Page 4

You are no longer a son of mine or welcome in my home.

The words blur, and a hot tear runs down my cheek.

That’s it? Eighteen years of raising me, supposedly loving me, all ending with one soaked-through piece of paper?

"Fuck." I throw the letter into the snow and jump up. My phone almost falls out of my shaking hands as I pull it out of my pocket and redial the last number I called.

"Evan," I choke out as soon as he answers, my voice breaking, teeth clattering as the cold finds its way through my clothes.

"Kieran?” Panic laces his voice. “What is it? What's going on? Are you okay? Were you in an accident?"

Another tear runs down my cheek. Fuck. What if he abandons me too? Then I’ll have no one left.

"My parents know." I clear my throat and pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to gather enough composure to press out the next words. "They kicked me out."

I’m met with silence. Can’t even hear his breath through the phone.

Fuck. Maybe this was a mistake. We met for the first time today, for fuck’s sake, and now I’m calling him with quite literally the biggest problem a freshly eighteen-year-old could have.

"Are you serious?" His voice rises an octave in disbelief, and damned if it doesn’t make my throat constrict even more with emotion.

"Yes, Evan, I don’t know-"

"Listen to me," he cuts me off, and I’m all too glad to stop talking and focus on breathing. I stare at the house I called home until this morning. "You pack your shit into your car and driving to my place," Evan declares. "I'll send you my location. Are you okay to drive? My brother would kill me, but he’d totally come pick you up if I blackmail him with the amount of porn I found on his laptop."

Suddenly, my sister's face peeks between curtains on the upper level. Even from this distance, I can tell her eyes are red and her eyebrows are knit in desperation and confusion.

Our gazes meet and stay locked.

"I think I can drive." Thank fuck the measly supermarket job let me buy my own car, or I’d be royally screwed.

“Good. That’s good. Sending you the address right now. And if you need anything, money for gas, food, you let me know. We’ll figure this out, Kieran.”

“Thank you.” The words feel too little, too insignificant for my actual emotions. Then again, I don’t know what I’m feeling. Desperation. Hope. Sadness. Anger. I mean, who the fuck kicks out their child on their eighteenth birthday and in the middle of winter? If not for Evan, I would probably freeze to death because my car has so many gaps, it’s not much of a shelter.

Everything mixes into a Molotov cocktail of emotions. I keep them contained, try to compose myself because whatever’s going to happen, I’m still her big brother.

It wasn’t she who told them. The way she’s watching me tells me all I need to know. Dad must have gotten into my tablet somehow. Considering the password is a swiped ‘Z’, he probably didn’t have a hard time.

"Okay," I whisper, tearing my gaze away from Ella and force myself to take a deep, ice-cold breath. "I need to get away. I'll call you again in a few minutes when I’m on the road."

I grab the boxes and quickly throw them into my backseats. This car might not be the most impressive, but it does its job and is reliable enough, even though it makes riding a mechanical bull pale in comparison.

Once the boxes are in my back seat, I glance at the house once again. The windows are still dark.

Ella is still there. Still watching me.

And this time, when our eyes meet, she lifts her hands and forms a heart with her fingers.

Fuck. Another tear breaks free, and I quickly wipe it away. At least a small weight falls off my chest.

She still loves me. At least my sister doesn’t disown me.

I take one more deep breath, try to compose myself, and blow her a kiss, forcing myself to smile.

I’m still her big brother. She just went on her first date with a guy from her class and will start her first year of high school in the summer. The last thing she needs is to worry about me.

She breaks into tears, but stays at the window, watching as I climb into the car and pull out of my parent’s driveway for the last time.