"My brother Michael was 2 years older than me. He was my idol. I looked up to him all the time, and he was my best friend. We would get into fights, but nothing major, because we could never stay mad at each other for that long.
And my family, was actually normal. My dad was a business man, and my mom worked from home. Mike was on the football team, and I never really did sports. He was well known at school too, and everyone loved him.
One night in December, everyone was busy, and it was just Mike and I at home. We were watching a movie, and I was bored so I suggested going for a drive. So we were going to get ice cream. We were stopped at the light, and the truck next to us revved him engine.
Mike and I knew them from school, and he probably didn't want to look like a loser, so he revved his engine back. They both gripped the steering wheel and were ready to race. The light turned green, and we were the first car to move. Mike sped down the street, and hit a patch of black ice."
I looked down at my hands, and then up at Jace. He wasn't looking at me, but at the picture. I'm knew he wouldn't look at me either. He just kept looking at the picture, as if he could see it happening infront of his very eyes.
"Our car went out of control and we hit a telephone pole. His head hit the steering wheel, and mine hit the dashboard. I woke up 2 weeks later out of a coma, and found out Mike was in a coma too. Only part was he had much more complications than me. Since he hit the steering wheel so hard, he had brain damage, and the doctors said he might never wake up.
A week later, they pronounced him brain dead. We were devastated, and the worst part was, they were trying to save Mike first, but they picked me because I was younger...and had a better chance of surviving. They knew I would live, and he might not, so they didn't even try.
When my parents found this out they blamed his death on me. This was the beginning of their drinking, and slowly it got worse. Dad lost his job, and my mom quit hers soon after. It was like they both gave up on life. They started getting violent, and that was when I spent most of my time at Heather's house. It's never been the same since."
I finished my story and wiped away the tears that were on my cheeks. I looked over at Jace once last time, and our eyes connected. It stayed like that for a while, and then he finally spoke.
"You do know, it wasn't your fault."
I looked at the picture and back up at him, and slowly I started to break down, I put my head in my hands, and Jace wrapped his arms around me, holding me. I physically knew it wasn't my fault, but deep down inside there was part of me that knew, I was always to blame. We stayed like this for a while until iI eventually pulled away.
"Stuff like that happen, Montgomery. It hurts alot, but he is in a better place right now, and I'm sure he wouldn't want to see you like this. It wasn't your fault." He said still holding me. We stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until I was done crying.
"Thanks," I muttered, wiping the rest of my tears, "I really needed that."
"No problem." He said taking a piece of my hair that fell while I was telling the story, and pushed it behind my ear. He left his hand there, and just held my face. Before I could say anything the door flew open, and revealed a flustered Heather.
"I didn't mean to break up a moment, but your mom is home..."
