Time To Waste

Chapter 19: Distrust

Her brother Brian took a slow sip from his beer, licked foam from his lips, and then frowned. He ran a hand slowly over his stubbled jaw, then gaped at her. "So, you have something you want to tell me that you're afraid to tell me, because.....?"

His baby sister crossed her arms on the table top and sighed. She would go absolutely looney tunes if she didn't confide in someone soon, and she felt like he was literally her only option. Surely, trying to tell any of this to her mother would kill the poor woman, so she settled for her liberal-minded big brother. "You have to promise me that you are not going to freak out, and that what I tell you stays between you and I." 

Brian nodded. "Sure."

Jenna rolled her eyes. She didn't want flippancy, she wanted seriousness; this was hugely serious. "No, Bri, I am serious. No telling Angie. And when I finish telling you everything, I want you to promise me that you're not going to start trouble with Chris."

"What did he do?" Her brother raised an eyebrow and set his beer glass on the table between them. Her statement had called for his typical overreaction: sitting up straighter and looking like he was poised for a kill.

"I actually don't know that he did anything," she lowered her voice, glancing around the empty outdoor patio of her favorite local bar and grill. No one was ever around at 2PM on a Tuesday, so she tried to relax into the confession she needed to speak out loud. "Please just let me talk, don't interrupt me, but when I'm done, don't stir up shit for me, okay?"

Brian nodded and then grinned. "If you're not drinking that beer, I'm having it. I can sense that I'm going to need it!"

She laughed nervously and shoved her untouched glass towards him. She had arrived to find that he'd ordered the usual and, yeah, she couldn't drink that. "Go for it," she grinned weakly. "So, do you remember three months back when Chris and I celebrated our one-month anniversary?"

"He took you to a swanky hotel." Her brother offered this with a mouth full of French fries, his food very much falling into the category of "see-food" as he chomped loudly with his mouth hanging wide open. He was busy pouring copious amounts of ketchup onto the basket of fries and didn't even bother to look up at her.

She winced at the serving of ketchup with a few drowned fries now floating in it, and her stomach rolled. "Yeah, they played a show that night. We stayed at the hotel, and they had an acoustic radio gig the next night."

"Sure," Brian shrugged. "What of it?"

Jenna took a deep breath and decided to dive right in, no holds barred, all facts laid bare on the greasy restaurant table. "Benjamin was in town that night, and I saw him at the club we went to after the show. I spoke with him very briefly, he wished me well, and then Chris and I went back to our hotel room."

Brian shrugged again. "This is the part where I want to remind you that, as much as I love you, I am your brother, and I do not want to hear about Christopher's penis anywhere near your vagina. That is, I assume he has a penis, but I don't want to know about that, either!"