Aggro - CoraLee June Page 0,50

I always—always—wore a condom. We were very careful. And in the end, it wasn’t like we were...together...that much.”

“It’s so crazy because I didn’t know any of this was even happening,” I whispered. I tried to think back on the week leading up to the party. She didn’t seem off at all. She smiled and joked. It was like nothing was wrong. But Violet knew she was pregnant?

“Right before her party, we got into a huge fight. I caught her drinking, and I told her it was bad for the baby. She got pissed. She started screaming at me that I knew nothing. Said she was going to ‘take care of it.’”

I shook my head. Kai and Violet were bickering at the party, but it didn’t seem that bad. I thought that Kai just wanted to leave.

“When I asked her what that meant, she told me she made an appointment at the clinic for an abortion. She said it didn’t matter what I wanted because the baby wasn’t mine. We’d fought a few times about her disappearing. She had been acting weird with Lex around town. It was like the second she said I wasn’t the father, everything clicked into place. I was shocked but also…”

Kai wrapped his hands around his neck and curled his body in shame. I waited patiently for him to continue. “I was also relieved,” he admitted.

That was brutal. I couldn’t imagine the emotional whiplash he endured. “So why were you there then? Why stay? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“It wasn’t my story to tell. And I already had the cops breathing down my neck. Think, Breeze. This looks really bad. If I were to tell them that my girlfriend admitted to me she was pregnant with another dude’s baby the night she was murdered, the cops would have locked me up.”

I pinched my lips together, and Chase’s earlier words echoed in my mind.

Motive.

Kai continued. “I don’t know. We said stupid shit to hurt one another all the time. I guess I was thinking if I could get her away from the party, we could talk it out and I could help her somehow. Even if the baby wasn’t mine, I knew she was struggling. I might have not loved her, but I was worried. And then…”

“Then what?”

“Then the fight broke out. Then the cops showed up, and I realized I wanted—no, needed—a break from this train wreck. And then the girl I’d been really falling for this entire time needed a ride home…”

I stiffened at his words, then quickly stood up. “What?” I asked. Certainly, he didn’t just say what I thought he did. Kai chewed on his lip before standing up. We were toe to toe, our breath mixing. My chest heaved as I waited for him to explain himself.

“I told you I was a monster,” Kai said before reaching out to tenderly stroke my cheek. I quivered, too overwhelmed with it all. “It’s not because I did anything wrong. But because I’m not as sad as I’m supposed to be. I’m not the grieving boyfriend. While my cheating girlfriend was dying, I was lying in bed and feeling hopeful about my future. I was feeling free.”

“You’re not a monster, Kai. I couldn’t imagine…” It was all so much.

“Violet Jones was like a scream. Loud. Piercing. You couldn't help but hear her. But you know what, Breeze? I started to like this whisper of a girl. Calm. She flows like the air. Understated but powerful. Potent. Precious. She’s beautiful. And it’s so wrong. The night Violet died, I was driving her home. The night I found out the baby wasn’t mine, I was thankful. I was thanking whatever God up there was listening, because it meant I had another chance at this.”

Kai leaned forward, his lips dancing along the shell of my ear for a low promise. “I didn’t plan on liking you, and when you’re ready, I’ll tell you how it happened—how I started to fall for the girl that hid in the shadows instead of the girl that enjoyed being the life of the party. I didn’t plan for our world to implode before I got the chance to shoot my shot. But it did. And you’re here. And if I were a good man, I’d push you away.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m the sort of man that doesn’t cry at his girlfriend’s funeral, Breeze.”

I drove back to Chase’s before he woke up. I didn’t give Kai a response. We just sat there, waiting out the