Page 2 of Resist Me

“Nothing’s wrong. We’ve been back for all of a few days. Chill out.”

“Fine. Keep it to yourself. I’m gonna do a video walkthrough so I can show Sen.”

“He’s gonna hate it,” I muttered under my breath.

The place had three rooms, which was what we needed for Willow to move here. It was barely within our budget, which was laughable considering the state of the place. I hadn’t seen any yet, but there had to be roaches. If I had to sleep here, I’d do it, but I’d find a way to be out of the apartment all day, every day.

As long as we stayed within our budget, I might be able to swing it without getting a job. My scholarship left me with money for room and board. It wasn’t much, but it should be enough. Worst case scenario, I found a side gig.

Maybe the definitely-roach-infested apartment could work. There weren’t many other places that were in our price range unless we moved further out. Since Kai was the only one with a car, that wasn’t feasible.

I’d name the first roach George and the second Fred. That way, one would have to watch his brother die. I couldn’t remember which one because I wasn’t that much of a nerd, but it didn’t really matter. One of those goo-filled sprinters was going to die.

“He said it’s fine,” Kai announced, coming back into the room.

“Fine is code for hate.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t very convincing, but we don’t have many options here. It’s up to you if we go through with it. She’s your sister.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I thought about Willow, stuck in our dad’s house with nowhere else to go. It wasn’t even a question. I just needed a minute to agonize over it.

She had to pull her weight when she moved in. Since she was held back her senior year, she had to repeat the grade, but she’d recently decided to get her GED instead. She needed out of our dad’s house, so we were moving her to Seattle to be with us. I already told her she needed to get a job as soon as she got here. If she started slipping, I couldn’t pick up the slack for her. She’d been through shit and struggled because of it. I’d do anything- up to and including murder- for her, but I had to stay on top of my own shit.

Alright. The moment of agonizing over it was complete.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Let’s just do it. I’m sure some posters on the walls and a nice espresso machine will spruce up the place.”

“Sure. It’ll be great.”

Kai offered me a hopeful smile before he started toward the door. I looked into the kitchen just in time to catch a fat brown roach scurry into some crack in the floorboard that was too small for me to see.

A shudder racked my body. Everything would be fine. It was probably the only one. It could have gotten lost and was now fleeing back to its rightful place in hell.

I shut the door behind me and wished that it would be the last time I had to look at that place. Unfortunately, we were about to call it ‘home’ and I was nowhere near ready for that.

*****

“Come on, Densmore!” coach called when my throw went wide. Again.

My skin was warm, not just from the exertion. I wanted to tear off my gear, but it would just give him another reason to yell at me.

I shouldn’t have been messing up this bad today. My head was all over the place and I kept getting distracted. We were moving this weekend and I was stressed about it. On top of that, I couldn’t stop worrying about Willow. I could never stop.

When my throw was shit again, I let out a frustrated sound and marched off the field. Coach called my name, but I ignored him. I was done practicing today. It wasn’t doing any good.

“Maybe you’ll be better at fetch,” Lincoln taunted before throwing a ball at me. I evaded it and continued toward the locker room.

I slammed my hand into the door and immediately started tearing off my uniform. Our final game was in two days and I was failing. Coach probably wouldn’t even let me play at this point. It was unlikely he would anyway. It was Lincoln’s last game and he was the king. He’d go on to make everyone proud when he finished here. What else did he have to prove?

Harmon was one of the top schools for football. It was why I came here. If I was at a lesser university, practice likely wouldn’t start again for a while. That wasn’t the case for us. After our last game, we got less than three months off.

At least Lincoln was done. He wouldn’t be playing next year, so he wasn’t part of the team after this season ended.

Good riddance.

You’re worthless, West.

That was what he told me the day I got back from winter break. I’d gone to the football field and, lo and behold, he was there throwing the ball around by himself and running laps. His words were uncalled for, even if I had pissed him off and attacked him.

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