Keegan reached for a pan and began mixing three eggs vigorously.

"You're in love with your high school girlfriend?" she repeated.

Curtis looked at her like he was completely lost, he closed his laptop.

"Why am I telling you any of this again?" he asked, and she shrugged.

There's been a lot of unexpected moments in my life recently, I'm just kind of taking it all into stride now, if you could just expand on what has made you come to this realisation"

She wanted to laugh at how very odd this was, here she was making eggs while a crying boy who she couldn't heal was in the side room and Curtis was looking like he wanted to spill the contents of his heart out to her. Keegan poured oil into the pan and then added her eggs relishing in the sizzling sound this brought.

"You cook?" Curtis asked, temporarily distracted.

"I cook" she confirmed, "Now who is this girl?"

He looked vulnerable and she didn't think she liked that, Curtis was never vulnerable.

"When I was in high school I wasn't really how I am now. Your probably going to struggle to picture this because everyone thinks I'm the type of guy who was on the chess team and didn't have much friends. But you could say that high school was somewhat the glory days for me, I was on the school football team and believe it or not, I was rarely seen without my girlfriend Ana on my arm, we were inseparable." He sighed deeply.

"Keegan, I don't know what our Mother has told you and I always try and keep to myself, but the childhood I had was less than idyllic, you might feel like she pays little attention to you, but at your age that would have been my dream, to be able to do as I pleased without her breathing down my neck all the time. People said I was going big places, possibly a scholarship, but definitely going somewhere and I arrogantly believed them. I thought that somehow I could actually get it all, that I could break free of the life that Mum had planned out for me. And then my Father got into his accident, and it was all over for the golden boy. I mean you should've seen the look of almost relief on Mum's face when he kept deteriorating, he no longer fit into her logical life, so he was disposable."

Keegan felt a shiver run through her, they had never talked about this. They never really talked full stop, every word he said was a revelation to her. She had always thought that Curtis's Father must have been the true love of her Mother's life, that she'd chosen to settle with Graham Tate because she would rather be with someone she didn't truly love than be alone, it made sense. But now it seemed she was just a cold woman, who hadn't really felt much and had definitely let down her son. Silently she prayed in her head to whoever could possibly be listening that she managed to break this cycle, that she didn't become someone devoid of emotion who lived life out of default. She knew where his story would end, August Peterson had died after having multiple strokes, and Curtis had gone from someone who could've probably been capable of so much more to a man who seemed to rob a room of joy.

Curtis stared blankly ahead and she could tell that he was lost in thought. People were so very complex, in her mind her older brother had morphed from untouchable to broken in a way she had never quite understood. She realised with a start that it was probably the first time she had thought of him as her brother, in her head he was always Curtis. August must have been the balance, the kind of Dad who could keep his son sane with an overbearing Mother like hers.

"When my Dad died I thought the universe was telling me that I may aswell give up, he was the one who supported me, who put his foot down for me every time at dinner table arguments, she was all I had and there was no point thinking about pursuing a career in football, she always got her way and she would end up getting it again. My circle of friends slowly disintegrated as I stopped coming to practice, said no to every single invite, didn't pick up any of my calls and still Ana stayed, still she was there whenever I needed her no matter how badly she was treated. I think she thought it was a phase, that true love meant you stuck by someones side. But I never seemed to come out of that phase, and banking meant I had to travel all of the time, one day I received a job offer for half a year in Singapore, I took it without even telling her and changed my phone number, I haven't spoken to her since."

He turned to her with tears in his eyes. It was like watching the disintegration of a stone statue. Keegan saw smoke rising from the pan and cursed aloud, she'd completely forgotten about those damned eggs.

"I thought you could cook" Curtis said wryly as she began scraping the blackened eggs into the bin.

"And I thought you were heartless, guess we both proved each other wrong today."

He smiled, just briefly and she felt a stab at her heart seeing how much of a difference a smile made to his face.

"This might sound crazy Curtis, but you've explained that to me in around five minutes and you haven't spoke to Ana in..."

"Five hundred and sixty-four days" he replied quickly and she raised her eyebrows.

"You haven't spoken to her in that long, but you're sure that you love her. I'm not saying it's as simple as just calling her and seeing if she is willing to talk to you, but it's kind of that simple."

He shook his head.

"She deserves better, she's probably moved on with her life and doesn't need me back in it."

Keegan opened her mouth to reply, but Noah had entered the kitchen. It was strange how yesterday she couldn't have named one person in the world who she would have a real conversation with, and now there were two of them, both standing in the same room. Curtis signalled that their conversation was over by turning his back to her, busying himself with the mug cupboard, even though there wasn't really anything to arrange.

"I'll be in my office, taking some calls, you can both help yourselves to whatever, when I'm done maybe we can discuss what we do next."

He left and she inwardly sighed, she didn't know if the next time they spoke he would be back to the old Curtis. She hoped not, it had been nice feeling like she wasn't as alone in her family as she'd always thought.