Page 9 of My Brother's Bad Best Friend

“Sure,” I say.

“Bathroom over here.” He quickly shuts the door and moves on. “It’s the only one, hope you’re okay with that. Real pain in the ass that you have to go up steps every time to piss.”

“I’m fine,” I say.

“And down there is Jonas’s room.” He gestures at the left room at the end of the hall. “I’d show you, but he’d notice I opened his door and he’d probably make me have some stupid talk about it.”

“Do you guys not get along?” I ask him, a little surprised.

He hesitates a second. “We get along fine,” he says finally. “Just been stressful, opening Half Pipe. Things are strained right now.” He perks up a little bit. “But we’re doing great.”

“Really?” I ask, almost skeptical.

“Really,” he says. “Even though he’s annoying, Jonas runs that place like clockwork.”

“Yeah? What do you do?”

He glances at me as he walks past, back down into the living room. “Big picture stuff,” he says vaguely, gesturing around him like he’s trying to swat some bugs away from his face.

We come back down into the main space and he sighs, turning toward me.

“Listen, Lizzie, I’m sorry to do this, but I have to go.”

I blink, surprised. I expected him to at least sit down and talk to me for a little while, maybe ask a few more questions. We’ve barely spoken in years, except maybe once or twice when he popped into my life to check on me. Mostly he just ignored me, but now I’m in his apartment, and he can’t ignore me anymore.

Or maybe he can.

“It’s business,” he says, by way of explanation. “You understand, right? Make yourself at home, do whatever, we got Netflix and HBO.”

“Okay, sure. I get it.” I pause, glancing at the patio and all the plants arranged neatly. “Will you be back later?”

“Later,” he says, nodding. “Jonas should be home later, too.”

“Okay, cool.”

He looks at me and frowns a little bit. “I’m sorry you had to come here,” he says softly, the first sign of genuine human emotion crossing his face. “Really. I know it sucks. But it’ll be better soon.”

“Thanks,” I say, feeling a stupid lump in my throat. It’s pathetic, someone’s briefly nice to me and all I want to do is cry.

“See you later, little sis.” He grins at me and leaves without another word, grabbing his keys on the way.

I stand there alone in the middle of a strange apartment, not sure what to think. My eye throbs, my feet are sore from walking, and all I want to do is curl up in a bed and go to sleep. But I don’t have a bed anymore.

I just have this couch in this beautiful, immaculate apartment, and I have no clue what I’m going to do with myself anymore.

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