Playing with Fire

e p i s o d e | t w e n t y - o n e (pt. 2)

The moment I walk back into the hotel room, Kai heads straight towards me. His flashing green eyes only lead me to expect a confrontation. Well, it was going to happen sooner or later.

"Hawthorne," he says, once he's standing directly in front of me. "Mind explaining why you were out with Anna?"

I raise an eyebrow at him. "Would you prefer that she went out alone?"

"She wouldn't have gone out alone. That's the point." There's something dangerous about his gaze that's suddenly reminiscent about the last time we had a physical argument – two years ago, when we broke off our friendship.

"Unlike you, I think she deserves to do whatever she wants. She's clearly growing out of her fear. And if you want to prevent that, then you're not a very good brother now, are you?"

Kai takes another step towards me. "Don't tell me about being a good brother, Hawthorne," he says, his voice low yet aggressive. "I've been there for her since the beginning. And what about you? What have you done to make up for what happened to her? You just watched from the sidelines, and claimed that you were protecting her."

"Well," I say calmly, "I thought I was protecting her by being farther away. I now realize what a mistake that was." I know Anna will be horrified by this, but I'll spare her the pain of telling Kai herself. "That's why the two of us have started dating."

It takes Kai a good several seconds to process this, and then he instantly grabs my collar and shoves me against the nearest wall. I don't bother fighting back. As passive as he may seem on the outside, his reaction to this news was obvious. I expected as much.

"Don't fuck around with me," he snarls raggedly.

I shrug my shoulders nonchalantly. "I'm not. It happened yesterday." I smile at him. "She brought it up."

Kai's grip on me tightens. "And you said yes?" he exclaims dubiously, his eyes wild with rage. "How could you have said yes? How did you ever think that you were deserving enough to agree to that?"

I place a hand on his wrist and jerk it off my neck. "See, I asked myself that multiple times. But if I'd been selfless enough to say no, do you think that that would have made Anna happy?"

Kai continues glaring at me with intense fire burning in his eyes. "You can't hide the truth from her forever. You're eventually going to break her heart, regardless."

It's true. It scares me. But at the same time, that's something I'll worry about when the time comes. "I never expected this day to come either, Silver. I never wanted to get close to her. But there's a reason it happened. And this reason is so that I can attempt to make everything better for her from here on out."

This seems to rekindle the anger that had been slowly fading away from him as Kai strengthens his grip against me. "You can never make anything better for Anna, Hawthorne. I'll protect her. You leave her be."

I just smirk a little at him, catching him by surprise. "Isn't it wrong for you to be saying that, Silver? You have a girlfriend right now, too, don't you?"

His expression morphs from crazed fury to sudden shock. He lets go of me and takes a step back.

I straighten myself and smile at him. "See, you were selfish enough to break her heart. Don't tell me that you didn't know she always idolized you. You had your chance."

Kai doesn't respond. I can tell that he's going through this revelation extensively in his mind. I've seen Anna for the past ten years, and I know how much she adored him. He must have known, too. But he was too afraid to do anything about it.

I casually take out my phone and admire the picture of Anna on the home screen. "The difference between you and me," I continue to say indifferently, taking advantage of Kai's shocked silence, "is that you took too long."

At that moment, my phone buzzes with a call. Speak of the devil. I hold up my phone to reveal Anna's caller ID to Kai. "And she fell for me."