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Despite my brother’s ailments, he was still acting like himself, so that was good. Definitely didn’t stop me from checking my phone every few minutes, and the first person to call attention to that was Ares. He was quick to tap the rubber end of his pencil on the car, getting my attention.
“That going to be a problem?” He directed a finger toward me, my phone. “Because if it is, you should probably leave it somewhere it’s not.”
So, yeah. Me and this phone? Wasn’t negotiable. Not with my brother being sick. I palmed it. “The phone’s not a problem.”
“Good.”
“As long as it’s not a problem for you that I’m on it.” And might as well let him know that right now. “I told you my brother is sick. He needs me around.”
“Your seventeen-year-old brother who can take care of himself,” he volleyed. He placed his hands on the trunk. “Anyway, isn’t your guardian supposed to do that shit? He is taking care of you, right?”
I really didn’t know what his problem was or why he just couldn’t help but be, well, himself. I realized he didn’t have any siblings. At least, not any that I’d heard about.
I also knew he hated me, but he could stand to have a little sympathy. I shook my head. “No. Because my brother and I take care of ourselves.”
“Right.” He smirked. “You guys are all about taking care of yourselves in that big-ass house you live in. Your brother’s fancy ride and that sweet tuition you both got.”
I blanched. “Yeah, well. I’m sorry that my dad dying and someone helping us after the fact bothers you.” Because that was exactly what had happened. My brother and I were orphans, and he knew that because Dorian knew that. The dark prince had admitted himself he’d looked into us, into me. And whatever Dorian knew, his friends definitely did.
I watched the words play on Ares’s face, the tall boy saying nothing.
I smirked now. “Well, I don’t expect sympathy from you. Someone who obviously has it all and always has.” I waved a hand to his garage. The thing alone was as big as some of the places I’d grown up in over the years. “My brother and I have always been number one and number two. And though we had my dad, he had problems, so it was always basically just number one and two. My brother and I had to work just so we could fucking eat.”
At one point, I’d had like three fucking jobs, taking on the burden for Bru as well. He was the smart one, and I wanted him to do something with himself. I’d never let him work more than what we needed.
Even then, it’d been too much.
Ares’s gaze followed me, my movements. I was restlessly checking my phone, which was pointless. My brother was probably asleep because of his meds. I huffed. “So, yeah. We have Callum. But no, I don’t make him take care of me. Care of us. He may have stepped in when our dad died, but we never asked him for anything. Let alone the house, the car, and your stupid fucking school.”
And why was I telling him all this? Mentioning all the dark shit?
Mentioning my dad.
That was private, but for whatever the reason, I was talking about it with this asshole.
The asshole had eyes on me, his head cocked. He wet his lips. “How’d he step in?”
“What?”
His shoulders lifted. “Your guardian. You said he stepped in. How?”
Not that any of that was his fucking business. I cuffed my arms. “It was all my dad. Apparently, he left a will?” Ares’s eyebrow arched slowly, and I nodded. “Anyway, my brother and I didn’t know about it. It named Callum as our guardian.”
Ares cuffed his arms now, his head still angled. “Callum.” His lips pinched tight. “You’re saying your dad left you with him? Had the foresight to do such a thing when he had all these problems like you said?”
One of his problems had been paranoia, so I guessed that hadn’t really surprised me when I thought it.
Ares leaned forward. “He left a will when it didn’t sound like y’all had a whole lot.”
Surprisingly enough, it didn’t sound like he was making fun of me for once. I shrugged. “Our dad was really paranoid. Suffered from anxiety and mental illness.”
I studied that pass over Ares’s face. Again, I had no idea why I was telling him this stuff. It was just pouring out, all this a lot. Maybe it’d been a long time coming since I’d been stressed.
I scrubbed my face. “Look. I committed to you, and I’m going to be here.” He had me locked in on that in case he’d forgotten. “But I need my phone. It won’t get in the way, and this may sound stupid to you, but I need to look out for my little brother. I know he’s seventeen. I know that, but he’s sick, and he’s all I have.”
There was so much truth in that, and though that may look different from the outside, that was true. Callum had given us stuff, but it was temporary.
His lips pursing, Ares kept silent, and it was obviously pointless to try to reach the human part of him. I sat on a stool, phone in hand, and he came around the car.
