~ Confess & Flambé ~

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Craig confirming that he started the fire caused the crack in my once strong composure to spread like veins on a thin sheet of glass. Eli grounded me with a hand on my shoulder as a wave of emotion slammed into me. The initial realization that it was all because I lost it and punched him the other day sickened me.

To feel so good about myself for finally standing up to Craig, only to have my biggest fear come true in the form of a fire. The way I was for the past few years; always smiling, aiming to please everyone and, worst of all, compliant to Craig--it was all justified in the end. History was repeating itself and it was once again all my fault.

No.

It wasn't all my fault, I decided as I felt my fingernails digging into my palms.

It was Craig's too.

Whether he viewed it as revenge or punishment, he acted on his own. There was no justification in setting the bakery on fire.

"Now," Theo spoke, pulling me from my thoughts, "we're all going to give Abby's family a visit and you're going to give them an explanation."

"Like hell," Craig muttered, still pinned by Theo's arm.

Theo yanked him back and slammed him to the metal again.

"Wrong answer."

"Make me," he growled as he struggled to break free.

"I can do that, you know." Theo raised his bandaged hand up and flexed his fingers. "It'll hurt," he warned lightly. "The both of us, I imagine, but my hand will recover. You don't need a straight nose, right?"

He drew his fist back slowly, giving Craig more than enough time to agree to go willingly. Then in what had to be the worst timing, the school's principal came walking around the corner and saw the scene of a student poised to punch his peer.

Principal Sampson ordered Theo to stop, using his drill sergeant tone. He was an older, balding man with a short stature, but he could take down a wrestler with his voice alone when he was angry. More often than that he was kind and pretty mellow for a high school principal because he allowed a lot of misdemeanors to slide without punishment.

The one thing that he truly loathed was violence. He never overlooked violence in his school.

Principal Sampson marched forward as he bellowed, "What is the meaning of this, young man?!"

Theo's arm dropped to his side and he smiled charmingly at the authority figure. "A little family disagreement, that's it. We were just leaving." He stepped away and fixed Craig's wrinkled collar. There was a short pause before he asked him pointedly, "Right, cuz?"

Craig nodded, looking to the principal with a forced smile. "Right. Everything is cool, sir. We're on our way out."

Principal Sampson's gaze narrowed at the two of them, while Eli and I managed to stay off of his radar as we passed him on the way out. He followed us and only stopped after we walked out, but he continued to watch the four of us in the parking lot, undoubtedly making sure no more fights would break out on the property.

Theo steered Craig with his arm around his shoulder in the direction of Eli's car. Opening the passenger door, he gave him no other option than getting inside. After he closed the door, Theo asked Eli for the keys.

Eli gave a short laugh, "Are you crazy?"

"I'll be careful," Theo assured him. He sent me a worried glance, "I want you to drive Abby over in her car. She's too upset to get behind the wheel."

I personally thought I was keeping it together pretty well considering the circumstances, but Theo seemed to know better. Eli looked between us and, despite being unable to see the depth of what his friend was seeing, he reached into his pocket for his keys. Then he hesitated, weighing them in his palm as he grimaced.

"Unless, of course, you would rather drive him," he pointed to a glaring Craig. "All alone."

Eli seemed to be contemplating it, deciding which would be worse, before he tossed the keys to Theo with a heavy sigh. "I don't appreciate the ultimatum, T. Take care of my baby."

"As long as you take care of mine," Theo winked at me and stepped around to the driver's seat.

"And that is how it's done," Eli commented, trailing behind me on the way to my car. "You ready for this, Abby? We can take the scenic route if you need a breather first."

"No," I said when we were buckled up. "I need to be there."

¤°*°*°*°¤

We pulled up to the bakery and parked behind Eli's car. Eli and I stood on the sidewalk, silent as Theo went around to the passenger side. When Craig refused to move, Theo reached for his arm to pull him out.

Craig yanked his arm away and got out of the car on his own. He kept acting like a stubborn child by cementing his feet to the ground, so Theo grabbed the back of his collar and shoved him towards the entrance.

"If you're going to act like a piece of garbage, I'm going to treat you like one," Theo muttered, keeping his grip on Craig's shirt as he pushed him into the bakery.

He released him once we were inside, causing Craig to stumble forward. It drew the attention of his parents and mine, who were all standing around the counter. I gathered that Theo must have contacted them to meet up here, but judging by their confused expressions, he didn't give them a reason.

"Theo?" Craig's mom gave him a questioning look for manhandling her son.

Mrs. Burke was not quite as intimidating as her husband anymore. She became civil to me over time and without expressing it, I got the impression that she forgave me for what happened in the past. Or maybe she moved on from it, which was more than I could say about her son.

"Hello, Aunt Beth," Theo smiled brightly at her, then he nodded to Mr. Burke. "Uncle Willie."

Mr. Burke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Willard," he corrected sharply. "I hope you have a good reason for calling us here and treating your cousin so poorly."

Now that I knew Craig's dad was the brother of Theo's mom, the resemblance was subtle. In the short time I spent with Mrs. Keller, I could tell that their personalities were vastly different. Though I made a mental note to never get on her bad side because it was possible the real similarities lied there. I wasn't on Mr. Burke's good side and it appeared his nephew wasn't either.

"I'm just the delivery boy," Theo said, twisting a chair around and sitting down. He rested his arms on the back of it and inclined his head towards Craig. "Your son is the one with the reason."

