Chapter 11

The call to William was the most surreal experience of Mara's life and it was much confusing too. At first he didn't understand why she was calling him, she was supposed to be in her room... right? And then she had to explain what happened, while trying to leave out the part where she was on a date with Christoffer. News like this are not to be announced on the phone. She remained concise and to the point then hung up, and together, Chris and Mara made their way to his car.

"What did he say?" Chris questioned when they reached the car at length.

"Nothing at all, I didn't give him the time to," Mara said sternly. "It's going to be a long night."

"Already is," Chris said with a wince. "He's going to flip."

It would have been superficial to add anything to this. Those were tensed minutes until William's arrival. They both knew they couldn't hide anymore and they wondered what fresh hell awaited them once William realised they have been lying to his face for months. When Will's car parked next to Chris', they were sitting on the back seat, Mara cradling Chris' face while her hands brushed back his hair and her heart hammered in her chest, both from the adrenaline and the anticipation of her brother's reaction.

"The fuck's going on?"

They heard William before even seeing him, but neither of them batted a lash. Just a few more seconds...

"Mara?!" William opened the back door and froze. "Mara? Are you al right? Chris, what happened?"

His worry seemed to be blinding him to the scene unfolding before his eyes, but soon, his eyes settled on them and Mara witnessed the very moment he understood the situation.

000

It's been over an hour now. An hour since they were back at the apartment, and even Mara's half-hour shower couldn't drown out the shouts coming from the living room. William had been steaming off on Chris, who took every verbal strike in silence – or sullen dignity, whatever you want to call it. She knew it was unlike Chris to remain quiet and soon his hot blood would make him say something he doesn't mean.

Mara would go mad if she listened to this for one more minute. With half dried hair, a bruised face and knees and frenzied eyes she burst out of her room.

"For heaven's sake! Shut up! Do you hear me?! Shut up!"

William paused in the middle of a sentence and both boys stared at her in a sort of awed respect and confusion. After cleaning him up, it turned out Chris' injuries weren't as severe as all the blood might have led her to think, and he was only a little stunned by the punches. More fear than casualty, but still, he was in bad shape, and for that alone Mara was mad at William who shouldn't be yelling at him.

"What is wrong with you?!" She shouted to William. "We were just attacked, and all you find to do is to yell at your best friend! You need to sort out your fucking priorities!" She spat out angrily, storming past him and toward Chris.

"Look at him, William!" Mara ordered her brother, gesturing to Chris. "I said look at him goddammit! Look what they've done to him!"

"I can see it Mara!" William yelled back.

"Then why be so hard on him?!"

"Mara, it's fine, really..." Chris said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

For a second, she detached her eyes from William and looked at her boyfriend. Her battered boyfriend who took in so many punches tonight and still did. Her right hand instinctively covered Chris' but she focused back on William.

"So hard? So hard?" William laughed in a cruel way. "You two have been fucking me over for hell knows how long and you think I should settle down just because he took a few punches?!"

"We haven't been fucking you over!" Chris suddenly stepped in.

Apparently as long as William only targeted him he was fine with it, but if he started to attack their relationship he couldn't stay still anymore.

"We knew you'd react like this, so we kept quiet, can you blame us?!" Mara continued, stepping closer to Chris.

"I forbid you-" William started when he saw the two of them stand together. "-you don't touch her," he directed that threatening sentence to Chris.

"That's not up to you anymore," Chris said in calm and collected voice which impressed Mara.

"And you-" this time he turned to Mara. "Last month, when you asked me about why I don't let any of my friends date you... It for about him? Were you already screwing my best friend behind my back? And you just lied to my face when I asked you if you liked him?"

Mara could feel Chris' eyes on her – she had never told him about this conversation.

"What else was I supposed to do? You were going on and on about how your friends weren't good enough for me and you still expected me to answer honestly when you asked me if I was into one of them?" She asked with a frown on her face.

William was too wrapped up in his own anger to recognized the validity of her argument.

"Do you think Chris is not good enough for me?" She kept asking questions her brother couldn't answer, because his reason told him she was right and his stubbornness refused to admit it.

"Wait, wait wait," Chris cut them off. "You've been going around telling Mara we weren't good enough for her? Just like that?"

A long silence answered his question and that was as good as a confession.

"I can't believe it!" Chris said, between laughter and disbelief. "It's because of me, right? It's because I told you I liked her that you made up that rule about no one dating her." He rubbed his face with both hands as though it would help him sort out his thoughts.

"What? What are you saying?" Mara looked at Chris for an explanation.

"When I was in first year I admitted I found you pretty, and that's when William came up with his stupid rule!" He said. "It was just a thought man!" Chris stared at William, now just as angry as him. "I didn't plan on swooping her off her feet and running away with her, for fuck's sake!"

"And what do you call seeing her behind my back, then?" Will barked back.

"That's not the point, Will!" Mara reclaimed his attention and stepped between the two boys when she saw them step forward. "You don't have a saying in who I date! And I don't even see why you're against it! Chris is your best friend! He just got beat up while trying to protect me from the Yakuza, because they wanted revenge after you hit them with a fucking bottle."

She whipped her head around to look at Chris and he gave her a small smile.

"If that's not good enough for you, then maybe you should re-evaluate your standards," she finished, glaring daggers at her fuming brother.

"Protecting you?! Yeah, let's talk about how good a job he did at that. Have you seen yourself in a mirror?"

Indeed she had, and she didn't expect any less than what she saw. There was a gash across her left cheek, from the slap the guy gave her – he must have been wearing a ring. And blood was all over her mouth and chin from the nosebleed caused by the second punch, this time right in the nose. Maybe she would get a black eye tomorrow. And her knees were scraped open from when she dived forward to prevent Chris from hitting the ground.

