The Only Brother Read Online Free PDF Page A

brother’s crap,’ I said.
    ‘That’s rubbish,’ Trevor bubbled. ‘You need to get a few in you, see some of the lasses coming over, have some fun, like.’
    ‘I have work to do. Just need a power outlet.’
    ‘Fine, fine, be all responsible,’ Trevor said ‘responsible’ like it would steal his beer money. ‘But at least you should come over. I’ll be there in ten.’
    He hung up, just as loud as he talked. Trevor’s not the brightest boy in the world, but he’s fun and a good mate in a fight. Finally getting all my stuff together, I worked my way down the stairs as quietly as possible.
    ‘Andrew!’ my dad yelled from the room. ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘Out!’ I yelled back, not even stopping. I heard him thumping down the stairs after me.
    ‘You can’t go out,’ he said, ‘we have too much stuff to do here. Your mother has twocompletions this week, and I have to fly out to Berlin. We need you to go through all this stuff.’
    ‘I have a lot of work to do, Dad. Trevor’s picking me up.’
    I stopped about one step from the bottom of the stairs, my father coming down fast. I backed my way down, wondering what my odds were of getting out without a fight.
    ‘That Trevor is a terrible influence! Dammit, Andrew, you have responsibilities now! We are expecting you to carry through…’
    Zero chance of getting out without a fight.
    ‘Expecting? Expecting?’ I screamed. ‘I’ve been doing everything left and right for years! I designed the prayer cards to save us some money! I stayed up late on school nights to get all that stuff listed on eBay so that we could pay my brother’s bills! I barely have time to study! And yes, I
do
have to work to get good grades, it’s not just a given!’
    ‘Andrew, do not use that tone…’
    ‘Every pay increase you got,’ I spat at him, ‘every commission Mum made, all went to paying Will’s medical bills and his big American university bill and his eating his way through a damn year of school because he was “sad”!’
    ‘Don’t you ever talk to me like that!’
    ‘My laptop, I earned! The tablet, I earned. I didn’t get to study abroad because of Will’s third operation! We spent three Christmases in a hospital where I got to hear everyone bitch about how I wasn’t being “festive”! I didn’t put him in there!’
    And now Mum decides to cry her way into the argument. I couldn’t understand her at first, but one word came out loud and clear.
    ‘Selfish.’
    Yes, I’m so damn selfish, getting barely anything for holidays because my brother needed something. So selfish that when I offered to help my brother on design classes because
I’m a damn artist and might know what I am doing
, he would still mouth off at me on the phone and in emails. So selfish that I had tried to help where I could, in the ways I could help best, but he and the olds hadn’t wanted any part of it.
    ‘I’m out of here, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ I made it to the door before a hand dug into my shoulder.
    Next thing I saw, Dad was flat on his back on the stairs, his nose swollen and bloody. I don’t even remember what happened, much. I must have given him a slap and done it right for once, since I didn’t hurt my hand. I don’t remember opening the front door, I don’t remember running down the driveway…
    But I was at the end of the drive in no time, running down the street in the direction I knew Trevor would have to comefrom his place. I caught him two streets early, throwing myself into his crappy Vauxhall Corsa with the dented side, and yelling at him to drive, drive, drive…
    Sitting in Trevor’s car, I couldn’t even focus on anything he was saying other than ‘like’ and ‘like’ and ‘like’ in that Geordie way. The past two months kept on pushing back into my head, two months of fights and shrinks and my life going to hell…

CHAPTER 5
How does that make you feel?
    Trevor was talking as he drove, the way he always does, nonstop. But my mind