Page 169 of Night's Fall
“And this is why you take the serum,Tim,”Alekseisaid with strained patience. “Ifshe is indeed a female like that, you don’t hand her the rope to hang you.”
“I can’t be fussed with remembering to take a freaking serum once a week,”Timotheemumbled.
“For fuck’s sake,”Alekseigroused.
Aleece joined the conversation.
“You know, sometimes you make it really hard to love you two,” she declared, aiming this atTimotheeandErrol.
The first narrowed his eyes at her.
The other surprised me by having the good grace to look abashed.
Aleece kept at them.
“I’m mortified to my soul our future sister-in-law, new to our family, is standing there, watching you behave like this.”Shesaid this toTimothee, and then turned toErrol. “I’mchagrined she felt she had to step in and clean up your mess.”Sheshook her head. “I’vetried.I’vereally tried to understand where you two are coming from.Itry, and thenIhear about more shit you both get up to.I’mexhausted with the effort.I’mdone.Ican’t beat it back anymore, make excuses for you.Ialso can’t fight the feeling any longer thatI’mjust so fucking ashamed of both of you.”
She moved to leave but stopped and looked back to me.
“I’m sorry for my family,Laura.We’llchat some other time.”
I didn’t get the chance to nod my acceptance, she was gone.
“Great.Thanks,”Timotheesaid snidely. “Nowyou’ve turnedAleeceagainst us.”
“I’m curious,”Alekseisaid. “Howdoes it feel to have the world land on you, and anything and anybody but yourself and your own actions are to blame for the shit that befalls you, which happens to absolutely nobody.Ratherthan your actions impacting you and those around you, which is what everyone else experiences?”
Timothee changed tacks.
“You blew it with that ritual, brother,” he sneered.
“You’re following the wrong tapes,brother.Theimpact of our attendance was overall positive,”Alekseireplied.
It was?
Germaine didn’t make it out to be that way.
“But even if it wasn’t, we stood for compassion today and gave a family thrown into one of the hells no one wants to visit a thin thread to cling to, that we grieved with them and we didn’t blame their loved one for something that wasn’t her fault,”Alekseiconcluded.
“Always with the answers,”Timotheeretorted.
“Fuck,Tim, just let it go,”Errolsaid on a sigh.
Timothee turned on his younger brother. “You’lltoe the line, and now, instead of kissingDad’sass, you’ll kissAleksei’sfeet because you’ve got a dick the size of a toothpick and couldn’t think yourself out of a paper bag.”
For a flash, an expression hitErrol’sface that set ice into my veins.
Then he shot back, “Fuckoff.”
“Gladly,”Timotheereturned and stormed out.
“I liked her,”Errolannounced, taking our attention to him. “Ireally did.Shejust wasn’t marriage material.”
He was talking aboutNata.
I gritted my teeth, something that helped loads with me holding my tongue.
It didn’t escape me that neither of those two males had directed one word to me yet.
