A black car had parked directly behind Kyle's Honda. Its perfect paint job caught every glint of sunlight. And when the engine died, the driver-side door opened. A pair of matching, slick black shoes appeared on the stone path.

"What..." My eyes followed the shoes until I saw the full body of an older man, one I recognized. The sunglasses and grey hair. He was the same man who visited Mr. Paul during the week sometimes. My mouth went dry as he slid off his shades to give Brian and Kyle a hateful glare.

"I know him," I whispered, grabbing Brian's hand tight in mine. "Mr. Henrickson..."

"I told you not to come here anymore." The older man slammed his car door shut before taking a step in our direction. He didn't look at me, so he didn't recognize me. He kept his eyes on Brian. "This place, you aren't welcome here. I keep saying this."

I felt Brian tense at my side. "I was just leaving," he said. "I don't want any trouble."

"Trouble?" The older man spat at the ground. "You were always trouble. How many times have I told you not to come here, hm?"

Brian's jaw cracked as he clenched his fists. "I have every right to be here. And you know that."

"Do you?" The man pointed a finger at Brian's chest, bringing Kyle from his side-stance to defend his cousin. "And you? The walking Mills of County. Nothing but trouble." He focused on Brian and hissed, "All you did was get my daughter killed."

His daughter? Oh, no... he was Katerina's father, wasn't he?

"Hey man." Kyle pushed his shoulder back away from both of them. "He said he doesn't want trouble."

"So, you assault me?" The older man swiped at his sleeve. "Typical of you."

"Assault you?" Brian inched forward, hands in fists at his side. "He barely touched you!"

"See, that there, that anger. That's what killed my Katerina. I told you—" He pointed his finger at Brian's chest again. "—not to come here. Unless it's in court, I don't want to see your face. This—" He pointed behind us. "—this is for family, and you, you are not family."

The puzzle pieces in my mind clicked, one at a time, fitting in past moments I'd seen with Brian. The early morning or late-night phone calls? Legal calls, more than likely about things he'd owned with Katerina and now fought to keep.

And that afternoon at Mr. Paul's store. They'd seen each other, stood right next to each other, and I'd asked the wrong question. I hadn't asked if they knew each other; I asked if they were friends. And obviously, they were the farthest from it...

As Brian's body tensed again, his face pulled tight between anger and pain, the rest of the pieces came crashing down around us because this was the man who told Brian he would never change, never amount to anything. That day he'd been so upset, it was all Mr. Henrickson's fault. The negativity that radiated off this man was unreal.

And I thought he was polite... I was wrong.

He reminded me of someone I knew... of my father.

A memory came to me and flashed over my eyes, pulling me away from the moment. It was six years ago, and the day was just as sunny as this. My older brother, Jun, had already filed the paperwork to apply to college out of state, to follow his high school girlfriend seven hours away. It should have been a great day because I remember being happy, but it all came crashing down as soon as our father turned off the engine to his black truck into our driveway.

He'd stepped out in the sun and grabbed my brother by the collar, tugging him away from the girl he loved. Even with her there, he yelled. He said, "You're not allowed to make these decisions, you're not going to follow this girl."

My brother yelled back, because he was an adult, and allowed to do what he wanted to do. He said, "You can't tell me what to do, you don't own me!"

What my father told him after, the words stayed with me. "I created you, I own you, and you will do as I say!"

For so long I was afraid to leave home because of that day. Jun eventually left and met his dreams head-on. I wanted to follow in my brother's footsteps.

I can stand up to what scares me. I know that now.

"What's with you?" Kyle stood in front of Brian again, defending him. "He has every right to see his wife. He loved her just as much as you, if not more."

"Oh?" The man dipped back and laughed, his brown eyes darkening despite the bright sun. "You're full of shit. Leave or I'll call the police."

"On what grounds?" Brian lifted just his eyes. "Legally, on paper, I'm her husband."

"On paper." Mr. Henrickson pressed his chest against Brian's as he moved up. The two looked at each other, eye to eye. "And paper can be shredded, boy. Leave."

"No..." I pressed my arm out between the two of them. Mr. Henrickson looked down at me as Brian grabbed my arm, trying to move me back. But I wouldn't budge. I kept my eyes on the man in front of us. "Don't I know you?" I asked him.

He blinked for a moment, eyeing me up and down before it clicked in his brain. For a moment, he gave me a small smile. "Oh, you work with Paul, don't you?"

"I do..." I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. "And you're... an acquaintance of his? Business partner? Friend?"

