Damn. This was going to be a long few days. I’d probably have to start guzzling something stronger than beer to get through it myself. Unfortunately, Scotch apparently made me do very inappropriate things with my wife, so that was out, too.
Chapter 14
Katya
I made them easy box spaghetti though I was tempted to just throw the cold pizza from last night at them again. All through it, I gritted my teeth and sifted through ways I could get them out of here. The past nearly two years hadn’t changed Derek a bit. And Mike would always be his stupid asshole self even after the apocalypse.
Even as I bent over the boiling pot of pasta, tears prickled the backs of my eyes, the same old resentments rising up. Mum and Dad telling me they couldn’t afford to get me the new console game I’d waited patiently for and had asked for only that one thing for Christmas. But I’d gotten some clothes, bought on sale, instead. The game cost too much money because Derek was at a new private outpatient rehab that cost a fortune. Or they had lawyer bills to cover or whatever it was that month.
Suddenly I was remembering the Sunday afternoon I’d come back from a weekend camping trip over on the Island near Victoria with my friends. I hadn’t noticed that my car wasn’t in its usual parking spot. But when I walked into the house, Mum had headed me off, wringing her hands. She’d tearfully told me that Derek had been in a car accident and had just been released from the hospital. But he was fine, wasn’t that great?
Oh and by the way, the car I’d saved up months for and strictly forbid him from ever even going near? Yeah, they’d handed him the keys the second I was out of town and given him permission to take it out after he’d whined about it for hours. My poor little Ford Focus hadn’t been as lucky as Derek. It hadn’t survived being rammed into a telephone pole by my drunk and/or high brother.
Oh and surprise, surprise. The parents didn’t have the money to fill in the gaps for the insurance check for the hosed car. So, I’d had to work even longer to buy a replacement. All while shlepping for months to my third shift job on Vancouver’s less-than-optimum public transport system. Or bumming rides off friends when I could.
The little wads of mad money from babysitting and doing other odd jobs in high school…. I’d stashed them where I thought no one would find them. Derek always managed, though. And he took it—all of it.
And now here he was, having the audacity to guzzle beer on my porch and act entitled to everything I had and earned. Again.
I took a deep breath and let it go, vowing to find a local Al-Anon group. Those meetings had helped me get through some of the worst of it back when I was living it every day. I’d learned long ago that even if I loved him or hated him, Derek would never change.
Not when everyone around him allowed him to be the colossal selfish prick that he was.
And even now as I seethed at him, guilt also clutched at my throat for thinking the awful thoughts I was thinking about my own brother.
The kid with whom I’d shared so many adventures in our younger years. We’d been close. Learning how to skateboard together. Our first bike rides. I constantly waxed him at any video game we played. We were only eleven months apart in age. Practically twins, Mum liked to joke.
And though he was the older one, I’d always been the more responsible one. Throughout our lives, everyone had cut Derek all the slack.
And I couldn’t help but feel bitter about that, especially now. Especially since his screw-ups had cost me my home, my long-time school friends, my hometown. My own goddamn country.
By the time that spaghetti was done I was boiling over with resentment like that pot of pasta.
“Are you okay?” Lucas said at my shoulder and I nearly jumped into orbit in surprise. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. I’m really not that stealthy.”
I took a long breath and let it go. “No,” I said shakily, aware that my heart was beating a thousand kilometres per minute. “Just deep in thought, I guess.” Deep in seething, angry thought.
“I don’t mean to offend you but… is your brother always like that