CHAPTER TEN

Leaving Silver and Blaze's house was an internal struggle, she really didn't want to leave and head back to her house with her house guests that seem to just keep coming and making her life more difficult and less quiet that she would like. She knew she should feel differently about her own family members, but a lot has happened in this family for her to not feel sentimental about them anymore. Now, she cares more for Benedict, but Lorenzo has a long way to go in her eyes.

They all do.

She walked up the stone pathway to her house, and she could see that the living room and kitchen lights were on but none of the lights upstairs were on, so her brothers would be waiting on her arrival. On remembering giving her car and house keys to Lorenzo, she knelt down and removed the spare key from inside a fake rock in from a rose bush beside the door.

Unlocking the door, she entered the house, closing and locking the door behind her. She would make sure to set a reminder on her phone to return the spare key into the faux rock the next morning.

Kiera heard two voices coming from the kitchen, she didn't need to take time to figure out who it was in her home. Something was definitely cooking by the smell of things. She took a moment to ready herself for incessant questions of where she's been and what she has been doing which is something she really didn't want right now or ever. She leaned down and unlaced her boots and placing them on the shoe rack, she removed her bomber jacket and put it with the others on the coat rack.

A voice called out to her. "Aren't you going to join us, lost girl?"

She blinked and then slowly made her way into the kitchen where she met Benedict and Lorenzo cooking up a storm. Her eyes caught what was on the stove, a stir fry of all things.

"Lost girl?" She asked, meeting Lorenzo's eyes then glancing over to Benedict.

He shrugged. "We watched Peter Pan."

Her eyes narrowed and said no more and moved over to the stove, looking over what he was cooking. She reached to stir whatever is in the pan and Lorenzo batted her hands away. "No, no, I'm cooking. No, backseat cooking."

Benedict side glanced at Kiera. "Is that even a thing?"

She deeply side and shook her head. "I don't even know anymore." Kiera walked away from the stove and sat down at the kitchen island with Benedict.

"Let's play twenty questions." Lorenzo announced while stirring away, making sure nothing is burned or burning.

She glared at him. "Let's not."

He ignored her. "Where did you go after you ditched me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?"

"Yes, Benny was worried."

Guilt trip. "I went to a friend's house, and that's all you need to know."

Lorenzo turned off the stove, raising an eyebrow at her. "You have friends?"

"Yes, surprisingly, I have friends."

Benedict realised that was not a fabricated lie to het Lorenzo off her back, she does have friends. One of his teachers told him so. "She does, he's one of my teachers."

He started plating the stir fry on three separate plates. "A he? Just a friend?"

"Oh my god, no. He's married with a pregnant wife who is also my friend." She groaned and turned away from him, removing herself from the island. He laughed as they took their plates to the dining room table.

They all sat down at the table and it was the pinnacle of an awkward family dinner without the whole family, which she prays to any and all of the gods that never ever happens. That's actual nightmares that she has.

Benedict needed to break this silence. "So, um, what are your plans for Lorenzo?"

Kiera took a bite of chicken before answering him. "I'm going to take him to Black Foot."

Lorenzo looked concerned. "That really sounds inviting."

"It's a gym."

"Oh."

A silence, again. "When are we going?"

A little payback for this morning. "In an hour."

"What? Are you kidding?" He leaned back in his chair, looking at her in disbelief.

She stared right back at him. "Does it look like I'm kidding?"

Benedict shook his head. She never looked like she was kidding, he was very glad he wasn't Lorenzo right now. "You're actually doing what mother and father are telling you to do?"

There was a devilish smile across her lips. "When it really annoys the hell out of you, I do."

"This is outrageous, what are actually going to do in the gym that I don't do already?" Lorenzo asked, crossing his arms over his chest with a smile on his face but that quickly dropped.

"Who said we'll be actually using the gym?"

He looked over at Benedict. "I always knew we had an evil sibling."

Shadow was in the kitchen, quickly throwing his house keys, wallet and file folder into his bag, he glanced over at the clock on the wall. He frowned, he was going to be late at this rate but he had one more thing to take care of. He zipped up his bag and grabbed his car keys before rushing up the stairs and to his step-sisters bedroom.

