Lori struggles with her feelings.
(01Dec07)

(Previous chapter: Changes)


Chapter 8:
Hurting

Lori's life was a nightmare!

Kyle, her mysterious adopted brother – or whatever he was – had upset everybody, and betrayed her by going off on some mercy mission to rescue Jessi, the runaway slugger-thief girl from Hell. Her mom had gone into worry-about-Kyle mode, which meant there was probably going to be no chance of a decent two-way conversation until Kyle came back. Her dad had given his creased brow a break from obsessing about espionage by Madacorp long enough to order in Chinese that nobody wanted, and her dumb-ass brother…she dropped it. For once, she cut Josh some slack from the family execution by judgment; he'd had enough on his plate to deal with since Andy had flipped her lid at the charity event and let on that she had cancer. Lori just wished that Josh didn't idolize Kyle so much. As for Declan, he was the worst.

Lying across her bed staring at the ceiling just wasn't satisfying enough, so she rolled onto her stomach and dug her nails into the furry hippo she had been cuddling. She looked down at it and suddenly it was Declan she was clawing at. She growled and wrestled with the purple toy before pressing her thumbnails into its eyes and throwing it as hard as she could across the room. Why was Kyle more important to Declan than she was? That same thought had been battering her all day since she'd realized Declan was in on something big that involved Kyle and that creepy guy, Tom Foss. It circled round and round her like a pack of wolves, and it made her blood boil. All this time! Hillary had made the understatement of the year when she said that the intensity of the Kyle/Declan relationship had gotten in the way of the Lori/Declan one.

Her anger turned to Kyle. Everybody always forgave 'poor Kyle' because he was 'special'. Could she? Lori wasn't sure at all. He had known all along why Declan was shutting her out and he hadn't said a word. He was supposed to be her brother! He should have helped her. Who would've thought that sweet, clueless, yet insanely clever, little Kyle was capable of keeping even bigger secrets and lying to everybody? Lori dreaded the thought of what those other things he had been keeping under his hat might be, considering how easily Kyle managed to get past people's defenses. And what did Jessi Hollander have to do with all this? A terrible thought crept into Lori's mind: could it be possible that one of Saint Kyle's secrets was that he had been cheating on Amanda? She recalled all those times after school when he would disappear for hours and never say where he'd been, or whom he'd been with.

Lori cringed at the memories of pouring her heart out to Kyle about her relationship troubles with Declan, and crying on his shoulder after Declan broke up with her. The 'sympathetic' looks Kyle gave her across the dinner table, the supposedly innocent questions. It brought a terrible bitter taste to her mouth just thinking about it. This whole time Kyle had known what Declan's problem was, because his problem was Kyle.

But for the life of her, Lori could not imagine what it was about Kyle that could make Declan McDonough so airtight for so long that not even a microbe could penetrate him. She felt her insides tense up with hot outrage for the millionth time that day and screamed inwardly that she hoped none of them would come back. Ever.

She hated them all.


(Next chapter: Burdens)