23

Mom and I are just finishing dinner when Emmett arrives home, sticking his head around the dining room door.

"Oh, man, that smells good. I'm freaking starving."

"Yours is in the oven, honey," Mom tells him with a maternal smile as he disappears again. I wonder what she'd say if she knew what half the town were saying about her golden boy and Izzy Swan.

"I'll take these," I say, standing and gathering our empty plates as she thanks me.

Emmett turns as I walk into the kitchen, kicking the door closed behind me.

"Hey, good day?" he asks, lifting his dinner from the oven, setting it down on the counter and pulling the oven gloves off.

"Not really."

He frowns.

"Everything okay?"

This is it. My palms grow moist with sweat and my heart is beating fit to burst from my chest. The amount of adrenaline coursing through me is making me nauseous.

"Mom got called into school and I was nearly suspended for fighting with Jasper Whitlock."

He whirls around and glares at me.

"What the fuck, Edward?" he growls.

"I kind of lost it when he told me Izzy fucked my brother."

It feels as though time pauses, just for a moment. We stare at one another and I pray he'll deny it; convince me Whitlock and every other asshole in town who have retold the story, are lying.

He shrinks away and leans back against the counter and still I wait for him to speak.

"I didn't …" he begins. A flutter of hope begins to unfurl in my chest. "I didn't mean for it to happen."

And just like that every shred of hope that I actually knew my brother better than everyone else, vanished.

"Motherfucker."

I fly across the room, barrlling into him, sending the dinner pots crashing to the floor in the process. He doesn't fight back as he loses his footing on the broken crockery, sliding to the ground and curling up to protect himself as best he can from the blows I rain down on him.

"What the hell is going on in here? Edward!" I feel my mother's hands grasp my shoulders and pull at me. "Edward! Get off him, now!"

The mist dissipates and enough of the fight leaves me to let myself be tugged backward, landing in a heap on the floor. I scramble to my feet and stand, breathless as my mom looks at me with an air of incredulity.

"What the hell was that all about?"

My shoulders sag. I'm exhausted. I make for the door.

"Edward!" She's mad now. I couldn't care less.

"Ask him. I'm done."

~S~