Henry Last December
Henry
Last December
“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.”
—Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Henry was in the shed, working on his invention when he got the text from Bram.
It’s happening again. Where are you?
Henry growled and tucked the parts and tools back in the box. Lately, with no school and no football, the invention had become more than a hobby—it had become Henry’s passion, consuming his thoughts. He truly believed it would change everything.
But these episodes with Adam were becoming a common occurrence. At this rate, he’d never finish it. Tucking the box away beneath a folded blue tarp, he took off for the house.
As Henry made his way up the path to the front porch, he expected to hear shouting and screaming; instead, everything was eerily quiet. His pulse quickened. “Bram?” he called out, swinging the door open.
At first, there was no answer. The boys’ parents weren’t home. As usual, their mother was at some spa in a far-off place where no one knew of her family’s scandal. Their father was off doing damage control, now that no one wanted anything to do with the auto shop chain concept.
Still, the dead quiet wasn’t right.
Bram appeared at the top of the landing then. “Hurry,” he said before vanishing down the hall.
Henry ascended the stairs, palms sweating now.
He started to fear the worst. Adam had never vocalized self-destructive feelings, but he’d been so withdrawn since the accident.
So depressed. What if—but before he could finish the thought, he found Bram slumped outside of Adam’s room, back to the door.
“He’s locked himself inside,” Bram said, tossing up a hand.
“Well, is he okay?” Henry’s thoughts began to spiral again.
“How the hell should I know? He hasn’t said anything. He won’t open the door. I think I heard him move, though.”
Henry let out a breath, relieved. “Maybe we should call 911,” he said loudly, only half-serious.
“I already tried all that psychological bullshit,” Bram said.
“Even threatened to make Mom come back from her retreat. He won’t open it.
” Bram spun around so that his mouth was practically against the door when he yelled, “I really don’t want to break down this door, damn it!
But I will.” He sounded just like their father.
“Before you do that,” Henry said, pulling out his phone, “let’s try something.”
Twenty minutes later, the front doorbell rang, startling both Henry and Bram. It was the first time in over two months that anyone other than the triplets’ lawyer had rung that bell.
“Who the hell is that?” came Adam’s booming voice.
Bram’s face contorted in rage, and he turned to the bedroom door. “You stupid piece of—”
But Henry shoved him toward the stairs. “At least we know he’s alive.”
“Yeah, but you dragged her all the way up here for nothing.”
“It’s not for nothing,” Henry assured him. “She’s going to get him out of there.”
“Guess we’ll see about that.”
When the boys opened the door, Hayden greeted them with a big smile and three brightly colored red-and-gold bags. “Merry Christmas,” she said shyly.
“Damn,” Bram muttered. “Did he force you over here on Christmas?”
Hayden laughed and pushed past him. “It’s not Christmas Christmas, dummy. It’s the twenty-third. Don’t you know what day it is?”
Bram merely crossed his arms and scowled.
“Not much point in keeping track anymore,” Henry admitted, scuffing the sole of his shoe against the travertine tiles.
“Right.” Hayden blushed rosy pink. “Well, let’s see if I can get Adam out of his room.”
“What’s in the bags?” Henry asked, following her through the foyer.
“You’ll see when Adam does.” Hayden swung the bags around to her other hand, as if to keep them out of his reach.
“So never then,” Bram muttered, following them upstairs.
They reached Adam’s door and Hayden knocked twice. “Adam? It’s Hayden. I’ve got a present for you.”
There was no answer.
“Adam? Will you please open the door? I just want to say Merry Christmas.”
Still no response, but Henry heard footsteps padding around the room, which seemed promising.
Then the music blasted, decidedly not of the Christmas variety.
Hayden sighed and turned to the boys. “I imagined that going differently,” she said, trying to speak over the electric guitar. “Like…”
“Like a pretty female version of Santa comes and brings joy to all.” Bram smirked, at which Hayden blushed again.
Henry didn’t like it, whatever was going on between the two of them.
Bram was supposed to be in mourning over Mariana.
Though, if Henry were honest with himself—which he didn’t want to be—there were other, more complicated reasons he didn’t like it.
“Maybe we should just go ahead and break down the door!” he shouted.
“Dad will be thrilled,” Bram said glumly. “We should give up and let him live out the rest of his life in there.”
“He’d starve,” Hayden said, nibbling on her lower lip in a way Henry found adorable. “And I hate having failed at this. You asked me over here to do a job, and I want to do it.”
“It’s not your fault Adam’s a bigger asshole than any of us thought,” Bram said.
Hayden frowned at him and stepped closer, so she could speak softly. “Have some compassion, please. And a little more patience.”
Even Bram’s always-pale cheeks flushed pink at this.
It had been difficult for the brothers to remain sympathetic to Adam during his spells, considering the emotional toll they took and the way they dragged on.
But Hayden was right; Adam was going through something that none of them could possibly imagine.
“Adam?” Hayden called out again. “I’ll just leave your gift outside the door here, while I go downstairs and whip up some peanut butter brownies.”
Henry’s lips quirked up. Those brownies were Adam’s favorite, and he’d never be able to resist them.
The footsteps within the room sounded louder now, and Hayden smiled as her eyes flicked to meet Henry’s. It was almost too easy.
The door opened a crack. “Hayden,” came Adam’s voice, sounding tired and rough. “I don’t want to see or talk to anyone. Not now, not ever. So you can take your present and your brownies, and get the hell out of our house.”
The door slammed then, with a force that stunned Henry more than Adam’s words. Hayden stood there, facing the door, her eyes wide and unblinking.
A rage bubbled in Henry’s stomach.
