Confessions Of A Broken Rebel

Re-cap:"I'll stop it with Tyler if you want." I said. "No. Not if you're happy, then stay with him." I nodded. "I guess I'm not sure." Brady nodded. The time is coming to decide. But for now, I'm just glad this is settled. Now: I woke up to my alarm clock, showered, dressed, ate a bagel and sat on the couch. I had my journal in front of me and began to write. "The sun rises, The day fades, I stretch and awake, Rest my head and sleep. The day fades black, The sunset arises. A new beginning Of the end." I just write what I like, whatever comes to me. I thought about what happened last night. Brady really liked me. I just don't think I feel the same about him. He's so much like my brother now. I like Tyler, but if Brady is so unhappy, should I break up with him? Should I really just drop him because Brady is unhappy? What if Brady only wanted me to break up with Tyler so that we would have a chance? Frustrated, I threw my journal back in my room and followed Brady into the car. We didn't say anything, just listened to the radio and I whispered along to the songs that I knew. The silence was uncomfortable and I tried to not to really think in case I started thinking about the Tyler-Brady situation again. We arrived at school and I went to talk to Sabrina, Tyler and Hunter and Brady went to see his other friends. "How was your date, Angel?" Sabrina asked, nudging me. "How'd you know I had a date?" I asked, eying her curiously. "Brady told Heath who told Hunter who told Aly who told Connor who told me. Nothing is safe with our group." She winked at me. "It was good." I smiled half-heartedly. "Tell me about it!" I told her the very basics, leaving out the guy at the entrance and what happened with Brady. "Aw! It sounds like you had an awesome time!" She smiled and nudged me. "Yeah, I did." I smiled fakely and dropped it before she could notice. "So, when are you planning on going out again?" She asked. I shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe we can catch a movie or something later." She smiled and nodded. The bell rang and throughout the day, little voices fought back and forth in my mind. He's so jealous, it's annoying. You weren't even doing anything wrong! He's helped you through so much. He got in a fist fight for you. He's not even that cute. I mean sort of, I guess, if you like those kind of guys. He's just watching out for you. Who knows what could happen? At least he has your back! I groaned inwardly as I walked into photography. Tyler sat down next to me, fairly stern and stiff as he did so. "Are you okay?" I asked. He didn't look at me, he just made a little noise like, "mm," which I figured to be a not very truthful 'yeah'. "Why don't you tell me the truth?" I asked. He snorted and laughed sarcastically. "It's usually easier when people are honest to you. Why don't you tell me the truth?" He glared. That you are being a psychopath? Yes that's it, I am going to be honest about your mental handicaps. I thought to myself. I stared at him like he was insane, which, in fact, I thought he was. "Okay...you smell really good today. New cologne?" I asked. His glare got even colder if that was possible and I stared back at him. "You're burning a hole in my face, now what?" I asked. "Why did you lie to me and tell me that Brady was your brother. You said he looked like your mom and you looked like your dad." He spat. "It's true. I do look like my dad and he does look like our mom. His mom adopted me, it was in my parents' will." "You know what I meant!" He said. I could feel the hostility radiating from him. "What did you want me to tell you? That my dad was abusive and tried to kill me? On the phone I told you my dad died, not Brady's. It was all true." I tried to reason but I could see that he was still thoroughly unhappy with my explanation. "Why didn't you tell me the truth from the beginning?" He raised his voice a little but other people were also chatting loudly so he didn't really draw any attention. I dropped my voice. "What did you want me to do? Hey Tyler, nice to meet you. My dad's an abusive alcoholic and my mom died a few months ago so Brady's family adopted me. By the way, you wanna eat lunch with us?" I stared at him in disbelief. "Maybe not as bluntly as that but I certainly expected you to tell me at one point!" He snarled. "Well, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you my life story but if I'm correct, you haven't told me much about you either!" "Are you so suspicious of me that you want to make sure that I'm as perfect as you want me to be?!" "Tyler! Stop it! You know it's not like that! You tell me to be honest and open to you and I know nothing about your family, your old school, anything!" "I have a normal family! Is that what you want? I have a mom and a dad, I changed schools because my mom thought it would be better if I went here! That's all there is! What do you want me to say? Oh, feel sorry for me because I let my dad beat me up?" My jaw dropped and I stood there shocked. My body started shaking uncontrollably. I guess the anger I felt was like when you're little and have a favorite toy but you're friend gets mad and breaks it, just to hurt you. No matter, how sad you are, it won't ever work again. I didn't cry, as bad as it hurt; I didn't hit him, as much as I longed to. I just stared at him as his beautiful eyes widened and his jaw dropped like mine. I closed my mouth and glared at him. His jaw started to close and then opened at full length like he was trying to think of something to say. "Don't say anything." I turned and walked out of the classroom and then, I ran. I ran as fast as I could. I wasn't sure where I was headed, I just ran. I was going numb from runner's high and it felt so good. My breath was steady and it felt like I could run