The Imperfections

“And you believed him over Brant?” I ask softly. My tone isn’t accusing, but my own loyalty to Brant does make me feel bad for him, if that’s the case.

Bri sighs, looking down at the counter. “I didn’t believe he cheated. There was no evidence, and Nicole was dead, so the only other person who could’ve confirmed or denied it was gone. I stayed with Brandon, and I’m not sure Brant ever forgave me. We were never as close again after that. Brant took it like I had turned my back on him, and I don’t know… maybe I did.” She drifts off a little sadly, then looks back up at me, a sad glint in her eye. “The worst part was, when Brandon and I did finally break up, it was because he cheated on me with some other girl and left me for her.”

I grimace. “That sucks.”

Bri nods, gazing off behind me. “My first real heartbreak. I took it hard. I didn’t even wanna—” She stops, shaking her head, and swipes a hand under her eye.

I hop off the chair, startled that she’s crying, and walk around the counter to comfort her. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stir up so many painful memories.”

Sniffling, she shakes her head a little quicker. “I’m okay. It was just a hard time, and then it got harder. Brandon was—the girl he left me for was this awful crackwhore. He started doing drugs after Nicole died. He didn’t cope with it real well, and, um, he started doing things like that…”

I watch her uncomfortably try to collect herself, my heart pounding a little too hard inside my chest. I cast a look back out the sliding doors, but they’re still safely shut.

Bri grabs my hand and steals my attention. She’s looking me straight in the eye, and the suddenness of it makes my skin crawl. “Brant never did anything like that, Alyssa. He didn’t hang out with people like that. He didn’t really hang out with anyone after Nicole died, especially not Brandon.”

“Okay,” I say uncertainly.

“But one night he went over and hung out with Brandon and his old friends, Brandon and that girl he left me for. And that same night, Brandon overdosed. Shot up with more drugs than he ever took on his own, and he died, Alyssa. He died.”

Her eyes are wide as she tells me this, her gaze locked on mine like she’s trying to impart very important information and I need to pay attention.

My stomach sinks a little, whether from the look in her eyes or the words she’s saying, I’m not sure.

“Nobody suspected Brant because nobody knew they should. After the Nicole thing, we didn’t tell anyone about the fight or what he said about Nicole cheating on him with Brandon. We knew how it would look, so we kept it to ourselves, let it look like an accident, a bunch of stupid kids doing stupid shit and a tragedy resulting from it. But when Brandon died, too, and Brant was there…”

I swallow, leaning back until the edge of the counter digs into my flesh.

The second person he killed. He said there were two, but he never gave me any details about the second one.

“I was scared after that,” she tells me quietly, her gaze fixed on the gleaming countertop. “I didn’t know what my brother was capable of anymore. I said some not very nice things to him, I think. It’s all a little fuzzy for me now.”

I have no idea what to say. I only expected her to tell me about Nicole, but her second confession of Brant’s sins came tumbling right out of her.

“I felt like he was a monster at the time. He’d taken it too far. He didn’t even admit he did it, just closed himself off after all the things I said that night, but I was in pain. I was still nursing the heartbreak, and then Brandon was just gone. Yes, I’d been hurting and I had said some things, maybe wished him dead during some of my darker moments, but I hadn’t meant it. I didn’t want him dead. I just… I just wanted the pain to stop. I was young, and I didn’t know anything,” she says, dragging her hands down her face.

I swallow. Unsure what else to do, I walk over and gingerly pat her back in an attempt to reassure her. “It’s all right, Bri.”

“It’s not,” she disagrees, dropping her hands and looking at me. “There’s no line Brant won’t cross to protect me, Alyssa.”

“Well, he is your twin brother,” I offer, shrugging uncertainly. I don’t know what else she wants me to say. “Aren’t twins supposed to be bonded even closer than regular siblings?”

“You’re not—” She shakes her head in mild aggravation, then looks at me and sighs. “I don’t know how to—”