“Yup.” I leaned back against the wall and stretched my legs out in front of me. “But I only gave the sheriff a brief overview of things, and didn’t go into any sort of detail like I did with you.”
“Well, you should have told him everything,” Jayce said.
“Did you tell him your story?”
“I did.”
“And did it make a difference?”
He shrugged. “Not exactly, but he at leastknowsthe truth.”
I gesture at my outfit. “I’m pretty sure he got a proper picture of what was happening in my house before he arrived,” I stated. “That, and I don’t think I’d have done a very convincing job of retelling everything like I did to you.” I was quickly feeling at ease around Jayce, and that was both grounding and scary, because I’d never exactly had anyone in my corner until him.
He mirrored my position and stretched his legs out next to mine. “The truth doesn’t have to be convincing, Dorran,” he said. “The truth is the truth. It justis; it doesn’t have to be bounded by anything.”
He was right, of course.
“And you think Sheriff Solo is the kinda guy who’d see my truth for what it is?” I questioned.
“Heisa human being, isn’t he?”
I smiled and glanced sideways at Jayce, who did the same to me.
“Touché,” I said for the second time that night, making him chuckle.
A comfortable silence filled the air after that, but to me, it was loud –toodamn loud. I needed to keep my thoughts occupied until I felt sleepy or something, otherwise I’d be pulled back into the depthless pool that was my past.
I cleared my throat and nudged Jayce’s bare feet with mine. “So, why areyouhere?” I asked him.
He turned his head towards me and gave me a tired smile. “Killed my elder brother.” His tone was so casual that it made me wanna laugh.
“When?” I asked.
“Yesterday.”
“You seem relaxed about it,” I remarked.
“He deserved it,” Jayce said. “I delivered justice where it was due.”
“Care to elaborate?”
He scratched his jaw and rubbed a hand over the side of his neck, as if bracing himself for what he was about to say.
“Jeremiah was the golden kid of the family,” Jayce began. “The eldest, the smartest. My family is dirt-poor, but he never let that affect the way he carried himself: with style and an air of humble superiority. He always knew what to say or what to do, and Jenny and I looked up to him as if he were God or something.” He let go of a humorless laugh. “I’ll cut to the chase,” he then said, and cleared his throat. “He got into drugs last year, and, as usual, it started messing with his head. He got fired from his job at the insurance company he worked at, and because he was home all the time, he started being salty about it. Jen and I had school, and she worked part time at the diner next to our house, and that didn’t sit well with Jeremiah. He began lashing out at us, and even our parents. Then, as a revenge of sorts, he got Jen hooked on the same drugs he was on. He tried forcing me to do them too, but I knew better than that. Jen, on the other hand, didn’t. She loved him; admired him. And, because he meant so much to her, she didn’t hesitate in indulging his demand.” Jayce closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, and his expression was so full of pain that it made my chest feel heavy.
“I found out too late,” he all but whispered the words, then opened his eyes and looked at me. “I found out too fucking late that she was addicted. At first, she missed school and work every two weeks or so, and seemed completely alright when I asked her if everything was okay. But then she started skipping classes and shifts every other day, and that worried me enough to confront her about it. It was a fruitless effort, really, because it was like my words simply weren’t getting through to her. She’d turned into Jeremiah, and he thought it was okay for her to do what he was making her do. Our parents thought both him and Jen were lost causes, and refused to help me in getting them into rehab.It will bring shame to the family name and leave us disgraced in the eyes of peers and elders alike, they said to me, and simply gave up on two of their own children.” Jayce ran a hand over his jaw and blinked at me. “Jen was fifteen, Dorran,” he told me. “Fuckingfifteen!”
The hair on the back of my neck stood at the pain in his voice. “Was?” I dreaded asking that, especially because Jayce looked about ready to fall apart before me.
“She OD’d last week,” he stated, then gritted his teeth. “Fucking Jeremiah didn’t even attend the funeral. He was at home – high as a damn skyscraper.” He sniffed, and his eyes gleamed in a way that made goosebumps prick my skin. “I left the chapel early and drove home. I was mad, upset, and so fucking broken. Jen was gone, and Jeremiah didn’t even care enough to be there when our parents and I buried her.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe his brother had done that.
“I found him on the living room couch, half asleep and barely coherent.” Jayce paused and ran a hand under his nose. “It was soeasy, Dorran,” he told me, then laughed. “I didn’t even hesitate; I just did it. I grabbed the landline’s receiver, wrapped its cord around his neck, and pulled. He barely fought me, and it was over so quickly that I couldn’t even believe it at first.”
“How did you get arrested?”
“My dad saw me doing it,” Jayce said. “Called the cops and had me taken away. Apparently, he’d seen me rush out of the chapel in a fit of anger, and had decided to follow me in case I did something stupid.”
“Jesus,” I breathed. “But he knew Jenny had OD’d because of Jeremiah, and he still called the cops on you?”
