Page 34 of The Tomorrows After You
He awkwardly shuffled to the table and sat down, his back ramrod straight with his palms resting on his thighs. He reached for his fork, but Katie rested a hand on his arm.
“We say grace, first, Brennan.”His eyes went wide, and his face paled. A slight shiver went down my back, but Nicolette broke our attention with a quick snort before exiting the room. I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping she’d stay in her room until Katie left.“Do either of you want to say grace?”She looked between the two of us but my eyes were locked on Brennan’s quickly paling expression.“Okay, I’ll do it. Bless us, oh, Lord, for these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from the bounty of Christ, our Lord, Amen.”
I peeked up from my bowed head at Brennan, who had lost more color and began to twitch. His eyes were big and unfixed on seeing something that wasn’t there above my head. I tried to catch his attention while Katie raised her head and did the cross over her body, but he didn’t look at me.
Katie started up small talk about the church services that day, taking up most of the space in the dining room.
“How did it go at the Center this morning? I’m so glad they could reassign you so quickly to finish up those community hours.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Katie. I was fine doing grounds maintenance.”
“Oh, it wasn’t a problem.”She waved but didn’t understand my tone. “Plus, the Center is so much morevisible.” She placed her hand on my arm and patted it with a sheepish grin.
I waited to feel the same electricity that I had when Nicolette’s hand brushed mine. I tried to manufacture it in my head, picture what it would be like. But it was hard to suppress the irritation I still harbored for having her meddle with my community service in the first place.
“Brennan, aren’t you hungry?”She enunciated each word, and her voice turned an octave higher like it always did when she spoke to him.
His eyes swiveled to her.“Not hungry. I’m not hungry. Not hungry!”I held my breath and tried to give him a reassuring look, but he pushed the plate of food away.
She frowned and examined him like her sensibilities had been offended by his outburst.
At the same moment, Nicolette walked back into the kitchen, and I wanted to yell. She took her time rinsing the bowl. Katie glared daggers into her head and suddenly my lonely double-wide felt very small.
“Grace! Not hungry, Grace!”My heart clenched at the sound of our mother’s name. He pushed the food further away. A meatball fell off the side, and I raked my hands down my face. Katie moved to clean it up. I put a hand on her arm and shook my head. It wasn’t going to help.
“Hey, Brennan, weren’t you gonna show me those pictures fromyourgraduation party?”Nicolette called from the kitchen. She was leaning over, cleavage spilling from her shirt as she bit into a Twizzler. The thickening tension in my neck prevented me from checking her out. I didn’t want Katie to see Brennan’s forthcoming freak out.
But to my surprise, it didn’t come. At Nicolette’s words, Brennan stood up, took his plate, and brought it to the trash, dumping the entire dinner, plate included, into the garbage. The ceramic shattered and Katie startled, a hand fluttering to his chest.
Brennan disappeared with Nicolette around the corner and the desk drawers began to shuffle. Katie looked at me like I owed her an explanation. I shoved another spoonful of ziti into my mouth to prevent from having to answer.
“Is he always like that?”she whispered. I shrugged, eager for this night to be over.
After a few more minutes of eating in silence, we cleaned up the table. I walked into the kitchen to find Nicolette spread out on the couch, her ankles crossed on Brennan’s lap. She cackled at the photos she shuffled in her hands. She looked relaxed and, more importantly,helooked relaxed, and I tried to suppress the bubbling jealousy at how her smile touched her eyes when she was around him.
Katie cleared her throat, entering the living room with a tray of cookies.
“Are you feeling better, Brennan?”she said again with her voice in that singsong tone.
Nicolette’s eyes narrowed, and she scowled at Katie.“Why are you talking like that?”I sucked in a breath, stifling a laugh while trying to stifle my nervous energy. The tension rose with the pressure.
Katie looked at her, taken back.“Excuse me? Like what?”
“Your voice.”Nicolette snorted, pushing Brennan’s shoulder with her bare foot.“He’s socially awkward, Katie. He’s not a slow adult hard of hearing.”
Katie gasped, a tiny hand flew to her mouth. She glared at me with accusation before dropping the plate of cookies on the table, grabbing her bag, and storming out the door. Nicolette had an amused look on her face, and I wanted to smack it off her.
I followed Katie, the screen door almost hitting me in the face.
“Katie, wait!”
She spun around, biting back tears.
“All I do is try to help, Riot! That’s all I want to do for you! And you invite this woman to live with you and it ruins everything!”She threw her hands up.“And what is wrong with your brother, where did he learn those table manners?”I opened my mouth to defend him, but it wasn’t the time. She didn’t understand, and she wasn’t going to.
“I’m… sorry,”I exasperated, throwing my hands up.
She took a step toward me.“Get your priorities straight, Riot.”Her voice was softer but still stern. With one last withering look, she got in her car and sped off.