My parents were behind the counter waiting for the explanation, so I made my way over to them while Eli sat by Theo. My mom kissed my forehead and my dad patted my back, both of them murmuring a greeting. I kept my focus on Craig and they returned their gazes to him when he started to speak.

"There was a party the other night," he muttered, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "Alcohol was involved. It was late when a couple of friends and I decided to walk home. We took a bottle of liquor with us and shared it as we walked through town. We passed by here..." He trailed off, reluctant to go on as he swallowed thickly. "We were drunk and acting stupid..."

"Oh, my god," his mom breathed as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

Then Craig looked up, directly at me. "I was pissed off. I just wanted to have some fun, get a little revenge."

I held his stare as I waited for him to continue.

"My friends joked about busting the windows, but I didn't want to go that far," he said with a humorless laugh. "After a lot of fumbling, we managed to pick the lock and eventually wound up in the kitchen."

His gaze fell to the floor again as the scene carried on unfolding in our minds. My stomach churned as I imagined it in detail.

"We thought it would be such a great idea to cook something, so I put on Keller's frilly apron and turned the stove on high. While we waited for it to heat up, we were goofing off, shoving each other around. I stumbled back and knocked the bottle of liquor over. There was so much fire--" he stopped again.

"My friends bolted. I turned the stove off, but it was too late by then. So I threw off the apron, grabbed the bottle and ran."

Our parents were quiet as they processed the information.

I didn't know how to feel.

It was like I couldn't decide on any one emotion. Anger was high on the list, but there was also a sense of relief at knowing exactly how it happened. And then a tiny nagging voice telling me that it was in some way unintentional.

Like it was unintentional of me to shove Craig too hard when I was mad at him for insulting my friends. I didn't intend for him to fall and hit his head on the corner of the table, but I was still the cause of him going into a coma. I wondered if he felt the same when he came out of it as I currently did; conflicted on how to feel until he ultimately decided to hate me. To blame me for an accident.

The difference was that Craig may not have intentionally set the place on fire, but he did spend years exploiting my guilt and threatening me. He wanted petty revenge on me and broke into the bakery with that intention.

All that time I spent trying to make things right, to somehow make up for my mistake, and it wasn't enough for him.

Unfortunately, it took making another mistake and Craig crossing the line for me to finally realize:

It never would have been enough for him.

"Well," his dad spoke, his voice cutting through the silence like a sharp blade. "I suppose we need to get in touch with our lawyer."

His mother said to us, "We understand if you want to press charges. Our son should take responsibility for his actions."

Neither of them even bothered to look in his direction.

"Why don't you all head on out," my dad offered. "I think everyone should take some time to process this before we go any further. We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"

Mr. Burke gave a solemn nod, then he ushered his wife and Craig out of the bakery.

"So," I said after they drove away. "When are we calling the police?"

"No one is calling the cops, dear," my mom said, looking to my dad for confirmation.

"That's right," he agreed. "There's no need to involve them."

I scoffed at the two of them, "You're kidding me."

"Abby, that boy is going to go through enough with his parents." My mom sounded like she was exasperated with me.

"He's their spoiled brat!" I shouted. "Do you not remember how they treated us when he was in the hospital?"

"Did you not see that they wouldn't even look at him after hearing about the accident?!" She raised her voice to match mine. "Their family isn't all sunshine and rainbows under the surface! They put a lot of pressure on that boy."

"So what?!"

"He may not be a good kid, but he's not all bad either. And he certainly doesn't need this incident to be on his permanent record."

"Fine," I bit out, knowing it was useless to argue with her. "Then what about the insurance? Will we at least be covered now that we know what happened?"

"And what can we tell them? I'll call them right now and say, 'The owner's son got drunk and thought he was Gordon Ramsey. Turns out he was wrong and flambéed the kitchen.'"

"They won't cover it, Abby," my dad spoke calmly. "It's going to be considered arson and that's a tricky claim with insurance companies. Even if they do cover a portion, it wouldn't be enough to cover both the repairs and the equipment."

"Then make them pay for it! Craig is the one who screwed up, so it should come out of their pockets."

"That's enough, Abigail!" My mom ordered, slamming her hands on the counter. "You're the one sounding like a spoiled brat right now. We will discuss this later after you have cooled off."

I was so upset that I didn't notice that my eyes were watering and my hands were shaking. I was out of breathe from yelling so much. After a few seconds, I muttered, "No."

"Excuse me?"

"No," I snapped. "I'm done being cool about everything. I'm done smiling when I don't want to smile. I'm done doing what everyone says just to make them happy or their lives easier. I want to scream and be mad and be imperfect."

"Abby--" my mom began, surprise and a sudden concern shining in her eyes.

Hot tears were streaming down my face as I cut her off, "I want to be happy too. This place is a big part of my happiness and it's been taken away from me. For once in my life, I do sound like a spoiled, selfish brat and I don't care."

With nothing left for me to say, I stormed out of the bakery. Despite my parents' voices calling for me, Theo and Eli didn't try to stop me as I passed them because they knew I needed time to myself.

Theo was right.

I hadn't cried until now.

And it was about damn time.

~¤°*°*°*°¤~

A/N: It doesn't really feel right doing a silly skit with the characters after that chapter ending, so...yeah. Don't hate me because good things are coming very soon. Love you, Sweeties.

Oh! And I did an author interview with amazing people over at AllArt_OnePlace. Check it out if you want to know who my fave authors are, one of my most embarrassing moments, my advice to aspiring writers, and more. ^^

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Eli: We could have finished my version...

¤°*Have a Pop Rockin' Day or Evening*°¤