Brother of Mine

Ch. 3

As soon as Hugh was out of the shower, I went in. I took a quick shower (or should I say, finished a quick shower,) and got dressed. I came out into the living room, where I witnessed Julia and David sitting on the couch, watching a homemade video of David’s eighth birthday party on the television.

If I recall, that was the birthday where I accidentally sat on top of David’s cake. And it was taped on video, but David refused to delete it. So I made sure David never showed that video to anyone, especially not Julia. She wasn’t at the party because she and her parents were out of town, of which I was eternally grateful. Julia would never let me live that down, David still hasn’t.

Before that part could cross the screen, I approached the two. “Where’s Hugh?” I asked.

“Oh, he’s gone out to get himself some more alcohol. Apparently he’s out.” David said, rolling his eyes.

Julia scrunched up her face. “Doesn’t he EVER stop drinking?”

“Not really. Even when he goes out with his girlfriend, he’s drunk.” David said with disgust.

“I don’t think the word “sober” is in his vocabulary.” I joked.

“I’m not sure there’s much words in his vocabulary at all.” Julia said with a smile.

David giggled. “You’ve got that right.”

We all laughed at our jokes. One of our favorite pastimes was mocking Hugh for a variety of reasons, when he’s not around, of course.

Anyway, after we had our fun, Julia turned to me. “So Kyle, are you finally ready to go?”

I grinned. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I then turned to David. “You’ll be going to Bobby’s house right?”

“Yup. Bobby got this new video game I want to try out.” David replied.

Bobby is David’s best friend. Going to Bobby’s house on the weekends was my way of keeping David away from Hugh, especially if I’m gone for a particular reason.

After I had made sure that David had went to the restroom, and I had grabbed my wallet, (I was not surprised that Hugh had stolen a twenty out of it, though I WAS  surprised that he didn’t take all the money,) we all piled into Julia’s car and drove off in the direction of Bobby’s house.

Bobby didn’t live too far, just down the block, around where Julia lives. We lived in sort of a suburban neighborhood, with lots of houses that were fairly new and some that are actually empty. We all go to the same school. There is only one school in the entire neighborhood, but it was separated into three big buildings: Elementary, Intermediate, and High School. It really helped to have David in the same school as me because one, I could always have him within walking distance in the event of an emergency, and two, I won’t have to travel to a whole ‘nother school to go get him, which allows me to be on time for my job. I work at a doughnut shop not too far from our school, and my manager absolutely adores David so she allows me to bring him to work with me. David enjoys it because he gets free doughnuts.

We drove down the main street until we turned a corner and came to Bobby’s street. Bobby’s family were really the only people that I trusted David alone with, besides, of course, Julia and her family. Bobby’s mom worked as a cop, his dad a lawyer. His older brother was a senior in collage majoring in criminal justice and his sister was a doctor, so I felt rather certain that David would be safe.

When we reached Bobby’s house, David opened the car door and climbed out. I rolled down my window so I could talk to David.

“Remember, David, I’ll be back at 9:00 tonight to pick you up, so be ready.”