He had almost hoped she wouldn't be able to recognize him, but that hope flew out the window as he saw her reaction. He watched her slowly breaking down and the tears welling up in her eyes. At the limits of his hearing he heard her whisper his name. He sighed softly, meeting her eyes, he blew out a long breath.
"I suppose I owe you an explanation," he started, "It all started five years ago, me and ... him," they knew he spoke of Derrick, "We had been tight for ages and like most kids we started trying out drugs."
"It didn't take long before we were both hooked, looking back it got ... him worse. He was always looking for the next buzz, any stash we bought he used twice as much as I did. We didn't have much cash and we burned through that fast, your brother would often 'find' cash. I suspect he was stealing from your parents."
"But that wasn't enough, He kept coming up with crazy plans and he could usually talk me into them, we robbed a few places, used the cash to buy guns and did a few hold-ups, gas stations, booze shops and the like. Then he suggested we started selling drugs, by that point we were deep into the game, we knew where to get it cheap, who liked what ... I didn't like the idea, thought it was too risky. But Der ... your brother could always talk me into doing what he wanted."
"So we ran drugs, we'd buy in mass, sell most of it, we were making a tidy sum. One of us would be the lookout while the other made the deals. Then he set up a large deal with what turned out to be an undercover cop. They pressed me hard, wanting me to turn him in, they suspected the truth that Derrick was the guy behind the scheme, but he was my best friend, I held out, wouldn't say anything. They tried to break me, told me that he was spilling his guts and giving me all the blame, I didn't believe them..."
"Then the court date came up and I sat there and watched as ... he came in and sat in the Witness box," Scott was growling at this point, "He didn't even look at me, just sat there with wet eyes and told them how I got him hooked, how I took advantage of the addiction and made him do what I wanted, how I coerced, threatened and blackmailed him into despicable acts... he blamed me for everything... I just sat in stunned silence."
"They couldn't prove anything and the judge didn't really believe ... him," Scott let out a breath he'd been holding, "So when the verdict came back guilty I got a light sentence, five years, three for good behavior... three years of my life in a small cell... three years with the memory of him blaming me of all of his ideas ... he didn't care about me ... so I thought I'd strike out the person I thought he did care about ... you ... but guess I was wrong there too, only person that bastard cares about now is himself..." Scott trailed off, not knowing what else to say just now.