Chapter 18 Families and Shots #2
And then he vanished in the midst of the crowd.
I stayed there a minute longer, unsure what to do, then decided to walk over to arrivals, since my brother would arrive an hour later.
There was a café close by where I could wait for him.
Since I knew I’d have time on my hands, I’d brought my laptop to study.
It was past time to put my nose to the grindstone.
I didn’t want to find myself in the same boat as Curtis.
Some students from our major had a group chat, and I was checking that out when Spencer texted me to tell me he’d arrived.
I put away my computer and went to wait for him amid the mass of people leaned against the railing.
When I saw him, I shouted and waved my hands, but he couldn’t see me, so I walked around to the side.
We hugged, I had to jump off the ground to wrap my arms around his neck, and he laughed as I started kicking my legs like an excited little girl.
“Did you really miss me that bad?” he asked.
As he set me down, I replied, “So what if I did? Is that a problem?”
Rubbing the top of my head, he said, “You look good, sis. Better than when I saw you in February. Happier, that’s for sure.”
“I guess the time away from you has done me some good.”
He pretended to wipe away a tear as we walked to the exit. He was too tough to tell me he’d missed me, too, but I could tell.
Despite my driving lessons, I still didn’t have a license, so we took the train home.
Along the way, we brought each other up to date on the family, our lives, our friends, and other goings-on.
He was happy to hear I’d started running again, but disappointed when I told him I was only doing three miles a day.
That made me feel bad, so I took the stairs up to the apartment when we got home.
“Nice place,” he said as I opened the door, fingering a piece of wallpaper that had started to peel away. I told him it was hard to keep the place spotless with so many people coming in and out all the time.
“Ready for your big debut?” I asked him.
“I was born ready.”
I edged past him into the living room, where everybody was sitting there just as they had before I left.
“Spencer,” I said, “you’ve met most of these people, but I’ll just go through the motions anyway. This is Naya and Will. They were at Grandma’s funeral. This is Mike, Jack’s brother. Jack, like I told you, is away traveling. And this is Sue, our other roommate.”
Everyone turned and inspected him, pretty tactlessly if you ask me. “Guys, this is my brother Spencer,” I added. “I told him he could spend the night here.”
“Of course!” Naya said, smiling. “Take a seat! We’re dying for you to tell us all the embarrassing stories from Jenna’s childhood!”
I’d have preferred we skip that, but I was glad there was someone welcoming there, not just Mike channel surfing like a zombie and Sue absorbed in her magazine. I guess whatever intrigue she’d felt the day before about my brother’s looks had evaporated.
Spencer grinned, flopped down beside Will, and said, “I’m afraid I’d need way more than one afternoon for that.”
“Jenna said you’re here for a convention?” Will asked.
“Yeah, I have a speech in like two hours,” Spencer responded.
“It’s not that big a deal, but they invited me and they’re paying my airfare, so what the hell?
Besides, it was a good opportunity to visit my little sister.
I should probably go ahead and add that I’m supposed to be spying for Mom and Dad. ”
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked him.
“Honestly, we don’t talk much, and as far as I can tell, you’re not pregnant, so there’s still no Shannon-level disasters on the horizon.
I’ll just tell them everything’s great. They won’t believe me, but whatever.
” As he said this, he noticed Naya’s belly and rushed to correct himself: “Not that there’s anything wrong with being pregnant! I’m just saying…”
Naya laughed mischievously. Since she hadn’t said a word up to now, Spencer addressed Sue directly: “So, are you a student, too?”
Sue sighed, already bored. “Yeah.”
“I assume you’re majoring in communications?” That was a good one, and all of us chuckled.
Sue looked up and responded, “Psychology. I’m interested in what makes people think.”
“Sounds complicated,” Spencer said.
“It’s not. Most people are simpler than the average lab rat.” She stood and tossed her magazine aside on her way to the kitchen. “You want a beer?”
“Sure,” Spencer said.
Hold on—was there some kind of attraction here?
When Sue was merely cranky, that was a cause for celebration in our home.
At her worst, she’d give Satan a run for his money.
But here she was playing hostess, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I had actually seen her smirk.
And there was no doubt that my brother was checking her out.
