When he says nothing further, I try to stand but he pushes me back down. “No, wait. I don’t know what happened, okay? I’m sorry. I’m her for y...u! I’m sorry I wasn’t i—“ he grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. I’m sorry I wasn’t in the beginning. I would change that if I could. I never imagined you would get hurt and I’m sorry you did. I wish I was a better brother to you.” His thumb caressed my cheek. “Talk to me…” he whispered. I sat there thinking of what to say. Taking my silence as. White and I had finally made love before another opportunity presented itself for us to get together, though I didn’t recognize it as an opportunity at the time. I had decided, even though it was a warm summer Saturday, to bake some chocolate chip cookies for my family. I had baked them from time to time using ready made dough but this time I was going to try to make them from scratch. Somehow I misread the recipe book and made a ridiculous amount of batter. My mom’s freezer was full so rather. They both had on sundresses with elbow pads and combat boots. We could not stop laughing, even dad got in a chuckle or two. “You can laugh all you want to, we look good!” mom said confidently. It took us a while to stop laughing, but when we finally did we headed out to start out hike. The middle path we knew didn’t go out as far, so we took the right one. It took a while before we got any depth into the woods, so we just took pictures of random trees and funny poses. We walked around a bend. A waiter walks past with a tray of hors d’oeuvres, ignoring me as though I do not exist. ‘I am going to kill you.’ He says as we push out of the doors, and into a small hallway. I feel my eyes go blurry as tears fill over the brims. In moments, there is cool air on my face, cold air where the tears streaked, and finally the lump in my throat deflates enough to talk. ‘Why–why kill me?’ I feel his hand leave my neck as we stop. He pulls the silver case from me, and it makes a jingling clatter on.