Page 4 of Mating of Convenience
“Yeah? You did? Did they run tests on her? Were you there for her?” I didn’t like to think of my little sister all alone in the hospital.
“I was,” my dad insisted. “Kendra is going to be fine, okay? She’s a big girl now. You don’t have to take care of your siblings anymore, Raph. I got this, okay?”
I wasn’t so sure about that. “You just said you can’t clear your debt. How bad is it?”
“Well, we might be looking for another place to live,” he admitted.
“No! You can’t sell the house!” It was the house where we’d lived withMom.He couldn’t sell it!
“We’re not talking about selling, son. The bank is going to take it.”
“No!” God, this couldn’t be happening. I knew I shouldn’t have left Oceanport. “You promised me things were going to be okay, Dad! They’re not okay!”
“Sometimes that’s just the way life goes.”
“Seriously? And what are you going to do when Kendra gets sick again and you don’t have another house to re-mortgage?”
“Don’t freak, Raph.”
“I’m not freaking!” But even as I said that, I threw the phone into a corner where it landed on the ground with a dull thud.Shit.I couldn’t go breaking my things.Deep breaths, Raph. You can figure this out.I could still hear the tinny sound of my dad’s voice coming out of the phone’s speaker, so it probably wasn’t broken, right?
Good, because I had someone else to call.
“Sorry, I’m gonna have to call you back,” I said into the phone as I picked it up and ended the call. Since the phone seemed fine, I wasted no time in punching in another number.
My friend took a little longer to respond than my dad had, and when he finally did, I rolled over him before he could even say hi. “I’m coming to Oceanport.”
“What are you talking about?” Conner had been one of my closest friends ever since we roomed together in college, and usually he wasn’t slow on the uptake, but right now, I wanted him to be a little quicker.
“My dad’s totally ruining everything.”
“Slow down. I still don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re coming to visit?”
“I might be staying for a while.”
“Is everything okay?”
“My dad is losing the house, and Kendra was sick again. Did you know about that?”
“No, I didn’t. I’m sorry, Raph. How bad is it?”
“I don’t know the details, I just… I need to check on everything in person. Can I crash at your place for a couple of weeks?” I could have slept on the couch in my dad’s house--my old room was now my brother’s--but I preferred not to be around my dad 24/7 if I could help it. We drove each other crazy.
“Sure you can. What about your job, though?”
Fuck,I hadn’t thought about my job at all. “I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.” I dragged my hand down my face. None of this mattered now. Everything I had in Boston, I could get backafterI’d made sure that my siblings still had a roof over their heads by the end of the summer.
“If you’re staying longer, maybe I can hook you up with a job for while you’re here.”
“Really? That would be awesome. Thanks, man.”
“We desperately need people at the shelter. If you can sort files, you’re basically hired.”
Sorting files. Yay. Butsomeonein my family needed to work, and I would take any money that I could earn in whatever way possible. I’d rather have gone on tattooing people, but let’s be real, nobody got tattoos in Oceanport. Besides, I was going to be back in Boston soon. “I really owe you,” I told my friend honestly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Conner said.
I thanked him again and ended the call, and then I dragged my suitcase out from under my bed and wiped the thick layers of dust off it. I hadn’t been home in far too fucking long. Time to change that.
