Thick and Thin | NaNoWriMo2016 |

| 3. Owen |

"Colin's missing."

"What?" I whispered, softly closing the door to Maddie's room. "What do you mean he's missing?" The words were not processing through my head fast enough.

"He's gone, Evan. I haven't seen him for a week, maybe two." I could hear Owen's voice become more distraught. The sounds of a bottle hitting a surface with a harsh thud could be heard in the background; and after a few seconds the sound of a drink being poured. He was drinking.

Owen Murdoch was my eldest brother. Since being away at college I had little time to catch up with him, mainly because I didn't want to. My three brothers were a mess, the one more inconvenient as the next. In a way, I didn't want there lives to have an affect on mine. I was in a good place and I wanted it to stay that way.

"Alright, calm down." I murmured, trying to be as quiet as possible. "You know how he is, he goes missing all of the time."

"Not like this. Not for this long." It wasn't like Owen to get worried over nothing, mainly because he was too drunk to care. "Declan's out looking for him. I've been staying here just in case he calls or shows up."

"I'm sure he's fine, Owen." I assured. My older brother's affairs were not my favorite subjects to meddle in.

"He was very... confused, the last time I saw him." Owen said, I could hear the faint sounds as he took another swig.

"He's using again?" There was silence as I gathered my thoughts. Colin, was only a few years older than I was, and the last time I spoke to him he was clean; that was almost two years ago. I often forget that my older brother's lives go on, while I better my own.

"Has he called you? Maybe, shown up?" Owen asked.

"Why would he come here?" The very idea was dumb, but not too far fetched.

"I don't know. I'm just running out of options, Evan." Owen's desperation was sad to hear, as his voice grew more antsy as the time passed.

"Why don't you call the police, file a missing persons report?" Even I knew that was not an option. People on the streets, people in Colin's condition, went missing all of the time; the cops did shit to help. They were a lost cause.

"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't so worried." Owen's words began to slur and I knew the alcohol was starting to go to his head.

"No," I was quick to shut his proposition down, I knew what he was asking. I was not about to put my plans on hold just to get sucked right back into the life I wanted to leave behind. "Absolutely not."

"Only for a few days, I swear." Owen began, his raspy voice trailing off. "I don't want to have a dead brother before Christmas."

I knew he would pull that card, somehow he knew that death was my only weakness when it came to my brothers. I loved my brothers, don't get me wrong, but when they're as unstable as they come you should know when to cut negative people out of your life, in order for you to have your own.

"Baby?" I heard a soft voice from the doorway and I looked up to see Maddie standing in the hallway to her bedroom, her sheets wrapped around her. I couldn't go. I knew in that moment this was my life now, Maddie was my life. I was not about to throw it all away to go on some mission to find my doped up brother, not a chance. "Who's on the phone?"

"Who's that?" I heard my brother interrupt, but I quickly ignored him. Covering the phone with my hand I looked to Maddie, "No one baby, go back to bed." I hadn't exactly mentioned my brothers to Maddie before, there was never a good time.