Right Back to You

28. The Biggest Threat

Fortunately, unaware of Macy's threats, the others were cheerful on their way to Joey's uncle's cabin, bantering over how to split the rooms. Finally, given the thin walls of the place, they concluded that it was best for the girls to take the bedrooms and the boys to settle in the living room.

When they got there, it was already dark so they decided to explore the very next day. Kyle was a little unsettled by the sense of longing as Kay headed to one of the bedrooms with Kelly, but the fact that Joey noticed and started laughing at him ended any potential plans for sneaking her out.

"And you were giving me a hard time!" Joey said with an annoying grin.

"Of course I was. You were planning a romantic getaway with two single people one of which was right after a messy breakup."

"Uuuh, that doesn't sound too great," Tom said.

"Yeah, rather insensitive, really," Jimmy added.

"Hey, just because he's your brother, it doesn't mean you have to be on his side!"

It apparently did, because Tom and Jimmy continued to grill Joey about his decision to plan a romantic getaway with Kelly and invite Kyle and Kay along in a house with paper-thin walls.

Kyle just left them to it, impressed by how they could do this even better than him who knew Joey's buttons and how to push them. But at the mention of his newfound relationship with Tom and Jimmy and without Kay to distract him, his mind started going in much darker places. He hadn't gotten to talk to her yet, and, to be honest, he was trying to delay it as much as possible.

Max had been honest with Tom and Jimmy as well and had provided them with two potential theories as to why they'd never known they had a family. Both of them absolved his parents, so Kyle wasn't sure which one he hated more.

The one in which his brothers were taken as revenge or the one in which their parents abandoned them for their own protection.

In what world was being divided better than standing together? The whole thing stirred the darkness inside him and it suddenly felt impossible to be in that room, hear the laughter.

"Kyle, are you okay?" Jimmy asked.

No, he wasn't, but he didn't want to show it either, risk losing it. So he shrugged and got up from his mattress on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm fine. This whole conversation just has me needing to be outside for a while. For old times sake."

"Are you sure?" Tom asked with a frown.

They were very perceptive, the two of them, much more so than Jerry or Sam and it only heightened the anger slowly bubbling beneath his veins. Because he was very aware they had no choice but to be very careful and aware. Harsh life did that. They didn't have the option to be oblivious.

"Leave him to it," Joey said with a wave of his hand. "He does need his alone time."

Yes, he did, and Joey had never been aware why. It was one of the few things Kyle hadn't shared with his best friend. The rage, the lack of control, the possibility for danger. Kay had been the first and only person beside Max to know.

But now, Joey's breeziness suited him, so he just shrugged and walked out. The moment the fresh night air hit his face, the vice inside him seemed to unclench the slightest bit. It was odd how the weight of Max's confession had finally sunk it now.

His feet carried him away from the cabin and towards the lake. The short wooden pier was quickly turning into his go-to place in time of struggle.

He'd come there after he'd first realized he wanted Kay desperately in order to clear his head and replenish his infinite stock of denial.