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“I’m thinking you want to know why I’m hanging out with you, yeah?”
Averting his eyes, he nodded again.
“Right. I get that. You might be surprised, but you remind me a lot of me when I was your age. Different outside vibes, but very similar on the inside. I had a lot of friends, but I never felt like any of them knew me. My older brother couldn’t stand being around me, and my parents were too caught up in hating each other to give me the attention I’d been begging for.”
His eyes slid my way. “Did people give you shit at school?”
I shook my head. I really hated to admit this to him, but since we were doing the whole honesty thing, I went all in.
“I went the opposite direction and lashed out before anyone could come at me.”
His brow furrowed deeply. “You were a bully?”
“I didn’t think of myself as that back then, but yeah. For the most part, I did it to make people laugh. If they were laughing with me, they weren’t laughing at me, you know? I didn’t think about what I was doing or who I was hurting. I just didn’t want to be hurt anymore, and that was all I could do to protect myself.”
“That’s stupid,” he bit out.
“No kidding. You know who I was the worst to?”
He shook his head, his jaw rippling. He was pissed at me, and I deserved it.
“My sister-in-law—the woman my brother married. I was a little shit to her and got other people in on it. They took what I’d started and ran with it.”
His frown was deep and thoughtful. Like he was trying to figure it all out. “Weren’t you in their wedding? The best man or something?”
“I was. Elise forgave me. Weston too. I’ll never think I deserve it, but I’m glad they’re better people than me.”
He kicked another rock. “You think I should forgive the people who mess with me?”
“Are they sorry? Have they done anything to earn your forgiveness?”
“No,” he uttered.
“Then hell no.” Taking a chance, I reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “But don’t let those little shits change you. I see you, Reed. You’re cool, creative, and your family loves the hell out of you. High school is a blip—”
“My sister, Quinn, didn’t make it out of high school. People don’t think I hear things, but I do. Her accident, as they call it, wasn’t so accidental. The kids she hung out with, they kept daring her to do dangerous things, and she’d wanted to fit in so badly, she did them. The last one? They dared her to dive off this bridge. People jump off it sometimes, but only when the water’s high enough. It was too low when Quinny went over. I heard my parents talking. They don’t know if she jumped or was pushed. They’ll never know because those kids all had the same story—that it was Quinn’s idea.”
He scoffed, but it was thick, bitterness giving way to a wave of grief.
“Either way, high school killed her, right? All the pressure to fit in, the shitty people, false friends, it all came down on her and broke my sister’s neck.”
He fell down on his ass before I could grab him to stop it from happening. I flopped down in the dirt next to him and rested my hand on his back as he gulped heaving breaths.
“Breathe, Reed. Slow and steady, in and out.”
His anguish had knocked me sideways. I’d known about Quinn, but not the details. Not how she’d died. No wonder Daisy didn’t like talking about it, and given my history, why she’d been so wary of me. My guts churned with remorse for the careless way I’d tromped through my adolescence. My heart lurched for Reed, living in the shadow of his sister’s death, struggling to get through the same years she hadn’t.
And my Daisy…she loved her family fiercely. Losing Quinn must’ve broken parts of her.
Solomon edged closer to us. When he was in front of Reed, he dropped to his belly and rested his narrow head on Reed’s legs. Reed responded immediately, digging his fingers into Sol’s short fur and scratching him behind his ears. The dog’s tail was a metronome, ticking back and forth at a steady, even pace. Eventually, Reed’s rapid breathing slowed to line up with it.
“Good boy,” I murmured. “What a good dog you are, Sol.”
“I don’t know why I just dumped all that out,” Reed rasped.
“You needed to get it out. I’m glad you did.”
He slid a glance my way. “Would you have dared your sister-in-law to jump off a bridge?”
