Chapter 9

The following day, Reese left his house for a little while to see Jade. He hadn't spoken to his mother since the previous night so he wasn't planning on answering the phone if she called anyway. He was surprised to see Francis sitting on the couch when he came in. "Francis? What're you doing here?"

"Hey Reese. Where have you been?" Francis asked casually.

"Just out. Nowhere really. Did mom and dad know you were coming to visit today?"

"Yeah, they called last night and asked me to come home. They said it was an emergency." Francis said.

"What happened?" Reese was suddenly worried because he hadn't heard of any emergency. "Is something wrong that I don't know about?"

"You know what's wrong, Reese. Mom was crying on the phone—do you have any idea how traumatic that was for me? I've spent my whole life building her up as this mean, overbearing, hateful, manipulative monster then you have to ruin it all by making her cry in front of me. She sounded so weak and pitiful. I actually felt sorry for her."

"I didn't make her cry! She just felt bad for abusing me. Look what she did!" Reese shouted, pointing at the large purple bruise on his cheek. "Serves her right!"

"They told me everything. They're really worried about you—smoking, talking back, staying in your room all the time, deliberately defying them? What's going on, Reese?" Francis asked with genuine concern.

"So they called you?" Reese ignored his question. "You're the worst one of all of us. All that's nothing compared to the crap you've pulled before."

"That's exactly why they called me. I know about these things. Besides, I've grown up a lot and don't do that immature stuff much anymore." Francis walked over to Reese and looked him in the eye as he asked his next question. "Reese, level with me. Are you doing drugs?"

"No! Why would you think that?"

"Don't lie to me! I can look at you and see that you're high right now. Do you think I'm an idiot?" Francis raised his voice.

"I'm not lying Francis!" Reese took a step back, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in his brother's presence.

Francis abruptly grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him against the wall. Pinning him in place with his elbow, he started going through Reese's pockets with his free hand.

"Get off me!" Reese screamed and struggled to break free. "You're just as crazy as mom!"

"You're not lying, huh? Then what the hell is this?" Francis shouted in his face as he pulled a bag of pot from Reese's jeans. He released his grip on his brother and watched as he slid down the wall and sat on the floor in defeat. "How could you be so stupid, Reese! There's only one thing that I've told you never to do and this is it! I've watched too many of my friends ruin their lives with this shit! Didn't you listen to anything I said?"

"It's just pot. It's not like it's something serious." Reese rationalized.

"You idiot! It is serious! And pot just leads to other stuff—stuff that will kill you!" Francis yelled.

"OK, I'll quit! I swear! Just don't tell anyone. I'm begging you, Francis! They'll go through the roof if they find out!"

"You say you'll quit, but you won't. It's not that easy. You need help."

"Ok. I'll get help. When I go back to school on Monday I'll see the guidance councilor. She'll tell me what to do. Just don't bring mom and dad into this, please?"

"I don't know—" Francis was interrupted when Malcolm and Dewey came through the door from school.

"Francis!" They cried with excitement and ran over to hug their older brother, unaware of the awkward situation that they'd walked in on. They immediately started telling him about all the things that had been going on in their lives since they last talked to him, leaving Francis unable to finish his conversation with Reese. No one noticed when Reese got up and trudged off to his room.

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"GET OUT!" Reese awoke to the harsh sound of his mother's voice. After Malcolm and Dewey got home, he laid on his bed to think about what Francis had said and eventually fell asleep. Now his parents were home and looming over him, looking madder than he'd ever seen them. "Huh?" he asked sleepily.

"You heard your mother. You're out of here! We will not tolerate drugs in this house!" His dad shouted furiously. He grabbed Reese by the shoulder and yanked him into a sitting position. "Did you really think we wouldn't find out?"

"What are you doing?" Francis suddenly appeared in the doorway with Malcolm and Dewey following close behind him.

"You told them? You sold me out? How could you do this to me, Francis? I thought we covered for each other!" Reese accused his brother.

"I didn't tell you so you could turn around and kick him out!" Francis yelled at his parents, ignoring Reese. "He needs to get help!"

"You stay out of this, Francis." Lois shouted. "How dare you bring drugs into this house? Of all the irresponsible, idiotic things you've ever done, Reese, this is the worst! If you want to ruin your life, then fine! We're through supporting you—you're on your own from now on."

"Where am I supposed to go?" Reese asked, his voice cracking with emotion. He'd never done something so bad that his parents actually kicked him out before.

"That's not my problem! You should have thought about that before you decided to become a junkie!" Lois yelled.

"You can't do this!" Francis protested. "If you kick him out, the problem will only get worse! You can't just put him on the street and let him destroy himself!"

"He's right! You're not thinking about the consequences. Maybe you should calm down before making a decision like this." Malcolm agreed.

"Just give him one more chance, mom." Dewey spoke up.

"No more chances. I've had it with him!" Lois ignored their pleas.

"I'm sorry son, but you've really pushed your limits too far this time. I think you should leave now." Hal said with a hint of sorrow in his voice.

"Fine, I'll leave. I want to get out of this hellhole!" Reese retorted, pushing past his brothers as he headed to the door.

"Wait Reese! You can come live with me and Piama for awhile." Francis called after him.

"NO! I hate you! I hate all of you!" Reese screamed and slammed the front door behind him.

XXXXX

A/N: For the purpose of this story, let's assume that Reese has never been kicked out, or been on his own before and the episodes "Reese's Apartment" and "Reese Joins the Army" never took place. So this is something new for everyone involved. Just Humor me :-)