Part of Me

09

09

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"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."
-Andrew Carnegie

C A Y D E N
• • •

WITH an exhausted sigh, I tossed my keys on the table by the door, taking a moment to study myself in the mirror. The bruises were starting to appear on my face, my lip was split again, and I had a cut just above my right eyebrow. No wonder Devyn ran.

The look in her eye when she saw us fighting is something that I'll never forget. It was haunted, like she was so familiar with the sight that it wasn't foreign, like she wasn't surprised by the cuts and bruises we both had. And then she stepped in front of him and I almost hit her by accident. I would've never forgiven myself if I'd done that.

Why would she do that? Defend him at the risk of getting hurt?

That's when I realized: she wasn't focused on defending him. Not really, anyway. It just sort of happened. She was focused on us not fighting at all.

The way her body stiffened when I almost hit her just further confirmed my suspicions and I knew that I couldn't just leave it alone now. Something was happening to her. Someone was hurting her. Her and Mary and the kids they were with. They were hurting her so bad that she now expected pain. She greeted it without any fear, which made me sick.

There was no way she'd let me near her now, though. Not after seeing the fight.

She really didn't know what he was like, though. She didn't hear what he'd said about Mia that sparked the fight. I wasn't the guy who threw punches just because he wanted to. He threatened Mia.

I glanced at Mia's room as I headed to mine. Her door was closed like it always was, but she still wasn't home. She was still lying in a hospital bed. At least she was awake now. Mom was by her side 24/7, but Dad had gone back to work after she woke up. I guess even though he was the CEO of his company, he still couldn't afford to take a few days off for his own daughter.

Mia and I were twins, but we couldn't have been more different. I was focused on school and basketball while Mia was, well...failing. She was flunking out of school, but unlike Devyn, she didn't even care. Devyn was flunking because she didn't have anyone to help her, Mia was flunking because she just didn't care enough to try.

Our rooms were totally different. And not just the generic boy-girl difference. Mine was organized and neat. She had clothes strewn everywhere regardless of if they were dirty or clean. Her books were shoved in a box in her closet because apparently it wasn't cool for a girl in a gang to read. She now had secret hiding places for her heroin which I couldn't even find. I knew they were there, so I wasn't giving up, but it just felt so incredibly wrong to be there without her. I had to get her away from the gang, though. Hopefully her recent OD would be a wakeup call, but it was doubtful. Especially now that I knew Cole would make it his mission to make her untouchable.

He was the reason she was even in the hospital and he didn't even give a shit.

I shook my head and went into my room, throwing my backpack on my bed. I had so much homework it wasn't even funny, but the only two thoughts I had in my head were about Mia and Devyn. I didn't know how I would explain everything if Devyn wouldn't even come near me anymore. She had to know that I wasn't just ditching tutoring. She had to know that I wasn't that guy.

I just couldn't stand to leave Mia's side until she woke up. When she did, I went to the school to confront Cole about what he did, even though she told me to leave it alone. She almost died! How could she possibly expect me to just let it go?