But before he could go to her, Bram was there, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t listen to him,” Bram murmured. “We’ll let him stew some more. Meanwhile”—he turned his face to the door to shout—“we’re going to eat all of Adam’s brownies!”
Bram’s arm was still around Hayden’s shoulders as he walked her through the hall toward the stairs.
Henry didn’t like it one bit. None of it. That rage only grew. It wouldn’t stay pent up now. He stomped to Adam’s door and pounded on it so hard his knuckles ached. “Adam!” he called. “Come out of there right now so I can say this to your face!”
Bram was on Henry in an instant, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him back from the door. “Hey! What are you doing?”
But Henry threw an elbow, knocking Bram in the chin.
“Get off me! I want to tell Adam to come out here and apologize to Hayden!” He bore his fists and paced around, unable to keep still as much as he was unable to keep quiet.
“He had no right to send my friend away when it’s his fault we’re in this situation in the first place! ”
“Henry, stop,” Hayden said, looking torn between coming closer and keeping her distance.
Bram was rubbing his chin and seething at Henry. “Can you calm down? You’re making things worse.”
Henry let out a frenzied laugh. “How can I make things worse? How can I screw things up any more than he already has?”
“You don’t mean that,” Bram snapped, a warning look in his gray eyes.
“Oh, I definitely mean it. We’re locked up in here like prisoners because of him! And he has the nerve to send Hayden away?”
The door clicked open again, and this time, Adam’s face appeared in the opening. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
Henry launched at Adam , but Bram grabbed him. Within seconds, Adam and Bram had overpowered Henry, joining forces to pin him to the ground out in the hall. He struggled, but it was useless.
“What did you mean by that?” Adam asked again, his knee on Henry’s stomach.
Henry’s glasses were smashed against the wooden floor. “Let me up, damn it!”
“Not until you tell me.”
Henry choked out a laugh. “Like you don’t know.”
“I don’t, actually.” Adam had Henry’s right arm pinned behind his back, and slowly, he began to pull on it. Feeling a shock of pain, Henry let out a cry.
Bram elbowed Adam and shoved him back. “Enough!”
With a grunt, Adam released Henry. Beside them, Bram rubbed his temples like an exhausted parent, the look on his face conveying that things were over.
Once Adam had locked himself back inside his room, Bram went over to Hayden, whose eyes welled with tears.
“I’m okay, I promise,” Henry heard her whisper to Bram, who watched her carefully another moment before striding off to his own room.
Henry examined his lenses, finding them smudged but still intact, and put them back on.
“Henry?” Hayden’s voice was meek. “Are you okay?”
A wave of embarrassment crashed over Henry. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair, making a poor attempt to tame it. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t like him talking to you that way. He had no right.”
Hayden took a tentative step toward him, and there was something unfamiliar and terrible in her eyes. Something like fear.
“I’m really sorry,” Henry tried again, forcing the rage down, forcing a calm he didn’t feel to ease the tension in his chest. “I don’t know why I acted like that.
Guess he finally got to me.” Henry wanted to take her hand, to show her that she could trust him.
But her elbows were tucked in close to her sides, and she looked ready to run for the door.
“Don’t leave. Let me make it up to you? Please? We could watch a movie.”
Finally, Hayden’s lips curved into a half smile. “You just want me to stay and make brownies.”
He grinned back. “I’ll help.”
She glanced around the hall, as if trying to get her bearings. “Fine. But open your present first.” At some point, she’d abandoned Bram and Henry’s bags, and Henry hurried to bring them to the kitchen table.
“Which one’s mine?” Henry asked, inspecting one of the bags.
“They’re all the same. You’ll see.”
“Should we wait for Bram?”
“Nah, he can open his later.”
Henry liked that response. He liked that he and Hayden were sharing a private moment, apart from his brothers. He removed the tissue paper and pulled out the navy-blue hoodie, holding it up to his chest.
“Turn it over,” Hayden said, doing it for him. The letter A was embroidered there in white. “I know you guys won’t be wearing your letterman jackets much this year. I thought these could keep you warm instead.”
With all the vitriol surrounding the Abbott name, Henry’s first thought was that the letter seemed in poor taste. If it had been stitched in red, it would’ve made perfect sense—a scarlet letter fit for a trio of criminals. But Hayden added, “No matter what, you three will always be a team.”
Henry felt nothing but shame then. Hayden’s words had struck him deep in the gut. Upstairs, he hadn’t acted like much of a teammate.
But he could change. He could help Adam, protect him. This sweatshirt would be his reminder that even when he wanted to knock that smug look off Bram’s face, or silence Adam’s whining and self-pity, the brothers were a team. A team since birth. They would do anything for each other.
Anything.
Henry glanced back down at the sweatshirt in his lap. It was much more Bram’s style than his, but he tugged it on and leaned forward to give Hayden a hug. “I love it. Thank you. I only wish I had something for you.” He mentally chastised himself.
“I don’t need anything. Seriously, you guys have enough to worry about.” Hayden glanced at the kitchen window. “Will your parents be here for Christmas?”
Henry tugged on the strings of the hoodie. “They haven’t mentioned it. Opening these presents may be the closest thing we have to a Christmas.”
“Well, you’re all welcome at my house. It’s never been quite the same with just me and Dad, anyway.”
Henry smiled. “That sounds really nice.”
“Hey, Henry?” Hayden asked, her forehead lined with concern now. “What did you mean back there, when you said it was all Adam’s fault?”
“Nothing,” he said with a headshake. “Just forget about it. I didn’t mean anything, and I’m going to apologize to Adam. If he ever comes out of his room again.”
Hayden smiled. “Good. I don’t like seeing you boys angry with each other.”
Henry didn’t either. Teammates had to stick together.