Even as he opened his beer and took a sip of it, he didn’t take his eyes off her.
Ewww… Will and Naya could tell where my mind was and were both grinning as Sue and Spencer struck back up their conversation.
After a few seconds, Mike barged outside to smoke.
I guess he was jealous, but surely he knew by now Sue would never give him the time of day.
I had thought I’d need to stay close to Spencer’s side so he wouldn’t feel out of place. But I now realized the only person out of place was me. So I announced that I needed a breath of fresh air and headed up to the roof.
I hadn’t been up there in ages, and I’d never been nuts about climbing the fire escape.
Even when Jack helped me up there, I tended to get scared.
But I told myself it was time to be a modern, independent woman, then I cursed Mike, then I stuck one leg through the open window.
I climbed up clumsily, one step at a time, shaking the ladder slightly to make sure it wouldn’t collapse on me.
When I got to the top, I noticed it was freezing.
I found Mike standing close to the ledge, one hand in his pocket and one holding his cigarette.
He blew out a mouthful of smoke, looking utterly self-absorbed.
I thought about startling him—getting him back for when he’d terrified me in the car the other day—but I didn’t want to send him flying off into the abyss, so I just said, “Hi.”
He must not have wanted company, because he froze when he heard me.
“Hey,” he said tentatively. It sounded almost like a question.
“You mind if I hang out up here?”
He shrugged, confused. I think he was asking himself what I wanted.
He looked away and took another drag of his cigarette.
When he was calm—which rarely happened—he looked a lot like Jack.
Shorter, with longer hair, but otherwise nearly identical.
He could feel my eyes on him, and I think it was starting to bother him, because he said, “Unless you’re studying me for one of your paintings, could you stop looking at me like that? ”
“Sorry, I, uh… I didn’t realize I was staring.”
“Did you need something?”
“Actually, I wanted to ask you something,” I said. “Mike, are you OK?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, but you’ve been acting strange for a while now. And when you just took off just now, I thought maybe the thing with Sue and my brother had pissed you off.”
“What thing with Sue and your brother?” he asked.
“I mean, if I had to lay money on it, I’d say they’re probably going to hook up. And you and Sue, you’re like superhero and sidekick, so I thought you were upset. I’ve kind of always assumed you had feelings for her.”
“Sue’s just a friend,” Mike said, flicking his ashes off the edge of the roof. “Whoever she wants to sleep with, that’s her choice.”
“Fine, understood. So let’s just pretend you’re not upset right now. That still doesn’t explain the past couple of days. Ever since your brother and I got back from Greece, you’re so quiet. You’ve been treating Jack and me like we barely exist.”
Mike looked away. “I don’t know what you mean.” He dropped his cigarette butt, crushed it out under his shoe, and tried to walk away. When I stopped him, he exclaimed, “Jen, what do you want?”
“I want to know what’s wrong. I want to know why you refuse to actually talk to anyone. And most of all, I want to know if we did something to hurt you. Because if so, I promise you, we didn’t mean to, and I’d do anything I could to make it better!”
For a brief moment, he looked as if he would open up, but that impression quickly vanished as he jerked his arm away and started pacing.
“Is it because we left you here?” I called out, desperate to find some explanation. “Did you want us to ask you to come along?”
“What the hell am I going to do in Greece?” he shouted. “It’s not you and it’s not Jack, OK? It’s my band. We broke up. It’s over.”
I was speechless. Mike’s head was hanging low, his shoulders were slumped. I reached out to hug him, but then I let my arms drop—I wasn’t sure it was appropriate. “I’m so sorry, Mike. What happened?”
“The bass player got picked up by another band, and he took the rest of the guys with him. Now they’re supposedly in a supergroup. I guess I wasn’t super enough for them, so now I’m on my own.”
“Maybe you could sing for someone else?” I offered. “Naya told me you were taking vocal lessons, she said you were getting better. Or this could be the moment to go solo! All you need nowadays is a computer and some mixing equipment, you don’t even need any backup musicians anymore!”
“I don’t know, Jenna… I don’t feel like doing anything, to tell the truth. I’ve been at this for ages, it’s never gone anywhere, I should probably just give it up.”