Page 45 of Until You

“Did he get in trouble?”

“Nah,” Tyler said. “But I got in trouble because I wasn’t watching him.”

“Alex didn’t get in trouble at all?”

“Nope.”

“What happened to you?”

“I lost Sega privileges for a month.”

“What? That’s not right!”

Tyler shrugged. “I was supposed to be watching him. The house could have burned down.”

“How old were you?”

“Eight.”

“Jesus. You were babysitting at eight? Isn’t that, like, illegal?”

He’d told this story before—always for the laugh—but the significance had never hit him until now. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said absently.

Now that he thought about it, his parents had always forced him into a pseudo-parenting role long before he’d been ready or even capable. He’d never been allowed to be a kid, and there’d been days when he’d felt like he was suffocating. When he’d hit high school, he’d rebelled hardcore. And then, in college, he’d gotten a taste of what real freedom felt like—no responsibilities, no one depending on him to do or be something he wasn’t, and he’d never looked back.

That gave him pause. Maybe there was something to Alex’s Peter Pan theory after all. Tyler wasn’t sure which to be more shocked over: that he’d actually given serious psychobabble consideration to his childhood or that Alex might actually be right about something.

Eric gave him a curious stare. “Dude, are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Tyler said, trying to recover and not look like an idiot in front of his younger brother. Wasn’t he supposed to be an example of having his shit together? So he hastily asked, “How’s school going?

The smile on Eric’s face fell, and defiance stiffened his jaw. “So that’s what this is about. I knew it. This is just some trick to interrogate me.”

Shit. Tyler ran his hand through his hair. “No. It’s not. I swear.” Dammit. “But you have to realize it’s one of those conversational topics. How’s your job? Nice weather we’re having. How’s school?”

“How about school sucks ass? Is that the answer you’re looking for? Gee, it sure is a hot one today. Won any big lawsuits lately?”

“You don’t want to talk about school?” he said. “That’s fine. Give me a list of topics that we can and cannot discuss. I take it school is on the don’t ask, don’t tell list.”

“How about we just stick to the list of things I’ve fucked up?” Eric asked in disgust. “That seems to be Alex’s favorite.”

“Language,” Tyler barked, glancing at a little boy who was watching them from several feet behind them in line.

“See?” Eric said, his eyes glassy. “I can’t even get my shucks darn list right.”

Tyler let out a long breath. This wasn’t going at all as he’d planned.

When they reached the counter, Tyler ordered a beer and a hot dog while Eric ordered some hot wings and a Coke. After they got their food, Tyler headed over to the condiment table to doctor up his hot dog.

“Eric,” Tyler said, giving his full attention to the ketchup dispenser, “believe it or not, I want to be your friend.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. You want to hang out with me all the time.”

Fuck.The kid was right. “I’ve been a dick. I’ve got no excuse.”

Eric grinned, but he continued to look down and started rubbing the tip of his sneaker on the concrete floor, bending back a loose piece of rubber.

Why was he wearing piece-of-shit shoes?