Page 112 of The Spider & the Storm

How the hell was I supposed to get through the next ten years without them? How the hell was I supposed to get through the rest of my life?

I told myself that at least I had Luke. At least we had each other, for whatever it was worth, but I knew Mom and Dad wouldn't have approved of our fumble through the past ten years. Alcoholism. Sexual encounters with a myriad of random women. Motorcycles. Allowing the house to go straight to hell.

They hadn't taught us enough, I decided angrily, bitterly. They hadn't taught us how to survive like grown-ups in a world that expected too much from us. They hadn't taught us how to cope with the bullshit trauma life would inevitably throw at us.

It's not their fault.

I shook my head at my reflection and pulled back a loud sniffle. No, it wasn't their fault for dying. But it was their fault for coddling me too much, for not coddling Luke enough. Forkeeping me hidden beneath their shelter and not giving a shit about anything he did in his spare time.

Stop.

I blew out my breath and nodded. Anger never led to anywhere good, and everything Mom and Dad had done, they'd done out of love. They'd always done what they thought to be right, and wasn't that all any of us were doing?

After splashing some cool water on my face, I exhaled once more and turned to leave the bathroom when the door flew open to reveal my brother and a woman I didn't recognize.

Both of them grinning and laughing.

Both of them naked.

“Shit,” I uttered as my hand quickly clapped over my eyes. I'd seen Luke in the nude plenty of times, but I didn't need to know the size and shape of this woman's boobs before knowing her name.

“Oh, hey, man,” Luke said casually, neither of them bothering to move out of the way. “I didn't know you were home.”

“Who's this?” the woman asked, her voice still breathless from the exertion. “You didn't tell me you had a roommate. He could've joined—”

I shook my head rapidly. “Nope. Not going there.”

Luke laughed boisterously. “Charlie's my little brother.”

“Well, he's cute. I like his hair—”

I retreated back into the bathroom as I felt her fingers touch the ends of my hair, still a mess from being in someone else’s bed not even an hour ago.

“Look, I just wanna get back to my room, and then you guys can do whatever—”

“I thought you had a date,” Luke said, his voice full of concern and question. “With, uh, Bethany? Right?”

“Marie.”

“Right.” His hand hit something—the wall maybe. “Marie. That's it. What happened? You good?”

That was just like Luke. He might've been a sex-crazed idiot who made shitty choices when it came to addictions and money and women, but he always cared about me. He always put me first. Even when he was standing naked in the hallway with a woman I didn't know, keeping me from fleeing to close myself behind my bedroom door.

I sighed. “We can talk la—”

“Nah, we're good. You can tell me now. What's up?”

Pressing my lips into a tight line, I blew out an exasperated breath through my nose, then relented and said, “She broke it off.”

“What?” he asked, like he could hardly believe it. “The fuck, man! I swear to God, these freakin' women.”

“Hey!” the nameless woman cried, and I heard a hand hit flesh. She must've slapped him.

“Sorry, babe. Not you.”

I rolled my eyes behind my palm. I knew my brother, and I knew there was little chance of him ever seeing her again.

“Luke, I really just wanna get to my room, okay? So, if you could just move—”

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