Page 29 of Cream & Sugar
“You earned this in one morning?” he asks, dubiously.
I flatten my palms and frame my jaw with my hands, pouting like a pageant winner. “What can I say? I was born to sell hipster coffee.”
“Maybe you were,” Rory says, folding up my twenty and putting it in his pocket. I open my mouth to object but he cuts across me. “You can give me the other thirty when you earn it.”
“The other thirty?”
“From the fifty I gave you yesterday.”
“Wait, seriously? I thought that was—” Rory’s thunderous expression tells me that fifty quid was not, in fact, the donation I thought it was, but a loan. Guess I should’ve known better. Thisismy banker brother we’re talking about. I wilt under his gaze, remembering the manners I don’t have. “I mean, um,yes. Thank you. I will get that to you as soon as I can.”
“Correct.” Turning his back, Rory returns to his groceries. “It’s for your own good, Freddie. Paying your debts is just part of being a grown up.”
I lay back on the sofa and buckle in for a lecture.
“Getting stoned and fannying around on your guitar isn’t helping anyone. Shagging your way around the town isn’t doing you any good either—”
Debatable, but there’s no point in boasting about my sexual exploits,especiallyto my brother whom I'm pretty sure hasn't gotten laid in years. Instead, I grab a cushion and mash my face into it as Rory drones on. I’ve heard this speech a hundred times. I wish I had some weed.
“I mean, just look at me!” I can tell from his tone that he's swaggering around like an overzealous estate agent. “Four years at Mason & Ward and I’ve been promoted three times. Is it because I’m the best banker in the world? No, it’s because I show up every day and grind, long andhard.”
Innuendo is lost on Rory. Luckily the cushion covers my smirk.
“You can’t live with me forever, you know?” I hear Rory opening the fridge and hold my breath.Don’t notice the missing food. Don’t notice the missing—
“Eating my food, using my electricity. You’re twenty-two now, Fred. It’s time to grow up.”
The fridge door shuts and I breathe a sigh of relief. I remove the cushion and sit up. “Hey, I got a job, didn’t I? Just like you told me to.”
Rory scoffs. “You got a café job. Do you know how many twenty-two-year-olds work in cafes?”
Quite a lot, I imagine.
“No.”
“Me neither, but I doubt many of them have a mortgage. You need to start thinking about the future.”
“I am!” I say, more defensively than I meant to. Raising my voice to Rory never ends well. “I know this job isn’t permanent. It’ll just have to tide me over until I write a platinum album.”
Rory, as ever, fails to see the joke. “A platinum album! Ofcourse. Just remind me, when was the last time anything you wrote made any money?”
That was a low blow. Anger crawls up my hands from my fingertips, spreading up my arms, my face, until all my skin’s ablaze. Normally I’m not one to lose my temper, but before I know it, I’m on my feet.
“Nothing I do is ever good enough for you, is it?”
Rory steps back—the big lug that is my brother actually backs away from me. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Then again, it’s been a while since I felt this angry. I guess I’ve finally had enough of Rory’s shit. It can’t be because of what happened with Shaun, though for some reason, that’s all that’s ringing around my head right now.
A shadow falls over Rory’s face. His neck reddens and swells, a warning sign. “Freddie…”
“What?”
I stand my ground, despite the tiny voice telling me it’s the last thing I’ll ever do.
Rory’s mouth opens like he’s going to say something, but then he closes it and turns his back, returning to his groceries like nothing happened.
Ignoring me.
For some reason, that’s the spark that lights the fuse. I turn my back and storm out of the living room and into the hall. As I reach my room, I hesitate in the doorway, my hand gripping the handle tight.
