AN: Sorry it took a while. School :-p Thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys really are the best!
I got home late—or early, whatever. Jack had fallen asleep in the recliner again, and Tonia dozed on the couch. She'd said she'd be over to have Angel work with Jack on exercises that would strengthen the muscles around each of his injuries. Apparently she'd attempted to wait up for me.
I scooped her up and carried her upstairs to my room, a feat that, to my relief, I could still accomplish without hurting myself. Feeling sore after trying to share a twin sized bed with another person had definitely made me feel old.
Ton woke up just long enough to help me tuck her in, and then she fell asleep again. I returned to the living room with a pillow and blanket, making up a place for myself on the couch. I noticed Jack watching me groggily. Before I could say anything he turned in the chair so his back faced me and pulled his blanket tighter around himself, shutting me out.
I swore, picking up one of the couch pillows and chucking it hard at the other chair in the room. He didn't acknowledge my temper fit, didn't even flinch. I wondered briefly when he'd settled down enough to stop reacting when I got pissed off. For so many years he'd drawn away from any of us when we got angry, even if we weren't angry with him. Sometimes, when he was really young, he'd gone as far as curling up in a ball on the floor and covering his ears with his hands. Thinking back, that might've been one of the reasons I started calling him 'fairy.' I made it clear to him that real men faced their problems head on, and only fairies drew away from them.
I guess I figured I could make him mad enough to not be afraid anymore.
Maybe I'd made more progress with him than I'd thought.
I took a step or two closer to my little brother, half sitting down on the narrow arm of the chair. I thought about touching his side, letting him know I was there, but I held back, figuring he'd try to hit me.
Instead, I hung my head and sighed, trying to think of the right thing to say... "I didn't get there in time to stop this from happening to you, but I'm here now, ain't I? If I didn't want to stick around and take care of you, don't you think I would've taken off by now? I love you, man. You're my brother. I don't give a fuck how much you hate it that Angel and I have to take care of you. It ain't fucking optional for any of us because I say it isn't fucking optional. We are a family, Jack--"
"I don't need..."
"Bullshit! You need us to do everything for you, Jackie! Doesn't change the fact that if I spend years hauling your fairy ass around this house it would probably be the most significant thing I'll ever do in my entire life. So starting right now, you're gonna suck it up. I don't want to hear no more of this bullshit, fairy-ass bitching about what you want."
"You shouldn't take care of me," he said real low, still not turning to look at me.
"Why, you think you don't deserve it?" I said. "You know, this family's only big enough for one undeserving degenerate fuckup, and that's me."
"So why are you trying to recruit your girlfriend to baby-sit me? So you guys can get away from me? I never get to take a break from you, and I can't help with anything, either. I know how far in debt you all are over my medical bills. It's not like I haven't tried to do stuff, strengthen up my knee when you guys weren't watching me from two feet away."
"You gotta do it right, Cracker Jack. There's ways to rehab injuries I don't know nothing about. But Tonia does know. I want her to help you get better. I wanna fuck her, too; but mostly I want her here for you. Maybe when you're stronger and you don't feel so helpless, you can stop feeling sorry for yourself and start cooking again. Because if I have to eat one more of Angel's hamburgers—I swear to God I'll gonna cut my wrists."
He finally started to chuckle. "They are pretty bad," he admitted, agreeing with me for the first time in two days.
I grinned, nudging him with an elbow. "Ten bucks says if La Vida Loca ever gets the Jarhead to set a date, they both kick it from food poisoning within a week of the honeymoon."
He turned onto his back, his left forearm coming up to rest behind his head. He tried to muffle it by biting his lip, but he ended up breaking down in fit of laughter.
"What?" I asked, chuckling at how stupid he looked.
Jack grinned. "Twenty says he cheats on the honeymoon and doesn't live long enough to die from food poisoning."
I thought about that, trying not to look over at Jack. I knew that if I saw him grinning I'd go down right along with him. Thing is, I couldn't resist.
One glance was all it took. At first it was quiet, not much more than low snickers. Soon, we were trying to stifle our howling any way we could.
"So, our bassist was totally tripping balls on acid. I mean, this sucker was gone. We got back to his apartment from the club and he didn't know who we were, he didn't know where he was, the fucker didn't even know his own fucking name. We put him down on the street completely naked with this great big fucking sign on him that said, 'Will Eat Pussy for Panties, Will Wear Panties for Pussy.'"
I let my forehead rest on my arm, almost crying from laughing so hard. We'd gone at trading stories for hours, getting completely wasted. For the first time since mom died the Mercer house had not a drop of alcohol left in it because Jackie and I drank it all that night.
A gigantic beer can pyramid sat between us, right in the middle of the table. We'd built that sucker after finishing off a bottle of tequila La Vida Loca must've left behind when she moved out.
"Any girls try to anti up?" I finally managed.
Jack held up three fingers. That got us going all over again.
Angel's entrance to the kitchen slowed our momentum momentarily, but upon seeing our more-than-slightly-pissed-off marine of a brother in his bathrobe, we shared a conspiratorial look and then continued on stronger than ever at his expense.
"Somethin' seriously wrong with the white people in this family," he growled sleepily, heading over to get a glass from the cupboard.
"Theys look like nipples," Jack mocked in a sing-song voice, much to our brother's displeasure.
"Shut up, Angel," I snickered, my forehead resting on my palm. "Have a fucking beer."
"Yeah, shut up, Angel," Jack parroted, lounging back in his chair and killing the last of our booze. "Have a fucking beer."
"Looks like you boys drank it all," he commented, eyeing our impressive monument to Budweiser.
I sat up straight suddenly, looking right at him, all business. "Listen, Angel!" I snapped, then paused, having forgotten what I was going to say. I think it had to do with him marrying Sofi at some point in the future, but I really couldn't be sure.
"Yes, Bobby?" he prompted sarcastically, leaning toward me in a farce of actually wanting to hear what my drunk, white ass had to say.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Jack supplied, raising his hand, still kicked back and laughing like an idiot.
I think that's about the point when I fell out of my chair. I hardly even noticed. If it hadn't been for the view change, I probably wouldn't have noticed.
I rolled from my side onto my back, cracking up.
I saw Angel's feet approach the other side of the table, heard him address the fairy, "What, you think you're in elementary school, Jackie-poo? You gotta raise your hand to go potty? Man... I can't believe this. I so do not want to carry your drunken ass upstairs!" he bitched, even though we all knew he'd do it in the end.
If he didn't, he'd get to clean up the mess in the morning before he went to work...
Jack snickered. "I could piss outside."
"Piss outside. You pull this shit again I'll make you piss blood outside. See how you like that," Angel said, sounding more than slightly annoyed. I could hear him helping Jack up and throwing him over one shoulder.
"Hey, Angel," Jack said, still chortling.
"What?"
"Where'd Bobby go?" he asked, his voice fading toward the stairs.
"Fshh. The devil finally took his ass away," Angel grumbled. "Bastard's probably takin' over hell as we speak."
"Damn straight!" I yelled after him—right before I started to black out.