AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He lets me go and walks over to perch on the edge of the couch. Picking up a half burned joint from the coffee table, he lights it and takes a puff.
“You aren’t giving me a chance to understand.”
He watches me while I take a seat beside him. “Nothing happened. It’s not anything in particular. It’s….” He pauses to take another puff. “I’m never good enough, Ella.” A bitter laugh follows. “Always the spare. Nothing changes.”
His eyebrow raises when I take his hand. “You aren’t a spare anything. You have people who love the fuck out of you, Oliver. Your brother, the guys at your garage, your friends, including me. You have a successful business and—”
“That’s Alden’s business. Not mine. I just work there.”
“Bullshit.”
Both of our heads jerk up at the sound of Alden’s voice. He loiters in the front doorway. “It’s Stokes Brothers for a reason. Look how much more profitable that place is since you took over the books and ordering and shit. We were a fucking mess before. I need you there. If that’s what this is about, me owning the majority, we can fix that. We can draw up the paperwork this week. I can do that. What I can’t do is watch you take this path.” Alden’s voice cracks. "Christ, Ollie, look around. You can’t do what she did.”
Maybe it was the mention of his mother, or the use of a nickname I haven’t heard him use since they were in elementary school, but Oliver’s eyes tear up. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I’m angry all the time.”
“Booze isn’t the answer,” Alden says, and gestures to the joint in his hand. “Neither is that. Drinking, weed, we use that shit to have fun sometimes, not to cope. We made a deal, remember?”
Oliver puts the joint out and sets it on the table.
I squeeze his hand. “If you don’t know what’s bothering you, maybe it’d be a good idea to talk to a therapist. It could be depression. Something that you don’t have control over.”
He shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know. I need to quit fucking things up. Like I did with Breanna.”
“She loves you,” I tell him. “I’ve talked to her. She’s heartbroken, but no one deserves to be your whipping boy when you’re upset. You have to find a better way to cope. If not on your own, then see someone who can help. I went to therapy my first year of college. It really helped me.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Alden walks over, and I give up my place on the couch to him. He looks at his brother. “In the meantime, dry the fuck out. I’ve been there. You don’t know how you feel until you leave the booze alone for a few weeks.”
Oliver nods and sadness flows over me at the whole situation. I can’t walk out of here and leave him in this mess, buried in whatever is going on in his head.
“Alright. Now that we’re all friends again, get up and take a shower. Wear something that makes you feel good. We’re all going out, and not to a bar,” I order.
Oliver looks over at Alden who holds his palms out toward him. “You argue with her at your own risk. I know better.”
“Chickenshit.”
“Asshole.”
Oliver grins and it’s good to hear a lightness in his voice. “Your girlfriend said she loves me.”
“Don’t make me hit you. Your hair looks greasy.”
Oliver chuckles and stands up. “Give me fifteen minutes.”
Once he disappears into the bathroom, Alden turns to me. “In here holding my brother’s hand and telling him you love him. How am I supposed to recover from this?”
“Blowjob tonight?”
“Yeah, that’ll cover it.” He wraps me in a hug. “Thank you for getting through to him.”
“That remains to be seen. Let’s pick up some of this mess while he’s getting ready.”
“Did you have somewhere in mind to go?”
I gather up two half filled whiskey bottles to take to the kitchen and dump. “There’s a new place downtown with virtual reality games. It sounds fun. We could get some street tacos and walk around afterward. I don’t think it matters what we do. He needs to get out of his head and out of the house.”
Alden gazes at me. “You never told me you went to therapy. Is that what they taught you? To get out of your head?”
