray didn’t keep secrets easily. He never did keep secrets. When he did keep secrets, that one time, he was always sick and picky.

It had to be something small, right? He couldn’t hold onto something that big for a long time. But then again, Seth charged into a restaurant and got himself caught by the cops. What for?

All week I spent days tugging and nagging myself, especially my hair. The suspense was killing me. What could it possibly be? How bad was it?

It added so much stress. I had to stop thinking about it.

When I got to the Chamber’s house, Ms. Chamber’s led me upstairs to Seth’s room. She seemed hesitant when she left me there with him. She insisted that we meet here because he was on house arrest.

When I walked in, he almost jumped off his bed. His eyes were wild and apprehensive. “Audrey!” I wasn’t sure if he was smiling or frowning, it was heavy mix of both.

“Hi,” I said and took a trembling seat at his desk. His room was cluttered compared to Ray’s. There were posters of everything from cars to Nina Dobrev. His desk was heaped with papers of late assignments and Starbucks cups. His bed was a mound of bed sheets and pillows toppled over each other.

“Did… Jared tell you anything?” Seth worriedly asked. I shook my head. “That ass,” he whispered. Seth met his eyes with mine. He was so beautiful, too beautiful. His hair was wild and golden. His nose and lips made the perfect turn.

I instantly recollected the night when we kissed. My lips fitting perfectly into his embrace. I had to pull away. Stupid me. I almost regret it, but then I think of Ray. No way would I hookup with his brother. He wouldn’t want that, right?

Seth walked forward and knelt down in front of me. He took my hand. I didn’t pull away. It took willpower not to. “What I’m about to tell you, nobody really knows.” He rubbed my fingers in and gentle way.

“It hurts me that you don’t know. Every time I look at you, it pains me to see how innocent you are. How you don’t know.” He whispered in the most forgiving voice.

“Just tell me,” I muttered, “I don’t want to wait any longer.”

He sighed. “Want to know why he never talks about me? Why he never wanted me to meet you? Well, he was scared I’d tell you this. I was always the more sensitive brother.”

What? Seriously? Did I miss something? Ray must’ve been really holding something back.

“I know, hard to imagine.” For a second he was smiling, but it quickly disappeared when he got back on the subject. He furrowed his eyebrows together. “But, I’m going to tell you anyway.”

He slumped down on the nearest bean bag. “You know how Jared said he had a sister?”

I nodded. What did this have to do with anything?

“Well, yeah, I was dating her for like two years, since Ray was in the end of seventh grade. He was always jealous of me, more of me dating Valerie.” I recognized the name from the Jared and I’s first date.

“So, he hooked up with her. He didn’t even get her drunk. Apparently she’s always had a thing for my younger brother.” Seth looked hurt. His hard eyes went soft and innocent. “I love her.” He sniffled and put his head in his hands.

I gave him a few seconds. What was I supposed to do? Comfort him?

“Sorry,” he wiped the tears away. “Where was I, right, yeah so she hooked up with Ray in ninth grade, when I broke up with her.”

“Wait, ninth grade?” I got up from my chair. “When in ninth grade?” I was together with Ray in ninth grade. We started dating on December first.

“March.”

That’s when everything stopped. My heart felt tight and out of breath. My whole body felt like collapsing. I could feel my hands clenching by my sides.

“He got her pregnant.”

Now I could feel the blood in my palms from my sharp fingernails.

“No,” I said suddenly. “That couldn’t have happened.” I shook my head energetically. I felt like grabbing my hair like a mental patient and pulling at it.

Seth got up and advanced towards me. He extended his hand to my shoulder. I pulled away, with simple willpower. “Don’t touch me!” I was definitely crying now.

“Audrey…” Seth said slowly. “I’m so sorry.”

“No!” I screamed and dropped his textbooks down from his desk. I was going crazy, and I didn’t care. My heart felt as though it’s been ripped out my chest and stabbed millions of times to make one black whole, for one lie.

“I, I, I have to go.” I grabbed my purse and wiped some tears away to make my vision clear.

“No, Audrey, you’re not stable to go out like this.” He grabbed my arm again forcefully.

Without thinking, I gave him a hard blow on his nose. He fell back on his bean bag and held his nose. His hands were covered with blood. Normally, I would’ve stayed back and helped, but now I was in no mood for that.

I hastily went down every step. “Audrey? Is everything okay?” Ms. Chambers came after me. “Did Seth hurt you?”

I couldn’t look at her the same. She also kept this secret from me. She let Ray continue to date me. Who does that? My body was on fire with hatred

“You should know.” I pushed her out of the way and stormed out of the front door. I hurriedly hunted through my bag and always pulled out the wrong things. I couldn’t see much through my flooded eyes.

When I started to back out of their driveway, Seth appeared at the front door with his hands around his nose. “Audrey! Please don’t go!”

I pulled out of the driveway as quickly as possible and went down the winding neighborhood. I saw the park where we had our first kiss, screw that.

It was simple, but still memorable for me. I was on the swings and I said I could jump from a high distance, so he dared me for ten bucks. I took it, because ten bucks was a million dollars for me back then, still is. When I jumped off he met me down there then kissed me. It lasted for two seconds on the lips. We never spoke about it again till our second kiss.

I had to take it out of my mind. I grabbed my hair on the steering wheels and pulled. I screamed to the top of my lungs till it hurt. Why didn’t he tell me? Why did he do it in the first place?

My eyes were swamped with even more tears now. I couldn’t see anything. Nothing.

I didn’t see even the truck passing by till I hit it.

Author's Note:

So I haven't posted in forever, sorry! I'm going to post chapter 10 very soon because I have a good idea and I don't want to forget it, so I'm working on it now.