Page 80 of Jace 4Ever
“Wha the fu you want?” Garbled and stoned, just like I thought he would be.
“I’m home.”
“The fu you been?”
The door was unlocked, so I pushed it open, knowing that a swirl of weed would flood the hall where we were. “I told you I was going to LA for the week. I left you food.”
“Yah, that wasn’t enough food,” he said and took a deep inhale on the blunt. “What was that, like four days?”
“Two weeks, asshole.”
“No way, man.” His laugh was cruel. “You owe me for all the takeout I had to buy.”
“Stop smoking so much goddamn weed. You won’t eat two weeks of food in four days. I don’t owe you any money because you decided to plow through all the food.”
Jerrod stood and walked toward me. “You do, you little shit. You know you do. I’ll take it out of your ass if you don’t hand it over. And you know that I will literally take it out of your ass.”
Nelson stepped up behind me. “Stand down, Jerrod.”
“Holy fuck, Nelson Powers.”
My brother staggered backward and tripped back on to the bed, landing on his ass. I followed him, shaking my head.
“Jerrod, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Nelson. Nelson, this is my brother, Jerrod.”
“What?” Jerrod’s gaze flipped back and forth between me and Nelson several times. He looked at the joint in his hand and back again. “Yourboyfriend.”
“Yeah, my boyfriend,” I said. “I told you I was going to LA with my boyfriend and I told you that I had two weeks’ worth of food in the fridge.” I sighed and shook my head. “Damn it, Jerrod, I’m so tired of floating you along. Why can’t you just figure your stuff out and stop this? I don’t want to walk away from you, but I can’t handle this anymore.”
“You’re fucking Nelson Powers?”
Here we went, with his brain stuck instupidgear. “I’m dating Nelson. We’re in a relationship. Stop making everything crude.”
“Man, what’s his take home?”
I threw my hands up. “Why do I bother.” Turning, I walked out of the room to the door across the way to my bedroom. I pulled out my key and slipped it in the knob.
The door rattled oddly as I turned the key.
“That’s not good,” Nelson whispered.
“No.” I withdrew the key and stuck it in the deadbolt. It spun around in the lock freely, with no catch or resistance at all. “Shit.”
He slipped his hand onto my shoulder and nodded for me open the door.
“Dude, are you really fucking my brother?” Jerrod appeared in the door.
“Shut up, Jerrod.” My words were sharp, but I was tired of him getting stuck in stupid. “Just shut up. Did you break into my room?”
“No, man.” He shook his head violently. “None of us could kick that thing in.”
“Did you lock the door?”
“When?”
“At all! Ever! Jerrod, I’ve told you so many times that you have to lock the door at night. It should be locked all the time. Awake or asleep! You don’t exactly have the best, most upstanding friends. You let them steal from me all the time. So, it was either you and your friends, or someone got into this apartment.”
“Nah, man. I locked the door. I think.”
