So I start looking everywhere and finally find it in the hallway closet. So I go to get it, but it’s not in the storage closet. “Anyway, Kayden’s panicking and yelling at me to get the broom from the storage closet.

It was a fucking cup, right?” He exhales loudly and I notice that his hands have a slight tremble to them. I remember when it happened, Kayden flipped out. Not on purpose, but still the fucking cup was broken and that’s all that mattered. The intensity in his liquid brown eyes carries the severity of what he’s about to tell me. He pulls off his gloves, balls them up, and puts them into the pocket of his jacket. I want to know why he thinks his mother is crazy, but the tension in his jawline is an indicator not to ask. I didn’t get it, until the first time I stayed over at his house.” Mine was a fucking shithole and my mother’s fucking crazy. I always thought it was weird because he wanted to stay at my house and not his. “You know, I remember when we were kids and Kayden used to sleep over at my house all the time. Luke kicks off his other skate, then relaxes back in the bench and crosses his arms. I know the pain that causes that kind of silence way too well. I’m breathless, not just because of the idea of Kayden’s father stabbing him, but because Kayden hasn’t said anything and it aches to think about what his silence could mean. “I think it might have been his dad.” Saying it aloud changes everything, makes it real, true.

But I don’t believe that he stabbed himself. I didn’t think about it at the time, but they could have been track marks from self-inflicted injuries. Part of me does, whenever I think about that night when Kayden and I had sex and there were all those fresh wounds on his arms. Grabbing the gap between the blade and the bottom of the skate, he slips off his skate, tosses it to the side, and stretches out his toes. “That’s what everyone’s saying-that he cut himself.” “Yeah.” I press my lips together, thread my finger through the laces, and begin to unfasten them. “Did you hear what I asked? About Kayden?” “Earth to Callie.” Luke waves a hand in front of my face and I flinch. She didn’t follow me and I wasn’t surprised.

The redemption of callie & kayden