Spencer knew Caleb didn’t mean most of that. The three of them—Rainie included—all had pretty brutal tempers, and in those moments, they forgot things. Like how Spencer’s mother was extremely against him riding his bike or walking to school. Caleb knew asthma prevented Spencer from doing a lot of things, and that if the latter could confidently manage the bike ride, he’d join him in a heartbeat. But, shit. Spencer couldn’t even make his way up the parking lot, let alone a fifteen-minute workout.

Spencer couldn’t say that Caleb wasn’t right to be angry, though. His protectiveness over the shier young guy often came through as condescending, and Spencer’s inability to do anything only made it worse.

With a heavy sigh, Spencer pulled himself together and made a mental note to speak with Rainie about what happened as soon as he could. Her motorcycle wasn’t in its usual spot, but she shouldn’t be too far behind Caleb. Especially since it seemed as though her twin made a break for it with that single slice of chałka….

Damn it. He didn’t even get his bread.

Rainie was going to have a complete fit when she learned about what happened. Still, Spencer looked forward to it. There weren’t many times when Rainie felt the need to use violence—her voice in and of itself was enough to scare the piss out of anyone—but Spencer couldn’t say he found the idea of her kicking Arnold through a brick wall wasn’t enticing.

Nodding with his new plan of action, Spencer hurried after Caleb. He knew it wasn’t likely he’d catch up to the soccer star before disappearing into the mass of over-perfumed student bodies, but it was worth a shot. And either way, Caleb would end up in the same place. His locker.

Stepping into the swarm only made Spencer’s mood worse. Everyone was crowded at the front entrance and the pungent smell of deodorant and body spray immediately spurred on a headache. Sure, it was good to know that students were taking care of their hygiene, but there was no way—no fucking way—that they needed to drown themselves in such disdainful scents.

As he plowed through his peers, most of them smiled and called out kind greetings. Their personalities didn’t seem affected as Spencer didn’t return the sentiment. Some of them knew how much he hated his high school standing, and those that didn’t know about it also didn’t really care that much.

It almost made Spencer feel guilty for his inner thoughts. Almost.

Spencer wasn’t popular in the way you’d think. Hanging with the top-tier clique, partying with the jocks and pretty girls that swarmed them. No. But he was likable and charismatic. Both of which made it easy for people to flock to him. It didn’t mean that any of them knew him, or really even cared to deepen their relationship. It just meant that a lot of people pretended to know him past his first and last name and that several of them asked for help on their calculus homework the day it was due.

“Rainie?” Caleb was absent from his locker, but his sister’s wavy, reddish-brown locks immediately grabbed Spencer’s attention. She was playing with one of the semi-curled ribbons of her hair when she noticed him.

“Spence! What’s up?” she greeted as soon as he reached her. “Heard you got stuck at the gates again.” A small snicker followed it up.

Spencer scowled. “That’s already circulating the fucking school? Are you kidding me?”

Rainie shook her head with an amused smile. “Language,” she teased, mimicking his mother’s voice. Her caramel eyes lit up with humor, devoid of those precious mocha flecks visible in her brother’s.

“Alright, ‘nough of that,” Spencer muttered. “We have more pressing matters than making me look worse than I already do.”

“Oh?” she asked, new curiosity sparking her expression into a greedy flame. “And what’s more important than making fun of my precious steward.”

“Caleb, and Arnold. It’s happening again,” Spencer answered, ignoring her taunt.

Rainie immediately straightened up, her glare frigid and her jaw tensed. “Where is he?” she asked, her hands flexing, her weight shifting from foot to foot.

“I don’t know,” Spencer said honestly. “Caleb kinda left me in the dust when he—”

“Not Caleb,” Rainie hissed, loud enough to draw the attention of students nearby. “Where the hell is Arnold?!”

Spencer clicked his tongue against the back of his teeth. Placing his hands gently on her shoulders, Spencer murmured calmly, “Rains, don’t. You don’t need a suspension right after soccer season’s started.”

She squared me up, expression flat, eyes hiding absolute wrath behind their calm color. “Where. Is. He.”

“Both of you, knock it off,” Caleb scowled as he shoved his sister out of the way of his locker. His hand dragged a wet towel over his forehead.

Rainie immediately stepped away from Spencer and toward her brother. Her facial features had significantly softened since she noticed his arrival. She brushed her small fingers over the raised skin bordering a fresh cut near Caleb’s temple. “Oh, Cabes. Why didn’t you say anything? How long has this been going on? I thought the school—”

Caleb’s locker slammed shut, cutting Rainie off. The former barely spared either of them a glance as he walked away from the locker.

