Page 101 of Broken Pieces

“Whoa dude, calm down,” he says as he turns to me. “No fuckin’ way, Brooks Anderson. Didn’t know they let you out of prison.”

“I was never in prison,” I hiss.

“Didn’t you kill your girlfriend or something?”

If I was a cartoon character, smoke would be coming from my ears. “No, I didn’t.”

“But you are the reason she is dead, ain’t you?”

“No, I’m not,” I grit, my hands balling into fists.

He takes a sip of his beer. “Well, either way, they should have put you into jail after you caused my brother to end up in jail.”

I use every ounce of self-control I have to not knock his teeth out. “I had nothing to do with your brother going to jail.”

“Whatever, bro. Keep tellin’ yourself that. I can’t say I blame my brother though, looking at Rae now I would fuck her too.”

All restraint leaves my body as I pull my arm back and punch him in the face. Being the pussy that he is, he falls to the ground immediately and I take no time to drop on top of him and punch him a few more times. He gets one good punch in. Blood drips from my mouth as two sets of arms haul me off him.

“What the hell are you doing?” my brother says from the right side of me.

“Fuck man, someone is going to call the cops,” Mac says from my left side.

Someone I don’t know hauls Michael off the ground. Michael spits in my face. “I see how it is. You fuckin’ that piece of ass? Won’t be for long when you end up back in jail. Does she even know about your probation? Does she know you were the one that sold my brother those drugs he slipped in her drink?”

I go to tell him to fuck off when I see Rae over his shoulder. Her face ashen at the confession I never had the guts to tell her.

“What did you j-just say?” she stutters.

Michael turns around and smiles at her. “You mean he never told you?”

“Shut up, man,” I say as I try to get out of the hold of my brother and Mac. “Rae don’t listen to him. Please.” I realize I am begging and as her eyes spring with tears, I know there is no going back.

“Don’t listen to him? Man, you are more of a pansy than I remember,” he laughs as he wipes some of the blood off his face.

Rae ignores him as she walks up to me. “Is it true?”

I can’t stand the look on her face. I know her heart is breaking as she looks at me. The devastation in her eyes tells me everything. The ghosts slowly returning in them.

I can’t answer her. I can’t tell her the truth. I’ve wanted to for so long and I should have told her, but this moment was what I was scared of. I feared losing her.

But as I look into her eyes, without even speaking a word, I can tell I have already lost her.

She smacks me across the face, twice. I think she is done but her hands curl into fists and she starts punching me. “Fuck you! Fuck you, Brooks. I gave you my heart. I gave you everything.”

Easton pulls her away from me, the look in his eyes not self-righteous like I thought but more disappointment. It’s in this moment that I know he’s always known it was me that sold Derrick those drugs. And he has given me multiple times to admit my truth to Rae. And I failed.

“Fuck you, Brooks,” Rae wails. “I trusted you. I let you rebuild my heart and you fucking broke it into more pieces than it was when I met you.”

I try to say something, but words fail me. What is there to say?

I fucked up. I lost trust in the one person I wanted to give everything to.

I hang my head in shame as two cops walk into the bar. I barely even hear them as they read me my rights.

The cops cuff me and start to pull me away as I hear Rae say, “All you had to do was tell me. I would have forgiven you. You know that night ruined my life. It ruined Tyler’s life. It destroyed me. And if you can’t tell me the truth about the night that ended my life than how can I trust you in anything you say or do. I never want to see you again.”

I know I am in violation of my probation.

I know I am going to jail.

And none of it matters. Because as I risk one last glance at Rae, my heart shatters into a million pieces.

Because with that one look I know I will never get her back.

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