Page 10 of When the Stars Fall
“Yes, sir,” Brody said, a surly expression on his face as he side-eyed me.
“And Jude…” My dad looked at my mom’s face and repeated the words she always said. “Use your words next time, son.”
I tried to keep the grin off my face. “Okay.”
“What’s for dessert?” Gideon asked. “Can I watch TV now?” That was all my brother cared about. Dessert and TV.
“Can I have ice cream?” Jesse asked, crawling into Mom’s lap and smacking his hands against her cheeks before he kissed her. “You’re so pretty, Mommy.”
“Such a charmer.”
“Does that mean I get ice cream?”
She laughed. “Yes, you two can have ice cream.”
“What about me?” Brody and I said in unison.
My mom’s lips pressed into a flat line. She wasn’t happy with us and I knew we hadn’t heard the end of it yet. “You two can clear the table and stack the dishwasher.”
I jostled Brody out of the way and stacked the plates before he could get to them. I ignored my mom cautioning me to make two trips. I could handle it.
Brody scowled as he collected the silverware and stabbed me with a fork on our way to the sink, a teetering pile of dishes in my hands. When I didn’t react, he stabbed me again, harder this time. I gritted my teeth as a plate crashed to the terracotta tiles and shattered at my feet.
“Boys!” my dad shouted, coming to stand in front of us. He took the pile of dishes out of my hands and set them in the sink, then crossed his arms over his wide chest and gave us boththe look. The one that said we were testing his patience and if we didn’t stop, there’d be hell to pay.
“What did your mother say?” he asked me.
“To make two trips,” I muttered.
“No allowance for either of you this month. Money doesn’t grow on trees and these plates cost money.”
“Does that mean we don’t have to do our chores? Since we’re not getting allowance?” Brody asked, his voice hopeful. Like I said, he was an idiot. My dad was a former Marine and when he laid down the law, you didn’t argue with him unless you wanted double the punishment.
Sure enough, my dad said, “It means you’ll be doing double the chores you usually do. Now do as your mother asked. And try not to break anything.”
I exhaled loudly as my dad strode away then narrowed my gaze on Brody. He tossed the silverware in the sink, the stainless-steel clattering against the enamel and we trudged back to the farmhouse table to collect the glasses. The rest of the family was on the back porch eating ice cream sandwiches. My favorite.
“You know why I did it?” Brody asked as I rinsed a plate and handed it to him, not fully trusting that he would get the job done correctly.
I shrugged like I didn’t care, not wanting to let on that I was curious.
“Just to prove my point.”
“What was your point?”
“YoulikeLila.”
He made it sound like I was in love with Lila or something. I scoffed. “No, I don’t.”
“Sure you don’t.” He snickered. “That’s why you punched me in the face. You wanna hear the funny part?”
“No.”
“She thinks it was you.” He cracked up over that one. Unfortunately, it was true. Brody had started the rumor and I’d gotten the blame for it.
Nobody seemed to care thatshehad come aftermeand kicked me in the shin. Just because she was a girl, she got away with it. How was that fair? When I’d laughed in her face, it had only made her angrier.
Her little hands balled into fists. “I’m going to punch you, Jude McCallister.”
