Sweet Dandelion

The door closes behind me with a loud bang like a heavy hotel room door. The smell of Chinese food wafts from the plastic bags on the counter. A yellow smiley face decorates the front of them.

“Sage?” I call out. “I’m back.”

Walking down the hall to the bedroom area, I hear the shower running in his master bathroom.

I put the nail polish in my bathroom—aka the hall bathroom—and the Hershey’s in my room. The Milk Duds I decide to put in front of the bags of Chinese food. I didn’t get it as a peace offering but I guess it kind of is.

The shower squeaks as it’s turned off. I pull some plates from the cabinet, fixing our favorite foods on each, then pour us each a glass of water.

A few minutes later Sage strolls in, his golden-brown hair damp from the shower.

“I’m starving,” he remarks, opening the fridge and grabbing a beer.

Sage rarely drinks, so when he does I know he’s either had a hard day at work or it’s because of me.

My gut tells me tonight it’s the latter.

We sit down on the leather barstools at the sleek black granite countertop.

“How was work?” I ask at the same time he questions, “How was school?”

“You go first,” I tell him. It gives me time to form a response.

He swallows some beer, staring down at his plate of pork lo mein. “It was good. Same old, same old.”

“Come on,” I force a smile, bumping him playfully with my elbow. “You gotta give me more than that. I barely know what you do.”

All I know is my brother is a tech nerd and very good with computers.

“It’s not all that exciting.” Another swig of beer, maybe I’m not the culprit for his alcohol consumption tonight, after all. “I mostly keep the computers and system up and running.”

“Sounds interesting to me,” I muse, spearing a piece of breaded shrimp.

“Now tell me about school. Did it go okay with the counselor there? He emailed me about meeting later this week.”

I nearly choke on my food, coughing until the piece of shrimp is dislodged. Taking a sip of water, I blurt, “Why would you meet him?”

“Are you okay?” Sage looks at me with narrowed brows and eyes filled with concern.

“I’m fine.”

“He thought since he’d be counseling you for the school year that we should meet so I know who you’ll be seeing.”

“Oh.”

“If you don’t want me to, I don’t have to.”

I shake my head. “No, that’s fine, I … he promised anything I shared with him would be confidential. I don’t … I don’t want to trust someone and have that trust broken.”

Sage flinches and my chest pangs. I’m sure he wishes I would talk to him, open up. He has to see I’m a different girl, a different sister, than the one he grew up looking out for.

“He won’t tell me any of your secrets, Dani.” His tone is a smidge harsh.

“Sage—”

He shakes his head, picking up his beer and draining what’s left. He gets up and tosses the empty bottle into the trash before grabbing another and popping the cap.

I might’ve not been the reason he was drinking before, but I sure as hell am now.