Page 74 of Hating On Riot

“You didn’t think to find us and fucking tell us all of this?” Cameron’s face isn’t beet red. The veins on his neck don’t stand out. He asked with a lethal calmness that scares me more than Tony’s anger.

“I promised Laney I’d keep what we had a secret. I wasn’t going to break it. But I saw what was happening with Arie and Riot. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. You have no right to keep them apart. They are grown adults.”

Tony smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes. He shakes his head. “You don’t understand the hate we have for him, bruh.” He clenches his jaw, takes a breath, then another, before he speaks. “We found Laney’s phone. We saw the fucking text messages. We caught him with his mouth on Arie’s.”

“So you jumped to conclusions and blamed Laney being there on Riot? You believed history would repeat itself but with Arie? Is that it? Is that why you hate him so much? Why you don’t want him seeing her?”

“Yes.” Tony waves his hand, the veins in his neck sticking out again. “Fuck yes, to everything. We didn’t find her phone right away. We suspected Arie of hiding it.” He looks directly at me.

“Guilty.” I drop my gaze, hating seeing the anger in his eyes. “She left so quickly that she left her phone behind. I’m sorry,” I mumble.

Tony stares at the table. His hand goes up, then down, as if he’s about to slap the table. He changes his mind and balls his fist. His jaw is rigid. His mouth is a thin line. When he speaks, what happened that day that wrecked Riot and me suddenly makes sense.

“Damn it, Arie. If only you’d told us all this. We found her phone the day we found you and him under the bleachers. We went looking for him, ready to kick his ass for agreeing to meet Laney at that godforsaken shit magnet, only to find him swapping spit with our other sis. You can imagine how pissed off we were. We beat the fuck out of him for Laney first, then for messing with you.”

My poor guy. “We all owe him an apology,” I say, addressing my brothers. They squirm in their seats. “Why was Riot there if Laney’s texts went to you?” I ask Brock.

“You’ll have to ask him,” Brock says. “As far as I know, no one knew about us.”

I stare at my clasped hands. “I followed her. I needed to see with my own eyes that they were seeing each other behind my back. She looked straight at him from across the street, but now I know you were behind him.”

I take a sip of my water.

“Laney died when we were sixteen. Riot and I became friends at fifteen, but we didn’t act on what we felt until after Laney’s death.”

My words sound distant, as if I’m having an out-of-body experience.

“Was he with me to fill the void Laney left? Had he fallen for Laney first, and was I the standby, the substitute? From Laney’s death to when the two of you punished him for kissing me, it was all I thought about.”

I ball my hands.

“I was selfish. I thought only about myself.” My throat tightens, and my eyes fill with tears. They fall, and I wipe them away with my sleeve. My brothers fall silent.

“The dying stop feeling, but the living don’t.” Brock slides his arm across my shoulders and pulls me close. “You forgave me for the name swap. Forgive yourself for believing you’re responsible for Laney’s death. You weren’t at fault. It was the bastards shooting at one another.”

“May they rot in prison,” Cameron mutters under his breath.

“Amen to that,” Brock says. “The past is the past.” He squeezes my shoulder. “We can’t change what happened, but we can find closure, can’t we?”

“By apologizing to Riot.” I look straight at my brothers.

“That’s a start.” Brock tosses his twisted napkins at them. They swat them away.

“Thank you for meeting us and letting us know, Brock,” I say.

“Five years too late,” Tony grumbles. “But still appreciated, man. Thank you.”

They fist bump.

“Thank you for clearing up what happened that day with Riot,” I say to my brothers. “Laney would be proud. She’ll be even prouder when you apologize.”

I’m beating a dead horse, but they wronged Riot. I did too. I should’ve trusted Laney. I should’ve trusted what Riot felt for me. I should’ve talked to him. Instead, I let my emotions get the better of me.

Brock turns to me, blocking my brothers out with his body. “Can I have my closure, Arie?” He searches my face, staring into the same dark brown eyes as my twin’s.

If anyone deserves it, Brock does. “Yes.”

He lowers his head and his voice. “Be Laney, just long enough for me to say the words. Can you do that for me?”