Page 92 of You're the Reason

Hammond took Seth’s tray before walking out, letting the metal door slam behind him. The room remained silent for a moment before Gabe leaned back against the far wall. “You rat me out?”

“Rat you out? No one has even asked about the fight. Not everything is about you, Gabe.”

He dropped into a sitting position on the bed and rested his head against the brick wall. “Really, because all my problems seem to begin and end with you.”

“How do you figure that?” Seth took a step toward the shared bars but not so close that it would seem threatening to the cameras. The last thing he needed was an assault charge added to this. “It was you who gave me my first hit. Not the other way around. You were there the night Gregory died, but you walked away. Whatever they pulled you in for, I’m pretty sure you’ll manage to get off this time as well. Life’s always on your side, Gabe.”

“My side? Are you kidding me?” Gabe pushed off the bed and took an aggressive step toward the bars. “My parents are impossible to please, my brother is dead, and now any relationship I had with my sister is gone because of you.”

“Me? I never said anything to her that wasn’t true.”

“Right, because Seth is perfect now. Seth’s not a screwup like me anymore. Let the whole town rejoice because the prodigal son of Heritage has returned, reformed.” Gabe’s fist clenched but he seemed to spot the camera mounted in the corner and stepped back. “If I have to hear another person in town tell me how amazing you’ve turned out, I might throw up.”

“This town hates me.”

“Hates you? Is that why people just hand you jobs? Hand you furniture?”

“The furniture was staged. They don’t care about me.”

“Let’s see, half the town hatched a plan to help a guy who has his pride wrapped so tight around him there was no other way to get him to accept the help. Sounds terrible.”

For a second, the words tripped him up, but he found his footing. “Please. They were just waiting for me to mess up. Car theft, reckless driving, and drug possession. I showed them.”

“Like any of it will stick. The car was lifted from the gas station twenty minutes away, but your car was still at your apartment. What did you do? Run to the gas station only to drive back home? Not to mention the drugs were all used, but just guessing you were sober when they brought you in. You’ll test clean.”

“How do you know all that?”

“What can I say? I’m in the know.”

“In the know or you were in the car?”

He shrugged with a smirk, then glanced at the camera again. “I wasn’t in the car.”

“But you were there. You know, I don’t have a hard time believing that you’d put the cash box in the car to frame me. But I can’t believe you let my mom drive when she was high. She could have killed someone.”

Gabe leaned against the wall and then finally looked up at him under hooded lids. “Like mother, like son.”

“I am nothing like her.” Seth gripped the bars between them, his knuckles whitening. “Do you hate me so much that you want to take down anyone I care about? Because that’s what it feels like.”

When Gabe didn’t answer, Seth knew he’d landed close to the truth.

“Why?” Seth walked back to the bed and sank onto the bunk and leaned forward, dropping his elbows on his knees. “You were there. You know I didn’t kill him.”

A beat. Then Gabe looked away, his voice raw. “It should have been one of us who died, not him. Never him.”

Seth drew in a breath, his voice dropping. “Don’t you think I believe that too? Don’t you think if I could have traded places with him I would’ve? I have no memory of buying that third bag, and I didn’t give it to him on purpose. You said as much while we were waiting for the ambulance right before you abandoned me.”

“I abandoned you? I was grieving my brother and trying to deal with my parents.” Gabe launched himself off the wall and stopped in the middle of the cell. “After the trial you abandoned me.”

“You let me take the fall. Do you know what that has done to my life?” Seth dropped his gaze to the floor. This was so messed up. Because as much as that had been the worst time of his life, that conviction was what saved him. Or at least had driven him to the only One who could save him.

“Then again if you hadn’t...” Seth leaned forward propping his elbows on his knees. “I’d probably still be right here in jail, only I’d be guilty. Because I would’ve never gotten out of that life.”

He sat up again and met Gabe’s gaze. “I did abandon you. I found a way out of that dumpster fire of a life and didn’t look back. I had to start fresh. Cut unhealthy ties. I had to.”

He never would have dumped those pills if he hadn’t. Even if no one believed him, it confirmed he wasn’t the same guy.

And just maybe the guy best suited to save people from drowning was the guy who almost drowned himself. His mind flashed back to the scrawny seventeen-year-old he’d been. He’d been half high on pot when Grant had stepped into his life on the street in Heritage and told him he could help him quit. It was another year before that kid’s desperation would drive him to get help. But that day was the first time he’d felt seen. Felt hope. Considered he could have a future.

---