I stood there for a beat, and then... the look on Kimber’s face... I felt sick to my stomach.
I spun on my heel, headed to my... no, our room, and got dressed.
Fifteen minutes later, I was walking up her front walk.
I palmed the set of keys to her place in my pocket, but I hesitated to use them.
I sighed, then, before I could decide on using the key or knocking, the locks were thrown, and then the door opened in front of me.
And there she stood.
“Hey,” I whispered.
She sighed, “Hey.”
Then she moved and allowed me to come into her house.
“So that was your sister.”
I nodded, then sat down on her couch.
Then, I opened up to her.
All the way up.
I shared about our past. How things were when we were kids. How we were shuffled from home to home. How our mother’s leaving us affected Kacie. How the way foster parents acted had molded her. I told her about how I got locked up in juvie. I thought it was real and not role play.
And that... my biggest shame... Kacie hadn’t even come to court when the verdict of guilty was handed down.
She had tears in her eyes, then she said, “I’ll try to help. Okay?”
I kissed her forehead, “Thanks.”
Then I whispered, “She won’t talk to you like that again.”
Kimber didn’t reply.
My second mistake.
***
Kimber
Seeing his sister curled up in a ball on his front porch for the third time in two days, I tightened my hold on his hand.
“It’s the bitch,” she slurred.
I tensed.
Well, at least it wasn’t the whore she had used earlier.
Grey growled, “Kacie.”
She laughed.
Fucking laughed.
Then I looked up at him and said, “I know I said I would try, but this...” I said as I gestured to Kacie and the white powder under her nose and the fresh tracks on her arms, “I can’t be around this.”