"And so what? Do you have any idea what they planned to do to me? It could have been a thousand times worse if Chris hadn't been there or if I didn't remember what you taught me to defend myself!"

"He's right, Mara," Chris sighed from behind her. "You got hurt an-"

"No he's not! William, you've always been the more reasonable of us three, now is not the time to be a hot head and refuse to admit that you were wrong! Chris and I are together, whether you like it or not. And you should be grateful he was with me tonight. God knows what would have happened if the Yakuza jumped either of us on our own. Instead of yelling at us like you're doing right now, you might be at the hospital, waiting for your sister or your best friend to wake up after being assaulted."

"And that's supposed to make me change my mind about you two? You still lied to me, you lied for-"

"Four months," Chris finished for him. It was why they were doing all of this. They needed to come clean to him. "We've been together for four months."

"Fourth months!" William repeated while running a hand through his hair and looking away in utter disbelief. "And I should just shrug it off and wish you the best? He didn't even do a good job at protecting you tonight and you think I'll just give him a pat on the back and let him fuck my little sister?"

"Don't be so fucking rude and condescending!" Mara pushed William back and the stumbled back a couple steps.

"Mara!" Chris tried to calm her down. "This is not the solution. He'll come around..."

"I think I told you not to touch her!" Will suddenly burst out and shoved Mara aside to directly confront Chris. "You keep your hands off of her, or I swear the Yakuza won't be the only ones responsible for your injuries today."

"Fuck off, Will!" Chris replied in a challenging tone. There was a time for being docile and quiet and another for standing up for yourself. Although William was a bit taller than Chris, he didn't lack presence or pride and rose up his chin in defiance. "If you don't accept this, you lose us both. Is that what you want? Because I'm not letting her slip through my fingers again. I already renounced to her once, out of respect for you, but if you have so little consideration for me as to tell Mara I'm not good enough, then maybe I took the wrong decision back then. Maybe you're not worth scarifying my relationship with my girlfriend for your pretty eyes."

"You speak of respect? Is it respect to use my sister to fulfil your needs and never take her out under the pretence of keeping your relationship a secret from me?" Will asked, stepping even closer, in such a way that he was looking down on Chris.

"Will," Mara called him and the boys looked at her, stopping their pissing contest. She wanted to tell him it was her who initiated it. Not Chris. She ran after him, and he refused at first, because he didn't want her to be his dirty little secret. But she was absolutely furious and out of her mind that her own brother would be so selfish as to not even ask her how she felt – not once during this whole conversation. Not one "Are you okay, sis? Did they touch you? Why did you hide this from me? Do you have feelings for Chris?" No everything was about William Fucking Magnusson, and all the others could go suck a dick. So she said, "you're wrong, on every account."

She expected him to start yelling again but he just huffed and turned around, a bitter smile on his lips and a tired glimmer in his eyes.

"Get out."

"What?" Mara and Chris asked at the same time. This seemed to set afire something within William.

"Get out! Get out of my fucking apartment!"

It was obviously directed at Chris. William was now facing away from them both, and while Chris silently asked Mara if she would be fine if he left now, she mimicked the gesture to knock, and he nodded before leaving. When the front door shut, Mara stormed back into her room to gather a few items of clothes. She carried her school bag on one shoulder, and her other bag on the other, and without saying anything, she left through the window, after leaving her phone on her desk next to a note that said 'you know where I am'. And she climbed down the fire escape stairway, joining Chris at the bottom of them for the second time tonight.

She knocked on the window and climbed into the car.

"You were right about the secret code, it came in handy after all," was the first thing she said.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay? He'll probably calm down."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I need to calm down too before I speak to him again. Besides, I told you: I'm staying with you," Mara assured him, placing a hand on his high.

If someone saw them right now they would laugh or be shocked upon seeing their bruised faces, they looked utterly wretched, but they still believed they didn't do so bad today. They had their first date, which ended rather abruptly but still had a marvellous beginning. They survived an assault and kicked some ass together. And most of all, they needn't hide anymore now.

"We deserve a good night rest I think," Mara sighed in a faint laugh. "A twenty-four hours nap."

"At the very least," Chris agreed and started the car, leaving behind them the remnants of these dreadful last couple hours. "Don't worry," Chris added when he saw Mara close her eyes just for a second. "He'll wrap his head around it, he just needs time, William's always been a thick head."

"But he's never been mean..." She replied. "I just- I don't want to think about it anymore, he's behaved like an ass, and he's earned his loneliness tonight."

"Fucking William," Chris grumbled. "I honestly didn't expect him to yell at you."

"You're not supposed to take all the knocks for me," she told him. "I'm as guilty as you."

"But he was right about me not protecting you the way I should have."

"This is not a dumb fairytale, I'm not a damsel in distress and you're not a dragon slayer! We beat the Yakuza together, and we told Will the truth together, and now, well, he'll just have to accept that we're a package deal."

"A package deal?" He asked in a low chuckle. "I like the sound of that."

His infamous smirk was back, although it was tainted of black and blue and it evidently hurt to do so. In a gesture that was both swift and done with an ease that could only be acquired with practice, he slipped a hand on her knee and there he held her during the entire car ride to his house.

"Hey Chris?" Mara called him after several minutes of comfortable silence.

His eyes drifted from the road to look at her briefly, showing her that she had his full attention.

"I had a really good time today."

Then she shot him the brightest of smiles and they laughed together.