The man laughed, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter what I am to Paul." He turned his gaze back to Brian. "What matters is this being here after I told him he couldn't be! This is the place for my daughter! And not for him to lay his trash!"

I blinked, looking back at the cemetery plot that cradled her tombstone between fresh, green blades of grass. Was fate that powerful? Without even knowing her, I knew, deep down, that she was the most accepting, forgiving, and loving person to exist.

I could only aspire to be her.

"Trash? How dare you..." I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "You know, have you ever thought you're in the wrong? Maybe she ran from you..."

Mr. Henrickson stood straight, eyes on me when I looked back at him. He narrowed his gaze. Though Brian tried to step between us, I spoke again. "She ran from you."

"What? Who do you think you are?" he asked, annoyance ringing in every word.

"I'm Kay," I answered truthfully.

"Kay? I know Paul called you that but..." His eyes shot at Brian. "Is this a sick joke? She doesn't even look like my Kay."

Brian opened his mouth, and I just knew curses were resting on his tongue, fully prepared to swear at the man, but I wouldn't let him. I knew why he hadn't to begin with. There were legal issues around this, right? Arguing back with the man in public wasn't a good look. But I wasn't a part of this. I could speak my mind.

"I'm not your Kay, I'm his Kay." I looked back at Brian before squinting back at the man in front of me. "But seems like you didn't know your Kay, did you?"

The man inched back, squeezing his nose to his lips, looking at me as though I were trash. I knew that look. "How dare you?" he hissed.

"No." I shook my head. "How dare you? She loved him, married him, and yet because she isn't here, you loathe him, torture him? All he wanted to do was say hello, and goodbye."

Kyle and Brian stood straight as I moved around them, standing between them and Mr. Wrath-and-Negativity. His eyes darkened further, and so did mine; he leaned forward, and I stood on the tips of my toes.

"You have no right to—"

"Seems you know nothing about rights," I interrupted, "you, narcissistic prick."

Mr. Henrickson sputtered, blinking rapidly at what I said. Seemed no one told him the truth, huh?

"You're so controlling, I know she ran from you the second she could, and you... you didn't like that. You didn't want her to be happy unless it was on your terms, right? AND because she left, you abandoned her, didn't you?"

The air around me stood still, except for that that swayed around a tree near the cemetery gates.

"This anger you feel, the one you push on him, it's meant for you, right? You hate yourself, not him. You blame yourself, not him. Deep down—" I took my turn to point at his chest. "—you feel if you were there, forgiving, caring, maybe you could've been the one she called, maybe you could've helped."

"You don't know me—"

"Oh, I know," I whispered, looking up in his eyes, "I know someone just like you. So like you, because he still hasn't opened his eyes. That's okay, though, because maybe he has time, but you?" I shook my head and looked back up the path towards Katerina's grave. "You're out of it. And instead of trying to be better, like he has—" I linked my fingers with Brian's. "—you'll never forgive yourself, and you'll never close the door on that anger you feel. You'll just sit it in, bask in it until your time comes."

No one said anything, and though I didn't think what I said was so silence-worthy, I felt it was needed. Because Mr. Henrickson blinked at me rapidly as he stepped back against the hood of his car. His eyes swam over me, then Brian, before looking up at the plot behind us.

"She always forgave you, right?" I said to him, waiting for him to nod or speak, but he didn't. "Maybe if you let this go and do right by her name, Katerina will forgive you. If you don't, well—"

With my chest puffed out, I opened the back door to Kyle's car, signaling the boys to follow suit. Kyle hopped into the driver's side and Brian opposite me. With my foot lingering in the doorway, I leaned against the car door with my forearms.

"Well, what?" he asked, grabbing his sunglasses tight in his hands.

I shrugged and dropped into the seat, still looking back at him. "God don't like ugly. Heard Hell's pretty nice, though."

His mouth hung open as I shut my door, listening to the rumbling purr of Kyle's car springing to life. I met his gaze through the rearview mirror, then looked at Brian, who was speechless beside me.

"I'm sorry," I told him, "I couldn't let him do that. I couldn't—"

Brian gripped my hand so tight I stopped talking. "Thank you," he whispered.

By the time we pulled out of the cemetery, the clouds in the sky had darkened, letting rain crash down on the hood of Kyle's car like falling glass. I couldn't help but look back as the gate shrank in the distance. I couldn't help but imagine Katerina's father standing in the pouring rain, staring down at his daughter's grave.

