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My brother didn’t mind going to the occasional youth group or activity session, but in his black-and-white world, learning was for school. Downtime was for home. And nine times out of ten, if it was his downtime, he wanted to spend it at home, in his own safe space.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled up outside the center and cut the engine. I was ten minutes early, but I decided to go inside.
“Hello, dear. How can I help?”
“I’m here to pick up my brother. He’s attending the Inclusion Group.”
“Mason?” she asked, and I nodded.
“Your Mom called. You can go and wait outside if you’d like. You can’t go into the session, but there’s a window, so you’ll be able to have a little peek of what they’re up to. I believe it’s baking and ball games today.”
“Sounds good, thanks.”
I headed for the double doors and made my way down the long hall. The faint rumble of chatter and laughter grew louder as I reached a row of plastic seats and sat down.
Sure enough, there was a window giving me a glimpse inside the room. I spotted Scottie instantly, hyper-focused on the cookie he was decorating. The kid had a sweet tooth, but sugar didn’t always agree with him. He seemed calm enough, though, nodding at someone across the counter. I couldn’t see whoever it was, but they had my brother’s undivided attention.
Until he spotted me, and his face split into a Scottie-sized smile.
“My brother is here,” he mouthed, dropping his icing tube and bounding toward me.
“Shit,” I got up, fully expecting him to burst through the door because rules and boundaries were another set of things he didn’t always know quite how to navigate.
“Mason brother,” I heard before the door swung open, and he appeared. “You’re here.”
“Hi, bud. How’s it— You.” I gawked at Harper, who stared back at me with utter confusion in her eyes.
“M-Mason, what—”
“Mase, Mase.” Scottie grabbed my arm and yanked me down, bringing his mouth to my ear. “Don’t tell her, but that’s the girl I was telling you about,” he said entirely too loudly. “The one with the great ti—”
I managed to slide my hand over his mouth before the word could form. “Okay, bud,” I said calmly. “Why don’t we save that for later. I’m sure Harper needs to get you back inside to finish up your session.”
“There are only a few minutes left,” she said, brows crinkled. “You’re his brother?”
“Hold up.” Scottie shoved me off him and glared up at me. “You know Harper?”
“Uh, yeah. We go to LU together.”
“Are you friends?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I murmured, running a hand down the back of my neck, aware of her heated stare.
My eyes flicked to hers, and she dipped her head a little.
“Scottie, bud, you should go back inside and help Harper clean up.” I swear I saw a blush prickle across his cheeks.
“Yeah, okay,” he mumbled, traipsing back into the room without so much as a second glance.
“Huh,” I said.
“So I guess his name isn’t really Sam.”
“Shit, he told you that?” My stomach dropped.
“Yeah. I’ve been calling him it all afternoon.”
“That’s our dad’s name.”
