Axel was a silent watcher. I usually wasn't—I'd express my thoughts before I was halfway into a movie, like how I felt character A's temper was going to impact the plot, or how character B's romantic interest was going to turn out to be the wrong person for him—but today, I found myself keeping quiet, watching the boy next to me like he was in a display case.

I caught him every time he smiled at something one of the actors said (even though it was supposed to be a horror movie), and I could literally count the number of times he took a sip of his juice.

I knew I was being creepy, and I didn't know if he noticed how much I was staring at him, but it was the only thing I could do. My distracted mind was busy giving me silly excuses like you're just trying to think of a conversation starter, and it's totally normal for you to stare. Everyone does that. But I knew I was only trying to stall.

Call me stupid, but I wasn't sure I wanted the night to end, even though Axel hadn't looked at me in minutes. If I brought up my sister now, the mood would change, and I wouldn't be able to see where this goes.

Thirty minutes into the movie, though, I started to itch. Questions were burning at the back of my tongue, their flames licking at my throat and threatening to cut it open, and nervous sweat started to form on my neck and forehead. It was getting late, I had to talk to Axel, no matter how tempting it was to pretend this was a very normal hangout, and I knew that if I chickened out now, I'd lose my opportunity for good.

So, after giving myself a pep talk and running a plan around my head three times, I pulled my feet up so they were on the sofa, and inched closer to Axel.

Then I did the craziest thing I'd done that day—I placed my head on his shoulder and snuggled even closer, inhaling the smell of his deodorant.

I felt him move a little, but he didn't say anything about my new position.

Just react, Axel. Just react.

He smelled fresh, sweet but not girly, and it would've been so easy for me to just give up on the plan and enjoy this moment, but I had to stay focused.

Control is key.

Axel moved so he was sitting straighter, then released a breath that almost sounded nervous before asking, "What's on your mind?" His voice was gentle, the opposite of the movie playing.

I reached up to tuck away a rogue strand of hair that had managed to get out of my ponytail, and when I put my hand down, it landed in his on the sofa. I held my breath, wondering when his hand got there, waiting for his fingers to move, but nothing happened. My hand just remained in his warm one, tingling weirdly.

I gently pulled my hand away, then lifted my head from his shoulder so I could look at him as I spoke. Surprisingly, his eyes were already on me. "I've been thinking," I replied, killing the moment.

He was staring at me with curiosity-filled eyes, and I could tell he wanted to ask me what it was I was thinking. It was seriously hard not to get immersed in this boy.

"I'm sorry about the way my sister acted the other day." There was a pregnant pause after I officially started the journey, and I studied Axel, whose eyes now bored into mine with far less curiosity. He almost looked like he was expecting what I said. Almost. "Her emotions have been all over the place lately and, honestly, what she did was a little unfair."

Axel cracked a smile—a genuine smile, this time—then looked away from me for the first time in seconds. "I was expecting her reaction, so no worries."

"I wasn't," I confessed, and almost immediately, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"I don't blame her for it."

I counted to ten in my head, reminding myself again that he was one of the bad guys. I couldn't let emotions get in the way. "What happened between you two?"

Silence. Silence was the reply I got, and for the next few seconds, we sat there, me watching him and him pretending to watch the movie. I'd been waiting for the answer to that question since the night he showed up at my house, but the only way he could reward my patience was to be silent.

Finally, he looked at me, a judging look in his eyes. "Is this why you called—to ask me questions?"

His voice was still soft, but there was something beneath that softness that made me feel threatened. And, most of all, scared. I subtly moved away from him and answered, "No." I only hoped he couldn't detect this lie. "Why would you even ask me that?"

"You've been absentminded the whole time, Kimie. It was obvious something was on your mind."

"You're making this seem like such a big deal, Axel," I said with maybe a little too much anger. "She's my sister and I deserve to know."

"If she's you sister, then go ask her and leave me alone."

I couldn't believe Axel was getting mad at me. I deserved to know what he did to make Kairi treat him the way she did—to make her say what she did. And he was getting mad at me?

"If you're trying to convince me to do that, then you're doing a terrible job at it," I told him. "Because it sure looks like you have a lot to say."

Axel scrubbed a hand over his face. "I don't want to talk to you about this, okay? I don't talk about Kai with anyone."

There was something intimate about the way he said the last part.

"Not even with her sister?"

"Especially not with her sister," he snapped, causing my head to jerk back in surprise.

