by A. R. Breck
Aric is already down here and changed, helping his dad set up the final items on the dinner table.
Dave tries to get us to eat together a few times a week. We don't make it every night because sometimes Dave has to work late, but I think he's trying to give me the closest thing to a family I can get since my parents passed.
“Come and sit down. Let’s eat.” Dave says, sitting in his seat at the head of the table.
Aric and I sit on opposite sides of each other. Heaping a huge pile of noodles on his plate, he passes me the bowl and I serve myself a much smaller serving.
"How was the beach today?" Dave asks as he takes a bite.
"Perfect. It couldn't have been a better day." I say. "Such a beautiful beach."
"Perfect, indeed." Aric nudges my foot underneath the table, and when I look up at him with wide eyes, he gives me a wink.
I blush and look away. Is he seriously trying to play footsie with me at the dinner table? In front of his father?
"Maybe we can get the boat out there next weekend or something. Get you kids on the jet skis." Dave nods as he says this, probably already making the plans in his head.
When his cell phone rings on the kitchen island a minute later, he closes his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, I have to check this."
I give him a smile. I'm not offended when he has to take a call. Work is work.
When he gets up, he walks over to his phone and lets out a mumbled, "Oh." That sounds shocked and a little irritated. "Hello?" He asks, turning away from us and walking towards the window that leads to the pool.
I try not to eavesdrop, but I can't help it. Looking at Aric, I ask, "Who's that?"
"I might have an idea." He mumbles, and for some reason his tone makes goosebumps break out on my arms. He sounds harsh.
His facial expression looks irritated.
"Really? Okay... when? Really? I'll have to check my calendar. No, no. Yes, I'll be there. Okay, we have some things we need to discuss. Yep, all right. Okay, see you then. Bye." He hangs up his phone and doesn't realize me and Aric are staring at him as he drops his head down and rubs at the back of his neck.
"Dad... everything okay?" Aric asks with an off voice.
I feel like there's something going on that no one is telling me.
Dave's head flies up and he gives us a surprised look before schooling his features.
Walking back over to the table, he sits down and takes a sip of his wine before leveling Aric a look. "Looks like your brother is coming home."
Aric's eyes go wide, although not necessarily shocked, "He's being released already?"
"Released? Released from where?" I thought he was at some program. Released make it sounds more like he was in the psych ward or something.
Both Dave and Aric give me a funny look like they forgot I was there, until Dave slouches even further in his seat. "Shit... Mercy, there's something I need to tell you."
"You haven't told her?" Aric barks out.
"Told me what?" I grip the edge of my seat, near hysterics at this point. I feel like I'm about to hear something I never wish I would. I have the horrible dread starting to seep into my pores.
"Would everybody calm the hell down?" Dave yells, slapping his hands on the table.
We all silence, the only sound being the silverware slightly tapping on the plate from the shake of the table.
"Aeron... my son, Aric's brother, is coming home." He gives me an apologetic look, like he knows this is going to be anything but good.
"Coming home from where? You said released. Released from where?"
"He's been in jail for the past four months." He finishes his wine off after his statement, guzzling half a glass down in one gulp.
Shit, what I wouldn't give for a glass of wine myself right now.
Aeron is in jail? Why? For what? A million reasons why he would be behind bars pop into my head.
"For what?" I ask on a shaky breath.
"He, uh.... he's had a bit of a drug problem since his mother passed away."
I picture a homeless looking guy with missing teeth and dull hair. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Is it serious?"
"We tried treatment once, but shortly after his release he was using again." Dave sighs into his empty glass.
"Using. Using what?"
"Pills, mostly. A lot of pills."
Shit. I've heard so many terrible things about the addictive qualities in narcotics. Drugs in general, really. There wasn't anything like this in my hometown, Aurora Falls. At least nothing that I was around.
"I... I don't know what to say."
