They are all innocent until proven guilty. Not me though, am a liar until proven honest and me being proven honest doesn't change anything either. I was a liar, I am a liar and I'll always remain a liar because it was me who invited him. I am THE sl...
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"I'm Will's cousin." He whispers.
Have you ever felt like someone stabbed a knife through your heart? That's exactly how I feel right now.
The blood drains from my face as I stare at Kyle with wide eyes, wanting him to deny whatever he just said. I want him to laugh and say, 'got you, I was kidding', even though I would kill him slowly and painfully later for his awful joke. But of course, I'm not so lucky. He keeps staring at the ground and plucks the grass in front of him.
"Tell me you're joking." I choke out.
"I'm not. I wouldn’t joke about this, Avery." He says, looking at me with so much sadness in his eyes.
"H- How? I know all of his cousins."
"You know the ones who live in Sea Crest. My family moved here when I was two." Kyle explains.
I laugh humorlessly as more tears fall from my eyes. "I came here to get away from everything, and ended up being friends with one of his cousins." I pause. "Wow."
"I've never liked him." He says, looking at me with sincerity in his eyes. "He was the bad boy in our family. He used to smoke, drink, and party all the time. Every time I met him, I would see a different girl on his arm. I've never liked those things. He tried to rope me in some of his shit, but I always stayed away. I hardly attend any family functions so you never saw me around the town.” Kyle starts to explain.
"But of course gossip travels fast, so my family did find out about you. Hell, even your picture traveled with that gossip. When I first saw you in Mr. Cole's class, I knew I saw you somewhere, but I wasn't sure where, so I never said anything. By lunchtime, I recognized you, but I didn't want to scare you away so I thought I would maintain distance and stay away from you.” He carries on with a breath in between.
"But then I saw you again in the parking lot. You were stuck with your car and I was feeling guilty about what happened to you because even though I maintain no connection with Will, he is still my cousin and what happened with you was totally and utterly wrong. I guess I just wanted to help you in some way and take this guilt off of my chest. So I introduced you to my friends, tried to give you every normal thing I could because I was aware of the kind of life you were living back in Sea crest.” He says with a small smile.
"All the times I tried to get you away from Roman, I warned you because I knew everything, and I knew he could dig around your past very easily. He has money and sources, it will take him just fifteen minutes to reach the truth, but you never listened. I feel like I should've forced you to listen to me."
He looks so sincere and honest that the feeling of betrayal immediately vanishes. Yeah, he should've told me before that he knew everything. He shouldn't have kept me in the dark, but I guess he was protecting me in his own way. And this is what I wanted right? A friend who knows my past and still chooses to stay beside me.