forever. I could only hear the leaves crunching under my shoes and the few cars that passed by me. I kept running but my breath began to shorten. My sides began to sear with pain so I ran to a nearby park and collapsed on a little green hill, on a pile of gold leaves. I lay there, panting. I tried everything to regain my breath and very slowly, it returned. "Are you okay?" I heard a vaguely familiar voice. I just laid there, not moving, not opening my eyes. "I'm good." I smiled. Brett chuckled and sat down next to me. "Don't you have school or something?" I asked him. "I didn't go, I skipped for today." I nodded. "And you?" "A demonic creature chased me out." I growled, finally looking at him, although my eyes stung as they met the cold. "Would that 'demonic creature' be the guy you were with while I was working?" Brett asked. "That'd be the one." He nodded. "You wanna talk about it over a coffee? It's a little cold out here." I nodded. "Alright." He walked in front of me and grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Thanks." I brushed off my jeans and followed him to a nice, fast-looking silver car. He walked to the passenger side and opened the door for me. "Thanks." I smiled and climbed in. As he turned on the car, rock played through the speakers and I whispered the words to All These Things I Hate by Bullet For My Valentine. He smiled at me and turned the music up a little bit. "I'm a Bullet man myself." I smiled back at him. We pulled up to a Starbucks and climbed out. We didn't have to wait in line, just walked straight to where a bored-looking young woman stood, perched on her elbows on the counter. "Can I please get a grande Vanilla Cappucino?" "Make that two please." Brett added. "Name please?" "Brett." "So, what's your name? I don't think I ever got it..." "Oh! My name's Keaira but my nickname's Angel." He nodded. "Keaira, that's a pretty name." I blushed a little. "Thank you." "So, now do you want to talk about it?" I didn't really understand what he meant, so I stared at him in confusion. Suddenly, I remembered about Tyler and I slowly began my story. "Well, basically I met him at school, and we had become friends because I showed him around-" "Two vanilla lattes for Brett." The woman called. "One second." He grabbed the drinks and two cover slips and handed one to me. "Thank you." "Welcome. Please continue." I smiled. "Well, I told him that Brady and I were siblings, which is true. Brady is my brother because I am adopted. My mother died a few months ago and my dad was an alcoholic." I took a small sip of my latte to help calm my nerves. "Was?" I played with the edge of my lid and didn't meet his gaze, just slowly nodded. "He was abusive and when Brady's mom, now my mom, and I went to take him to the rehab center, he beat me and the cop who was escorting me had to shoot him and he didn't make it." I stopped for a little while and slowly looked up to see his reaction. He looked like he was concentrating really hard on something. I shook my head. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have told you that. I really should go." I began to stand up but he grabbed my hand. "No! Please stay! I was just thinking about how strong you have to be to love your dad despite what he did to you. Please, sit." He tugged on my arm a little and I slowly sat back down. "Continue." He said reassuringly with a small smile. "It's okay, Keaira." "Well, Tyler found out that Brady wasn't really my brother and got mad that I hadn't told him. I got in a fight with him and..." I relayed the conversation to him. I stopped just before what Tyler said. "And then, after I had asked him about his background he said, 'I have a mom and a dad, I changed schools because my mom thought it would be better if I went here! That's all there is! What do you want me to say? Feel sorry for me because I let my dad beat me up?'" Brett's face got stone cold and his eyes went cold, his body rigid. "Maybe we should go for a visit." "No, look, it's okay. The only reason it hurt was because I thought I could trust him with that but I guess not." He grabbed my hand and gently pulled me up. "Come on." His grip tightened, but not to the point where it hurt, around my wrist, and pulled me to the car. "Just don't fight him, okay?" He smirked at me. "Brett, please." "Do you honestly think I'd get hurt?" He snorted. I looked at his strong, tough arms and I shook my head. "It's not you I'm worried about." "I won't hurt him, if that's what you want." I nodded and smiled. "Where's your school?" I gave him general directions and he sped off, following my directions. When we got to the school, the last bell had just rang and Tyler was walking out. Brett slid quickly into a parking space, perfectly between the lines and jumped out. I followed behind a bit more slowly. "Tyler!" Brett's deep voice caused him to jump slightly. Brett chuckled under his breath at his surprise. "I remember you. What do you want?" Tyler asked through clenched teeth. He looked at me, slightly behind Brett and to the side and his face dropped. "Let's get something straight. If you ever talk to her like that again, I will be after you. Yeah, that is a threat, and no, you don't want to know what I'll do about it. Keep your mouth shut and the only thing that better come out of your mouth is an apology." Tyler clamped his mouth shut and gave a small nod. Brady was just walking out of the school. "I'll be home a little late okay? Don't be worried." Brett grabbed my arm and lead me back to his car. "You want to go to my place?" He asked. I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, thanks. Thanks for everything." He gave my hand a quick squeeze and the once again, opened the car door for me. "And thanks again." I said just before he shut the door. Through the tinted window, I saw him smile.