All those years living a few feet away from each other, and I don’t have a single snapshot of the six of us together. But I have a great picture of my mother and Scott’s mom, taking a rare break to sit down at the kitchen table and drink tea. I have a picture of Scott with his stepdad, at the edge of their seats, their faces tense, and fists clenched as they watched the end of what I’m guessing was the most important sports game of all time. I have a picture of me and Rachel, sticking our tongues out at the camera and giving each other bunny ears. And I even have a picture of Scott with his dad and stepmom when they came into town for Christmas one year.
Stepparents, divorce, sibling squabbling, money problems, long-distance separation. Family. All in all, I’d say Scott and I both won the lottery in that department.
Charlie (“Chase”) Rhodes
“ARE you hungry, Charlie?” I looked up from the doodle of a pirouette I’d been drawing and raised one eyebrow in response to my sister’s ridiculous question. She snorted. “Of course you are. I swear, ever since you turned seventeen you’ve been eating more than Mom and me combined, and for the life of me I don’t know where you put it.”
I shrugged and said, “I get a lot of exercise. Dance isn’t just spinning around in circles, you know.”
Rachel pushed her pointer finger on my right bicep. “Okay, let’s see the muscle,” she said. “Flex.”
I raised both arms and tightened my muscles.
“Holy shit,” Rachel said. “Wow, little brother. For a small guy, you are seriously ripped. No wonder Scott follows you around like a lost puppy.”
“Hardy, har, har.”
She ruffled my hair. “I’m making spaghetti and meatballs. You want some?” I nodded. “So did Scott decide where he’s going to school next year?”
“Yeah, he’s going to SUNY. It’s close enough that he can live at his mom’s and save money.”
My sister rolled her eyes and smirked. “Yeah, that’s why he’s going there. It has nothing to do with staying close to you.”
I blushed. “It’s a good school,” I insisted.
“So is UNLV, and his father lives in Nevada, so he can get in-state tuition and get the hell away from miserable winters and snow.”
“Since when do you know so much about Nevada?” I asked with a scowl.
“Since Christmas, when I heard no less than five conversations between your boyfriend and his father where the man practically begged Scott to move closer to him after graduation and Scott stammered and came up with the most ridiculous bullshit reasons ever why he wouldn’t go.” She paused and looked at me with a suddenly serious expression. “You need to tell him to be careful. Seriously, that boy cannot tell a believable lie.”
“In some circles that would be considered a good thing, Rachel.”
She shrugged. “Speaking of Scott, where is he tonight?” she asked.
“Some graduation run-through thing.” I twirled my ballpoint pen like a baton and wondered whether I could fashion some sort of flame add-on for each side. Maybe Q-tips would work.
“I’m surprised his mom didn’t insist you eat dinner with them anyway.”
“Lauren and Dave are going out with people from her work,” I answered. If they had been home, my sister would have been right. Scott’s mom was really good to me. She’d been treating me like part of their family almost from the first day I’d met Scott going on two years earlier.
“Mmmm,” my sister said dreamily as she stirred the sauce. “Dave is soooo sexy.”
I threw my pen at her back. “Dave is sooooo married. Say it with me now: married.”
She looked back at me over her shoulder and scowled. “I know. I was joking around.” She paused. “Well, not about the sexy part, because that’s true, but you know what I mean.”
My sister’s last two boyfriends had been, and I quote, “in the process of getting a divorce.” I can’t tell you what that means because I didn’t meet one at all and the other I spent about thirty seconds with when I ran into him with my sister on the street. But I’d overheard conversations between my gorgeous sister and my angry mother, and the word “homewrecker” was thrown around more than once.
“Hopefully you don’t mean what I think you mean, because, again, he is married. Also, he is twice your age. And he lives next door. With his wife. You remember Lauren, right? Dave’s wife, also known as the woman he married.”
“Cut it out, Charlie. I get enough of this shit from Mom. At least she has a reason because of all of Dad’s crap. Besides, I know Dave is off limits and I have no intention of coming on to him.” Her back was to me so I couldn’t see her face, but I could tell from her tone that she was more hurt than she was angry.