A few seconds passed with only sounds from the movie filling the silence, and he eventually stood and walked to the back of the sofa. I watched him out of the corner of my eye to see what he was doing, and saw him run his both hands over his face, his biceps tightening.

"Look, if you're done with this," he gestured to the movie, "then I can take you home--"

"I'm not leaving until I know what you did to my sister," I interrupted, turning to him. He watched me with a careful glint in his eyes, and the hardness he'd allowed onto his face slowly melted until he was the Axel I knew again. The Axel that didn't get mad at me. The Axel that spoke to me with a voice that'd convince me to do anything.

He shook his head in disappointment. "I knew this was too good to be true."

An ache spread across my chest when his words came to life, and I tried to push it away.

Clueless about how his sentence affected me, he released a sigh, then returned to the sofa. The way he was acting was scaring me, and I wasn't sure how I felt about this anymore.

"You don't want to know what happened," he mumbled, and I wouldn't have heard it if I wasn't paying attention to him. "You'd kill me."

There it was. The confirmation.

"You can't be sure about that yet," I managed to choke out, and in response, he looked down at the floor, focusing on it like my mom would focus on her Bible.

I let him take his time, knowing that no matter how long it took, he wasn't going to back out now.

Finally, he said, "I . . . I liked your sister." A heavy pause, then in a softer voice, "I still do."

Staring at him was the only thing I could do after hearing his confession, because, really, what was I supposed to do after that? Axel Denvers liked my sister, and I liked him.

"How long have you . . .?" I built the courage to ask, but ended up trailing off.

"Since my freshman year," he replied.

A few heartbeats later, I asked, "So? Why does she seem to hate you so much?"

"Kairi doesn't hate me, Kimie," he said with a small smile on his face, and I felt disgusted at how it made me feel. I had it all wrong. "She's just hurting."

"Why?"

Axel studied his palms for a few seconds before he spoke again. "When her and Dray started dating in junior year, I can't even explain how I felt. I never really knew the guy, but I knew he only had her by his side so he could show her off. Like a prize. The guy was—and still is—incredibly shady, and I had no idea what Kairi saw in him."

She said he was cute and his eyes spoke to her, I wanted to say, but something told me now wasn't the right time for that. If I were in Axel's shoes and someone told me that, I'd snort and throw them out of my house.

"Kairi's beautiful in so many ways, and I think she deserves more than she got."

It was weird listening to him talk about my sister with that voice—a voice full of affection that wasn't directed at me.

"All that time, I didn't know," he smiled, looking up at the television, which I just remembered was still showing the movie, "she felt the same way about me."

My breath hitched in my throat, choking me, and I felt weightless, like I'd been suddenly transformed to air. Not only did Axel have feelings for my sister, but those feelings were reciprocated. I wanted to throw up.

"It was crazy," Axel continued, unaware of how shocked I was. The guy wasn't even looking at me, his eyes slightly distant as he thought about the one his heart beat for. I was sure if I passed out, he wouldn't know. "The subtle signs we started giving each other, those hello hugs that always meant more than people thought . . . Kairi and I were heading into dangerous territory." He put his hands together, his eyes refusing to meet mine.

"One night, we went out to a friend's place for a party, and it was that night things took a bad turn. Dray wasn't there with us, only Macy and Piper, and Kairi was refusing to eat anything. She was unbelievably quiet that night, too, and I could feel the tension between us."

I wasn't too sure I wanted to hear the next part of Axel's story. How did all this happen? How did I not suspect this?

"She eventually told me she wanted to talk to me privately, so we went upstairs, away from the party. We didn't even say anything to each other before we were in a room—" Axel stopped abruptly, then pulled on his hair. "I can't talk about this, Kimie."

Ignoring his plea, I asked, " Did you two . . . sleep together?" I couldn't even ask the question without tasting bitterness at the back of my tongue.

"Kimie," Axel groaned, begging me to stop, but I wasn't listening.

"Please, Axel."

He was quiet for a while longer, then he said with a sigh, "We didn't, but we almost went too far."

"And?"

"I felt it would be better if we gave each other space since she was still with Dray, but she wasn't cooperating. She was confused, pulling me into empty classrooms between classes so we could talk, so I decided to help her out." Axel paused for a longer amount of time, and I already hated what he was about to say. "By dating Macy."

I took my juice and had a sip, my throat feeling like it had been rubbed against granite. Things were starting to make more and more sense.

"Macy had no idea why I'd suddenly taken romantic interest in her, but she wasn't complaining. Kairi started to pull away from her, and it was so obvious that Macy got suspicious. I don't know how she found out, but she found out about that night, and everything just sort of fell apart from there."

