Page 26 (1/2)

I wonder how relaxed he is with Bren and Marcel How oing red when Dad talked to him It doesn’t seeuess I don’t know him

“I’ve gotta go downstairs and grab a few things,” I say “Lie down, Grah ot a little bottle of scotch that Dad and Kaye bought ured I would open it—rab it off a bookshelf and hand it to him

“Lie down and try solacier water shit”

I don’t look behind me till I’ toward the headboard I find hi back against the pilloith his eyes barely open

I sives lare

“Did you drink my scotch?”

He holds up the bottle: full I wait for hi and set it back on the shelf

“Ready to go?” I ask as I do By the time I turn around, he’s already on his feet He looks unhappy

“Sorry I left you up here for a second”

“Sorry for fixing my hand, too?”

I quirk a brow up at hiet it”

He giveso down We leave the house quietly, and I don’t realize till we’re both in my car that I didn’t offer him water or Advil

“Hang on” I hop out of the car to grab a water fro dad on

I hand AA the water, ad tolike I thought when I first saw hi He’s the uy I’ve ever seen in real life, and I hate it

I hate that I feel uncomfortable around him How my heart pounds and my hands sweat And I hate it all the more because he’s him Because he’s a rude, irreverent prick who’s probably a homophobe Because he seems to think I’et away from this What I hate the most is that I care I don’t even knohy

It feels like forever that I’ back toward Mom’s house with his bloodstained left knee in the blur ofto keep my damn eyes on the road and off of hi, because it doesn’t matter I don’t have to worry over him He’s not my brother

Finally we’re alh voice breaks the silence “Ever get called Millsy?”

“What?”

He’s s loose and somewhat leery, somehow even drunker than before