1
TANYA
“Girl, we both know what you need, and it ain’t another Friday night spent at home reading about someone else getting laid,” my best friend and fellow waitress Sally says as I prepare to leave for my lunch break.
Her comment stops me in my tracks. “What do you have in mind?”
“It’s ladies’ night at Lucky’s. Think about all those out-of-town men who are staying here for the festival. We could find you a nice warm body for the weekend,” Sally suggests, tapping her long, bright pink nails on the counter. I don’t know how she can live with something so clawlike, but she’s had them since I met her on my first day on the job years ago.
“Shhh, be quiet—the customers can hear you,” I whisper-shout, glancing around the restaurant frantically, my cheeks heating in embarrassment. “They don’t need to know about my longer-than-acceptable dick drought.”
“See, even you’re admitting it to yourself. The situation is worse than expected.” Sally sighs dramatically.
I give her an unimpressed look. This isn’t the time or the place for her dramatics. “Not everyone can be in a happy, sexually satisfied relationship.”
“I surely am lucky. Just last night, Ash did this thing where he—”
“Sal, not here!”
“Calm your tatas. I’m just sayin’ that you should pack a bag during your break and stay the weekend at my place.”
“I’ll see what I can do. But I gotta go now.” I wave a hand over my head and walk outside. It’s been raining for the past four days, but today, the sun is shining, reminding us that rain is only temporary, just like my mom used to say.
Taking long hurried steps, I head toward my apartment building, walking past the shops, hotels, and restaurants on Parkway. Gatlinburg, a small mountain town where I live next to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee, is getting ready to be one of the hosts for all the festival-goers this weekend. Some of them have already arrived in our town based on the traffic.
My brother’s loud snoring greets me when I open the red door to our apartment, and I look at my smartwatch to double-check the time.Heck, he shouldn’t still be sleeping!
“Will, it’s 1 p.m.; you’ve got a shift in an hour! Time to wake up.” I bang on his bedroom door and await a response. Nothing. Typical. Freaking teenagers and their messed up sleep schedules.
Not having time or energy for this today, I connect my phone to the Bluetooth speakers in my brother’s room and choose a pop song he hates with a passion. I increase the volume when I hear him groan the first time. That should make him get up faster.
Shortly after the song ends, Will tears open the door, his unruly mop of dark brown hair sticking up in every direction. “Fuck, Tan.”
“Good morning to you, too, my dear little brother,” I say, my voice chipper than usual. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to use music to wake him up.
Will yawns. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
I cross my arms, shaking my head in wonderment.How did he forget I have a longer lunch break on Fridays every week?“I thought I would come home during my break like I doeveryFriday. Looking at you, I made the right decision because you would have missed work if I wasn’t here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Are you staying with Sally over the weekend? Please say yes, so I can have the guys over tonight to play that game I bought last week.” Will’s expression turns from annoyed to hopeful as he waits for my answer.
“Yes, I’ll be at Sally’s. But that doesn’t mean you can invite all your friends over. Three people, max.” He rolls his eyes, so I add, “I mean it. And if any of your friends drink my beer and wineagain, I’ll call their parents. You know the rules. No drinking under my roof until you’re twenty-one.”
“Okay,Mom,” he huffs.
I hate when he does that, and he knows it damn well. “How often have I told you not to call me that?”
“Well, I’m leaving for college in two weeks, and you treat me like a kid, so…”
”After raising you for the last ten years, I can treat you however I want. That being said, I know you just turned eighteen and are ready for the next chapter in your life. Just know that in my eyes, you’re still that little boy who was afraid of monsters under his bed, so it’s taking me a while to adjust to the new normal.”
It’s hard for me to accept that my brother is on the edge of adulthood. I can’t believe we actually made it here in one piece. Me trying to be the best guardian for Will while I still had my own growing to do surely wasn’t child’s play, but we’re so close to the finish line that I can taste it. Still, I don’t want to think about him leaving our little town behind. Not yet. I’ve known that he would leave for months, ever since his scholarship offers and acceptance letters started coming in, but it still makes me sad after everything we’ve experienced together since our parents passed away.
Reading my body language, my brother’s face softens. “Please promise me that once I’m off in Alabama, you won’t be sitting here alone, missing me. Live a little, sis.”
“I’ll try my best,” I mumble with a shrug.
“That’s all I’m asking.”
