Stepbrother Dearest(12)

“There’s no talking to Randy when it comes to Elec. I don’t understand it.”

“Neither do I.”



***



I’d decided I was going to talk to Elec that night and had been waiting for him to come home all day. The bike shop closed at six, so I’d expected him back by seven, but he never came home.

Unable to sleep, a sinking feeling came over me. Finally, around midnight, I heard footsteps and the doorknob to Elec’s room slowly turn.

At least, he was home.

About a minute later, came the sound of his door busting open.

“What the f*ck, Elec? You reek of alcohol,” I heard Randy yell.

I jumped up and plastered my ear to the wall.

“Hey Da-da,” Elec seemed to be slurring his words.

“Boy, you just continue to make me so damn proud. First, you start a fight and humiliate me in front of this entire community and now, you have the gall to set foot in my house tonight drunk? Well, you’re gonna wish you never came home.”

“Really? What are you gonna do? Hit me? That’s the one thing you haven’t done. I’m so ready for it.”

“You would love that, wouldn’t you? No. I’m not gonna hit you.”

“Right…you’re not going to hit me. You’re just gonna hate me…like you always have. Sometimes, I wish you’d just hit me once and for all then leave me the f*ck alone.”

“You’re a loser, Elec.”

“Tell me something you haven’t before.”

“Okay, then, I’ve got news for you. I’m not going to help you pay for college after all. You’re on your own. I’ve made the decision tonight. I’m taking the money I would have allotted you and giving it all to Greta.”

What? No!

Randy continued, “I’m not wasting my hard-earned money on a f*ck-up who wants to be a pansy writer. If you decide you want to have a real career some day, come talk to me. Until then, I’m not spending a dime on you.”

“You were never planning on paying for my college anyway, and you know it.”

“Why would I want to…for someone who’s done nothing but disappoint me from the day he was born?”

“That was the start, wasn’t it…the day I was born? I never even stood a f*cking chance, did I? Because Mami never aborted me like you asked her to.”

“That’s a f*cking lie. Did she tell you that?”

“Even if she hadn’t told me, I could have guessed it. Is that why you’ve been slowly killing me with your words my entire life to make up for it?”


My heart was breaking.

“Have I? Then why aren’t you dead yet, Elec?”

I gasped in horror. I couldn’t stand back and listen to this anymore. I ran into the next room and was even more horrified to find Elec sitting at the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. The smell of alcohol on him was pungent. His back was rising and falling with the heavy breaths that escaped him.

“Randy…stop! Please stop!” My stepfather stood there with his arms crossed, looking at me blankly. In that moment, the man standing in front of me might as well have been a total stranger. “He’s your son. Your son! I don’t care what you convince yourself he did to deserve it, there is nothing that could ever justify talking to your child like that.”

“Greta, you don’t understand our history…” Randy said.

“I don’t need to know anything to understand that the words that came out of your mouth tonight cut deeper than any weapon ever could. And I’m not gonna stand here and let you abuse him like that.”

Neither of them said anything. The room was silent. Elec’s breathing seemed to have calmed down and with that, so did mine.

I turned back to Randy. “You need to leave.”

“Greta—”

“Leave!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Randy shook his head and walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Elec who was still in the same position.

I ran to my room and returned with a bottle of water, putting it up to his mouth. “Drink this.”

He gulped it down in one sitting then crushed the plastic and threw it. I kneeled down to pull off his shoes.

He was slurring his words and muttering something I couldn’t understand.

I stood up and pulled his blankets down. “Lie down.”

He took his jacket off, throwing it clumsily onto the ground and crawled over to his pillow. He lay on his stomach and closed his eyes.

I sat at the side of the bed and was still shaken by what I’d walked in on. I felt so badly for Elec and was so ashamed of Randy. I knew I needed to talk to my mother tomorrow. How could she have not overheard and intervened tonight?

Elec’s breathing had evened out. He had fallen asleep. I ran my hand once through his silky black hair, relishing the ability to touch him freely without his knowing it. My index finger brushed lightly over the cut on his lip that he sustained from the fight with Bentley. It was right around his lip ring, and I shuddered when I realized that his lip must have torn.

The reason for the constant anger he exhibited was now clearer to me than ever, yet I still felt like I knew nothing about Elec’s life.

He looked so innocent in his sleep. Without the smirking or the glare of his eyes, it was easier to see past his harsh exterior in order to catch a glimpse of the boy hiding beneath—the same boy I now realized had been damaged by the man married to my mother.