Page 12 of Fresh Start
“Family? I thought you were entertaining guests tonight,” Lucas replied and glanced at me.
Subtle shot, but a shot indeed. I couldn’t help it when my head dipped, and I decided to focus on the ground instead.
“Shut up, Luke,” Melody said. “Show some respect to your older brother.”
“Why should I? He hasn’t even acknowledged my existence in the past twenty years. Am I supposed to pretend he never left or that he won’t leave and forget about us again?” Lucas said and climbed the rest of the steps and disappeared on the second floor.
“He’s an ass. Don’t mind him,” Melody said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
I shook my head.
“He’s right, Mel,” I mumbled.
“Nonsense,” Yaya said and put her hand through my arm and guided me to the big kitchen that also hadn’t changed. “You’re a busy man. Traveling the world. Family is family no matter how long they’ve been gone.”
“Is that the kind of crap you’ve been telling him, Yaya? So he don’t feel guilty for forgetting us?” someone said from the corner, and we all turned to find Andrew, my oldest brother, walking from the garden into the house.
Boy, had he changed since I’d last seen him. He was a grown-ass man now.
“Language, Andy. And what’s wrong with the Karagiannis family today? It’s a celebration. Our family is almost back together. And instead, you’re all being stupid,” Yaya said.
“I’m sorry, Yaya, but family to me is there when you need them,” Andy said and walked past us. “Anyway, I’ve got to go. They’re short at the bar, and they need me.”
“But we’re having—” Yaya tried to reason with him, but he practically ran out front. “Family dinner,” she mumbled to herself after he’d closed the door behind him.
“I guess it’s just us then,” Melody said and hugged me, but I couldn’t shake the confrontations with both my brothers.
“Everyone hates me, don’t they?” I asked when we sat down.
“No one hates you, Leo. You should see how they treat Charlie when he visits,” Yaya said and opened the oven to take a baking tray out.
My nostrils filled with the aromas of cheese, aubergines, and potatoes.
“But he visits. I don’t. They hate me,” I said.
“Andy hasn’t been the same since Lucy passed away. And Lucas is trying to find his birth parents without much luck. They’re just being assholes because life isn’t being fair to them, which isn’t fair to you,” Melody said, but it didn’t do anything to appease me.
It just added to the reasons why I felt like crap for not being there for my brothers when they needed me the most. Lucy had passed away five years ago, and I hadn’t managed to make it to the funeral due to... complications with my rehab. But still. Thinking about it now, it was fucking stupid of me to leave my brother deal with his loss alone. Even if he had the rest of the family there for him.
And Lucas? Him I didn’t even know. When I left, he was just ten years old and the only black kid at school. He’d been bullied since he joined our family at the age of three, and we’d all done our absolute best to embrace him and make him feel like one of us. He’d been Mom’s favorite, and he and Charlie, my other younger brother, had been very close since they were only a year apart. And I’d left him behind to come back almost two decades later to find him a full-grown man. A man I didn’t know because I’d never been back.
No wonder they hated me. I’d hate me too.
“Who are you?” a girl came into the kitchen. She was wearing indigo butterfly wings on her back that matched her dress. Her hair was dark brown and curly, and for a moment, she reminded me of Mom.
“Summer, this is your Uncle Leo. Do you remember?” Melody said.
Of course. Summer. Summer had been only four years old when Lucy passed, and Andy’d had to raise her on his own. With the help of Yaya and the rest of the family, of course.
“Yes. Of course I remember. You’re the famous singer,” she said and approached me.
I pushed my chair back and got to my knees and gave her my hand.
“I’m Leo. Nice to finally meet you, Summer.”
Summer ignored my hand and instead hooked herself on my neck and gave me the welcome I hadn’t received from her dad.
“It’s like I’ve got a new uncle,” she said. “Will you hang out with me?”
