Time To Live

Chapter 02: Brother

For all Jenna and Angela knew, he was at a work conference for the day, away from his office and unable to field many phone calls. In reality, he had driven the six arduous hours out of state to track down his sister's wretched ex-boyfriend and horrible bandmates, because he had questions and he expected answers. There was no sense in putting his little sister through any of this mess – worse yet, his nephew – so here he was, leaning against a brick building downtown and watching the other man nervously smoke a cigarette.

Ricky stood with his right foot pressed against the brick wall, fidgeting with his half-smoked cigarette. "Look, Brian, I'm not a fucking idiot and I know why you're here."

"Fair enough," Brian countered, taking a drag off his own cigarette. "I won't bullshit you or beat around the bush then. Jen says that you've stayed her friend through all of this."

Ricky nodded, his eyes softening. "She deserved better than all of this, man. She's a good girl, a nice girl."

Brian emphatically agreed with this man. "She doesn't seem to want to know what happened to her anymore."

"I think she gave up on that a long time ago," Ricky confessed with a frown. "We tried. We tried to find out but every story she got, every story I got, none of them fucking matched. I live with these guys every fucking day of the year, and I was so mad, so pissed off and bitter for so long. How could they all lie? To me, for fuck's sake! I expected them to lie to her, but to me? It left a pall on the band for me for . . . Well, it still does on some days."

Brian knew all too well about band loyalties, no matter how fucked up and twisted they might be. He nodded. "I want to know, though. She says she can let it go, she says she's moved on, but I fucking have to know."

The other man dropped his cigarette, stamped his booted foot on the burning ashes and turned to look Brian in the eyes. "Not saying that you shouldn't get an answer, but why? Who is going to help now? Jen is gone, Chris moved on. I want the answer just as badly as you do, man – possibly more because you know I was there, I was involved in this mess. But why now?"

Brian bowed his head with a sad smile. "I have my own family and I can't watch over her anymore. I need to know that the people in her life now weren't involved in this mess; that she's safe. Most of all, I have to know that if my nephew is around these people –"

"That he is safe," Ricky winced, thinking of little Christian that he'd never even met. Yet. He hoped that would change tomorrow.

Brian nodded. "I have to take care of my own family now, man, but I can't step aside knowing that she's in danger. I feel like until this is resolved, I will always wonder who drugged her that night and where they are today. Until there's a sense of resolution, I view everyone involved in this band as a liar."

Ricky nodded. "Maybe I should take that personally, but I completely understand. What can I do to help?"

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