A part of me thought good, the old fucker deserved it. I knew I could tell Mr. Paul about it later and he'd agree. He had to. Any time that man came into the shop he was... I don't know how I didn't see it then.

Now, the rest of me? Well, everyone handles pain in different ways. I thought maybe Mr. Henrickson would see life on the lighter side. You know, where the grass is greener. Brighter.

"Are you hungry?" Brian rubbed my hand as we sat in the back seat together. "I think your fight might've brought up an appetite."

My stomach growled. Did it know? Unable to hide my laugh, I looked at Kyle before glancing at Brian, a big smile on my face. "I could eat," I told him. "But I think I need to change."

"Yeah..." Kyle glanced at the back seat, at Brian and I, and laughed as he scrunched his nose. "Not that we're going anywhere fancy, but the jammies? Come on, Kay."

"Hey, hey, hey." I pointed at Kyle as I laughed. "In my defense, I didn't know where I was going."

|||

No one ever knows where they're going. Life was a mystery. Comparable to the cosmos humans longed to study around the planet Earth. I was just happy knowing that my enigmatic future was possibly headed in the right direction.

All things happen for a reason. Right?

As Kyle drove down the street leading to my apartment, he slowed. His face inched closer towards the steering wheel as he pointed ahead. "Hey, Kay?"

Letting go of Brian's hand, I leaned against the front driver's seat, hands on the sides of it. I followed Kyle's finger as he said, "There's a guy outside with that old man from your building."

For a second, I freaked. There would've been no way the old geezer could've beat us here. I wanted to be the one to tell Mr. Paul about the man's awful behavior first. But as Kyle's car parked beside the shop and the man standing next to Mr. Paul became clear, I thought I could scream.

Well, cry first. Then a scream.

I was still pressed against Kyle's seat as I whispered, "Jun?"

"Jun?" Brian looked out the window. "Your brother?"

My brother. It's... "Jun!"

I didn't wait for another second in the car. Jun was there, right there, standing next to Mr. Paul. The two of them were covered under a single umbrella. Both were wet from the rain, they looked cold, too. But the second I jumped out of the car, Jun's eyes widened and he left the umbrella's shade to move around Kyle's car. Stepping in a puddle, he splashed both of us as he grabbed me in a big hug.

Mr. Paul scratched the side of his head. "I'm sorry I didn't let him inside, Kay," he said to me as my brother lifted me off my feet. "This would be the second random man appearing at your doorstep and I... well, I was starting to worry, Kay."

I couldn't help but laugh. The look I gave Mr. Paul said don't worry.

"Kay!" Jun squeezed me as though he was terrified something bad had happened. When he inched back to look at my face, I could see his eyes were red. Had he been crying? "Kay, you're okay."

"Yeah." I wanted to cry, too, but only because he was here. Right here. And I'd been mentally praying that he would help me. Did he hear my thoughts? "Of course, I'm okay," I told him. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Well, he didn't know the details of the past twenty-four hours. And if I did fully go into what had happened, the possibility of me being okay was eh. I mean, I could have been in my apartment devouring a tub of ice cream. Instead, I went after what I wanted most. And what I needed to do.

"Shit, Kay, I've been trying to call you all morning. Last night, too." Jun shook his head as he looked at my face. The green in his eyes was filled with emotions, his light hair stuck to his face with rain. "Mom called me because she couldn't reach you, and you know how she gets. When you didn't answer your phone last night, I just figured you were partying still. But this morning? Your phone kept going to voicemail." Jun pursed his lips. "I couldn't... I thought the worst. And—"

Brian and Kyle stepped out of the car and into the rain. They both looked at Jun, apologies etched on each of their faces. Jun glanced at Brian before sighing, "I'm sorry," he said to him, to all of us. "I thought the worst and I, I..."

Leaning against the open door, Brian smiled. Rain dripped down his face. "No worries, man. Only protecting your sister. It's all good. If anything..." Brian looked at me, then back at Kyle, before giving Jun a sincere apology, "I'm the one who needs to apologize. I had these two chasing after me all night. I'm in the wrong here."

"Did you?" Jun laughed nervously as he wiped the water from his face. "I... I can't say anything. I've done that before."

Standing there, looking at my brother, I remember he had done the exact same thing. Ran away in the middle of the night after a fight with my father; ran into a storm. And I snuck out of my bedroom window to find him, bring him home.

And out of the rain.

"Now, this is wonderful." Mr. Paul gripped his umbrella as he glanced back at the door to his shop. "Apologies are wonderful. Family is a lovely thing. But can we get out of the rain, please?"