Page 16 of AJ’s Fire

My brother was looking down at the guy and holding onto the lamp like it was a lifeline. I couldn’t quite read the look on Jamie’s face. It wasn’t one I thought I’d ever seen before, which would have struck me as really odd if it wasn’t so late, I wasn’t dead tired, and the room hadn’t erupted in confusion seconds after our arrival.

Jamie wiped the weird look off his face and tore his eyes from the guy in the bed. “Where’s my child?”

Everyone started talking at once until Nat quieted us all down and took over. I tried to smile at Jamie because we often joked that Nat’s natural state was being in charge, but he had that weird look on his face again and kept glancing between the college student in the bed and our stepmom, paying me absolutely no mind.

“I’m so sorry, Jamison,” Nat apologized to my older brother. “I meant to tell you that since Josh brought his roommate home for the weekend, you and Vera are in the den. She’s asleep on the pullout couch, but I have a tent set up for her with a sleeping bag, so the rest of the weekend you can have the couch to yourself, and she can have an adventure!”

I tried to catch Jamie’s eye again because Nat’s tone was way too peppy for that time of night, but he remained stubbornly focused on the guy in the bed. He muttered a, “Sorry, man,” to Devon before turning to Nat.

“Obviously, no one shared the plans with me.”

“Okay, well, we all know now, so why don’t we let these two get some sleep. AJ, you're in with Hunter … on an air mattress,” she tacked on at the end in a muffled voice.

“Does mine come with a princess tent?” I asked in my scruffy voice as I picked up the bag Jamie had carried in for me, nodded an apology to the guy in the bed, and exited the room without even bothering to try and get my brother’s attention again.

I washed up and lowered myself onto the camping mattress on the floor of my baby brother’s room, grumbling to myself as I did so. Yeah, we were definitely trading the next night. I fell immediately to sleep.

I was dreaming again. I couldn’t quite grasp hold of it, but my sense was of romance, like one of those fucking Jane Austen movies Nat used to force us to watch, everyone bowing and dancing and declaring their love. A teenager’s snore and an aching back woke me from whatever the fuck that was, and I got up and barged into my brother Vance’s room to use the bathroom.

He was sitting at his desk, typing away while staring out the window. It looked like he’d been up for hours.

“Hey, man. Good to see you. Gonna shower up. Almost time for breakfast. You know we better be on time, or we’ll face the wrath of your mom and Vera!”

“Hey, Aje. You okay? I heard it was a bad one yesterday.”

“Nothing to worry about. I’m fine, Vance.”

“You sound like you smoke three packs a day.”

“All in a day’s work.” I tried to brush off Vance’s concern, but he glowered at me in response. “Does it make me sound sexy?” I tried to play up the harshness of my voice, but it backfired, and I started coughing.

I think I heard my brother mutter “dumbass” as I came out of the fit.

I cleared my throat and reiterated, “Really. I’m fine. This isn’t the first time my throat’s been like this. It’ll clear up in a few days. Are you ready for breakfast? Inspiration hit is not gonna fly as an excuse for why you were late on Thanksgiving morning.” Vance, who was already a published author at that point, could get a little intense when he was writing.

“Just got to get a few more thoughts down. Go wash up, then we can go down together.”

“Caid?” I asked after our other brother, pointing to the empty bed in the room.

“Jet-lagged, or hungover, or something. He rolled out of bed a few minutes ago, grunted, and went straight down. I’m surprised you didn’t run into him.”

We had a routine on the holidays, and Thanksgiving Day was no different. After breakfast, the living room was reorganized, and we all piled in to watch the parade. I settled on one of the love seats with my brother Caid, who looked like he was already asleep.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out.

Probie: SAVE ME! Ems is driving.

Coffee Trainer: Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

Probie: Feeling ok?

I thought about how both of my brothers had described my voice and decided to steal Josh’s metaphor.

Coffee Trainer: Throat feels like I sucked 10 dicks. And my back is killing me, but that’s because I slept on an air mattress.

“Hey, Catfish!” I yelled to my brother who was lying on the floor at my feet. His name wasn’t Catfish, it was Hunter. But my youngest brother was something of a pitching phenomenon, and we had an ongoing joke to call him by the names of famous professional baseball players. “I get the fu—” I looked at my niece and stopped myself from cursing. “I get the bed tonight.”

“Age before beauty. Got it, bro.”