Rainie shot an exasperated look in Spencer’s direction, something he mirrored back. Caleb was headstrong, hard to crack open even when people were just trying to help him. But Spencer couldn’t let that stop him from extending a helping hand. Caleb was one of his best friends, just like Rainie. But Caleb held another, far more sacred place in Spencer’s heart. Seeing Caleb suffer was unbearable, and Spencer would do whatever he could to alleviate the persisting problems plaguing the younger twin.

Rainie was first to catch up to her brother as he plowed his way through the crowd. Several of their peers scowled and hissed various curses as they were roughly shouldered aside. What Caleb lacked in height he made up for with brawn cleverly hidden under the guise of gentle hands and lithe limbs.

“Rodzynku…I can’t just let this keep happening to you,” Rainie urged, setting a tender hand on the nape of his neck. “I’m your older sister. I have to protect—”

“Rainie,” Caleb interrupted. He didn’t sound angry, per se, just…exhausted. “You’re less than ten minutes older than me, so please let’s not with the older sibling card.” He slowed his pace to a stop, though he faced neither his sister nor Spencer. “I’ll be fine. Jesse intervened, so it’s not even that bad. I’ll go to O’Brian after school today, too. Before practice.”

He paused and took a deep breath.

Spencer looked to Rainie in the silence, but she shook her head. This was one of those composing quiets. Caleb’s way of organizing his thoughts before he’s comfortable putting words to them.

Whatever he was searching for didn’t seem to come to him, though, as he let out an aggravated huff of frustration and let his shoulders roll forward in defeat. “I can’t—no, I won’t give up the one routine that’s mine. That I chose. I won’t do it. Nothing you guys say will change that.”

“You don’t need the workout, Caleb. Everyone on the team knows it, I know it, Spence knows it, Coach Shyan knows it. You’re pushing yourself for nothing,” Rainie gently countered. A brief flash of Caleb’s eyes meeting her revealed a moment of muted understanding. “And you don’t need anymore on your plate than there already is.”

Caleb’s eyes widened exponentially at her words before his panicked gaze found Spencer. But panic quickly turned to aggravation and, then, rage. He shrugged his sister’s hand off with another scowl.

Spencer was beginning to grow unhappy with how often that expression had twisted Caleb’s usually sweet and charming personality into nothing more than anger and shame and pain. It had gotten worse over the course of high school, even if admitting it made Spencer feel complacent. Senior year was well on its way but nothing had changed with Caleb’s predicament.

It wasn’t like Spencer and Rainie—even sometimes Jenny—didn’t alert the school to the constant abuse but, well…. Blue Fields was heavily populated by Christian families so interwoven that there were masses of people raring to jump to the defense of some really fucked up people just because of how they acted at church. How disciplined they were under the teachings of the Bible. And that led to people like Arnold getting out of situations without even a slap on the wrist.

Still, Spencer felt like they could’ve done more if they involved other people. He’d initially wondered why the Kowalczyk parents had never gotten involved but dropped the subject when Rainie very sternly and seriously told him that their parents shouldn’t know anything that was going on. She never really explained herself, but the sheer tension and fear and worry that was dripping off of her that day made Spencer never want to even touch that conversation again.

So he didn’t. And, now, he wondered if he should have.

“Why is this so important to you?” Caleb lashed out with a sneer.

“Caleb,” Spencer warned, stepping between the two siblings. He knew from Rainie’s frustrated frown and balled fists that Caleb was getting himself into dangerous territory with his sister. It usually ended in pinning Spencer between them, telling him to choose a side.

In this situation, Spencer’s logic entirely sided with Rainie.

Caleb ignored his friend’s warning, continuing with a spiteful venom coating his words, “There wouldn’t be so much on my plate if you genuinely cared, if you stepped in more often. But you don’t. Can’t say I blame you, but don’t try acting heroic when you’re just as scared as me.” With that, he let the sea of students swallow him just in time for the first bell of the day to ring.

Spencer barely heard it. What the hell was going on? This day—one that started completely normal—was turning out to be an emotional rollercoaster with this random sliver of information thrown onto a puzzle it didn’t fit. The twins fought all the time. Not like this, though. And it was making Spencer’s stomach churn.

“Son of a bitch,” Rainie said in exasperation, snapping Spencer out of his thoughts. She looked at the clock on her phone, sighed through her teeth, and shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “Thanks for the help, Spence,” she said, giving him a quick hug. “We’ll, um…look for alternatives. Later. After school.”

With that, she gave a small smile and left.

“Yeah, sure thing,” Spencer muttered to himself as fellow classmates bustled around him.