Zayden turns, fleeing the church, and Mum rushes out after him.
‘Fuck,’ I mutter.
‘Come on,’ Mason murmurs, leaning down and collecting my bag, fingers lightly pressing on my elbow. ‘We’re going with them.’
The number of eyes on us is staggering, but I push forward, unable to stomach meeting any of their curious, sympathy-filled gazes.
Mum and Zayden are outside, around the corner and away from prying eyes. We slowly walk towards them, and my bones feel chilled when I see my brother’s pained face and my mother’s tears.
‘I will tell you everything, Zayden, and one day, I hope we can move past this, but not right now. Not here,’ she says on a huffed breath, wiping her eyes.
‘I came to you,’ he whispers, and my own tears burn my eyes. ‘And you turned your back on me.’
‘Zayden,’ she mumbles, reaching for him, but he steps back just as fast.
‘I can’t stand the sight of you,’ he says, turning away and raking a hand through his messy hair. ‘Go back inside. Please.’
‘I can’t have you hate me, Zayden.’
‘You should have fucking thought about that before,’ he snaps, whirling around to face her, jabbing a finger in the air, his cheeks reddening. ‘But you fucking chose him. He hurt me. He threatened to kill me. He threatened to do the same to Anya. I came to you, I asked for your help, and you failed me.’
‘I had no choice,’ she whispers miserably.
‘There is always a choice. You made the wrong one.’
A hiccup leaves her as she cries, and Zayden turns his back on her, striding away from us with stormy fury.
Slowly, Mum turns, facing us. ‘Anya ...’ Mum says, her hand outstretched towards me, but I let Mason tug me along as we try to keep up with a hastily retreating Zayden.
My mouth feels dry, and a strange rush of heat blasts through me. Mason curls his arm around me, dragging me towards a tree that will protect me from the sun’s harsh rays. I blink the dots away, swallowing down the nausea, desperate to not make this extremely awful moment for my brother about me.
When I look back over my shoulder, Mum is walking back towards the church, shoulders slumped, looking like she carries the weight of the world.
‘Anya,’ Zayden exclaims, reaching for me as I stagger sideways. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Fine,’ I say weakly.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Mason suggests. He glances at Zayden. ‘Come with us,’ Mason says. ‘We’ll get your car later.’
Zayden agrees to this, probably not wanting to be alone right now. We pile into the car, and I rest my head back, feeling exhausted and drained, even though it’s hardly even midday. The car is sweltering, and I immediately jab my finger on the button to bring the window down, readily gulping in the fresh air that spills in through the gap.
Later, we are by the pool, ice creams in hand, sprawled out in the shade, and I’m feeling much better for it.
‘An hour ago, we were at our stepdad’s funeral, and now we’re by the pool, pretending he never fucking existed,’ Zayden says, inspecting the cone of his ice cream for an unnecessary amount of time.
‘We’ve never been super conventional,’ I reply.
‘Mmhmm.’
‘How do you feel?’
Zayden is silent for a few moments, staring up at the cloudless sky. ‘Okay,’ he finally answers. ‘I have a lot of resentment and anger towards Mum that I’m trying to deal with, but I’m okay.’
‘We need to talk to her,’ I admit with an exhale. ‘She needs us.’
‘Yeah,’ Zayden says dryly. ‘I needed her, too.’
My heart squeezes. ‘I didn’t mean for that to sound how it did.’
