Chapter Ten Taylor
Chapter Ten
Taylor
I saw them arrive. I saw them, but I wasn’t stupid enough to let them see me.
It hurt. It sure as fuck did. It hurt and made me angry. And the anger felt better than the hurt. I preferred the rage a thousand times more than that deep, awful pain that left me feeling shattered.
Kami’s betrayal was something I could never forgive, but my brother’s? That was worse. For me, our relationship was over.
I had no idea where they were coming from—a hotel? But one thing was obvious: They had spent the night together. And I couldn’t stop asking why. Didn’t Kami feel our connection when we were together? I always felt it when I was near her.
She turned toward her front door, but then she stopped and smiled at him one more time.
At him. At him, dammit.
I looked away from the window and finished getting dressed. I dreaded going to school, and I even thought about playing sick, staying home to avoid the situation. But exams had begun, and I had math that day, and I’d need to nail it if I wanted to get into my top picks for college.
I was pulling a Knicks sweatshirt over my head when my phone buzzed.
I had ignored Kami’s calls and messages, but then when she stopped, I was disappointed.
I wanted to hear from her own lips that she was sorry, that she’d made a mistake.
But of course, that didn’t happen. She’d just quit trying, and I’d sat there staring at the ceiling, trying to absorb the fact that my girlfriend was in love with my brother.
But now I saw her name on my screen again, and I wasn’t sure what to do.
I didn’t want to talk to her, I couldn’t, not after seeing her pull up on my brother’s bike. I read her text message:
I know I’m the last person you want to hear from right now, but please, please forgive me, and don’t hate Thiago. I love you, and I hope when you’re ready you’ll let me talk to you and explain everything.
What was there to explain? That she’d cheated on me? Fooled me? To hell with that! And as for not hating my brother, who was she to ask that of me? How could she dare get mixed up in my business?
I was pissed. Furious.
I grabbed the car keys and hurried downstairs, hoping to get out of the house without seeing my mother, but as I walked through the kitchen, there she was, and worse, so was Thiago. Mom could tell something was off when Thiago saw me and the atmosphere became so tense that it felt electric.
“I’m going to grab breakfast on the way,” I said, trying to get out the door.
“Why? What happened now?” my mother asked, looking back and forth between us.
“Taylor, we need to talk,” Thiago said.
“About what?” I asked, my hand on the doorknob. “About how you’re fucking my girlfriend?” My mother looked shocked. She scolded me for cursing, but I didn’t care. What really got to me was the look on Thiago’s face.
So I was right. They had done it. I didn’t need proof, I didn’t need him to admit it aloud. One look told me it was true.
“You fucker,” I hissed, scowling at him in a way I don’t think I ever had before.
“Taylor!” my mother shouted, angry and tense. I felt betrayed. I hated every cell in his body right then.
“You can’t talk that way in front of Mom,” Thiago said, standing. “Tell her you’re sorry.”
I laughed. “You honestly think you have the right to tell me what I can and can’t say after what you’ve done?”
“Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it in private, not in front of her,” he replied.
“Sorry, Mom,” I said, not feeling it in the least. My fists were clenched so tight I thought my nails would cut into my palms. “I’m sorry you raised a son who’s a lying, manipulative narcissist.”
“Thiago, what did you do?” my mother asked, looking him straight in the eyes as he glared at me.
“Is that what you really think?” Thiago said.
I didn’t hesitate: “Yes, I think that, because it’s the truth. You think everyone and everything revolves around you. Kami was my girlfriend, and you had no right to come between us.”
“Let me tell you one thing, Taylor,” he fired back, maintaining his composure, as he always did in these moments—that was something that drove me crazy about him.
“I’m sorry for what happened with Kam, and I never wanted things to go this far.
I tried to stay away. But we can’t control who we love.
And I’ve loved her since I was ten years old. ”
“She was mine,” I shouted, clenching my jaw. Then his face transformed, and he reached up and grabbed the collar of my shirt.
“She belongs to no one.”
I pushed him backward. “Don’t you dare put your hands on me.”
“Or what?”
“Enough!” my mother shouted. “You’re brothers! You can’t let a girl come between you; family’s more important than that…”
“Oh, please. Don’t come at me talking about family…” I responded.
“Mom’s right,” Thiago said. “I didn’t make all these sacrifices so we could end up like this.” He ran his hands down his face.
“You and your fucking sacrifices… You’re not the only one who’s had to make sacrifices, Thiago!” I shouted.
“Everything I’ve ever done, I did so you and Mom wouldn’t want for anything,” he said, looking wounded.
All I saw was hostility, lies, and more lies.
I was blind with rage, and I couldn’t see the truth in any of what he was saying.
“I gave up everything so you could go to a good school and be captain of the basketball team; I coached you so you could make it to the finals…”
“Excuse me,” I intervened, “but I’m the one who’s spent hours bent over the books studying and even more hours at the gym. You didn’t do anything for me. I did it all myself.”
“If it wasn’t for Mom and me, you would’ve had to drop out of school and work,” he said.
“Are you going to hold that against me? Dad offered us child support! You’re the one who turned it down! You’re the one who said we didn’t need it!”
“You want his fucking blood money?” he asked.
“Thiago!” Mom and I shouted at the same time.
I continued: “He didn’t kill her! He may have been a cheating bastard, he may have been an asshole, but he didn’t kill her, dammit! It was an accident!”
My brother transformed. That was no surprise. The subject of our sister was off-limits. The mere mention of her was enough for my mother to bury her face in her hands and burst into tears.
“His mistakes are what killed her, and for me, that makes him a murderer, a murderer who ruined my life and took away all my opportunities—like the ones you have right now,” Thiago said.
“You’re not the only one who lost a sister and a father, Thiago.
You keep talking about my opportunities.
Well, I fought for them! You picked the easy path, and look how it turned out!
And now you’re so jealous of me that you couldn’t help but steal the girl I love right out from under me!
Well, go on! Go live your life and leave everyone else in peace! ”
Thiago went quiet and looked at me—long enough that I couldn’t tell if it was minutes or hours. Then he turned to Mom, who was sitting in a chair, crying.
She’d never seen us argue like that before. What was happening to us?
“Taylor, I never intended to take anything from you,” Thiago said softly.
He looked tired now, and much older than he really was, and a tiny part of me, deep inside, felt sorry for him.
“If this is what you really think, then it means I didn’t do as good a job as I thought.
And if you ask me to stop seeing her, then I will.
You’re my brother, and I love you. I lost a sister, I’m not going to lose you, too.
But I love her. I’m in love with her. Do you really want me to stay away? ”
He had looked me in the eyes, wanting me to see that he was sincere. I didn’t need to think it over. “Yeah. I want you to stay away from her. And from me. Forever.”