Brothers

Chapter 5 - Custody

After the three of us ate, Kate's parent's came down the stairs. We had made pancakes so they both decided to have some too.

"Mm, good job on these Kate." Her dad said after his first bite.

She smiled. "Thanks."

"Boys, sit, we need to talk." He suddenly got serious. Ryan and I sat at the table and Kate sat too.

"What are you going to do about where you live?"

Ryan stared blankly at him. "Um, I don't know."

"How old are you?"

"19, sir." Ryan answered.

"That should be old enough by law to try to get custody of him." He pointed at me with his fork. "And we can help you out with the money and court."

"I hadn't even thought of that, thank you." Ryan said. He looked concerned.

"And the house? You'll probably have to move. With only the measly paying job you have now you won't be able to afford that place."

Ryan breathed harder and I could tell he was thinking everything over. I would probably have to get a job too. There was only 2 weeks left before school started back up from Summer break. Thankfully we wouldn't have to sign up for anything as Ryan wasn't going to school and I was just moving to my second year of high school. But, I began to question if I was going or if I would be forced to miss classes.

"Yes sir. Thank you so much. I should probably figure that out very soon."

"And you can always stay here if you need!" Kate offered as Ryan got up. He said thanks about a few million times and then took me hand and dragged me out the front door.

"What are we even going to do?" He sighed to himself.

"I don't know." I responded even though he hadn't been looking for any answer.

"Well, I guess the first thing to do would be to look for houses. Or, apartments actually."

"An apartment? We're going to live in an apartment?" I didn't like that idea.

"Have any better ideas?" He still had hold of my hand though we were outside and walking down the sidewalk to get back home. I wriggled my arm free and continued walking next to him. His stride was wide and he had a quick pace so every once in a while I would have to jog to keep up.

He was silent and I could tell he was thinking. "I don't know how to sell a house!" He exclaimed. "Oh my God this is bad, this is so bad." He stopped walking. "I can't do this. Maybe we should just let social security put us in a foster home."

I looked at him but he was staring elsewhere. "No! They'll split us up."

"So? It's better than me trying to do all of this!" He threw his arms out sideways.

"I'll help." I took a step closer.

"You can't do any of this. You don't know how and you're not even old enough in some cases."

"So? You're old enough and I can learn."

"I already told you, I can't do this!" He nearly yelled it and then continued walking even faster forward. I quickly caught up. I knew speaking would only anger him more so I shut up.

"Ryan." I stopped as he crossed a road.

"What?" He got to the opposite side and turned around.

"Um, you're going the wrong way." He glanced up at the street sign and then cursed to himself and came back. We made it home and Ryan was quick to pull out his phone and start making phone calls. I really hoped he wouldn't call social services.

I drew back to my room and listened to him talk. He spoke to someone about selling houses and seemed to get someone to help him with that. The next person he called he spoke to about getting a lawyer, probably to try to gain custody over me. Then he went silent for a long time. Eventually I got hungry and ventured downstairs.

"Hi." I said softly. He acknowledged I was there by looking at me but didn't say anything. "Are you hungry?" I asked.

"I guess."

"I can make you something."

"Sure, thanks." I decided sandwiches were good so I pulled out peanut butter and grape jelly, and some bread. Ryan was on the computer looking at apartments. I slid a plate to him and sat down next to him. "Can I help?" I offered.

"No."

"Why not?"

"You don't know what you're doing." He didn't take his eyes off the screen. I sighed and ended up taking my plate back to my room. It annoyed me how he wanted almost nothing to do with me. Sure, he made excuses on why I shouldn't be around him but it sure felt like he just didn't want me around.

I came down to throw my plate into the sink and I planned on going right back up when Ryan stopped me.

He grabbed my arm and I nearly fell back down the stairs. "What?"

"We're going to court on the 16th, next month."

"Oh, OK." He let go and I fled up the stairs. I didn't want to go to court.

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The rest of the month went pretty much the same. Ryan was there, but he was always tied up in something. We barely, talked as always.

We met our lawyer, who was a very quiet, evil looking man. I didn't like him but he at least was helping our case. He told us we had a pretty good chance of Ryan getting custody as long as I talked good about him.

I marked off my calendar one morning and flinched when I realised I had crossed off the 16th. Today was the day.