"Well, I thought that he would be in county for another two months, but apparently he's getting released due to good behavior. Don't worry, Mercy. He's not a bad guy or anything, just has some personal issues."
"Oh, don't fucking stick up for him, Dad! He's a fuck up through and through. He'll never change." Aric sighs, disgusted
Dave whips him an angry look, "Hey! Language! And don't talk about your brother like that."
I freeze, not used to them bickering. Since I've been here, they have been nothing but friendly with each other. This hostility between them doesn't seem new. Almost broken record territory.
"When?" Aric says between gritted teeth. I detect bad blood between them.
"Friday." Dave pushes things around on his plate, not really doing anything but probably needing something to do with his hands.
He nods his head over and over again, looking like an overly flicked bobblehead doll. "Can I be excused? I lost my appetite." Before even giving Dave a chance to respond, Aric noisily pushes back his chair and stalks up to his room. I hear every pound of his feet up to his room, and both Dave and I let out a flinch when the door slams.
With his elbows on the table, Dave leans forward and puts his head in his hands and doesn't say a word. Seconds turn into minutes until I can't take it anymore. "Do you... let me clean up tonight."
I stand up and gather some of the dishes, but Dave snaps out of it and stands up with me. "No, Mercy, please. I'll take care of it. Would you just go talk to Aric? You guys seem like you've become good friends and he could talk to someone right now. And he definitely doesn't want to talk to me." He scoffs, grabbing some Tupperware and shoving food inside of it without even sparing me a glance.
"Okay." I think everyone would rather be left alone, but it's the least I can do after they let me into their home.
As I'm walking away, I hear Dave call my name. "Yes?" I turn around and feel my heart tug at the look on his face.
"Aeron is not a bad guy, so please don't worry. He's rough around the edges, but it's nothing we can't handle. And above all else... please don't feel like you'll be shoved out of here now that he's coming home. This is your home. To be honest, I'd probably kick both of my kids out before I kicked you out."
We both laugh, and I give him a small nod before walking away.
I think about just bypassing Aric's door all together and saying he never answered it, but my guilt gets the best of me. Aric seemed pretty tore up about his brother coming home.
If Aric doesn't like him, I don't know how I could. Aric is the all-around perfect guy in my opinion. I don't know how his opinion about anyone could be wrong.
I glance towards Aeron's door and shivers run down my spine.
Someone will be living there soon.
I lift my hand and knock on his door. Rustling sounds and then his voice booms, "Go away."
"Um, it's me." I say through the door. My lips practically touch his door, trying to get to him with anyway I know how.
A second later the door opens, and a red-faced Aric appears. "Sorry, I thought you were my dad."
I shuffle from foot to foot, not really sure what to do. Dave is right, we have become friends, but I feel like I'm walking into the unknown with this one. Stepping over boundaries I shouldn't be stepping on. "Nope, just me."
He opens up his door wider, silently telling me to come in as he walks back to his bed, sitt
ing down on the edge of the mattress and staring at his wall.
I walk in and sit beside him. Staring at the same spot on the wall as he is, I ask, "What's the deal with Aeron?"
He sighs, annoyed. "He's bad news, Mercy. It's my brother, and I love him, don't get me wrong. But he's bad news. He's a pill popper and a fucking flirt and I don't trust him. Not around you."
"Me?" I ask, shocked. When did I come into this equation?
He turns towards me, giving me a heavy stare. "Yes, you. You're beautiful, Mercy. He's going to be living next to you, looking at you, smelling you, eating meals with you. He's going to dig under your skin like he does everyone else’s, and he will fucking suck everything good right out of your body, until you're nothing. Nothing." He says, his eyes alight with fire I've never seen before.
"Well, I just won’t let him then." I mean, seriously, how hard would it be? He's just a guy.
He shakes his head. "It's not that easy. You don't get it. You don't get him. If he so much as looks at you in that way, it's all over with. I might as well just back out now."
"Back out? From what?" I tilt my head, confused as ever.
