Yin & Yang

The End

Annette P.O.V

          “There are probably a million things I could say about Annette that would tell you about her character; most of them good, but let’s be honest, a lot of them bad.” Adam smirks at the truth of his words and the whole class giggles along with him in agreement, while I try to look as angry as possible behind my playful smile.

          It’s the last day of school and that means our final project for psych is due; the human observation. I had only gotten out of the hospital a few weeks ago and the principal told me that I could always finish my courses over the summer, but I am not a quitter. Not anymore.

          With much persuading of my doctors and mother, I managed to convince them to allow me to attend the last two weeks of school if I promised to take it easy.

          And take it easy I had.

          Aside from going to school five hours a day, all I did was lay around the house watching old 80’s movies and forcing Adam to drive anywhere I wanted to get me take-out. And the surprising thing? He did. Without complaints. In fact, Adam has waited on me hand-and-foot ever since I got out of the hospital even when I begged him not to. Which was a lot because it was starting to creep me out.

          I think he still feels guilty about pretty much everything that has happened to me. He doesn’t come out right and admit to it even when I ask, but I can always see it, barely veiled in his brown eyes. I see it whenever he catches a glimpse of the scars on my back. I saw it when I first got out of the hospital and had to take a two minute break to catch my breath halfway up the stairs. I even saw it when Ava would come over with pizza and we would all sit and watch a movie. I can always see the guilt butting its way in.

          But, that’s the thing about guilt; it’s a loyal friend. Even when you don’t want it to, it will always be there for you; always in the back of your mind to remind you of you wrongdoings whenever it pleases.

          And Adam’s most recent cause for guilt?

          He finally knows that my mother was the one to kick me out of the house -that I hadn’t left voluntarily. This fact; this one statement that I have been trying to hide for years finally came around to bite me in the ass when he went to court to testify against Rob.

          I actually didn’t go, because I had already made my statement in a separate hearing and because I honestly don’t think I would have been able to see him again without wanting to lunge across the room and strangle him. But, Adam was there with Ava and Cynthia.

          That’s how the truth came out; they asked Cynthia for the full story and she finally admitted her biggest sin after all these years. That not one day after my brother’s funeral, she kicked me out of the house and sent me across the country to live with some uncle I had never met.

          I could only imagine Adam’s face when he heard the news. When he heard that his only reason for resenting me, for not coming after me, and for wasting so much time being angry with me was a lie all along.

          Let’s just say he feels worse than Billy Ray probably did after Miley’s VMA performance.

          And he wasn’t even angry at me for never telling him the truth, just sad. Sad and guilty that he wasted so much time hating me when he had no reason to. I keep telling him that I’m at fault for not wanting to throw my mom under the bus, but he doesn’t listen. He never does. Which is precisely what I said when in my presentation about him.