He knocked on the door before opening it, getting a loud reaction from her. "What the hell? What do you want?" She was on her canopy bed, laying on her stomach staring into her phone and still wearing the clothes she wore to school that day.

"I'm going to be working late tonight."

Rouge rolled her eyes, typing away on her phone. "I don't see why you bother since we're loaded."

"For one thing, 'we' are not loaded by any means. My father and your mother are loaded, everything you're surrounded by was paid for by them. As for why I bother having a job, I'd rather be doing something I actually enjoy with my life than sat on my arse all day taking selfies for Instagram and Snapchat." He smirked with pride from the look of shock and disgust on her face.

"Right, whatever."

He said one last thing before he left. "Behave."

"Fine! Go away!" She groaned as he left without shutting her door. Dropping her phone on her bed, she got off the bed and walked over to push the door closed. She rolled her eyes and returned to her bed.

Opening up the group chat to her friends, she asked them about the Sadie Hawkins dance.

Rouge: thoughts on the dance, ladies?

Amy: I'm definitely going, I don't know whether I'm going to ask anyone though.

Sally: I'm going to ask Sonic, what about you, girls?

Fiona: do you have to ask him if you're already dating him?

Mina: and you're taking a motorcycle dude, aren't you?

Fiona: um, what?

Rouge: Totally saw you making out with that guy with the leather jacket from the party, Fi.

Fiona: Shit, well, I might but I don't think he'll want to go to a high school dance.

Mina: Don't know until you ask, who are you taking, Rouge?

Rouge: can't be bothered with that, so I'll go with one of you girls.

Sally: sounds like a plan.

Fiona: isn't that kid that got suspended with you gonna be there?

Rouge: Maybe

Amy: are you gonna do anything?

Rouge read that message a few times over before considering the fallout that could happen, but she didn't care right now.

Rouge: any ideas?

Fiona: I might have some...

"Looks like someone knows their way around a boxing ring." Lorenzo commented at one end, leaning on the elastic ropes in the left corner.

Kiera's back was to him as she tightened the glove on her hand. "I suppose."

He titled his head looking at her quizzically. "How'd you find out about the boxing ring under the gym?"

"The guys running it weren't that smart when trying to hide it, a little observation and blackmail and here we are." Kiera turned to him, clad in black leggings and a sports bra, she motioned for him to come to her.

He pushed himself out the corner, dressed in grey and blue sports shorts, walking over to her. "Blackmail?"

She shrugged and hit him with a body shot to the ribs. He tried to hit her with the uppercut with she was fast on her feet. "Ten years." He said and a hit to her arm.

"Give or take." A shot to his shoulder.

They circled each other in the ring. "You wanna tell me why now?" Kiera knew what he was referring to, she didn't need to ask at all.

"Nope." She dodged him.

He groaned. "All of these secrets and no one to tell them to."

"They."

A hit.

"Wouldn't."

Another hit.

"Be."

An uppercut.

"Secrets."

A kick to the abdomen.

"If people knew about them."

He removed his head guard, staring at her. "Will you ever let me in?"

She removed hers and gave him the truth. "No."

His jaw clenched. "Will you let Benny in?" Kiera glared at him, turning away from him she started to remove her gloves. He practically ripped his off, and grabbed her arm so she would look at him dead in the eye.

He got a punch to the nose instead.

Benedict ran out of books to read in his room so he peered into Kiera's bedroom as her door was ajar, and if he didn't change anything that she would notice. No harm, no foul. He walked over to her bookshelves and went from shelf to shelf looking for an interesting book to read when his eyes caught a title of a novel.

Death is Not Enough.

He pulled it out and quickly skimmed through the pages when something fell out, he hoped it wasn't a bookmark.

His eyes narrowed at the object now on the ground, it was a polaroid photo. He kneeled down and picked it up. Flipping it over, he came face to face with a photo of Kiera and a guy that looked very couple-y. He read what was under the photo.

19th birthday.

That was two months before she left.

He quickly put the book back in itself place and hastily left the bedroom but with the polaroid still in his hand.

Kiera, what happened to you?