I didn’t get back to the apartment until late in the afternoon. When I stepped through the door, the place was eerily quiet. I guess Tina still wasn’t back from daycare yet. Jiro must have decided to go to work today. Was Noah at the hospital again? He said he was going to go yesterday, so maybe he’s just at work too. 
It always bugged me how silent this place could be sometimes. In my parents house, or anyplace that my family lived, it was always lively. There was always someone there and something was going on. That’s how you knew a family lived there. That’s what a real family looked like. Not this weird hoard of zombies that Kari had collected for herself.
I dumped my bag in the mess at the door and started kicking off my boots when I heard a squeak and a shifting of springs from the living room. I looked up to see two of the same head staring at me over the back of the couch. 
Oh, the twins were here.
I nodded at them, walking closer.
“Hey, how’s everyone doing? Any change with Kari?”
One of the twins blinked the other didn’t, but both kept silently staring at me.
Oookay.
“Um so uh yeah, I just wanted to say that I was sorry about the misunderstanding at the hospital. I didn’t mean to sound unsympathetic about Kari’s condition. I mean, of course I’m worried about her, just like everyone else.”
The twin on the left blinked again, the one on the right snorted.
“No, not just like everyone else.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Of course I –“
The teen on the right cut me off mid-sentence. He turned around completely, kneeling on the couch to look me in the eyes.
“No, you don’t care about her. You never have.”
I huffed.
“That’s not true. I care ab –“ 
 The left one cut me off this time, he mirrored his brother in kneeling on the couch.
“Bullshit you care! You’ve hated Kari since day one.”
I was shaking my head.
“It’s not like th –“
The left one cut me off again. 
Oh my gods, could they please let me get one word in?
“Oh what? You just loved her so much you had to break her arm? Or what, she was just your bestest bud, so you needed to treat her like shit every single day? Is that it?” 
The teen’s words were getting faster and louder with each statement he flung at me. His face, flushed with rage, looked familiar.
“Kari felt sorry for you, so she took you in and you abused the ever living shit out of it. And you did it because you knew she would just let it slide.”
I jabbed a finger at the kid, feeling the heat reach my own face.
“Hey, she owed me. It was her screw up that –“
He bit off my come back with a snarl.
“Like hell she did! She didn’t owe you shit! She could have just let you rot, everyone else was going to, but instead she is using her own magic and keeping your ungrateful ass with the living. And for that, what do you do? You waited for her to get good and injured then all but handed her over to the psycho looking to kill her. It’s a wonder she survived, with such a great friend like you around.”
His last words hit like a physical blow, knocking the air out of my lungs. I tried to get my numb lips to form words to defend myself, but not much came out. The best I could mutter was a lame few sounds.
“Tha-that was an accident.”
A bitter laugh cracked from his throat.
“Yeah, it always is.”
Then he shot me the double bird and stormed off to his room. 
Damn did he have some anger issues.
I turned to the twin still on the couch, looking to commiserate in dealing with hotheaded brothers, but what I found there was not the blaze of anger, but something far more cold. 
The twin that left might have raged and fumed, but it was those eyes frozen with hatred that really gave me pause.
I remember those cold, hate filled eyes. I had seen them before. 
On the day I broke Kari’s arm.