Unbroken

Leo gritted his teeth—hehatedhis mother.

“I’ll do my part, and it’s no business of yours what that entails,” he gruffly said. “Now leave me the fuck alone, Loraine, unless you want me to shut you up in other ways.”

Leo took that moment to slip away.

A couple weeks later, they were packed and ready to fly out, and Leo wanted to run away. Run to the trailer park where Skye and Hunter were. He didn’t want to leave, but he put on an easy smile, told Skye they were going to be fine apart, and that time would go by in the blink of an eye.

But inside he felt a fissure tear at his centre.

He left her behind with Hunter, and they would grow closer and maybe they wouldn’t need Leo when he got back.

And he needed Skye toneedhim.

If she needed him, he could ensnare her, keep her to himself.

Dangerous thoughts.Verydangerous. He knew that. But…even at thirteen he knew he loved Skye.

And when he walked the beaches with that rod of a girl beside him, he thought of her. When he let the rod rest her head against his shoulder, he imagined it was Skye.

When he kissed her,reallykissed her, he imagined he was kissing Skye.

He had studied his father’s character, knew that patience was key to victory, and Leo needed to have her heart. At the same time, he knew he couldn’t impress her with materialistic things like money and stuff the way his father lavished his mother to keep her quiet and content. No, Skye wasn’t wired that way. She didn’t care for stuff. She didn’t care for money, either. More than anything, Skye cared for him and for Hunter, and she wanted tolive. She was adventurous and wanted to experience life; as such, she treasured memories more than she treasured things.

Winning her over would be hard, he surmised. It would be difficult, especially with Hunter there, and Leo didn’t want Hunter to leave, either. He was part of Skye—part of Leo, too. They were a trio for a reason, and yet…

Yet it wasn’t enough.

It would never be enough to share her. To compete for her sole affection. It would never happen. He knew Skye—knew she would never choose one over the other.

But he wished—

God, he wished she might belong to him somehow.

*

There was something about Skye and Hunter that Leo had caught onto when he had returned from the trip. The way they looked at each other. The strange glint in Hunter’s eyes…

Was he imagining things?

Leo was paranoid, worried, desperate to figure it out as he thought about it all night long, adrenaline zipping through his body, hands clenched into fists. He had tried to smile—tried to talk—but he didn’t need to. They had yammered away to him, talking about those dogs in that yard, then talking about school coming up, about how different things were going to be now that they were going into the ninth grade.

Then he learned about the kiss. He didn’t know why Hunter took the fall. Why he didn’t speak up and say he hadn’t actually told Leo a thing. But Leo knew, had approached him in the park that afternoon, demanding, “Did you kiss her while I was gone?”

Hunter simply smiled, and that was all Leo needed to know.

Fury erupted inside him; he’d never tasted an emotion so bitter before, but it clogged his throat, made his fists tense tight, made him want toexplode. And Hunter took the brunt of it. He barely fought back, laughing delightfully beneath Leo’s fists the way Leo would have laughed if the tables were turned.

At the core of those two boys, the battle to win Skye’s affections was clear-cut.

Right then and there, Leo decided he couldn’t handle being apart from them. He would have to attend the same public high school. He had put his foot down, didn’t care for the consequences. For this one thing, he would happily endure a dozen beatings/a dozen mind games/whatever, he didn’t care. Loraine wanted to send him to an elite private school and—no, no, no, hewouldn’t,couldn’t, herefused. When he dug his heels in, she lost her shit.

“What would they think of you?” she screamed. “What would they think ofus?”

She wouldn’t be humiliated.

She, too,refused.

They were the Itanis. Rich, elite, successful. Meant to be appreciated from afar, but never close enough to touch, and now her son wanted to mingle with the little people? She wouldn’t allow it.