Page 67 of So Bad It Must Be Good

She laughed. Meanly. She shouldn’t have, she knew it, but this was so utterly ridiculous. “So you have something he doesn’t, and he does drugs and hurts himself? I don’t think so, Liam. That sounds like a very convenient excuse.”

“Maybe it is, Kay. I get that. It’s not like I don’t get that he’s fixated on something that has nothing to do with him for all the wrong reasons, but he’s going to keep being that way until we can get him some help.”

Liam looked so sad, and it poked at her that she wasn’t being more sympathetic. He wanted to help the people he loved, and was that really so awful? “What can I do?”

He took a deep breath, because clearly Liam had some plan and he wanted her help, and maybe if she helped . . . Well, she had nothing against Aiden. She didn’t think he was a very good brother, but maybe he did need help, and if she could do that . . . Well, it would make Liam happy, and wasn’t that what she really wanted?

“If Aiden thinks we’re not together, it might calm him down enough for us to convince him to seek some professional help. Just for a little while. We’d stay apart, but we can still talk. It’d just be like . . . a long-distance relationship. For a little while. Until we can convince him to get some help.”

It was a blow. Kayla had always known words could hurt, could knock you back a few paces, but this . . . She had to blink at the sudden stinging in her eyes, swallow at the nauseating roll of her stomach. “You want to pretend like we broke up, and basically act like we broke up. Actually be apart.” She didn’t bother to keep the hurt out of her voice. This hurt.

“Just for a little bit.” He stepped toward her but she moved away and shook her head and he stopped.

“How long?” she demanded.

“What? I don’t . . .”

“A week? A month? A year?”

“It wouldn’t be a year.”

She shook her head, hugging herself tighter. “But maybe a few months?”

“I can’t predict . . . I know it seems harsh, but if he’s really threatening to hurt himself... My dad is having surgery tomorrow. And if it doesn’t work . . . My family is barely holding on right now, okay? I need to do what I can.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

He blinked, whether surprised by the sharpness of her tone or surprised he didn’t have a good answer for that, she didn’t know. Maybe she didn’t care.

“Of course I believe that,” he said, his voice rough and baffled. “Look, maybe you don’t understand because you don’t have a close-knit family, but—”

“Close-knit my ass, Liam. You have a family who treats you like dirt, and news flash, no amount of fixing things is going to change that.” It was harsh, and too much, but she was just so angry and hurt and...

How could he think this was okay? How could he think it was his duty to fix a jackass who blamed his own brother’s happiness for his problems?

She’d spent her life reining in her temper and trying to keep people from seeing her hurt, but she was done with that. She wasn’t going to be the sacrifice Liam made for his family, even if that meant she had to walk away.

* * *

Liam was frozen. Kayla’s words hurt, but in a way he couldn’t have predicted. Like some kind of truth cutting its way down to his very soul.

Except it was bullshit. Of course his family cared, and they didn’t treat him like dirt. She was witnessing an extreme case, but it hadn’t always been like this, and it wouldn’t always be.

If they got Aiden help things would be different. He had to believe that. “I’m not explaining this right, clearly.”

“Or you could consider the possibility that you’re just wrong.”

She was standing there, her eyes shiny with tears, and he knew she didn’t understand, because if she understood, she wouldn’t be hurt like this. And that was on him, her hurt. He’d messed this up, but he could fix it. He just had to find the right combination of words and he could fix it.

“Okay, how about this?” She swallowed, still hugging herself so tight. He should be the one hugging her. But she wouldn’t let him. “Take a second to imagine years down the road. Let’s say we got married. Maybe even had kids.”

Every word she said felt like a dagger. This even more so than what had come before because it was all too easy to picture. A future with Kayla. A family of his own. Something he’d never spent much time thinking about.

He didn’t think about the future. There always seemed to be so many problems in the here and now to fix, he never thought about what might come next.

“Then let’s say, suddenly Aiden decides your life is better and he’s going to harm himself because of it. I’m supposed to believe you’d stick around that time when you’re not sticking around this time?”

“Don’t insult me like that. I would never . . .” Why was she talking about a future when they had to get through the present first?

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