“She’s always defused every situation. She took a lot of verbal lashings over the years because Dad and I don’t always get along, and Bo won’t let us talk until we’ve cooled down. Instead, she always gets verbally pummeled by everything we would say to the other if Bo wasn’t mediating. Same with Shanna. Shanna’s a hothead, and Bo has been there to take her pushiness and verbal accosting since the beginning. She never strikes back. Now… Now it’s like she won’t even hear any of us.”
Because none of them will ever hear her.
And then I showed up and became the trigger on a loaded gun that’s never been shot before.
Fuck a duck.
“She’s never once complained. Why didn’t she just tell us she was hurting?”
“She doesn’t argue because she finds it pointless, instead of realizing it’s sometimes necessary. Bo is the kind of person to say she loves something even when she hates it, and she goes so far as to convince herself she’s happy with every situation,” I tell her quietly.
Only, she really was happy with me, and I fucking ruined it. Ruined her.
“You have to fix her,” Bora tells me, wiping a tear from her eye. “I don’t know how to do it by myself. I want my sister back, and I swear I’ll treat her better. Bo… It’s like she doesn’t feel anything at all right now, and it’s killing me to see her like this. Because Bo is the good one. She’s so full of smiles and life and love. Right now, she’s just a shell of herself, and completely devoid of any warmth that used to radiate from her. People think I’m the good one right now. Do you know how terrifying that is?”
I’d laugh at that, but it hurts too much. It really fucking feels like someone is inside of me and actually tearing me apart now. Thinking of a numb, lifeless version of Bo… I can’t stomach it.
Before I can sit down, someone else bangs on the door.
Turning my back on Bora, I go to answer it, but stumble back when an enraged Vince pushes his way inside.
“You,” he snarls, practically foaming at the mouth. “What the fucking hell did you do to my girl?!”
Fucking eh.
“Dad?”
Bora is suddenly walking up beside me, looking at her father like she doesn’t know the maniac in front of me. Vince looks between us, and I see the wrong ideas form in his head.
“You have to be fucking kidding me!” he explodes, causing Bora to step between us.
“This is sooo not what you’re thinking,” Bora tells him quickly.
“Really? Is this why your sister is crushed? Is this why her mother is at my hotel room crying herself into oblivion, since her daughter won’t even see her? Is this why Bo is completely withdrawn? You’re fucking him?”
“No!” Bora and I both shout at the same time with the same disgusted tone.
He looks taken aback for a second, and I groan while running a hand through my hair.
They start arguing, yelling as loud as their voices will allow, and I sigh hard while Bora calls him an idiot and a few other choice names. He proceeds to call her a selfish brat, to which she responds with a narcissistic ass insult. This goes on for longer than it should, because apparently they don’t stop fighting until someone makes them stop.
It really gives me a glimpse into the life of the soft spoken, warm-hearted, genuine girl who I fucking destroyed. She lived with this, and I was the one who broker her.
I hate myself.
“That’s it. I’m kicking your ass. Should have already come to do this. Time to pay the piper, motherfucker!” Vince roars, apparently bored with yelling at his daughter.
Bora squeals and dives sideways when her father races toward me like a raging, cartoon bull. Since I don’t want to hurt him, I merely dodge his fist. Then dodge it again. And again. And again…
When his fist flies toward my face too fast for me to dodge, my reflexes kick in and I grab it. I also accidentally punch him in the stomach and wince when he doubles over and heaves for the air I just knocked out of him.
Maybe that wasn’t all reflexes.
“Sorry,” I tell him insincerely, helping to lower him to a chair as Bora comes over to inspect him.
“Why?” he heaves, but he can’t form any more words.
“Not just his fault, Dad,” Bora says on a sigh.