We were consumed by a thicker silence that time, neither of us able to say anything. Now I understood what my sister meant by her question.

Axel was the one who started the chain reaction.

"Macy started the rumors," he went on, "and I couldn't—I didn't want to do anything about them for some reason I still don't know. I was questioned so many times by school authority, and when I got news that Kairi was expelled for harassment, despite the fact that I never said the rumors were true, I wanted to die. I knew Macy had been jealous of your sister for a long time and just used me as an excuse to fulfill her sick desires, but I still let it all happen."

There was something he'd gotten wrong, and I should've left him to believe it—I should've let him hate himself forever—but the look in his eyes hurt me, even though I knew he was in love with my sister. "Kairi wasn't expelled."

Axel finally looked at me, his eyes shiny with a strong emotion. "She wasn't?" I shook my head, and his lips parted like he wanted to say something, but he thought better of it.

"She left."

Axel held my gaze as he thought about it, and before he asked his next question, I already knew what he wanted to know. He was clueless about why my sister stopped going to school, and why she disappeared from social media, and when the realization sunk in, relief spread through my chest like rumors in Ridgerock's hallways.

"Why did everyone say she was expelled, then?"

"That's what she wanted them to think. If they knew she was leaving, they'd think she was a coward, and that was far from the truth."

Something in my voice must've given me away because he moved closer to me. "Is there another reason she left?"

I didn't know when I nodded in agreement and drew in a shaky breath, but Axel took my hands and rubbed his thumbs softly over mine to offer some comfort.

"Are you okay?"

"No." I shook my head, my mind flashing back to the night I got a call from my dad, telling me to go to Eliza's house. I remembered asking him what was wrong, and I remembered him telling me he was in the hospital with Kairi.

"Hey," Axel whispered, drawing my attention to the fact that I was crying. "Did I say something?"

"Kairi was raped," I said, my throat clogged up.

At that, Axel froze, his hands leaving mine in shock, and he stared at me in disbelief for the next few seconds. I felt myself weakening as those seconds passed.

I wondered how he'd react if he knew it happened because of him.

He finally mumbled something under his breath, and another tear slipped out of my eyes. I didn't know what to say next, and my mind raced trying to come up with something. Fortunately for me, fate stepped in.

My phone vibrated next to me and I cleaned tears off my face, then brought it closer. The text was from Kairi.

Come home, it said, it's getting late. I need u

I read the text five times, reading the last part a few times more, before replying.

Okay. On my way

When I looked back at Axel, I saw that his eyes were glassy. "I—I have to leave," I said with a subtle hiccup. "She just texted me."

"Let me drop you off," he offered immediately, his voice sounding a little far away, and I nodded.

"But I don't want her to see you."

Axel's face fell, but he nodded in agreement.

The drive home was quiet, the car filled with a tension so heavy, yet so fragile, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Axel sneaking glances at me. I reached a hand out to turn on the radio, thinking it would help drown out the silence, but it didn't work the way I thought it would, the song playing turning out too cheery for the moment, so I turned it back off.

His car came to a stop at the end of my street, and he finally turned to me. "Are you okay from here?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

I sniffled. "Yeah." I looked out the window at my house just a few feet away, seeing how bright the porch light was. "Yeah, thanks."

I was about opening the door when I felt Axel's hand on mine, and I looked at him. "I'm sorry. I can understand how hard it must've been for the both of you, and I know saying sorry won't change anything, but I'm extremely sorry."

I gave him a little smile I wasn't sure he saw. "It's okay, Axel."

"I still want to talk to her, though." He looked away for a moment, staring out the windshield as he thought about something. Then he turned back to me. "Can you . . . help me?"

I paused for a little while, feeling a weird blend of disbelief and sadness. "I can't."

"Please?" I didn't know if he meant to make puppy eyes at me, but I melted inside when I saw the look in his eyes.

I turned away, acting like I was going to say no again, but eventually sighed. "Okay." I looked back at him. "We'll see what happens."

"Thanks."

As I got out of his car and stepped into the cool night, I realized something: emotions were extremely dangerous. And I found out the hard way.

And the build-up led to this. That was a long one, eh? (What the heck happened to my boundary-setting self??). How are we feeling?

The upcoming chapters are gonna be . . . something, so if you need virtual chocolate, I've got loads. Just ask! 💕

P.S. What would you absolutely love to see happen? I could try squeezing it in somewhere!