Page 48 of The Spider & the Storm

His nostrils flared at my combative tone, and then he bent to snatch the beer from off the floor. He stomped, barefoot, past me toward the living room, as if he’d had the final word, but he was wrong about that.

I trailed close behind, and he pretended not to notice. When he dropped onto the couch, kicked his feet up, and grabbed the TV remote, I didn’t move from his direct line of sight. Instead, I stared down at him, defiant and stubborn.

“Will you fucking move?” he asked coolly.

“No.”

He used the coffee table’s edge to pop the top off the bottle before getting up and flopping to the other side of the L-shaped sectional. Then, with a smug little smirk on his face, he turned on the TV, now unperturbed by my presence.

“What the fuck happened to you, Luke?” I asked, shaking my head.

He flipped the channels mindlessly, keeping his gaze diverted from mine.

“You know, Melanie says she misses you. Did you know that? She says she’d fucking leave if she didn’t love you so goddamn much.”

“Then, she should fucking go,” he muttered, shrugging like it all meant nothing.

“You know what?” I slammed my hand against my chest. “I agree with you! She should! She doesn’t deserve this shit. And if you had any fucking decency left in you, you’d let her go. Fucking break up with her! Because she’s wasting her life on you. Do you realize that? She’s wasting her fucking life waiting for you to get your head out of your ass. And she deserves better than that. She deserves someone wholovesher. She deserves—”

“Doyoulove her?”

He turned to level me with a narrowed glare, and I could see it there, something possessive and alive flickering somewhere within his otherwise indifferent expression. I had awakened that tiny piece of the old Luke, the Luke we—Melanie and me—had been holding out hope for.

So, I risked bodily harm by shrugging and lying. “Maybe.”

Just to see what he’d say.

Just to see what he’d do.

And what he did was get up quicker than I could blink and grab my shirt by the collar to bring his face close enough for me to feel the heat emanating from his skin.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you fucking love her, and I swear to God, Charlie, I’ll fucking beat you so hard—”

“I don’t fuckingloveher, you idiot,” I said, relenting easily. “Not like that. But what if I did? Why does it even fucking matter to you? It’s not like you do.”

His grip on my shirt loosened as the anger etched into the lines on his face eased, just a little. “Yes, I do.”

“Well, you have a really fucked-up way of showing it.”

He released his hold on me altogether and dropped back down to the couch, pushing his hands into his hair.

“You’ve spent years worried about me,” I said, standing over my older brother. “Now, how about you start worrying about yourself? And stop pushing Melanie away unless you really want her to go. Because one day, she will, and if it’s because you’re too busy drinking yourself to death to see how lucky you are to have someone like her, I’ll never fucking forgive you for that.”

My heart hammered wildly as I turned around and headed back upstairs, the adrenaline flowing through my veins. I’d said exactly what I’d needed to say, and I hadn’t allowed for him to reply. All I could hope was that he thought about what I’d said. All I could hope was that it’d make a difference.

And I guessed it had, even if for a while. Because the next day, Luke went to his first AA meeting. Two weeks after that, he asked Melanie to marry him.

She said yes, and I prayed that she wouldn’t regret it.

And I prayed that, one day, someone might love me as much as she loved him.

CHAPTER TWELVE

MASSACHUSETTS, PRESENT DAY

The sun peeked from around its blanket of clouds, then disappeared again just as quickly. I shielded my eyes with my hand and peered up toward the sky as two crows cawed and disappeared between the branches of a nearby tree.

I had read that autumn in Massachusetts would be cold. But this wasn’t what I’d consider cold. I couldn’t even call this cool or comfortable even. I was approximately two degrees away from sweating through my long-sleeved shirt, even while on the back of Luke’s bike on my way to the gate, and if the sun decided to show itself fully, I knew I’d have to roll up my sleeves.

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