Page 102 of Begin Again Again

Come on, idiot,he wanted to say.You knew I was bringing my sister back. Take it into your room.

“Hiiii.” Sal dragged their Adidas bag into the living room. “How’s it hanging?”

Their gaze landed on Tracy, red-faced and adjusting her clothes. “And who are you?”

“Tracy,” Derek, Byron and Tracy said at once.

Sal laughed. “Good to have a name, isn’t it? How long have you been seeing Tenacious D?”

Derek cleared his throat. “A while. Trace, this is Byron’s sister, Sally.”

“Sal,” Sal corrected.

“Sal. Sorry.”

Derek turned back to the TV and Tracy gave Sal an awkward smile, clearly torn between siding with Derek and being impolite. She smiled. “So, you guys are brother and sister? That’s crazy.”

“Because I’m thick?” Sal asked.

Tracy turned, if possible, even redder.

“We have the same eyes,” Byron said quickly. “We looked like twins when we were kids.”

“Oh,” Tracy said. “Cool.”

“Yeah, then I grew massive tits, and everything went to shit.” Sal pulled a joint from the gold bum bag around their hips. “Can I smoke this?”

“Ahhh…?” Byron looked at the back of Derek’s head, still firmly fixed on The Witcher. “Sure.”

Sal brandished the joint like a scroll. “Want to come, Trace?”

Tracy glanced at Derek’s immobile face and shook her head. “Um… no thanks.”

“You sure? It’s better than Henry Cavill’s acting.”

Byron shot his sister a warning look. “I’ll show you where to put your stuff.”

“I know where the spare room is.”

“Then why don’t you go there, and I’ll get us a drink?”

Sal rolled their eyes. “Fine.”

They sloped out of the room, kicking their bag along like a teenaged idiot.

“Sorry,” Byron said to Tracy. “They’re going through some things.”

“It’s okay,” Tracy said quickly. She turned to Derek and rested her head on his shoulder. Wordlessly, he slung an arm around her. Byron thought of Beth. Where was she now? And who was she with?

“Brother?”

He stared down the hallway. “What?”

“Come in here!”

He found Sal kneeling on the spare bed, rubbing their face with a wet wipe. As they scrubbed, more of his little sister emerged, pale skinned and round eyed.

“What?” he asked. “What do you need?”

---