Keifer's pov:
Every voice echoed....
All of us had tears in our eye. I didn't let mine fall, bcoz I knew there is more secret left. She didn't tell me entirely. I saw the way she pause, the way she stammered. I observed.
Mid-way while explaining Oliver, Olivia and Damien went to kitchen. No one questioned.
He walked like he owned the house.
After we the entire backstory was finished.
Oliver finally came out. Jay sniffed.
We didn't smell anything. But she did.
But I wasn't noticing any of that. I wanted to hug her every moment she started revealing. I didn't want to let her go out of my embrace.
Percy got up. He wasn't Joking like he always used to. He was abt to jump and hug Jay.
But she moved like a bolting light towards the dining table.
grabbing a blueberry muffin from the counter, Percy was standing there clutching himself, hugging thin air to cover up the embarrassment of being stood up by his little sister.
We all blinked. Eventually
Section E being Section E
JAY WHAT ABT US
YEAH...
WE ALSO NEED SOME
SHARE WITH US
WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS RIGHT?
PLEASE JAY
JAY-JAY
She didn't answer she just kept munching hand protectively holding the other 8 muffins
" This is a secret recipe muffins created by Julian's parents so ask him not me" she said while munching
I didn't ask for it. I just stood there. My hands clenched with pure fear.
( Hey guys a small mistake in one of my previous chapter. DOH and F4 are not present when the past was being explained)
I walked away from the fernandez mansion. I took keiran and keigan with me.
I knew section E were pretending not to care—
Section E and I know that Jay hates it when we treat her like a broken glass.
I drove to my house—
Keigan and Keiran went to their room—
I drank
A lot
5 bottles, 10 bottles?
I did not count.
Bcoz all I could remember was Jay's voice and how everytime she hid her pain with he smile. And what hurts me the most was I was no there but.... We didn't even know each other. And thinking abt Oliver something in my chest tightens. I didn't like it. I knew he and Jay are best friends they will choose each other.
pero.... I hated the fact that he knew more abt her than I do.
**********************************
Author's pov:
The revelation didn't hit Keifer like a wave, it hit him like a frost.
The air in the room died. As he still imaged every single words as it left from her mouth—quiet, jagged things—the world she had lived in suddenly bled into his. He didn't move. He didn't even blink. He just felt a hollow, metallic stillness settle into his marrow.
He laughed. took a another sip of alcohol.
He closed his eyes. His mind kept replaying happy face behind the pain she kept hiding. He felt left out. He felt like he didn't bother to her. Even though he knew Jay loved him. He closed his eyes tightly.
His throat tight, His hand gripping the bottle even tighter.
But looking at her, the rage turned to an Ache.
He saw the invisible weight she'd been carrying while he'd been worried about something. He felt the crushing guilt of every time he'd missed a flinch or ignored a silence. He wanted to reach back through time and stand in a doorway that had been closed for years.
He knew that his pain was nothing compared to us.
The words didn't just land, they took root.
Every syllable she'd whispered began to loop, a jagged skipping record inside his skull. The stepfather's name. The specific, quiet horrors. The details didn't fade—they sharpened until they were all he could hear.
The ticking clock in his room, his own breathing—all drowned out by the rhythmic, haunting playback of her voice breaking.
He felt a physical pressure build behind his eyes, a frantic, internal screaming. Each repetition was a fresh strike of a hammer. He began to see her past in the flickering shadows of the room, replaying every time he'd seen her flinch and called it "tiredness."
He squeezed his eyes shut, but the words were written on the back of his eyelids. He wanted to roar just to break the frequency, to shatter the sound of her pain with his own rage.
Tears streaming down....
As he spoke to the cold room where no one was present but....
Only him and the bottles of alcohol.
"I'm sorry Jay..." He murmured as tears falling down heavier from his eyes than he had expected.
Each word of her felt like he was getting stabbed. Each pain of hers were felt like his.
He hated himself that Jay chose him even after how he had hurt her.
But... at the same time he was happy she stayed beside him. She chose to forgive him. She chose to.... love him.
And that made his heart twist in pain more.
He laughed at himself. Not happily
But pathetically.
"I'm sorry Jay, I should have known and this time I won't leave your side for a single second" A slow tear slid down his face as he said that to the cold room and closed his eyes.
But that warm tear was wiped away by a thumb. He opened his eyes...
" I know you won't keifer.... I trust you and I love you. I chose you."
He stared at her blank.
With different emotions.
Fury
Sadness
Pity
range
His emotions were no longer describable.
He hugged her.
Tight.
Like she was a glass that would break with even one small mistake or even if he looked away just for a second. He stayed in her embrace.
He felt safe with.....Her
They both needed each other.
" I love you Jay until scientist find the end of the universe and beyond" he murmured
His breath shallow and uneven....