Page 42 of Monsters

I touched his cheek, his skin soft. “You’re the only girl I’ll ever want,” he continued, and I believed every word.

“Spare me the bullshit!”

Huh?

We sat up, startled by the familiar patronizing voice behind us.

“Where the hell have you been?” Lucas’s tone was both angered and pained, a stark contradiction to only moments earlier.

“Calm down, little brother,” Mason replied flippantly. His mood was one I couldn’t quite place. While he was somewhat chilled with Lucas, his attitude toward me was cold and spiteful. “You two planning on getting hitched, are ya?” A cruel smile played on his lips. “Shhh, don’t let Jessica find out.”

Confusion marred Lucas’s face. “What are you talking about?” It was too late, Mason was already walking away, his head thrown back in a masochistic laugh. There was no Jessica. It was a ruse, but Lucas wasn’t yet finished. He jumped off the rock and held his hand out for me to take. After helping me to the ground, he stalked after Mason. I followed quickly behind, hoping and praying the altercation wouldn’t turn violent.

“You didn’t answer my question, Mason. Where the hell have you been?”

His brother kept walking a few steps ahead before he suddenly turned on his heel, his eyes reflecting the devil himself. “I had to get out of there before I killed that fucker!” he seethed.

“So, you just leave Mom and me there to deal with his shit?”

“We wouldn’t be in this situation if Mom didn’t keep taking him back. She obviously doesn’t give a fuck about whether we’re met with his fist every time he comes around, so why the fuck should I stay? Dad never laid a hand on us.”

“Dad fucked off, Mason! He left us for some other family and forgot about his own. And now you’re fucking off, too.” Lucas’s voice began to waver, and I gripped his arm in support. “So why keep coming back?”

“Why do I keep coming back?” Mason raised his brows and advanced a few steps. “If I stayed, he would be dead…” his finger jabbed into Lucas’s chest, “… and I would be sent to jail. I come back to make sure my little brother and stupid mother are all right.”

“Yeah, well…” Lucas scoffed. “Too bad if one day you come home and we’ve received more than the regular Friday night bashing.”

Mason bared his teeth while biting down hard on his bottom lip. “Then come with me. Better yet, we’ll move all our shit into the cabin. We have a roof over our heads and no one except Gem will know where to find us.”

“You don’t even have a job, Mason, and I still haven’t finished school.”

“Then we’re shit outta luck, aren’t we?”

Lucas, done with the conversation, turned in the direction of the cabin, swiping angrily at a low hanging tree branch.

Mason, being older, was taller and stronger and could stand up to a grown man. All Lucas wanted was to know his brother was around in times of need and would have his back. But in the same sense, I understood Mason… to a degree. At his current age, he walked a fine line. In most situations, he would be considered a minor still, but if he did something the court considered severe, he would be tried as an adult and face the full brunt of the law. It was a catch-22, and neither of the boys had the answers.

“Lucas, wait,” I called after him. He stopped at the sound of my voice but refused to turn around. Instead, he wiped his hand across his cheeks not wanting us to see him cry.

A rock formed in my throat and the words struggled to come out. “I brought enough food for the weekend. Let’s just all stay and see what we can come up with. There’s got to be an answer, we just don’t know what it is yet.”

Sliding his hands into his pockets, Lucas looked up to the sky. I took his silence as agreement.

Mason retrieved his bag from the nearby shrubs and despite having enough room to go around me, knocked his shoulder into mine. “What’s to eat? I’m starving.”

~

The evening came and went without drama.

Giving the brothers space, I studied for my science exam. Mason and Lucas were outside butting heads over what to do for their troubled family. When they took time out, they ate the food I cooked, and we all shared a bottle of alcoholic apple cider Mason had pilfered. It was my first time tasting anything alcoholic, but I wasn’t about to let the boys know. That night, exhausted from their terse exchanges, the boys slept soundly.

The next morning, I took a walk back through the forest to where the wildflowers were always in bloom. Mason and Lucas had been preparing the fishing rods in hopeful anticipation of catching something for dinner. It was a beautiful day, and I wore my yellow sundress to better my mood. The lack of resolution between the brothers wasn’t sitting well with me. There didn’t seem to be an answer to the problem. After our weekend at the cabin, they would be going home to face the same demon.

The wildflowers sat perched on tall grassy stems, reaching almost mid-thigh. A clearing framed with trees was brightly lit with the burning sun and blooming colors that worshiped the heat. Armed with a pair of scissors, I started collecting my bouquet.

I was cutting my last flower when I heard it.

A twig snapped.

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