Chapter Nine

"You fucker!" Leonard yelled as he wiped the water from his face, flinging it across the water with a slam of his fist on its surface. "You're asking for it!"

"What? What are you going to do?" Keanu asked, taunting him with the tone of his voice.

Leonard pulled himself out of the pool and flew over to him with blind rage, his fists ready to connect with skin. Keanu extended one hand at his neck to hold him back and keep him at a safe distance.

"You piece of shit!" Leonard said, his face a bright red. He grabbed onto the hand that was holding him back and shoved it to the side roughly. Leonard launched himself forward again to land a strike on Keanu.

But Keanu pushed him back with one hand. "Oh, you don't want pick a fight with me. You think you'd win?"

"Yeah, I would! You messed with me first!"

"Do you not think you did something wrong?"

"I did nothing wrong! Stop interfering with my life! I don't give a shit about your fucking rules! Leave me alone!"

"Those rules were guidelines. Shouldn't you have your own set of moral rules by now?"

"What the fuck? That has nothing to do with this!"

"Which part doesn't? You were close to forcing yourself on Alice."

"You know nothing about us. She was into it," Leonard said, though his expression flashed with doubt. Alice pulled the hem of her shirt further down, as if it could go any lower as she braced her upper arms.

"Is your mind dull? Didn't you hear her when she was crying out for you to stop? Does that sound like consent to you?"

"Consent? What the fuck, that's so woke."

"Stop giving me excuses. You know you didn't care about whether she wanted it or not."

"Don't act like you know me," Leonard scoffed. "You know nothing about us."

"I don't need to know anything to understand violence when I see it. And aren't you even aware that you're both still 17?"

"Which part of 'I don't give a fuck' do you not understand?"

"So you admit you ignored her wishes?"

Leonard scoffed again and muttered something dripping with vitriol under his breath. He gritted his teeth, his body posed to fight.

"What was that?" Keanu said. "Speak up like a man."

"You say I ignored her wishes. What about Mom? You were the professional when it came to ignoring her wishes."

Realisation flashes in Keanu's eyes and he held a finger of warning up at Leonard. "Don't you go there, Leonard."

"You think you're so big! You think you're everything! Well, Mom told me everything. She said you cared more about tennis than you ever did her!"

"Stop."

"You wanted to have your career. More than you wanted to start a family with her. She followed your desires, but she wanted to open a restaurant and you made her give that up so that you could make your dreams come true!"

"Leonard."

"You're a fucking hypocrite. Mom was right to leave you!"

"Keep your mouth shut! How dare you talk about that? You never understood!"

"You only think I don't know. Mom talked to me about it for years. I know more than you think I do. I know she wasn't happy with you."

"Did you ever talk to me about it?"

"I don't care about doing that."

"Then don't pretend like you get the entire picture!"

"What's there to get? You couldn't keep your girl, I can. I'm nothing like you. I'm never going to be like you!"

"If you think you're keeping Alice by raping her, then you're dumber than I thought."

"Fuck off! I'm not getting pointers from someone with a failed marriage!"

"Why don't you man up and ask me for my side of the story once, huh? Do you think everything your mother told you was the truth?"

"I know it was."

"How?"

"Whatever," Leonard said. "I've had enough of this, I'm leaving." Then he stalked towards the sliding doors.

"Running away again?" Keanu called out to him past his shoulder.

Leonard spun around in the blink of an eye. "You wanna know how I know? I know because Mom told me you were so obsessed with tennis that you never wanted me in the first place!"

Keanu's muscles loosened. "Leonard, that - "

"Well, I don't care about you either!" Leonard yelled and stepped into the home, slamming the door behind him.

Keanu sighed and Alice sat up in the beach chair, her face downcast as she thought about what just happened. He ran his fingers through his hair before he turned to look at her with guilt in his features.

"I'm so sorry you had to witness that, Alice."

"No, I get it. I always knew there were complications in your relationship with him. I was just hearing why for the first time."

"Are you alright from earlier? What Leonard did to you - That wasn't right."

"I'm fine. I'm glad you were there to stop him."

"I'm glad too, but," Keanu said and paused, as if he was trying to force himself to not say the words he wanted to.

"I'm alright, don't worry," Alice said finally.

"That's good," he said.

She smiled and looked down at her palms, her body still shivering slightly from fear. "Can you not tell Mike? I know you want to, but I don't want him to worry. He's been overworked by his job lately and Mom is busier than normal as well."

"I won't say a thing until you're ready to," Keanu said. "I promise you."

"Thank you," she said. Memories from the fight earlier ran through her mind. Things about Leonard's mother. She had no idea his mother had left Keanu, she always thought they split amicably. She knew that she should stay out of it, but she couldn't help but wonder what happened.

"Is there something you want to say?" Keanu asked.

"Yeah," Alice said. She wanted to know more about what happened. So she formed the questions in her mind and opened her mouth.