Shoplifting Hearts | ✓

13. unlucky circumstances

all eyes are directed on me as i ponder what to do. tears burn my waterline, threatening to escape as i analyze the wrongness of the situation. it was as if darwin's life had gone from routinely to beyond the breaking point, all his hopes slipping from beneath him and arriving at the entrance to a dark abyss of nothingness.

my first thoughts are to beat the shit out of aspen for punching his fucking brother. how could he do such a thing?

aspen watches as my gaze flickers between his hand and darwin before blurting, "it's not what it looks like."

"really?" i ask sarcastically, raising his hand, which is still in my grasp. "because it sure looks like you hurt your own brother." i turn back to the victim and find that he has an unidentifiable look swimming in his eyes but finally, he snaps out of it. 

"no, aspen's right. he didn't punch me."

my tense shoulders instantly relax, and i blow out a breath of relief. all that shows on my face now is pure curiosity.

"what is going on?" the woman from earlier says again, albeit with more force. she's slowly inching toward darwin, confusion tainting her elegant features.

darwin's head snaps to the side and he starts to back away when he sees the man following quietly behind the woman. they both let out a gasp when they see darwin's face, and the woman reaches her hand out.

"don't touch me," he hisses, walking down the rest of the stairs.

the woman looks awfully offended, retracting her arm.

"i'm your mother, for goodness sake!" she yells, throwing up her hands for emphasis. his mother. mrs. ramliff. the cheater.

darwin scoffs and eyes the person behind her. "don't tell me you're my mother when you're spending all your time nowadays with him."

she flinches at his words but stays silent. darwin takes that as his cue to turn away from her and walk towards me.

"come on," he says, snatching my hand out of aspen's and walking out the door.

"where are we going?" i ask, still dazed from the situation that had just played out before me.

he turns around, waves of rage radiating from him. "anywhere but here."