Page 14 of A Brother's Secret
The older kid and his parents showed up at my house; we hadn’t told Kyle’s parents I’d stabbed the kid. I thought for sure my dad was going to beat the shit out of me for stabbing the little prick. I hadn’t told him at all what’d happened in the woods. The parents handed him the pocket knife he’d given me for my tenth birthday and he stared at it in his hand for a longtime.
He’d surprised me. He stood up to them. Stared that kid’s parent’s right in the face and praised me for defending myself and told them to get off our front step. I’d been elated for all of five minutes. I’d finally done something right… until I hadn’t. Once they were gone he’d taken a belt to my ass for leaving the knife behind. Drilled into me that you never, ever, left anything behind.
Then he’d hugged me, soothed away my tears and took a look at my back and asked me brokenly why I hadn’t toldhim…
I was scared…I’d said and he’d looked startled and for a while, he quit drinking and things were better. For a while…
“Dad beat my ass after those people left,” I said finally and Kyle looked over at me sharply.
“I thought you said you hadn’t gotten in trouble for stabbing that fuckwit.”
“I didn’t,” I confessed. “I got in trouble for leaving the knife, for leaving evidence, behind…”
“Shit,” he said and I could tell he’d had no idea. His face contorting, warm brown eyes roving over my face as the doors slid open to the second elevator, spilling us out onto the level of the parking garage that held hisbike.
Kyle hadn’t gotten in trouble for anything. He’d told his parents everything, including me using my knife to defend us from the older boy who must have been fifteen or sixteen. They’d left it up to me to tell my father and I told them I had. My dad had never contradictedthat.
“Why did you bring that up?” I demanded once again.
“Because I wanted you to remember that you were a badass from an early age. That, and I remember – get you fixated on something and you’ve got a one-track mind. You did great. Now get on and let’s get out ofhere.”
I scowled deeply at him and felt a sudden spurt of anger. “Don’t manipulate me like that. I fucking hate being manipulated,” I spat. He carefully considered myface.
“Duly noted,” he said softly and the apology was carried in histone.
I got on behind him but would be staying pissed for a while.
