Wrong Kind of Love (15 page)

2 years later…

She
was just gone. No word, no warning, just gone. Jaden called me early that morning after my drunken confession, asking if I had seen her. But after that conversation I don’t think I could ever speak to her or him again. Listening to your best friend, your twin brother talking about how he slept with the girl you love, well that can make anyone angry. I think I got a little more then angry.

I remember going over to his apartment.  I remember trashing the place. I remember Declan and Chance showing up to pull me off of Jaden. I wanted to kill him. He slept with her right on his fucking couch. I took a knife
to the damn thing and ripped it to shreds. I don’t want to remember that day.

I got arrested for
destruction of property. Jaden refused to press assault charges. Damn right he better have refused. Mom came and bailed me out. Then she told me to get my act together or she’s cutting me off. I told her to shove it.

It was also the day Grace Breadfield/Kayla walked out of both of our lives. I would be so pissed off at Jaden if he didn’t seem as upset about it as I do.
It’s been two fucking years. Two years with no word, no nothing. The only thing my twin and I have agreed on in those two years is that we had to protect her. So Jaden told everyone she got accepted as a Dallas cowboy cheerleader. Which isn’t that much of a stretch. He still tells everyone he is with her. They just have long distance relationship. It makes me fucking sick.

“Caden!” Teagan yells from the first floor of the house. I jerk my head up at the sound of her voice. I still smile to myself every time I see her here. She did the right thing. She picked up the pieces of her life and put them back together. I only wish I could do that.

“What?” I holler back. I hear her stomping up the sta
irs. She wants my attention, so she will have to come to me.

“Have you seen my keys?” she questions me stopping in the doorway of my bedroom.

I shrug my shoulders and go back to my painting. This one isn’t a nude. Though nudes are my favorite, I figure I need to be painting stuff my mom could be proud of. “Really? You’re going to ignore me right now?” she huffs putting her hands on her tiny hips.

I sigh and put down my paint tray. “Teag
, I haven’t seen your keys. That’s what the shrug meant.”

She rolls her eyes, which is something I expect of her. “I have to go pick up Declan. Him and Jaden got into a fight on the bus back from training camp. The coach kicked them off and told them to get rides home.”

I feel my eyebrows rise up under my hair. “Say what?” I mumble in shock.

Teagan chuckles turning away from my room. “Yeah something about Declan told Jaden
he’s an idiot. Jaden didn’t like that too much and started throwing fist. Busted up my baby’s face.” I can imagine the pout on her face right now.

As if on cue my cell phone starts ringing. Mom flashes
across the screen. Dammit. “Yeah?” I say when I answer.

“Honey, do you think you can go pick up your brother. He got kicked off the bus for fighting.” She pauses and I hear her voice muffle like she covered the
receiver. “I would but I have to watch Hailey tonight. I tried to get Teagan too but she refuses.”

“Well I don’t blame her for that. He did bust up her boyfriend
’s face mom.” I chuckle when I hear her sigh on the other end.

“This isn’t the time to be cute
, Caden Gabriel Harper. Go pick up your brother before I come over there and smack you around.” She would do it too. Crazy woman.

“Okay fine. But if I bust up his face it
’s your fault.” I say looking around for my shoes.

“Well if he busts up your face, then
it’s your fault. Going after his girlfriend like that. You should be ashamed of yourself.” She says and my entire body goes cold.

“Excuse me?” I ask, my voice full of venom.

“He said you tried to take Grace from him. Honey I don’t know what has gotten into you but that’s not what family does.” She explains, making me see red.

I don’t care whose feelings I hurt or the repercussions of what I’m about
to say. “Look here mom, if you and Dad would pull your heads out of Jaden’s ass and realize he’s not all rainbows and butterflies, things would be a lot better. You put so much into him that you don’t realize neither of you put much into Teagan or me. As for Grace, yeah I went after her. She turned me down. This was after Jaden and I agreed to both stay away from her. So excuse me if I felt she was fair game.” I take a deep breath before going in for more. “And that was two freaking years go. Let it fucking go.”

There is dead silence on the other end.
Typical. You tell your mom she isn’t as perfect as she thinks she is, things are about to get ugly. “Why you little rotten boy! I have done everything for you! Everything! You will not say things like that to me! I am your mother. I gave you life and I can take it away!” she screams into the phone making me cringe.

I don’t really care at this point what happens. It took awhile but I’m starting to see just how bad of parents they are. “Yeah you may be my mother
, but you sure haven’t been the best you could be! How are we supposed to learn from anything if you stay with a man who cheated on you! And got another woman pregnant right after he knocked you up! Yeah you may have made me that studio but that’s because you were tired of me making a mess in the rest of the house.” I pause closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. “And what kind of a mother finds out her son was being molested and didn’t call the cops? I don’t care if he was already in jail. You didn’t want the scandal it would bring us. So you can go suck a dick mom.” And I hang up.