He grabs my shoulders and pulls me forward, getting right in my face. "Are you the blindest person in the world, or am I just the worst player in the game? I like you, Mercy. Do you honestly not realize that?"
"I... uh..." Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
He sighs again, aggravated with the whole situation, I'm sure. "I want him to get out and live his life. I just don't want him here. Not near you."
My heart races at his possessive nature. He's not wrong, I have seen the hints. I've felt our chemistry, it simmers beneath the surface all day. I feel it. I just didn't ever imagine acting on it.
"Can you honestly tell me you don't feel the same way?" He looks pained.
"I do. I... I don't know. This is all just so much." I tip my head towards the ceiling and close my eyes, overwhelmed with everything I just learned.
I want to go back to the beach and close my eyes, let the sun sink into me and the sound of the water lapping up to the beach be the only thing on my mind.
"I'm sorry. Fuck, I shouldn't even be bombarding you with all this shit after everything you've been through. I'm seriously a piece of shit."
"No, stop. No, you're not." I open my eyes and look over at him. Grabbing his forearm, I give it a small squeeze. "I need a little time before I jump into anything, you know?"
He curls a piece of hair around his finger and looks me in the eyes, "I'll give you a little time, Mercy. But the moment my brother pulls some shit, I'm clocking his ass in the face." And without warning, he leans forward and kisses me on the corner of my mouth. Barely touching my lips, barely touching my skin at all, honestly.
A warning of what's to come.
A shiver runs through me, and I look up at him with heavy eyes. "Okay." Is that all my dumbass can say?
We stare at each other, and when tension gets too thick, I can’t take it anymore.
“I’m going to head to bed.” I bite my lip.
“Night.” Aric says, his blue eyes drifting over to me. Seeping into my pores and overflowing my emotions.
I shut his door behind me and let out a breath.
Fuck. Aric turns me upside down.
I start walking towards my room, I once again pass Aeron’s door. Curiosity gets the best of me, and once again I place my hand on his knob. I'm sure I'll figure out what's inside eventually. He'll leave his door open, right? But my curiosity builds each time I walk past his door.
I get so far as to turn his knob and start pushing his door open when I hear what sounds like footsteps coming up the stairs. I slam his door shut and run into my room, slamming my own door and taking a dive to my bed.
That was close. Too close.
If today has done anything, it's completely piqued my curiosity on this brother Aeron. More than anything, I want him to respect me. I've been getting along with Dave and Aric, and I don't want anything to disrupt that.
Including this elusive Aeron.
5
Aeron
For the first time in four months, I tilt my head towards the sun.
Freedom.
Being locked up is a real bitch. You think four months isn't that long. But one day in the clink?
Feels like a century.
Being out of the dark blue, drab scrubs and into my own sweats and a hoodie gives me some sweet relief. I can't wait to get the fuck home and shower in privacy. The community shower barely gives you any hot water, and if there is you better be ready for some ass bumping.
Yeah, guys in jail give zero fucks.
It might not be prison, but people in jail are just as ruthless. Maybe even more. Their sentence is shorter, and it gets them more erratic to get back to the outside world. The people in prison know that shit ain't changing anytime soon and their life is on repeat every fucking day.
I sit on the bench just outside the property of the jail, smoking the last cigarette that was crumpled up with my belongings.
Just waiting for good ol' dad.
Dude didn't even come visit me the entire time I was in here. He'd barely answer my calls—maybe once or twice a month—if that.
I can't blame him for having a stick up his ass, though. I'm not the easiest person to get along with, and I'm even harder to tame.
Tame me. Hah. He tried.
Shit wasn't always this way. Back when I was Aric's age, I was an all-star athlete just like he was. I was the big boy on campus at the high school and even had decent grades.
Then senior year hit, and mom got sick. Life went from being perfect to being a fucking death zone. Our lives changed in the blink of an eye after mom got sick. Pancreatic cancer. Basically, incurable and with her advanced stage it went from diagnosis to hospice in the span of a few months.
