Page 118 of Healed
The door swung open and Brandt, his face unreadable, stood there facing him, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for Remi to speak his piece.
“I’m sorry for the interruption, but there was no other way to get in contact with you.”
“I understand,” Brandt said.
“I won’t take up too much of your time. I’m here to apologize. I owe you and everybody else an apology for my behavior, for my lack of control and for my disrespect. I will be eternally ashamed of the way I treated you and everyone else in our clan. There are no excuses for my actions. I was weak. I was jealous. I was petty. I can’t make it go away, and I can’t make things like they used to be. But I’m here to tell you that I deeply regret everything I caused, and I own my own actions. I do not ask for forgiveness, I ask for you to hear me, and to allow me to make amends in anyway, at any time you might choose, to balance the behavior I’ve exhibited.”
Brandt stood there, his posture still the same, but something had softened in his face.
“What are your plans?” Brandt asked.
“I’ve asked my parents for the use of my old room for a little while until I can get my own place, and start to rebuild me. I’ll be overseeing the homeless shelter my Dad is spearheading at the back of the industrial park. A lot of the people we hope will take advantage of it, don’t have anyone to come hunt them down and make sure they’re okay, like my parents did me. I think it’ll make a big difference. I don’t expect anyone to have much faith in me, but hopefully they’ll see my actions and know that I’m sincere. You being included in the ‘they’.”
“What happened?” Brandt asked.
“I was an asshole,” Remi said.
Brandt laughed. “No, I mean to bring you here today.”
“Cristie. Bailey called her, she drove down here and found me in exactly the spot we’re putting the shelter and gave me a look at yourself and what you have become talk. It was a wakeupcall. And I’m not afraid to admit that coming from anybody else, I probably wouldn’t have heard the message.”
“Where is she now?” Brandt asked, glancing down at Remi’s car.
“Home. She said she was glad that she’d achieved what she came for, and she was happy to go home knowing that I’d be here, working to be the man she knows I am.”
Brandt’s brows raised in surprise. “That’s… rough.”
“I didn’t expect any more than that. At least she cared enough to come try to help. And look, I’m not here to ask for favors or anything of the sort. I’m here to apologize, genuinely, and tell you how bad I feel for the situation I created.”
“Why don’t you come in, let’s talk some,” Brandt said, stepping to the side to give Remi access.
“Tempest?”
“She’s resting for now. She won’t mind you being here. She’s been worried. We both have.”
“Okay,” Remi said, following Brandt into his house.
“You hungry?” Brandt asked.
“No, please, no. My mother has been feeding me for two days straight. I’m gonna be fat,” Remi said.
Brandt laughed. He looked at Remi, then covered the few feet between them and hugged him roughly. “Hardest damn thing I ever had to do, Remi. Fucking hurt, man.”
Remi nodded. “Yeah, I know. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just so fucking blind and so lost, resentful and petty. I was…” Remi sighed, then shrugged, “fucked up and feeling sorry for myself. And then I was just broken. I’m trying to rebuild me, though. It’s like starting over from square one.”
“You still got your house here.”
Remi shook his head. “You keep it. I feel like I have to go a different way somehow.”
“You’re part of this clan, Remi. The whole point in me giving you an ultimatum was to try to snap you out of whatever it was you were going through. I never thought you’d actually leave.”
“I can see that now. I could see it at the time, but it just pissed me off even more that you were so magnanimous when I was being such a prick.”
Brandt shook his head. “So, now what?”
“Went to town this morning. Closed my old bank account, opened another. My parents fronted me a little money until I get my first check. I got a new phone. Got a job at the new homeless shelter. Never done anything like it, but I feel like I need it at the moment. Going to get a little place of my own, find a balance inside me and figure out what’s next.”
“You’ll always have a place here.”
