Page 39 of East (The Moral Compass 3)

Chapter 16

Zed

IcanhearEastyelling at North, but before I get to the door, the nurse has intervened, and North is leaving.

“You absolute bastard!” he yells.

“You’re the fucking bastard. Your sister’s in intensive care, and you’re making her yell at you?” I scream back.

“Stop it, the pair of you, or you’re going to be—”

Kara doesn’t get a chance to finish her sentence as North barrels toward me, pushing me backward.

“I am going to fucking kill you, and then West is going to kill you!” he growls.

Kara tries to intervene again as we push and shove each other. It’s very schoolyard stuff. Neither one of us has thrown a punch, but if he keeps going at me, I might need to just put him out for a few minutes.

I have North in a headlock and try to pull him down, but he gets free. Then, it’s me in the headlock while we both scream abuse at each other. North has surprised me. I didn’t think we would be as evenly matched.

Suddenly, I’m pulled away, and my feet are up off the floor. I look over to North and he, too, is being hoisted out of the room.

“What the hell are you thinking, man?” Mateo barks in my ear. “That’s your lady in that bed. You both should have more respect.”

I’m surprised we even made it down the staircase without falling. The security team is dragging our arses out faster than you can spit.

I feel the glass fire doors before I see them as both North and I are thrown on to the street.

“Don’t come back in here unless both of you can be civil and sensible!” Mateo shouts. “I’ve not called the cops because it’s you two, but anyone else would have been spending the next week in jail for the stunt you just pulled. Go and sort your shit out and calm the fuck down!” He walks back inside the doors and slams them closed behind him.

I look over at North who is still raging.

“Look, North, this is all a fucking mess. If you give me five minutes to explain, you might understand.” I sit down on the pavement. My mind flashing back to East upstairs.

“You have five minutes, and then I’m going to have to call West. He will kill the pair of us if he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

I nod. I know he’s right, but I never thought I’d ever get this close to losing the best friend I ever had.

He sits down on the floor beside me. “Come on, then. Clock’s ticking.”

I start at the beginning and tell him everything. Everything except the sex. I even fudge around why I asked East to marry me.

“So, I’ll ask you the same question I asked East: is this a mistake or do you have feelings for her?” he asks pointedly.

I don’t answer. I can’t. I don’t know what I’m feeling, and to say I don’t have feelings for East is a lie.

“Okay, answer me this. Does my sister want a divorce?” he asks more calmly.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because… we just do okay. None of this is right. It should never have happened. Not this way, anyway.”

“What do you mean? Not this way?”

“I don’t know what the hell I’m saying, North. I have never even thought about marriage. It was never an option for me. Well, not at this time in my life. I’m too busy to even think about settling down with a girlfriend, never mind a wife.”

“So, you don’t want to stay married to her, then? This was a mistake?”

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