Page 65 of So Bad It Must Be Good

It broke him, piece by piece, to see his mother openly cry. She was always emotional about movies or books or causes, but she rarely got overly emotional about real things. She kept that in check, and Dad did too, and it was hard to watch her be so broken by something he could fix.

By breaking up with Kayla.

It was ludicrous. Ridiculous. The exact kind of thing Kayla was talking about when she said his family had unreasonable expectations of him.

But his mother was sobbing, begging, and . . . What would Liam do if Aiden did hurt himself? Even if he wasn’t at fault? Even if this really had nothing to do with Kayla, how did he . . . How did he let his brother self-destruct?

“I don’t . . . I don’t know what to say to you right now,” Liam forced out, his voice a pained whisper into a beautiful spring evening.

“Could you just tell me you’ll consider it? Please?” She squeezed his hands in hers, looking up at him with hope and desperation in her gaze, and Liam didn’t know how to say no. Not to her. Not to himself. “I can’t stand the thought of him hurting himself, Liam. I can’t stand it. I’ve tried so hard to love him, to give him everything, and no matter what I do . . . Where did I go so wrong with him, when you’re so good?”

Liam reversed their hands so he was holding hers now. He gave a squeeze. “I’ll see what I can do, all right?”

Mom’s entire face brightened, and she let out another squeaky sob before flinging her arms around him. “Oh, Liam. Thank you. Thank you. I know you can fix this. I know it.”

He wasn’t sure how long those words would haunt him, but he knew they would.

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