"I'm coming in with you," Bella insisted from the backseat of my car.
I rubbed my hands over my face, while Liv sat in the passenger side, staring out the window at Cole's house.
"Bella, you can not come in with us. Can you please just tell me your address so I can drop you off after?" I asked, exhaling in frustration, while Bella shook her head and crossed her arms.
"After I go with you to tell them," she said, her eyes locked on me.
She wasn't going to change her mind and I knew it. She had already convinced us to bring her to his house with her, but she was not going to be able to go in.
"Liv, what should I do?" I mumbled. "She can't come in with us, we could get in trouble for this."
Liv looked over to me, the late afternoon sunlight casting a golden warmth over her face.
"Now you care about getting in trouble, after going to the house without asking anyone if it's allowed?" she asked. "We can't leave her in the car alone after everything that's happened."
I stared at his house in defeat. "We should've just told her no."
"I can hear you guys," Bella said from the backseat. "You don't have to treat me like a baby."
"Stay in the car, Bella," Liv said, clearly just trying to please me, as she turned to look back at her. "We won't be long, we just need to inform his parents of what we found out. Then we will drop you off to your dad, okay?"
Bella was quiet for a few seconds, before she sunk back into the seat. "Fine," Bella said while looking down at her lap, clearly irritated.
Liv and I got out of my car, locked it, and walked up the porch to the front door. I felt uneasy - my stomach was twisting as I dreaded telling his poor parents about what really happened to their son.
We knocked, and there was no response. I looked at Liv, before knocking again. We knocked a few more times, until Cole finally opened the door. His hair was messy on his head, his cheeks were flushed and his eyes were tired - it seemed like he had just woken up despite it being nearly four in the afternoon. He didn't have his crutches anymore, either.
His light eyes focused on us, worry striking them. "What is it now?" he asked, his voice raspy.
"Are- Are your parents home?" I asked him, and when he shook his head, I straightened my posture.
"They're out right now. Why?" His thick eyebrows were furrowed as he leaned against the doorway.
"This is just a concern for your parents, do you know when they will be home tomorrow?" I asked, and Cole took a deep breath.
"I don't know, my mom is usually always home and my dad works the whole day," he answered.
"All right, well, have a good night, Cole," I told him, before turning away. I knew it was wrong to not tell him, but he had way too much thrown at him already - I was worried the poor kid wouldn't be able to handle this much.
"No, what happened? Tell me," Cole insisted, his fingers locking around my arm and stopping me from leaving the porch. When I turned to Liv, she shook her head, unsure of what to do as well.
"Cole, I- I'm afraid that-" I started, but Liv cut me off.
"He deserves to know," Liv whispered to me, her eyes narrowing. She then turned to him and asked quietly, "may we come in, Cole?"
It was unprofessional and we knew it. He did have the right to know, though, and I preferred that he heard it from me rather than the news or another source.
Cole slowly moved to the side, allowing us to walk into the small house.
The house was very clean and everything was formally placed, but it didn't contain much furniture. The living room was only lit by a dim lamp on one side of a couch, the main source of illumination being the quickly setting sun, which leaked in through the windows.
I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't tell him this, there was no way.
We sat on the long, maroon couch in his living room, and he sat across from us. I stared at him, while Liv took control of the situation, sensing my discomfort.
"Cole, Sweetie," Liv said, and the second she spoke, my eyes locked on a framed photo on the wall.
Two young boys, one seemed about eight, while the other was just a toddler. I knew it had to be Cole and his little brother. They both had dark hair, and the older boy was hugging the toddler tightly. My heart snapped in my chest.
"Can you tell us what you know about... about what happened to Gio?" Liv finally said, and the second she said it, his demeanor shifted.
His eyes widened for a second, and his lips parted. He looked at me, and my eyes filled with sympathy.
"Why?" he asked, trying to hide the fact that his voice was shaking.
"We can't do this, Liv," I whispered to her, already seeing how upset he got by the question.
"Honey, we don't have to talk about it with you if you don't want to," Liv said, but Cole shook his head.
"He, he was shot," he told us, and I could see his chest rising and falling at a more rapid pace.
"By who?" Liv asked, and Cole stared down at his lap.
"We- we don't know. I think... I thought it was just someone who hated us. I- I don't know," he said, and I ran my hands over my face at the tone of his voice. He sounded so upset, I couldn't even look at him.
"I-" Liv started, but Cole cut her off.
