The Redemption of Callie & Kayden

but the cranking of the heater and stereo stifle it. As we’re backing away, I realize that I’m not alone in the world. I have a truck full of people who care about me enough to not ask what the fuss was about. One day I’ll give them all hugs for it.
    Kayden starts smoothing his hand down the back of my head and his pulse is beating through his fingertips. He keeps kissing my head and mutters that it’ll be okay. I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or himself.
    When I feel the truck driving down the road, I finally look back at the house. My mom is standing in the middle of the driveway in the snowfall without a jacket or shoes on. She has to be cold, but her face looks red in the dim porch light. My dad’s on the steps, dressed in jeans and his favorite jersey, scratching his head. And Caleb is nowhere to be seen.
    I wish that’s how it always was. I wish he would just disappear and my mom and dad would wave at me from the driveway, letting me live the life I should have had a long time ago.
Kayden
    I can tell she’s worried about me and I’m pretty sure that if we were alone, she’d tell me that we shouldn’t go on the trip. She thinks I’m going to break apart, but the only time I’m not completely broken is when I’m around her. At least that’s what I’m thinking while Luke and I wait for Seth and her to come out of the garage.
    Luke lights up a cigarette as we wait. Neither of us speaks as he inhales and exhales puff after puff and the heater drowns out the chill in the air as he cracks his window.
    “Okay,” he says as he sticks his arm through the open window and ashes the cigarette. “I just want to know one thing.”
    I stare at the garage in front of us and at the headlights lighting up the tire tracks in the snow. “And what’s that?” I ask, unsure if I want to hear his response.
    He puts the end of the cigarette back into his mouth as he tosses the pack onto the dash. He sucks in a deep breath and exhales the smoke as he relaxes back in the seat. “Was it worth it?”
    “Hitting Caleb?” I check without looking at him.
    The smell of smoke gets stronger as he sucks in another lungful. “Yeah.”
    My gaze elevates past the stairway to the upper section of the garage. The light is on inside of the small room and I can see Callie and Seth’s figures moving back and forth in front of the window. I remember what Callie and I did the last time we were up there, how she felt while I was inside her—how I felt.
    “Yes.” It’s a small word that doesn’t really mean anything, yet it does. In fact, I think it means something more than I’m ready to admit to myself.
    He puts the cigarette into his mouth again and the paper withers and glows orange as he sucks in a deep drag. “So… are you doing okay with everything?”
    I drum my fingers on top of the door handle. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
    He clips his fingers around the cigarette and removes it from his mouth, breathing out the smoke and it fills up the cab. “Are you sure… because if you ever need to talk or anything, I’m here.”
    It’s the deepest conversation we’ve had and I think I know why we’re having it. Luke’s older sister, Amy, took her own life. Right after it happened, he got really wasted one night and started crying in front of me, blaming himself because he didn’t notice any signs.
    I nod. “I promise I’m good.”
    Luke and I stay quiet until Callie and Seth come out and I start to relax again. Then all hell breaks loose as the side door to the house swings open.
    “No fucking way,” Luke says as Caleb steps outside. “Shit, Kayden…”
    I’m already climbing out. My fists are balled, adrenaline is thrashing in my body, and I don’t know what I’m going to do. Every emotion I felt that night consumes me again, the good and the bad ones. Caleb sees me and smarts off, adding fuel to the flames raging inside me. I’m about to do something that’ll probably ruin my life forever when Callie throws herself onto me. She keeps begging me to stop, for her, please. But Caleb keeps going, calling her a slut, and I want to kill him. I actually feel it, the need to beat him to death, and for a divided second it’s all a feel, possessed to make it happen.
    Then Callie’s gazing at me with her beautiful blue eyes and she looks like she’s about to cry. She utters six little words that change my life and scar my soul forever.
    “I can’t do this without you,” she whispers, hugging me like I’m