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I glared at the wall just so I didn’t have to look at him anymore. “Thanks,” I said, unable to prevent the slip of anger in my voice. I wanted to hit something, but was afraid he’d kick us out sooner, so I settled for stomping out and slamming the door behind me.
THE PRICE OF A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP
I woke up right around three in the morning and stared at the ceiling, waiting. Wil was in the bed next to me, curled up on his side and staring off at the opposite wall. There wasn’t much point to sleeping now. The bars had closed an hour ago. Jack would stumble in at any moment.
I hadn’t told Wil about the rent increase. I could barely sleep as it was, and only went to bed because if I didn’t, Wil would ask questions. I’d have been up all night conspiring with him and it wouldn’t have done any good. He’d insist on not going to school, and I knew there were a few big tests he was preparing for. There was no need for both of us to have a sleepless night. Neither of us ever slept well as it was.
Rattling echoed from the doorway. My teeth ground together. The door opened, and I held my breath, preparing.
Jack left the door open, and lumbered inside. He swayed on his feet, the floor below creaking as he rocked. I didn’t need to watch. He did the same dance every night when he didn’t score a woman.
He stumbled forward, hitting his shin on the corner of the low dresser. The television set rattled on top.
“Go to bed, Jack,” I said, hoping my tone was strong enough to convince him to avoid a fight. Oddly enough, I felt I was mimicking pretzel boy’s tone from earlier.
“Shut up, Kay,” he said. He felt for the side of the dresser, using it to steady himself as he slid his foot along the carpet. He made it to the corner of his bed, sitting up on it and staring off at the wall. “Wil, come help an old man out.”
“No,” Wil said.
“What’s this?” Jack’s voice boomed. “Listen, Son. When your father speaks to you, you ask how high.”
“Keep it down,” I said.
“And you, Miss Snooty. I’ll have you know, you’re not too old for me to take you over my knee ...”
This was a critical point. I tried to keep calm. When he was drunk, he walked the line of about to pass out and ready for a fight. “Keep it down,” I said. “The neighbors are complaining.”
“Fuck the neighbors!” he roared.
There was a sliding of leather against pants, and I knew what was happening. I shot up, moving faster than Wil, practically rolling on top of him.
The first whack of the belt against my back was padded by the blanket. The second hit caught me on the edge of my chin, and I had to bite my tongue to stop from crying out.
Wil shoved me, launching me off of the bed and onto the floor. This time, I was too tangled in the blanket to pop up quickly.
As I yanked myself out of the blanket, Wil tackled Jack. Jack managed to get a good couple of slaps of the belt against Wil’s shoulder before he fell onto the bed.
Wil landed on his chest, holding down Jack’s hands, trying to catch the one with the belt. “Kayli,” Wil called.
I snapped up, finding a pillow and tossing it over Jack’s face. I planted my knees on Jack’s hands, forcing them down, and shoved down on his chest as he bucked and writhed underneath our combined weight. He tried kicking, too, but was uncoordinated, and never managed to hit Wil.
There was wild mumbling and cursing under the pillow.
I held my breath again, waiting. He must have hit the whiskey harder tonight. After a moment, there his legs slid off the edge of the bed with a thunk. Wil and I jumped up off of him. Jack continued to slide, and landed on the floor. I picked my head up, leaning over the edge to check.
Jack was sprawled out on his back. His shirt had rolled up his stomach, his pants hung down around his knees, revealing the splotchy boxers underneath. His gut hung over the waistband. His jaw was slack, drool pooling in the corner of his mouth.
The fight was over early tonight. He was out cold.
I jumped from Jack’s bed to ours, and crashed onto my back. I touched at the spot where the belt had got me. Now that the fight was over, the pain felt fresh and throbbed. I was too tired to go grab some ice.
Wil sighed heavily, crossing over Jack and gathering our blankets. He fixed them, fluffing them over before sliding into bed beside me. “I hate this place.”
