fragile

34

"I heard that you were the one that beat Mick up," Mira said, softly.

Colton stopped eating his dinner and looked up at her, a mix of emotions flickering across his eyes.

She casually picked at the food she had cooked, heart racing as she waited for a reply.

"Who told you that?"

Mira looked up to see that he had calmly returned to eating his food. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Grayson."

At that, he choked on his food, dropping his fork on the plate. Mira's eyes widened as she watched him reach for his water and chug it down.

"Are you okay?" she asked, worry dripping from her voice.

As he wiped his mouth, he coughed.

"I will be," he said, with a croaky voice.

She felt instantly bad for asking him that question and remained silent.

But then he spoke.

"What Grayson told you was right. I was the one that beat him up that day. I just couldn't control my anger because the dick refused to say anything even when he was given a chance. So, I forced it out of him."

"You got suspended, though..."

"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "It was worth it."

"Weren't your parents get mad?" she asked, finding herself getting a little irritated.

"Of course they were, but honestly I didn't give a shit."

"But why would you do that, Colton? We didn't even know each other—"

"Maybe not." He stopped eating and gave her a fixed stare. "But I wasn't just going to sit back and let him get away with something I knew he was responsible for."

Pent up anger and loneliness built up and she snapped.

"Then why didn't you help me when I was there? When it mattered?"

Silence overtook them.

Mira immediately regretted her words as Colton stared at her. She shook her head, suddenly feeling ashamed of herself. Her hands began to sweat and she placed her fork down.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

After a few seconds, he copied her movements by placing his fork down as well. Rubbing the stubble on his jaw, he let out an exasperated sigh and licked his lips, nervously.

"No, you're right," he said, firmly. "I didn't do anything to help you when I could have. At the time, I had made a promise to my family. I had to stop lashing out at people and to control my anger if I wanted to stay in school. But," he shrugged, "I guess after you left, it's when I realised I admired you or liked you or something — I don't fucking know."

He ran a hand down his face that was tinged a little pink. From embarrassment or because of how frequently he was rubbing his face, she didn't know.

Colton continued. "It was also when you left that I realised how bad things had gotten with you and that you had left because you had no one to help you. So, I made sure everything was made right."

"What do you mean....'made sure everything was made right?' How?"

A bad feeling was left behind in her mouth as she asked. It was as if she was dreading the answer.

She didn't know why.

He looked hesitant to share that information, mouth twisted into a small frown.