I Stand Before You (Judge Me Not #2)(98)

“What are you protecting her from?” I carefully ask.

“Her stepdad, Paul,” my brother quietly responds. “When I’m there he never says anything to Cassie. He keeps his f*cking sick mouth shut.”

Concerned, I try to get more out of Will, but as always he clams up and changes the subject.

“Hey, bro, can you loan me some more money?” he abruptly asks, catching me off guard.

Fuck.

He asks for only fifty dollars, so I give in.

This all happens on a Monday.

Two days later, Wednesday, late afternoon, I am walking into my house after work and my cell buzzes.

I glance down to the phone in my hand. It’s my mom calling. I press answer and say, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Chase,” Mom begins on an exhaled breath. “Sorry to bother you, honey, but I think we have a problem.”

We? Okay. “And what would that be?” I cautiously venture.

Mom sighs. “Sweetie, have you been giving money to Will?”

There’s no reason not to be honest, so I admit I have.

Another long sigh and a loud huff, I guess for good measure. She’s obviously not pleased with my answer.

“Don’t give him anymore, okay?” Mom doesn’t give me a chance to respond, she simply adds, “Your brother used that money to buy drugs, Chase.”

I swallow, hard. The last thing I’d ever purposely do is enable my little brother. But I guess I did exactly that by agreeing to his requests for cash without asking questions. I had a feeling, of course, but still. Fuck. I guess I was hoping for the best, hoping Will was on the up-and-up. Damn, I should have told the kid no. I don’t want Will going down the same path I so unwisely followed.

“What did he buy?” I hesitantly ask.

“Weed,” Mom says. “I went through his room earlier today when he was out and found his stash.”

I am not thrilled to hear this, but I breathe a sigh of relief that she didn’t find anything hardcore, like coke, meth, or motherf*cking heroin. Mom, however, is far less calm than I. She’s going off like she just discovered a meth lab in Will’s bedroom.

I try to put things in perspective for her. “He’s fifteen, Mom. He’s bound to experiment.”

“Ha,” she snaps, “look where experimenting got you.” She’s got me there.

“Did you punish him, then?” I ask.

“You bet your ass I did. He’s grounded from seeing any of his friends for the next week. And that includes that girl…his girlfriend…whatever.”

This last is said dismissively and with disdain, like the idea of Will having a girlfriend is ridiculous. I imagine Abby rolling her eyes. She still thinks of my brother as a little tiny kid. That’s part of the problem, even I can see that. From talking to Will these past few weeks it’s become obvious part of his bad behavior, part of his acting out, is due to our mother. She treats my brother like a little boy, but yet she’s severely lax on setting boundaries, if she even bothers at all. Like the sleeping over thing, she probably doesn’t suspect for a minute that my brother and his girl are having sex. After all, she so willingly assumes that Cassie’s-mother is home when those two are together. She’s so out of touch. Maybe Mom has this attitude because Will used to be so clumsy and awkward. I don’t know. But what I do know is her acting as if Will is still a small child is only bound to make things worse. And not acknowledging that he’s dating a girl who is very important to him will definitely backfire on Abby.

I try to rectify this now, before it becomes a much bigger problem, as it inevitably will. “Mom,” I begin carefully, “her name is Cassie.”

“Who?” Mom sounds all clueless and distracted, but I know her avoidance game.

This woman exasperates me, but I somehow stay calm. “His girlfriend, Mom. Her name is Cassie. Jesus, don’t you pay attention to anything?”

“Hey,” my mother warns.

Okay, that last was maybe a little harsh, but come on.

“I don’t need shit from you too, Chase,” she continues. “Why don’t you try dealing with Will for a while? You think it’s so easy, don’t you?”

I stay quiet and just let Mom vent. She’s really angry at Will, but it’s better if she takes it out on me. What she just said gives me an idea though. Maybe Will can visit me here in Ohio, get away from Vegas for a while. Not for the whole summer, Mom’s not getting away with that shit, but a few days stay would be nice. Will’s been saying he’d like to visit soon. He’s even expressed interest in meeting Kay. I told him she liked his comic book drawings, and he said she sounded “cool.”

I throw my suggestion out to my mother and she says, “I don’t know, Chase. Wouldn’t letting him go on vacation be more like a reward? The kid’s supposed to be grounded.”

“Aw, come on. Don’t you really just want him away from his friends for a few days? If he’s here in Ohio he won’t be sneaking out to go be with them. Plus, I really want to see him. We’ve been getting along great lately.”

Surprisingly, with no additional fuss, Mom agrees to let Will come to Ohio. I think her capitulation is partly because she’s truly happy her boys are back on speaking terms, but I also know part of her hopes I’ll talk to my brother about the weed. I plan to, I’ll set him straight before he moves on to something harder, which—with our genetics—he inevitably will.