I squinted my eyes closed, swallowing back the emotion in my throat. He didn’t know he might soon be free of it.
HARD BARGAIN
Jack was still on the floor at five a.m. when Wil had to leave to get to school. He took a series of busses via the TriCounty Link system that headed into Goose Creek. Spending two hours on a bus route must have sucked, but it was better than the trouble of transferring to a closer school, which would have been nearly impossible without Jack getting involved. Not to mention the closest school was scary dangerous, as far as schools went for the area.
I woke up early to snag breakfast from the hotel lobby while Wil showered up in the room. I was surprised to find a couple of boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, that were probably yesterday’s batch, out along with the usual packets of oatmeal, fruit and coffee. I grabbed four of the plain glazed doughnuts, along with extra packets of oatmeal, just in case we later were evicted. At least we’d have something to eat while we looked for cardboard boxes.
I wasn’t sure why I bothered. If I didn’t have a hundred and fifty dollars by noon, Colby would be at the door, or send in some security bully to kick us out. I could just imagine waiting for Wil to come back and having to tell him we were moving again. I racked my brain for the millionth time to figure out where we could go, but if I had a plan B, I would have used it by now.
I just needed money for one more week. Maybe then I’d find a better job. Or the Chinese restaurant would let me work more than enough hours. Or the apocalypse would happen and then it wouldn’t matter anymore. It would save me a lot of trouble.
At the thought of the restaurant, though, I dropped my shoulders. Even if I went in when they opened at eleven, he still wasn’t going to pay me over a hundred dollars for an hour’s worth of work. I couldn’t even beg him for an advance.
As I entered the hotel room again, Wil was collecting his text books and shoving them into his book bag. “Anything good?” he asked.
“Doughnuts,” I said. I planted the tray on the counter.
“Finally,” he said. He walked over, grabbing a glazed, and shoving the entire doughnut into his mouth in one bite.
“Eat a banana,” I said.
“I’m tired of bananas.” He took another doughnut, shoving half in his mouth before he reached for one of the coffees to wash it down. His gaze finally settled on my face as he drank coffee and he paused. He lifted a hand touching at my chin. “You’ve got a mark.”
I brushed my fingers across my face, feeling the tender spot. “I’ll cover it. I’ve got some of those makeup samples leftover.”
The corner of his mouth dipped, but he caught it. “Yeah, just don’t go looking like a cake face. There’s a bunch of girls at school that do that. Well there’s one that doesn’t—” He cut himself off.
When I looked at his face, he was blushing.
“You never talk about girls at school,” I said. “What’s up with this one?”
“Nothing,” he said, but too quickly.
“Liar,” I said, grinning, glad to have finally caught him in something. “You’ve got a girlfriend.”
He snorted, shaking his head. “Geeks don’t get girlfriends. We die old and alone.”
I rolled my eyes and popped him on the arm. At the same time, my heart lifted. I hoped this girl had some common sense. I’d never heard my brother talk about girls at all before. For a while, I thought maybe he was gay or didn’t know what he liked. It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about too much, but was glad he was showing interest in something other than schoolwork. “Stop talking like that. Go to school.”
He hiked up his book bag and headed for the door. “Don’t forget,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, waving. “I’ll get the money to him.”
Wil stood in the doorway a moment, staring in at me. He nudged at the edge of his glasses, where the left side frame was bent and didn’t fit well on his face.
I stared back. “What?”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he said.
His comment made me flinch. “Will you shut up and go to school?”
“I’m serious,” he said. He shut the door behind himself.
I rolled my eyes, shaking off the fact that my younger brother was telling me to stay out of trouble. Wasn’t I supposed to be telling him that? Except he didn’t get into trouble. He was the smart one. I shoved a doughnut into my mouth and downed the coffee, leaving the last doughnut for Wil for when he got back from school. It was a hard decision to leave food behind when we rarely got such treats, but I felt like being nice since after that, I would have to tell him about the eviction.
