Being Bad

Chapter 70: You Can Never Be Forgiven

Mrs. Greene scoffed. "If she meant a great deal to you, maybe you should've protected her more. I mean, a criminal on the run comes knocking on your door to take your car, why didn't you just drive away?"

"H-He had a gun! I didn't—"

"You should've protected her." Her husband added. "You loved her, right? Why didn't you take the bullet for her?"

"Trust me, I wish I could. B-But it just happened so fast." Andrew's face turned pale as he recalled the events that changed every ounce of who he was. One that turned him from a loving, respectful, and protective man to a cold-hearted, mean-spirited, and over-confident boy.

"I don't believe you." Mrs. Greene raised her voice.

Andrew got up from his spot on the couch. "Look, you don't have to believe me. All I want to say is that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I did to this family. I'm sorry for making you hate me so much. I loved your daughter, very much. In fact, she was the first person I truly loved. You don't have to forgive me for what you think I've done to her, that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to talk with you, respectfully, and to maybe figure out a compromise so that you don't have to live with your hearts filled with hatred and anger."

A tear drew from her eye, silently falling down her wrinkled cheek. "You will never be forgiven. Ever. Not from me, not from my husband, and certainly not from Bellamy."

"I don't expect you to forgive me. I just want you to understand where I'm coming from. I thought you would want to here my side of the story."

"Why should I? My daughters dead, Andrew. Anything you say isn't going to bring her back."

Mr. Greene's eyes were fixated on me, curiously. He tilted his head, analyzing me and most likely wondering what I'm doing here.

I haven't been talking, because I wanted Andrew to vent out his feelings, and to not only recognize them, but understand them too.

"Who is this? Your girlfriend?" Mr. Greene asked with a mean tone.

Mrs. Greene let out a devilish laugh. "Girlfriend? Listen, sweetheart, run while you still can. It might just save your life."

"W-We're just friends." I spoke.

Andrew looked at me, his eyes narrowing. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. He turned to the both of them, sitting back down and locking his hand with mine.

"No. We're not friends." He spoke harshly, and they shut themselves up. "She's my girlfriend and before you make some childish comment about her being my girlfriend, and your daughter dying, just shut up and keep it to yourself. Look, it's a shame that your daughter died, alright. But it wasn't my fault. I blamed myself every waking minute because you drilled some fucked up accusation in my head. I couldn't get what you told me out of my head...until she came along, and told me it wasn't my fault. And you know what? I know it's not my fault. I always protected your daughter, and I would always fight for her. So, stop making me the bad guy, when there was a clearly bigger threat that night, and that threat killed your daughter."

I was in awe. He was so nervous, so scared of how much Bellamy's parents would hate him for that night. He walked in without any confidence, and now that he's heard that her parents are childish and blame everything on him, he doesn't want to take it anymore. And I don't blame him.

He doesn't deserve this burden.

"You think you can speak to my wife that way?" Mr. Greene stood up.

"Why do you hate me so much? Blame me all you want, but Bellamy died almost two years ago. I already told you I tried everything I could. So, why do you hate me? What did I do to deserve this?"