SOLACE

four

       I hurried to get home and I immediately saw Kai standing in front of the refrigerator grabbing a drink. When he turned to me, I saw the bruise in his jaw. 

"You have a lot of shit to explain, Kai. Have you received my message?" I say while I cross my arms in front of him. I guess mom is still not around.

"Do I have to?" Kai says as he puts down his drink on the counter with his eyebrow arched.

"First, you kiss my friend? You told me she left with someone! You didn't tell me it was you." I was practically shouting but I couldn't stress enough the things that I've been hearing today. 

"Now you even have a bruise on your jaw because of Eli. What was that for?" I raised my eyebrow at him while he just stared at me.

"Well, I didn't mind your business with Dacre. Why should you mind mine? You should see Eli's face which is far worse. If you even care." He smirked and took another sip to his drink and before he could leave, I stopped him.

"Why did you and Eli fight? I know you guys haven't even met yet." I calmly asked and I looked hard into his eyes waiting for his answer. 

"I think I know enough to get to bust his stupid face. I can't believe how you even endured that for two years." He said with his voice trying to be calm but I know he's annoyed already.

"What is the reason, Kai? Why won't you just tell me?" I say to him practically begging already just to know the reason. He was silent for a moment before exhaling loudly and scrubbing his face in frustration.

"Do you really wanna hear the reason, Adeline? He was fucking talking shit about you. He kept on talking about how you're just one of the girls he has fucked that's not even good. I guess everyone not knowing you're my sister has its perks, huh?" He says and I just stare at him, not knowing what to say. 

Eli was the one to break-up with me and now he says shit like this? He doesn't have the right to objectify me.

"I fucking busted his face before he could say another word. I was not going to let him say another word about you. Not like that, Adeline." He lowers his face to level with me. 

Kai and I are not this close even though he's technically my brother. Half-brother. We just didn't have the chance to open to each other and now I'm hearing that he got into a fight because of me.

I immediately hugged him without hesitating and tears just started to fall down my eyes. I cried silently at him before I slowly felt him hug back and comfort me. I backed away before it gets awkward and I wiped the tears off my face.

"I'm sorry. You really didn't have to do that, Kai. I want you to graduate this year. Please avoid this fights for a while even if it happens again and now they're probably gonna ask why you punched Eli." I say to him who had his eyebrows furrowed, he's obviously still frustrated about Eli.

"You don't have to worry about me. We should just go back to pretending we don't know each other." He says coldly. I looked at him with sad eyes. It hurts.