Page 2 of Three Little Words

“C’mon, Bryan. It’s what we’re supposed to do. Mom wanted us to stick together, and—”

“Don’t talk to me about Mom.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Uh… no, you need to hear about Mom. Sorry. You know she wanted us to stay close and look after each other, Bryan.”

“Yeah, well, if that’s what she wanted, she shouldn’t have died.”

My jaw dropped.

It wasn’t like our mom had chosen to have a heart attack.

I wanted to slap him, as hard as I could.

God, but Mom would have hated that.

“You shut your mouth, Bryan.” I shook my head, rising. “You don’t talk about our mom like that!”

“Oh my god, Bryn, calm down! It’s true, though!”

He rose as well, unsteady on his feet.

Asshole.

I shook my head, tilted up to look at him. “Mom didn’t just decide to die on us, Bryan! I’m pretty confident that she would rather be alive than dead!”

“Yeah, well, she’s gone. She’s fucking gone.”

“And she wanted me to make sure you didn’t do stupid shit like join a motorcycle gang!”

“It’s not—it’s not a gang! And you’re not suddenly my mom just because she died!”

It was definitely a gang. The King’s Devils were notorious around here, and I wasn’t going to let Bryan think anything else.

“They kill people. They kill people! And they deal drugs, and get into fights with other gangs, and—”

“So what? It’s what I want!”

“You want to kill people?”

“No—” Bryan threw his hands up, groaning. “I want to have friends!”

“These people aren’t going to be your friends.”

“Oh my god, Bryn, will you just—just shut up already?”

“No. Because you’re going to get yourself killed if you fall in with them!”

“You don’t know that. If you would just give them a chance, Bryn—”

“I don’t want to give them a chance!”

Silence fell between us.

It felt like it lasted for hours.

Finally, Bryan shook his head. He turned away from me.

“Fuck you, Bryn,” he said, storming down the hall.

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