Page 17 of Heartless Heathens

He looked over at my brother and I answered the question he hadn’t asked, “He’ll be fine. He’s probably gonna be out for the whole night after that one.”

Sonny sighed dramatically and put his book down on the chair before rolling up the sleeves of the black button up shirt he wore. He pushed his black hair back and out of his face with his fingers before slipping one leg out of the window in a move that was far too uncivilized for him. Once we were both outside, we turned the flashlights on our phones and headed towards the dark thicket of trees that filled up this corner of the campus.

“This is stupid, why the fuck would she be in the woods? It’s been like three hours dude,” I whined out loud after slapping the fifteenth mosquito off of me.

“Why the fuck was she in Corvin’s room? Why was she all the way out here away from campus? Why is your brother not taking his meds?” He was concerned.

It somehow manifested itself as anger every time for him.

“How the fuck would I know?” I threw my hands up into the air, annoyed that Corvin’s problem was now more mine than his.

It had always been that way though.

We protected each other.

When our mother was killed, I was the last to know.

Corvin thought he was doing me a favor, preserving me from the brutality of it. But Sonny didn’t hesitate, he knew it would carve me open and change everything. He knew it needed to happen. Had he not told me there was a good chance I would have stumbled onto the video of it and fuck, that would have been a worse way to find out. He knew there was no escaping the truth.

That was Sonny’s thing.

He demanded honesty from everyone and he gave it in return.

Omission was as bad as a lie.

I appreciated that about him.

“Shh!” Sonny scolded me with a hiss, “Keep it down.”

“Dude if this chick has been out here for this long, she has turned into an actual mosquito bite, like whole body, just one giant red lump.” I scratched myself aggressively while he headed deeper into the woods.

“Did you hear that?” We both stayed quiet and lowered our flashlights. “This way,” Sonny whispered, following the barely audible cracking of some twigs not too far off.

“It’s probably just an animal,” I whispered back loudly and he mouthed a stern ‘Shut the fuck up’ at me and pointed to a tree.

“It’s clear out here,” Sonny said loudly. “Let’s go back to the chapel,” he exaggerated, laying out his plan for me to follow while he inched closer and closer to the tree.

He pointed me in one direction and he walked in the other and the minute I turned, there she was. It was dark but her silver hair was bathed in moonlight and practically glowing. Those blue orbs blinking back at me were an entire constellation of universes threatening to explode inside her very eyes. She looked rough, wild, and filthy as fuck.

Yet still fucking breathtaking.

Even in the pitchblack of the night I couldn’t deny it.

She bumped against my body with a scream and turned to run in the opposite direction, but Sonny was already standing there, blocking her with his too tall, too rigid, frame. He flashed his light again and she turned back towards me, deciding then that Sonny was not the one she wanted to do battle with.

A wise choice.

“What’s your name?” I asked her again, but she shook her head, staying silent.

“He asked you a question,” Sonny spoke loudly, the authority dripping from his tongue.

“I-I-I,” she stuttered and a hiccup sound came from her. She’d been out here for hours and by the looks of it, she’d spent every second crying.

“We need you to come with us,” I spoke softly, hoping I could convince her without Sonny resorting to some sort of threat.

“W-w-why?” she asked, shaking her head fearfully.

“My brother, he didn’t mean to hurt you,” I started but my words only made her eyes widen and she took a step back from me.