Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,8
I had offers for full scholarships from five top tier colleges. But the offers didn’t include housing, and I couldn’t afford to make it on my own. I was steeling myself to reject all the offers and take up a job at a coffee shop. And call it a twist of fate or a stroke of dumb luck, but just as I was about to make the calls, a lawyer tracked me down. My mother's father had recently passed away, and he’d left me a building. A warehouse that should’ve been condemned. But I spent my first semester of classes working on my essays by the light of a kerosene lamp, huddled in a sleeping bag, and inhaling dust in the middle of the worn-out warehouse.
If it hadn’t been for my two eldest brothers, Sean and Matthew, it would have stayed that way through my entire college career, but with their help, I worked my butt off to convert the place into a series of apartments, three units on each of the three levels, and maintain a solid 4.0 GPA. Mine was the first to be built—a pod at the back of the ground floor, peaceful and quiet.
It had taken us a hell of a long time, but with the building done and our lives on track, we got it to the point where we could prove that we were capable and stable enough to foster the rest of the younger brothers who now all lived there in one way or another, and we still kept a spare unit on the top floor as a safe space for anyone in need.
“You can’t save everyone.” Eli whisked eggs, and Uno looked up at the sound.
Braxton scoffed. “Like you can talk, Eli. You’re just as addicted to saving people as Derek is.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a better addiction than most.” Eli picked up the pace on the eggs and Uno started panting excitedly.
Brax flicked his hand at Eli. “That’s relative. You throw yourself off cliffs to save people, that’s dangerous as hell.”
Eli pointed at him with the whisk dripping with egg. “Not as dangerous as being bored.”
I nodded in agreement, and Braxton did a double-take between us.
“You two are so weird.” Brax softened the insult with his trademark crooked grin.
The smell of warm garlic made my stomach growl, and Uno sniffed the air as Eli poured eggs into the pan. He expertly filled and flipped the omelet, and I wondered if there was anything he couldn’t do with graceful ease.
When he’d plated the omelet and served it at the dining table, I hauled myself up and pulled him into a hug. He’d been away for months for his work in search and rescue in national parks, and I never appreciated how much I missed him until he was back. “It’s good to see you, brother.”
He thumped my shoulder. “You too, man. Eat up, let me feed you, it’s the only way I can tend to my savior complex while I’m away from work.”
He pulled out my chair and shoved me into it with a firm grip on my shoulders, while Braxton skulked around the kitchen and picked at the leftovers of the vegetables on the chopping board.
“You’re still hungry?” Eli asked him, staring at our little brother with wide eyes and a half-opened mouth. In his defense, Brax was only twenty-four and hadn’t quite outgrown his metabolism yet and needed to be fed every few hours to maintain his constant energy.
“Yeah, man. What do you think, I’m going for the starving artist persona? I’ve got a physique to maintain.” Brax flexed, and Eli rolled his eyes.
I chuckled into my mouthful. It wasn’t that Braxton wasn’t built, he was just the smallest of us at five foot seven and the youngest, and as he rifled through the kitchen, he was dwarfed by Eli’s mountain-climber frame of over six feet.
“Go sit down, I’ll make you one, too.” Eli nudged him away from the counter.
“Nah, I’ll find something in the fridge—”
Eli slapped his hip with a rolled-up dish towel. “Get the hell out of the kitchen, little bro. I’ll cook, I don’t trust you with these pans. Or maybe Derek will share—”
“Mm-mm. No way. This is mine.” I wrapped my forearm around the plate and made a production of shoveling in a bite while they watched.
When Brax made a move to come closer, I waved my fork like a Musketeer’s sword, and Uno followed it with hungry eyes.
“Yeah, Derek has a physique to maintain,” Eli said.