An Explanation

A loud knocking sends me flying to my feet. The sound of my mothers footsteps are nearly drowned out by Cerberus' barking and scratching at the front door.

The door opens and after a few exchanges of voices, I hear my mother call out to me, "Alina, Knox and his siblings are here to see you!" My mother says something else to them then shuts the door.

I gulp down my fear of whatever is about to happen and make my way upstairs. Cerberus jumps up to me as I reach for the handle and my mother has already fled to her room. Opening the door, I see a pissed off Keita with a worried Knox and Afia behind him. I smile faintly with my eyes closed and greet them, "What's up?"

"Don't 'what's up?' me," Keita growled. "Are-"

I cut him off, "Do you guys want to take Cerberus for a walk with me?" I hold up Cerberus' leash and smile wider. I'd rather my mother not know that I'm dating someone who is 100% cheating on me. I do not want her to get involved, she will just ruin the revenge plan.

Knox places his hand on Keita's shoulder as I put the leash onto Cerberus, they understand why I'm trying to not have the conversation here. Cerberus barrels out the door and nearly tackles Afia to the ground. Keita then turns to me again once we get further away from my place, still furious, "What did Zack do to you?"

I snap Knox a look, what did he tell Keita? Turning my attention back to Keita I smile and say, "Nothing, I just wasn't feeling good is all."

"Then why were you crying?" Knox raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. "You mean to tell me that it has nothing to do with Zack."

Cerberus starts pulling and I hand Afia the leash so she can go play with him. They run off towards a park and Cerberus rolls in the snow while Afia throws snowballs at him. I turn back to Knox and give him a sour look, "Stay out of it okay? You said I made a mistake!" And I did, but I'm not going to tell you that.

"I'm not going to stay out of it if my brother's best friend is crying because she's dating a fucking fuck boy!" Keita snaps in before Knox could respond. It looks like he wants to grab me by the collar and yell at me even louder, but he manages to control himself.

"Why do you fucking care what I'm doing?" I shout at him, Afia laughs faintly in the distance and Knox's face turns sour.

"Because-" Keita starts but Knox cuts him off, nearly slamming a fist into his gut.

"Because I'm being a nightmare without you," A tear rolls out from his dark brown eyes, sparkling in the sunlight.

"He hasn't stopped crying," Keita pokes fun at him with a smirk. "He's like a little baby."

"Says the guy that ran all the way here after hearing about her crying," Knox twitches, glaring at his older brother.

"At least I have the balls to go and check up on her!" Keita shouts louder, both of them start giving each other an unbreaking death stare.

"At least I can control my anger and I don't burst out to her place after hearing about her crying," Knox adds, it's starting to seem like they've completely forgot that I'm here.

"I guess that that just means I care about her more," Keita grins and Knox goes silent. Breaking the stare and looking over to me, almost like he's worried about how I'll react.

Now that I think about it, the most he's been doing was looking sad and talking to me that one time. He's never messaged me or even came over to ask how I was doing. Sure I probably would've sent him away more early on but at least it would remind me that he actually cares about me. In fact, we probably would've been much closer by now if he were to actually check up on me or even try.

"Alina, I," Knox starts, but it's already too late.

I raise my hand in front of me to silence him, "Don't." His eyes soften and he looks heartbroken. But I don't let up, the rage inside of me starts to heat up once more, "You never even bothered to come over and check up on me, or even so as send me a fucking message!"

"Stop!" Afia cuts in, Cerberus sits obediently by her side, panting. We all stop and turn to her, she doesn't seem pissed off, but she does seem like she's had enough. "Can you guys just stop and talk to each other for a minute without getting pissed off?" In complete shock, we all glance at each other then back to her. She points to me first, "Alina, you made a mistake. You know that and I know the plan you and that girl came up with."

"Wait, what?" Knox and I say in unison.

She points to Knox and he gulps, "Knox, if you cared about her then you would have spoken to her! I know you wanted to and I know you didn't because you were afraid of her being even more pissed at you. But if you really wanted to make sure that she was okay, then you would've at least tried to speak to her." Well, I guess that I probably should've reached out to him as well. I did want to talk to him after all, he's not the only one to blame. Knox scratches the back of his neck and then Afia moves onto Keita. "Dude, stop hitting on your brother's girl, she's fifteen."

"You say that like I'm a thirty-year-old creep!" Keita shouts in shock. "I'm not even eighteen yet!"

"But you're still older than her!" Afia rebuts with her arms crossed.

Before Keita can add anything else, Knox interrupts, "Hey, what did you mean by a plan that Alina and a girl came up with?"

Instead of explaining it, I also ask, "How do you know about the plan?"

"I was in the bathroom when you two were talking about it," She immediately responds, then turns to Knox. "Alina already knows that she made a mistake with Zack and one of Zack's friends is helping her get revenge on behalf of all the other girls."

Thinking about it, I probably should've stopped her before she told the boys my plan, but I didn't. Adding, I say, "I even caught him cheating on me just last night. Literally the minute after I left."

"I'm-" Keita starts but Afia immediately stops him.

"You are not going to kill him," Afia punches him.

Before he can retaliate, I place my hand on his shoulder and smile brightly, "Keita, look at me." He gazes towards me, softening once he meets my eyes. "I'm fine, I've got this all under control."

"But-" He tries.

"No buts," I cut him off and shake my head, still smiling joyfully. They really do care about me, I should've told them everything much sooner. I should've fixed the distance between Knox and I much sooner. "Go workout or something, you seem in the perfect mood to do so."

Keita finally returns my smile then walks off, Afia hands me Cerberus and follows him. Leaving Knox and I by ourselves. "Alina, I'm sorry." He speaks too quickly for me to cut him off.

"There's something I need to ask of you," He's taken aback for a moment with a worried look, but then relaxes and gives me a nod. "I can't be seen with you."