That was years of pent up shit I had wanted to say to her. It might not be
everything I wanted to say to her, but it was close enough. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, but sometimes you have to point out their flaws. Especially if they refuse to see them and it starts hurting other people. Teagan is innocent in all of this and mom wanted to put the blame on her. It’s Jaden’s fault he’s a dick and probably Moms too. No need to go on letting Mom think she can get away with putting Jaden on a pedestal.

“That was really epic.” Teagan whispers
, looking at me with stars in her eyes.

I laugh right out at that. “You have been wanting to say the same things to her for years.” I reply sitting down to put my shoes on. I found them under my bed.

“You’re still going to pick him up?” she asks sitting down next to me on the bed.

“Well yeah. Just because M
om thinks Jaden shits gold, doesn’t mean he can fly himself home. That’s what family is Teag. We tell you when you’re being a retard and then we still pick you up when you’re down.” I nudge her shoulder and wink.

“I guess.” She pauses and looks me up and down. “Why didn’t I know about the…molestation…thing?”
she questions gently.

I shrug. “We thought it was something you didn’t need to know.”

“That’s really messed up she didn’t tell the cops.” She replies standing up.

“Yeah well I kind of said I didn’t want her to. Still though, now that I’m older, I don’t understand why she didn’t. If I had a kid that happened to, no matter what the kid wanted I would talk to the police.” I stand up with her after I get my shoes on.

“I’m going to go get Declan now. See ya when you get home.” She kisses my cheek and walks out of the room.

I grab my keys off my dresser and make my way out of the house. This right here is when my world stops. This right here is when everything changes. If I had known what was out here I would have run out of that
house like the hounds of hell were on me.

Kayla stands right next to my car. Her top teeth bite into her bottom lip and I feel myself falling forward. She runs over to me so fast her blonde hair trails behind her like a shooting star. “Caden!” she exclaims, catching me before I fall.

“Kayla.” I whisper my fingertips just barely touching her cheek. She sits me down on the sidewalk and cups my cheeks. “What are you doing here?”

She looks deep into my eyes and he
r nose crinkles. “Umm…I decided to come back.” Like that explains anything.

“That tells me nothing.” I state pushing her back so I can stand up. I’m glad she came back from wherever she was, but right now I have to pick up my brother.

“Are you sure you’re okay to stand?” she mumbles backing away from me.

“Yeah I got it. Grace.” I say her name with
poison.

Her
blue eyes start to become shiny and I feel my insides turn. “I’m sorry.” She whispers and the sound gets caught in the wind.

Then I become mad. Like mad enough to hit a girl. Don’t worry I’m not actually going to hit her. Though my mustang takes a beating when I slam my fists into it over and over again. I guess I scared Kayla enough she comes over and stops me with a hand on each elbow. I spin around fast and just start yelling. I don’t care who hears. “You were gone for two fucking years and all you have to say is you’re sorry? Well that’s no
t fucking good enough for me! Where the fuck were you when I was so worried, I thought you were dead, I had to take anxiety pills? Where the fuck were you when Jaden called to tell me you fucked him after I told you I loved you? Where the fuck were you period? I’m done with this shit, Kayla. My heart is ruined because of you. I will never be the same.” Tears leak out of my eyes and I feel ashamed for that fact. Who is she to see my tears.

Kayla backs away from me slowly tears pooling in her own eyes. She starts out with a whisper but quickly picks up speed. “I’m sorry, okay? I never meant to hurt you. Those words you spoke to me, they scared me. I didn’t know how to handle that. I didn’t mean to sleep with him. It was the biggest mistake of my life.” She starts to sob and has to take a break before going on. “Daniel was spotted on campus, so Aiden and I took off. I didn’t want to leave you. But I couldn’t tell you and I couldn’t call you. My life was in danger and I refuse to put you or anyone
else’s life in danger because of me.”

“I would never have put you in danger! I loved you with everything in me. You were the stars in my sky and the beating of my heart. It would have killed me to hurt you.” I let out a harsh laugh and turn away from her. “You wouldn’t know that though. You were to
o busy thinking of yourself. Too busy to see that other people care enough about you, that won’t betray you. The only thing that matters in your head is you. You don’t care who you hurt, as long as you’re okay.”

And with that I climb in the driver seat of my car and peel down the driveway. It takes me a few hours to get to Jaden but the second he gets in the car, I drop the bomb. I hope it hurts him just as much as it hurt me. “Grace is back.”

And I still fucking love her.