Zach sighed. “I know youdon’t wanna talk about it, but man, you gotta start thinkin’ about what you’regonna—”
“Cut it out,” I interrupted,raising my voice. “I know what I gotta do, but I don’t gotta do it yet, soknock it the fuck off.”
The room was blanketed intense silence. Long, painful moments passed before Greyson quietly excusedhimself to head upstairs and get ready for bed, leaving my brother and me tomarinate in the looming darkness that hung over both our heads. Except, Zachwould never feel the pressure the way I did. He would never know what it waslike to live his life for the man, to have put everything on hold, only to losehim and be left not knowing where the hell to go next. He had escaped that fateyears ago, and good for him, but that meant he was the last person who couldlecture me. Not even Jenna had experienced the type of freedom from our fatherthat Zach had, and so I braced myself for an argument, because there was no wayI was going to put up with it.
“Vin, I know it’s hard,but—”
“You don’t know shit,” Ifired at him, immediately on the defense.
He huffed, teetering onirritated, and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Fine. Don’t talk to me. I’m justsayin’, if you need someone—”
“I get it. You’re there,thanks, now drop it.”
Zach pressed his lips together,eyeing me with an annoying amount of concern. I was concerned, too. I didn’ttrust myself and didn’t want to know how I was going to cope with our father’spassing. I hoped and hoped that I’d never have to find out, but I wasn’t anidiot and knew that was pointless. I looked at myself in the mirror, the wayZach was looking at me now, worried and afraid. I didn’t want him to look at melike that. The concern on his face, made it all the more real, and fuckinghell, I didn’t want it to be.
“I think you need help,Vin.”
“Here we go,” I growled.
“For real, listen to me. I’mworried about you, and so is Jenna.”
“Oh, so you agreed to me comin’up here to, what? Have a fuckin’ intervention or something?”
“No, why? Do we have tointervene with something?”
I knew what he was askingand I hated him for it. “Fuck you.”
“You’re gettin’ defensive.”
“Yeah, ‘cause you’reaccusing me of doin’ somethin’ I’m not fuckin’ doing!”
Zach shook his head, theworry in his eyes deepened. “You jumped to that conclusion on your own, bro.”
“Oh, go fuck your—”
My irate comeback was cutoff abruptly by my cellphone ringing from the coffee table. It was Andy and I consideredletting it go to voicemail. She didn’t need to talk to me when I was feelingthis livid. But answering the phone meant having a valid excuse to walk awayfrom my brother without him following on my heels. So, I snatched it from thetable, answering it without a word to Zach, as I pressed it against my ear.
“Hey,” I grunted.
“Vinnie, have you heard fromJenna?”
I narrowed my eyes, not sureI had heard her correctly. “What? No, I haven’t gotten any—”
“Okay, I guess she hasn’tbeen able to yet,” she replied quietly, almost as though she was talking toherself. Then, she said, “You need to come home. Now. Zach, too.”
“What? Why?”
The urgency in her voice wasenough to scare me and I bolted up from the couch, leaving the security of theblanket behind. Zach watched, his eyes wide and spine rigid, as I shoved mybare feet into my sneakers before I could hear her reply.
“It's your dad,” she saidshakily.
I stopped before I couldgrab the keys to the old car Zach had given me. “W-what? What happened? Is he—”
“He's alive,” she said. “ButVinnie ... he doesn't have a lot of time, and I can only hold things off for solong. You need to hurry.”
I snapped my fingers atZach, signaling for him to get his shoes on. He ran upstairs quickly as Ireplied, steadier than I felt, “We're on our way.”
***