The night she died, I died with her.
Since then, I've been an unbearable fuck. I barely graduated high school. I think they decided to hand me a diploma because they felt sorry for me. Also cause they couldn’t stand to have me in that school for another damn day.
The thing is, at that point, graduation was the last thing on my mind.
I started going to parties and wound up with some really shady people. College kids and the like who were into some pretty interesting shit. Drinking and smoking lead to snorting and popping. There was only one that took the pain away.
The pills.
Oxy, Percocet, Vicodin, Adderall, Xanax, Benzos. Give me anything, really. It all takes the pain away.
Dad tried to shove me in rehab to get my shit together and talk about my feelings. I gave it a try, because my dad is a good man. My brother is a good kid, and as dad always says, "This is not what your mother would want for you."
Now that one really pisses me off, but I grabbed my duffle and shuffled my feet into the revolving door of addicts and the mentally unstable.
When I got out ninety days later, I felt refreshed and rejuvenated. Like life would be okay and I could reverse, reverse my ass back to the fork in the road and take that right instead of the left.
Then, I get back to my house. Where I can smell her. Where I swear on my life, I can see her. Then I get pissed and go to my dealer’s house, and—pop—a few pills later and I'm back to being numb and life is good.
Until I get busted at said dealer’s house during a party with a circle of coke around me and a bottle full of prescription pills in my pocket that don't have my name on it.
When the cops start knowing you by first name, you know there's a problem.
Four months later, here I sit. Baking in the hundred-degree humidity as I wait for dad to pick me up. When I see his Lexus turn the corner, I stub out my cigarette on the bench and pocket it. I'm sure they're just waiting from inside the jail to ticket me and haul me back in there.
When he pulls up beside me, he parks the car and gets out, all six feet of him and walks towards me with his arms open. I inch over him at six-two, but my da
d always has felt larger than life. I get up and give him a hug. Feels good to have contact, even if it has to be with your damn father.
I'm hoping to find something softer and warmer to sink into later.
"How you doin', bud?" He asks, giving me a once over in his expensive as hell suit. He looks the same, maybe even a little better than the last time I saw him.
Hope to hell he isn't dating, because that shit is just too soon.
Forever would be too soon.
"You know, glad to be out." I shrug, ready to get the hell out of here. I'm starting to itch like hell on the back of my neck. It feels like there's eyes on me everywhere and I need to get away from this hellish place.
"Good, good. I'm glad you're out. Let's get you home, yeah? Get you showered and some good food in your stomach." He pats me once more on the back and we both hop in the car.
"How's Aric?" I ask after a few minutes into the drive. I used to be an idol to my little brother. Now he looks at me with sadness and irritation. We get along well enough, but it's nowhere near the relationship we used to have. Us being similar in age—him seventeen and me nineteen—we used to be best friends. Now we're nothing more than housemates.
He smiles over at me. "He's good. Real good, actually. Getting ready for senior year this year." Senior year. Worst year of my life. I hope it's better for Aric.
"So, Aeron. I have something to talk to you about." He starts, and I already know from the sound of his voice I'm not going to like it.
I give him a look, not saying anything.
He flicks on his blinker and gets off the highway towards our house and continues on, "We have someone staying with us."
"Who, Declan or someone?" Aric's friends wouldn't bother me. We'd probably hit up a lot of parties this summer, actually.
He shakes his head, snuffing out that idea before it starts. "No, actually. Her name is Mercy."
"Who?" I curl my lip up. Who the fuck is that?
"I had a good friend—the best friend, actually—back in school. His name was Shawn."
"Who?" I ask again. Who are these people?
He sighs, "My friend Shawn and I were best friends for a long time. We kind of grew apart when we started with our families, but he actually put me down as Mercy's legal guardian if something were to ever happen to him." He says solemnly, getting a sad look on his face.