Page 44 of The Other Half

“He’s doing meth is what he’s doing,” Amber sneers.

Nate looks into my eyes, his brows furrowed. “We’re leaving,” he grabs my arm and pulls me out of the trailer into the front yard. I don’t even try to stop him because I know he’s stronger than me.

He doesn’t say anything, and I know he’s pissed. You can tell when Nate is angry because he gets quiet.

“Man, chill, I’ll go home, you can go back to the party,” I say.

“No,” he clips.

“You don’t have to babysit me,”

“Apparently I fuckin’ do.”

“Well stop. I don’t need your fucking sympathy, asshole.”

He stops walking abruptly and turns around to face me. Then I suddenly feel the crack of his hand on my face. My brother just bitch slapped me? That’s a new one.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I wince, rubbing my face where he hit it.

“You. You’re being a fuck up. I do everything for our family. Every bill is paid by me. What do you do? Use my money to buy meth.” He stares at me, his face filled with rage. “You don’t even know how bad things really are. You do dumb shit like get the cops called on your girlfriend and get high all day long while the rest of this family suffers.”

What the hell is he talking about? I know we suffer. So do I. “What do you want me to do? It isn’t my fault there are a total of three places to work in this entire town.”

“You could stop and think about someone besides yourself for once.”

I scoff. “Like you’re such a fucking saint.”

“You don’t even know what’s going on.”

“Then tell me. What’s going on?”

“Well, Dad is sick. For one.”

I pause, searching his face for an explanation. “What do you mean?”

He stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks down at his feet. “He has cancer.”

He says it like it’s not even a big deal. I feel like all the oxygen was just vacuumed out of my lungs. Cancer? I shake my head, searching my brain for an appropriate response. That can’t be true, he’s fucking with me to get a reaction.

He sighs. “Yeah. So if I seem on edge lately, it’s because not only am I payin’ for all of our other shit, I’m also payin’ for his medical bills. He doesn’t have insurance right now.”

I’m still trying to catch up. “Cancer?” I chirp.

“Yes. Cancer.”

“What kind of cancer?”

“Lung.”

Of course. The guy’s smoked since he was 10 years old. I scrub a hand down my face and take a deep breath. I’m trying not to lose it here in the middle of someone else’s driveway.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “You should’ve told me before now.”

“They wouldn’t let me. They didn’t want you and Liam to know yet.”

Liam I can understand. But me? I’m an adult, why wouldn’t they just tell me?

“I don’t understand why. If I had known this I would’ve done something. Mowed yards or some shit. Why wouldn’t they want me to know?”

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