Stepping Forward

It's nothing-- Quinton, explained it to me already."

He raises his eyebrows, "Really?" Aquila folds his arms over his chest, "What did he say?"

He said that the reason why you received a call from your parents-- that day was because your high school entry test scores weren't your own-- and that's why your parents punished you. By sending you to reform school in Europe." He unfolds his arms and laughs in my face. My eyebrows raise, my eyes become disks and my mouth is slightly open. Shutting my mouth closed, turning my back towards him. His boisterous laughter stops bellowing and I suddenly feel warmth surrounding my shoulders. "I'm sorry," he says

While placing his head in the crook of my neck. I step back to turn around and face him. Aquila then straightens himself out, "I'm sorry for laughing. I just wasn't expecting you to believe that." My right eyebrow raised, "I thought that you would've called him out on his bullshit." I roll my eyes and turn away from him. Grabbing a plate and serving spoon; putting food on both plates. I turn around to face Aquila, giving him his plate. "Let's sit down and talk about this." moving my head up to point to the couch for him to sit down. As I turn around to share out my food, he sits down on the couch.

Carrying my plate of food, plopped myself next to him on the couch. "You know the chili is really good."

A smile finds its way to my face, "Thank you— now as you were saying about Quinton when you were laughing at me."

He gives me a tap on the shoulder, "You still got your panties in a twist about that?"

Placing my plate of food on my lap, folding my arms over my chest, and shifting my eyes to his; with my lips in a thin line.

Putting his food on his lap, while grabbing my hands, turning me around to face him, "I'm sorry." He pauses for a moment, "For what it's worth, that side death glance of yours works every time." He then goes for his infamous one-sided smile.

"And your one-sided smile works every time."

"I knew you would come around. He said as he lifted his hand to my chin, lightly grazing it with his thumb. The both of us continue to eat the chili.

We finish the rest of dinner in silence. As I'm about to get up from off the couch to put our dishes in the sink. Aquila grabs my arm for me to sit down. I quirk my eyebrow, "Well— are we going to be addressing the elephant in the room?"

Both of his eyebrows rose, "Yes. But you might want to sit back on the couch."

My eyebrows furrow as I push myself further onto the couch.

"You see, Quinton lied to you. As you know— I was with you during that time." Aquila and his one-sided smile, the heat rises to my cheeks. Aquila and I managed to skip science class by hanging out on the second floor of the abandoned auditorium after dating for six months. He wanted to tell me his feelings. The three words, "I love you."

After sharing his feelings for me, staring longingly into each other's eyes, getting closer and closer, until our lips lightly touched each other. My heartbeat is thumping in my chest, as our lips move against each other and become more deep and passionate. I think to myself, reminiscing about that day.

Drawing me out of my thoughts, taking a real good look at his face, he has a full-on smile on his face. Licking his bottom lip, 'Stop okay! You're with his brother.' My mind yells at me, 'I know, but he's got the whole soft eye-- gosh he's such a tease.' My eyebrows are raised, "Do you mind?"

A chuckle escapes from his lips, "What?" I roll my eyes, fold my arms over my chest and my lips turn paper-thin. Another chuckle escapes from his mouth, "You think I'm trying to tease you?"

"Says the man who wasn't trying to have a make-out session with me in front of my door," he says while his eyes move slowly to my lips.

"Just picking up where we left off at the last time we were together."

"That's beside the point, wise guy." His eyes move back to my eyes. "Anyway," he says, I guess he's trying to get back to the story. "We weren't the only ones who were skipping science class that day. Any guesses who that might be?"

"Well, I would assume that to be your brother."

"Correct," he says while pointing his finger at me. Aquila continues to say, "We'll remember, Aimee Weiss. The chick who had that incident in the bathroom."

My eyebrows furrow, "Whoa! There was an accident in the bathroom?"

"Yeah. Surprised?"

"Yeah, during that time Aimee was sitting next to me in homeroom--"

A realization came to me as I moved forward on the couch. "So the incident in the bathroom is the reason why she was out of school?"

Aquila nods his head.

"Holy hell. Do you know what happened to her?"

"Yes. My brother."

I shake my head, to get out of my thoughts of Aquila and that night. The night I found out everything, that Quinton lied to me about that day. Sitting on my couch, with my knees bent close to my chest as if it's something precious. 'Seeing Quinton today was so unexpected. You see he never went to prison for the death of his twin brother. That was his brother, I never once thought that he would kill Aquila over me-- just to get rid of him, over me. It's shocking how he got away with committing such a crime and then buying my word to never tell a soul about what happened. It's just not right, no matter how I look at it.' I get up off the couch to make myself some dinner, shaking my head, 'I can't believe that since I've been home sitting on the couch reminiscing is all I've managed to do.' More than that I want to make things right-- make sure that Quinton gets it for Aimee and Aquila his brother-- it's the only thing that I have over him. But it's a game I can't play with him, since…' my thoughts drift off and I can see Aquila's eyes open, throat cut barely hanging on like a broken doorknob and his body mangled all up to the point of not recognizing him. That handsome one-sided smile, I'll never see it again, his eyes I'll never see them full of life again.

As I stand in my kitchen, the water begins to swell up in my eyes, blinking them to keep from falling and the waterworks are falling. I broke down in the kitchen by the stove. I know that it's Quinton's fault, but he was trying to keep me safe and that killed him. So if I must say, I blame myself for what happened to Aquila and I want nothing more than to move past the past and move forward with my life. The very life he tried to save.