Page 7 of Until You

Tyler released a chuckle. “Mr. Carter, you’re pretty hard to forget, considering how much time I spent in your office.”

The older man laughed. “I was a brand-new assistant principal your freshman year. You gave me plenty of disciplinary experience to help bump me up to principal.”

Tyler grinned. “I’m sure I deserved every punishment you doled out.”

“Maybe so, but you’ve turned into a man your father should be proud of.”

Ah…there was another touchy subject. “I suspect you didn’t call about my previous bad behavior.”

“You’re right. I’m calling about your brother Eric.”

“Is he okay?” Common sense told Tyler he was, otherwise the principal would have led with that, but he couldn’t imagine why Mr. Carter was calling him.

“He’s physically fine, but he’s in some trouble.”

Tyler rubbed his temple. “Uh…no offense, Mr. Carter, but why are you calling me?”

“I can’t get ahold of your father. In fact, I’ve tried to reach your father for the past two weeks, and he hasn’t returned any of my phone calls. Since you’re listed as Eric’s emergency contact, I’m now contacting you.”

Tyler’s father had devoted most of his time to his auto repair shop and hadn’t been the most attentive parent, even after their mother left when Tyler was sixteen, but he’d always responded to the schools. And Tyler had raised plenty of hell in high school to prove that to be true. “What’s Eric done?”

“We’re only two weeks into the school year, and Eric’s already falling behind in several of his classes. His teachers say he’s apathetic, not turning in assignments and skipping classes.”

Tyler resisted the urge to say, That’s all? Hell, he’d done much worse during his time at Blue Springs High School. “No offense, Mr. Carter, but isn’t that typical teenage boy behavior?”

“Not for Eric. Until the beginning of the school year, he was the model student. Turned in his work on time. Respectful of his teachers. Straight-A student and decent basketball player, given the fact that he was just a sophomore last year. But his teachers see a change in his attitude. He hasn’t turned in a single assignment.”

“No offense,” Tyler said, “but why are you calling me instead of our brother Alex? Given my high school history, I’m not actually the best role model for Eric.”

“Which is exactly why I’m calling you. I thought you might be able to get through to him, since you went through the same thing yourself. Maybe you can give him some insight to pull him out of this.”

Tyler’s relationship with his younger brother was far from close. He’d seen him twice over the entire summer and both times had been when Alex coerced them to meet for dinner at Olive Garden.

“With all due respect, Mr. Carter,” Tyler said, “you and my two best friends were what pulled my head out of my—” He cut off the curse, remembering who he was talking to, but it didn’t make the statement any less true. When Mr. Carter had threatened expulsion after a senior prank gone wrong, Kevin and Matt took him to the secluded camping spot Kevin’s father had taken him to on their monthly camping trips and threatened to beat the shit out of him until he admitted he was screwing up his life. The sad truth was that Tyler hardly knew anything about his kid brother’s life. Did Eric have friends who would have his back like that?

“Eric’s a bright young man and reminds me a lot of you,” Mr. Carter said. “You seem to be doing well for yourself. You harnessed your powers for good instead of evil.”

Tyler laughed. “I just applied my deviousness to my career. My clients tend to appreciate it, although their opponents not so much.”

“Let’s hope you can convince your brother to do the same.”

Tyler hung up, not overly concerned. Principal Carter had been right. Tyler had been a much worse fuck-up in high school, and he’d turned out pretty well. Eric was a smart boy. He was just testing his boundaries.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to talk to his brother. He set an alarm on his phone to call Eric when he got out of school, but Eric beat him to it.

“I hear Mr. Carter called you,” Eric said, sounding pissed.

Nothing like cutting to the chase. “You heard right.”

“So are you gonna lecture me?”

Tyler released a sigh. “Look, I’m not your dad, but I will say this…It’s okay to screw off every once in a while, but Jesus, moderation, dude. You can’t blow off everything.”

“Yeah, okay…”

“So…is it a girl?”

“What?”

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