ROMEO

11

E.V.A.

I sit, tapping my pen again, wondering how to ask a question I have no business asking. I mean, Romeo didn't owe me anything.

But I cant stop myself.

I was pulled into a whirlwind of lies by my ex Calvin. He cheated, he lied, he ruined. At first he was nice, but they all are.

I don't want to take anymore chances.

I force myself to sit up, swallowing down the nerves.

"You OK?" He asks, looking at me.

"Yeah, I just need to ask you something?"

He nods, writing some notes on a sheet of paper.

"Did you hurt Amber? She said you got violent and tossed her outside."

He stops writing. "Excuse me?"

My heart stops.

Fuck.

He looks at me, eyes hard and I realize I've crossed a line.

"Amber," He spits, "did cocaine in my house. The same shit the driver, who killed my brother, took. So yes, I tossed her outside. I'd do it again."

I immediately overcome with grief.

Something about what he says, rings a bell. I can't place it.

Something about his brother.

I start to miss my brother.

My brother.

"You shouldn't listen to rumors. They rot your brain."

"I'm sorry, I lost my brother too," I say, tears welling. I blink fast to stop them from falling.

"Fuck," I watch him clench his jaw, on the verge of tears.

I reach out.

He flinches.

"You don't have the right," He says, eyes glossy with unshed tears, picking up his stuff and walking to another empty seat.

Away from me.

Amber and Hannah lied to me.

Why would they lie?

I'd be just as mad as Romeo was if I caught someone doing the same thing that got my brother killed.

I was just as mad.

I was worse.

Then it hits me.

I remember.

It was September, 2010.

My brother was already gone. So was my dad.

I lay on my fluffy pink cover and watched TV. My mom was out, probably visiting that awful man.

Why she loved him, I didn't know.

A breaking news alert interrupted my cartoons.

A woman appeared, standing outside of my dads neighborhood. She was just a couple blocks away and I was never allowed to go over there. Maybe this was why.

"Tom, it is a sad day for the Emerson's. Their thirteen year old son, Rafael Emerson, was just pronounced dead this morning," She says, shaking her head.

I sat up, clutching my pillow for support.

The woman spoke again. "The hit and run that hospitalized Blair Bradford, has taken the eldest of the Emerson's children. People across the nation, hoped that he would pull through. Romeo and Natalia, the younger twins, are devastated by this news according to a statement made by their father."