Page 6 of Fighter
How to tell your Mom that her son was addicted to prescription drugs and his sketchy girlfriend could be feeding him something else?
Certainly not over text.
Halfway out the side door, I paused. Speak of the devil. A beater car was parked on the road at the end of my brother’s scraggly lawn. The lawn had once been lush and well-cared for. He lived in a quiet neighborhood on the periphery of Pineville, where the edge of the reservoir gave way to fields and grazing land. Ranches dotted the hillsides and mountains in the distance. His little house had been an ideal place to stay when he worked at a nearby ranch, but now . . . well, it might be a bit isolated for his needs these days.
That beater car, however, meant trouble.
Serafina:Good luck with that, Mom. He got defensive last time I brought it up. By the way, Amber is back. Apparently, she spent the night.
Mom:Great.
I could picture Mom's annoyed eyebrow lift.Yeah,I wanted to say.Feel you there.
Amber, his new girlfriend, was nothing but trouble. I'd asked Talmage where he found her, but he'd been vague. She ghosted in and out at odd times. She'd been territorial, at best, when we'd first met. A snarl here and there if I showed too much sway with my brother. As if a sister posed any threat to her.
Serafina:Riding to work now. I'll keep you updated, but no news on my end.
Mom:Can we please buy you a car? You shouldn't be riding around the mountains on a bike.
Serafina:I love my bike, and, I'll have you know, work is only a few miles away. Besides, I'm almost there on the down payment savings, but thanks, Mom! Love you!
I tossed the phone into my backpack, grateful that I hadn't stopped to pack lunch and dinner. Amber slept like a sick baby, which meant hardly at all. The last thing I needed was a confrontation with her before a long day at work.
Chilly spring wind brushed against my cheeks as I stepped outside, wiping away the last signs of sleep as I headed into the burgeoning mountain light. With summer on the way, I wouldn't need a car for months before the snow came again. I'd probably hold off on buying one for a while. A rent-free summer in the mountains, helping my older brother while working around delightful people and tourists, wasexactlywhat I wanted.
And then?
Who knew. Something spectacular would come along.
Because spectacular things always did.
The day passed with surprising speed. Too much of it slipped by in a nervous spiral of concern about my upcoming time with Benjamin that night, which set me off balance. I'd accidentally dumped hot coffee on a diner, mixed up three orders, and fielded eight different calls and fifteen text messages from my brother asking if I'd picked up his prescription.
Talmage:Need it, sis. Today.
Talmage:Do I need to send Amber after it?
Talmage:The pain is getting worse and you already know I used my last one.
I sent him the mental bird halfway through my shift, responded once, then turned my phone on silent. Bert let me go half an hour early. When I left at 2:30, my friend Dagny waved me off to take care of only three customers, and I headed to the pharmacy.
Talmage was agitated when I got home after work but he quieted when I passed his pain pills over. By the time I finished baking a chicken, gravy, and biscuit dish that tasted like home, he lay docile on the couch. I blasted music and cleaned to my heart's content. Talmage had always sucked as a cleaner, and since his shoulder injury, it had gotten worse.
Let's just say that fridge probably hadn't been cleaned since my preschool graduation. The grimy work kept my nerves at bay for the rest of the afternoon, but when I approached the side door to the MMA Center that night, I had to quell a rush of butterflies.
Go away,I silently muttered to them.
The last thing I needed to deal with today, of all days, was the brutal attraction. If I wanted to defend against Amber, or Talmage again, I needed to focus.
Just outside the door I stopped, drew in a deep breath, and let it out. When I finally found my courage, I stepped inside the gym to find the lights over the main desk turned off. Only the mat was still illuminated, and the radio off. The clock ticked toward 9:10. After I set the tinfoil-covered dish on the counter, Benjamin appeared out of a back room.
“Hey,” he said.
He walked over in bare feet and loose workout pants that sent twin shivers down my spine. That t-shirt fit his shoulders a little bittoowell. Since I hadn't verbally attacked him yet, like last night, he seemed more at ease.
“Hey,” I said. “Thanks again for doing this. I brought my favorite dish from home. It's a chicken biscuit kind of thing with veggies.”
He glanced at it. “Great, thank you.” Then he nodded toward the mat. “Let's get started.”
