Page 33 of The Psychopaths

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I feel like there’s something different about you,” Lee confesses, leaning against the doorframe as I rummaging through the drawers.

Different is an understatement. If only you knew the truth. I grunt noncommittally, and focus on maintaining Aries’s precise movements while packing. My brother folds everything perfectly, even when in a rush. One of his many irritating habits that I’ve had to adopt.

“Is something going on that I don’t know about?” Lee asks.

“No.” The response is sharper than Aries would say it. I catch myself and soften my tone. “Nothing going on. I’m just...rearranging priorities. Trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.”

Lee’s concern is worn proudly, and it makes my skin itch. No one’s worried about me like this since...well, since before the boathouse. Before Aries proved loyalty to your family meant nothing. I disappear inside the closet, grab a duffel bag and return to the bed. Then I start filling it with the essentials. Aries’s belongings mean shit to me, but I can’t blow my cover, not yet. I can sense Lee watching my every move. He’s more intuitive than people give him credit for.

When I glance back at the desk, my eyes catch on something—a photograph tucked into the drawer. I reach over and pull it out. My eyes scan the picture. It’s Lilian at some charity event, looking directly at the camera with those perceptive blue eyes.

The perfect daughter.Innocent and fragile.A delicate flower that I intend to rip out of the fucking ground. Rage simmers just beneath the surface, and I barely contain it, my fingers tightening on the edge of the photo. He got everything while I rotted in that place. I grit my teeth and toss the photo in the bag.

I snatch the shoebox out of the closet, and dump the contents in the bag. Paper crinkling makes me pause, and I risk a glanceat Lee, but he’s not watching my packing anymore. Newspaper clippings. It headlines about thetragic accidentthat took place at the Hayes family boathouse.

I skim the carefully crafted story they wrote about me, a troubled teen who was sent away for mental health treatment. How could they so easily reduce my life to carefully worded lies? I shove them into my pocket.

“Look, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I know there’s something going on. Maybe you’re afraid to tell me or aren’t ready to talk about it. I don’t fucking know. What I do know is that you’re lying to me, and I don’t like it.” Lee pushes off the doorframe, moving closer. “First you ghost everyone, then you stop answering calls and text messages. I mean, you can’t even bother to hang out with me anymore, and now you’re just what? Leaving?”

If he knew that I was only playing the role of best friend, while his real best friend is stowed away in a call at the warehouse, would he be pushing so hard to befriend me?

“I won’t lie, it feels like I don’t even know you anymore.”

That’s because you never did.

“Maybe I’m finally choosing to grow up?” I continue packing, adding some of Aries’s designer clothes to maintain appearances. “I’m not leaving. I’m just taking a break from campus life. We can’t live at The Mill forever. Plus I need to focus my attention on the family business.”

“That’s bullshit.” I pause at the venom coating Lee’s words. “It’s well-known that you hate the family business. For fuck’s sakes, you spent all last semester talking about your plans to break away from it, and how you plan to get out from underneath your father’s thumb.”

He’s right—according to my research, Aries had been planning to reject Father’s company position. Another way my twin tried to distance himself from our family’s sins.

Stupidly, I find myself wanting to explain, to tell Lee the truth. Not because it would hurt Aries—though it would—but because a small part of me craves being honest with the first person who’s shown me real friendship.

It’s a fleeting thought. No point in explaining myself and putting the plan further at risk. It’s bad enough with Lilian knowing what she knows.

Gritting my teeth, I zip the bag closed and turn to him, forcing a smile onto my face that doesn’t feel even a little real. “Weren’t you the one to tell me that people change? Maybe I have too? Maybe this is me trying something new, trying to change.”

“Yeah,” Lee says quietly, “people change, but this isn’t you changing. I know it. You’re my best friend. This feels like…you’re surrendering. Like you’re giving up.”

The newspaper clippings crackle in my pocket as I move around the room. Ten years of carefully constructed lies printed in black and white.

Local Teen Hospitalized After Boating Accident.They didn’t even use my name—justthe Hayes youth. It’s almost like I was already being erased.Fuck them. All of them.I remember that day with perfect clarity, and I guess most people would.The day their life ended.The flare gun in Aries’s hand. The look of panic on his face when it went wrong. The split-second decision I made to step forward and take the blame. Not out of brotherhood or love, but because I thought it would finally make themseeme.Acknowledge me.

Instead, they saw an opportunity to solve theirproblem childsituation permanently. I’d spent so long trying to be seen, trying to get them to understand me that I never realized how much space they had put between Aries and me. They were preparing him to be the golden child long before they removed me from the picture.

“I’m here for you, man. You’re my best friend.” Lee’s voice slices through the memories, pulling me back to the present.

“You can be my best friend and allow me to live my life. I’m not giving up. I’m exploring my options.”

“Your options?” Lee’s voice carries a note of apprehension with it.Have I blown my cover already?“Do you hear yourself right now? Working for your father was never an option, Aries.”

“Everything is an option. I was just trying to decide.”

Lee shakes his head, but hope shines in his eyes. “Is this about Lilian? I saw you two at the party together. She was here last night.”

The blood in my veins turns to ice, while I try to keep my voice nonchalant. “What about her?”

Lee shifts uncomfortably. “Are we still playing this game? Really? After all this time? I’ve seen how you look at her. The way you danced with her. Word spreads like a wildfire around here.”Fuck.My performance as Aries at the party drew more attention than I intended.

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