"Honey?" Mrs. Kinder slowly pushed open the door to her son's room. She looked around and her eyes stopped on the boy sitting and staring out the window. "Dinner is ready, Shane," she said softly. The boy didn't move.

"I'm not hungry."

Mrs. Kinder pursed her lips and entered the dark room.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, making her way over to the window.

"Nothing."

Mrs. Kinder hesitated, then said, "Please come down and eat something."

Shane didn't reply for a minute. Then his head dropped down to his chest and he shut his eyes.

"They still won't let me in to see him," he forced out, his voice cracking. "They wouldn't even tell me how he was."

"Oh, honey." Mrs. Kinder kneeled down next to the chair, eye to eye with her son. "You'll see him soon. Just let him heal up for a while, it's only been two days."

Shane looked at her and took a deep breath to calm himself. "I know, Mom, I just.I just want to make sure he's okay."

"He'll be fine, dear." She kissed his forehead and stood up. "Now. Will you come eat something?"

Shane sighed and nodded.

Downstairs at the dinner table sat Mr. Kinder, but he wasn't alone. Next to him was a young woman with long, brown hair and deep green eyes. She was talking to Mr. Kinder, but when she saw Shane she stopped and smiled.

"Leah," Shane said, sounding surprised.

"Hey, bro," Leah said happily. "Long time no see. Well, not since Christmas."

"What are you doing here?" Shane asked, still somewhat in shock.

"I got two weeks off for spring break. What better place to spend it than here?" She smiled warmly at her mother and father, then back at her brother.

Shane smiled slightly and nodded back, but didn't say anything more. His eyes were red like he'd been crying.

Leah shot a worried look at Mrs. Kinder. "Is everything okay?"

Shane frowned and looked at his mother. "I'm really not hungry, Mom." With that he turned and made his way back up to his room.

For awhile Shane lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling in complete darkness. His face was calm and he showed no sign of emotion. Then his eyes began to wander. He turned his head to the side and saw a power on the wall. It was a movie poster that he, Jordan and Bryan had planned on seeing that summer. Star Wars: Episode II. They all loved Star Wars and had been looking forward to it for a long time.

Shane tore his eyes off the poster and moved them to his desk. On it was a picture he took of Jordan and Bryan standing with their favorite band, Tool. That was a great day, Shane remembered. They took a school day off to go to the concert two states over. The backstage passes had been a gift from Jordan's aunt for his birthday. Shane recalled that it took the entire week before to convince Bryan's father to let him go.

Shifting his gaze to his closed closet door, Shane thought about the boxes of little toy army men and legos he used to play with. Jordan would build a fortress of legos, Bryan would set up an army of men inside of it, and then Shane would attack it with his men. They switched roles or made up a new rule every time, so the game never got boring.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Shane was ripped from his thoughts.

"Yeah?" he called, not moving from the bed.

The door slid open and Leah casually walked into the room with her hands behind her back and her gaze fixed on Shane.

"Mom told me what happened," she said quietly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Shane threw up his hands lazily. "What's there to talk about? Bryan is in the hospital because of something I knew about and I didn't stop."

Leah thought for a moment. "So you blame yourself?"

"No! I blame him!" Shane sat up, steaming with refreshed anger. "It's all his fault!"

"Who?"

"Bryan's dad! He's the one who did it, he did everything!"

"Mom says they're not so sure about that," Leah said cautiously. "She says that they suspect him, but it could have been an accident."

"It wasn't an accident, Leah!"

They were both silent. Shane could hear his mom clearing the dinner table downstairs. He momentarily wondered what they had had for dinner.

"I know it wasn't an accident," Shane stated a little more calmly. "I know he-he beat him, okay? He did it a lot."

"That doesn't mean he would seriously hurt him. You can't just jump to conclusions like this."

"It's true!"

Leah sighed. "Look, Shane, I know you don't like Mr. Vale very much, and having a friend in the hospital is hard, but you can't do this to yourself."

"Do what? I'm not doing anything," Shane said defensively and lay his head back down on the bed.

"That's what I mean. Get up, go out, have some fun, eat dinner for god's sake!"

"I'm not hungry."

Leah growled and turned on the light. "Do you think this is helping anything?"

"No."

"Then why are you doing this?"

Shane licked his lips. " I really think about it.I know that it is my fault," he said slowly. "I don't want it to be, but it makes sense."

"I thought as much," Leah nodded.

"What do you mean?"

"It makes sense you would blame yourself, Shane, because of the situation and because you're just like that. But it's not your fault," Leah assured him. "I promise it's not."

"I could've stopped it."

"What happened to all that anger directed towards Bryan's dad?"

Shane shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know what to think! I hate him for doing it-"

"He [I]may[/I] have done it."

"But I hate myself for not telling! Bryan could be fine right now! Why didn't I tell anyone?"

Leah sighed and shook her head slowly. "It's in the past, Shane. Forgive, forget and learn something."