"I was watching him that night," he told us, his voice trembling at this point.
"We know who it was, Honey," Liv told him, and Cole stared at her with red-rimmed eyes.
"Who?" he finally asked after several seconds.
Liv took a deep breath and looked at me, while I just swallowed. "It was Rose."
Cole froze, his eyes locked on the ground as his chest heaved. His hands curled into fists as he looked at Liv.
"Why?" he asked, clearly trying to calm himself. "Why would she do that?"
"She was... she wanted you to herself, she was sick, Cole. She wanted to... she wanted to hurt your mother, but instead, she hit him," Liv explained, and Cole stared with wide eyes at the floor.
"My brother died because of me," he said, and I shook my head.
"Cole, it's not your-" I started, but Cole stood up and walked to his room. I stared at Liv, and we both jumped up to follow him down a small hallway.
My fingers gripped the doorknob as I tried to open the door but it was locked.
"Cole, open the door right now!" Liv said against it, but there was no sound on the other side.
Suddenly, there was a heavy sound that nearly shook the ground, and I rolled my head back. "Oh, God," I said in panic, trying to push on the door as hard as possible.
My heart was racing as I pulled my credit card out and slid it in between the lock and the door, quickly opening it.
When the door finally swung open, Cole was pacing around the room, his chest heaving.
"Stay there," I told Liv, as I walked easily towards him. "Cole, it's just me. Relax, okay?"
"I killed my fucking brother," he said, swallowing hard as I neared closer. "Don't," he told me.
"Cole, stop it, okay? You didn't kill your brother, it wasn't your fault," I told him carefully - he was so on edge, I was worried he was going to do something extreme any second. He wasn't acting like himself.
His fingers slid through his hair, and in a quick movement, he pushed his lamp off the nightstand and onto the ground, making it immediately shatter to the floor. I stared in shock as he moved to hit the wall again, but I quickly grabbed onto him and held him back.
"Let go of me!" he cried out, but I kept a steady grip on him, the blood from his knuckles dripping on the floor. "I hate that fucking bitch, why did she do that?" his voice was breaking.
He swung his arm back and hit me in the stomach, but I ignored the pain and kept my grip on him.
I looked over at the doorway and Liv had disappeared. She better not have been getting Bella.
"Odio quella puttana. Quella donna ha ucciso mio fratello a causa mia," he said, his voice rocky as he tried to move my arms off of him again. "Get the fuck off me!"
I held his arms down, before heavily shoving him up against the wall. I hated having to treat him like this, but it needed to be done.
"Relax, Cole," I tried to ease him, but his eyes were empty as he stared at me, they were lined at the brim with red and filled with tears.
He shoved me off of him with a heavy force, making me fall to the ground. I stood up and I immediately pushed him back up against the wall.
"Cole, stop it," I said through gritted teeth. "This isn't you, Cole, come on, buddy," I tried.
He tried to shove me off again, but I kept his arms pinned against the wall.
Suddenly, Cole stopped resisting. He stared past my shoulder and I followed his gaze to Bella, who was standing at the doorway of his room, with Liv standing behind her.
"Liv, it's not safe, why would you do that?" I asked her. I knew Cole would never want to hurt Bella, but he wasn't in the correct state of mind.
Bella slowly walked towards me. "Let go of him!" Bella yelled at me.
"Bella, go back to Liv," I begged her, but Bella ignored me.
"I'm not scared of him," Bella said to me, continuing to walk closer. She latched onto my arm. "Let go of him, he doesn't need to be held back!"
"I don't care, Bella, go back to Liv," I insisted, but she blatantly ignored me.
Cole swallowed hard and a few tears fell from his eyes. "She killed my brother," Cole told her. My heart broke at his tone.
He seemed to have toned down, so I released my hold on him and Bella walked closer to him, stepping over glass from the lamp.
"I know, Cole," Bella told him carefully.
Bella cautiously walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his torso. He swallowed hard and rested his head against the wall, his chest heaving as Bella noticed the blood dripping from his hand.
Bella seemed to have calm him down, so I backed off a little bit. Liv walked beside me and we watched as Bella comforted Cole.
"He's showing severe signs of PTSD," I said to her, still out of breath from trying to calm him.
"He needs someone," Liv whispered. "He seems to be, mostly, by himself in fighting this."
I nodded, holding my stomach where he hit me minutes before.
"I know," I replied quietly. "We need to figure out what to do with him, before something bad happens."