This stuff was confusing at times.
Rules were in place to keep things running smoothly, or that was what I had grown up believing. Only, now I could see that some rules were made to be broken.
“There were some things that went down while you were gone,” Chris told me after he had gone over everything. I blinked at him still trying to process it all. “Ky and I tried to shield you from it as best as we could, but it got really bad there for a while.”
“Have… have they killed people?” I asked.
Chris gave me a look that told me he wouldn’t ever say the answer out loud. Which told me all that I needed to know.
“Ky has…? Mouse has…?” My brows drew together as I realized what I’d probably known all along.
“To protect,” Chris said as his hand came to rest on my shoulder. “To save.”
I repeated his statements under my breath.
I nodded my head like I understood.
It wasn’t a false jester, I really did process it in a way that I understood the reasons behind it.
“Are things better for them now?” I asked after a moment of silence.
“For now, yes,” he answered which told me that at any moment things could change.
“It is a lot to take in,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“It is,” he agreed with me and then his arms were wrapping me up in a comforting hug. “But I think since you’re here now, you need to know. And I believe you can handle it. You’re not as fragile as you think you are, Ingram.”
His lips landed on my forehead right before he stepped away from me and went back to chopping.
I stood there, blindly stirring the pasta sauce as I mulled over his words in my head.
What I came to realize was that I was still thankful to have all of these people in my life. That despite all the things I’d just learned, I was still lucky and happy. I felt safe here and I think that what Chris told me only made that feeling grow stronger.
I did not regret even for a second coming back here.
This place was my home, even now that my eyes were opened all the way.
