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A beep ca me that he was on his ith his men I told him where it was and that I’d be out More than that, I trusted hiallery

Vin assuredwould be fine and Ally would never know of it until opening night It wasinto my studio, I s I’d usually wake up andht, afterether… I couldn’t bringthe Camino keys on the workstation, I walked over, picked them up, as well asAustin and Lev all about ht had

What the hell would they think? Me A sculptor with his own show in a real fucking ined their happy reaction… relief, excitement… want Fuck, that was it; I wanted them to be proud of me I wanted them to finally see me as more than just their older brother who’d only ever shown skill in pushing coke

As I weaved through the streets of Seattle, I thought back to when Ally toldto do her next co her next toache I wanted her to stay I wanted her to stay here in Seattle withit happen I couldn’t let her leave We’d co far

As I drew closer to Austin’s house, the nerves returnedI was a damn pussy

In h the front door… then i Levi and Austin sat on the stairs, withat their feet

Both of my brothers had their heads down, but when they heard the door open, Austin looked up, a stony expression on his face

"What’s all this?" I asked, feeling the teot to his feet and walked over to stand at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed over his chest

When his eyes met mine, I could see how much pain he was in I almost moved forward to wrap , but the shitty way he was looking at me kept me rooted to the floor

Austin lifted his foot, and rested it on top of , Axe, the one you said you orking at"

The blood drained froers had no fucking idea who I was talking about"

Austin looked down at Levi Levi kept his head down, his hands gripping his hair

I opened my mouth to explain, but--

"I couldn’t believe it, Axe, so I went to every market I could find None of the soht he’d seen you hanging around, but you sure as hell weren’t working"

Austin clawed at his dark hair, his eyes shining Meeting ht there had to be soed He’d got out of prison five years early and was doing real good He was a different guy than the one who used to be Heighter tight" He pulled in a ragged breath and his face flushed red with his pain

I stepped forward "I--"

"Then I get ho o into your roo you’d be there to explain all this shit You weren’t, as always So I started going through your stuff, looking for so months!"

Austin reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out the second bag of coke I’d bought after his game I must have left it in my jeans

My sto

"You’re dealing again, Axe? After everything?" Austin’s face contorted in aof coke at led to breathe as I stared at it As I looked up, Austin was staring atdisappointet my head around how I’d come here today to tell the me to explain why I wasn’t at the market, why I had this coke, and of course they iht the worst