Knowing Him

Chapter 23

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This year I wanted my brother to have a fantastic birthday and that he absolutely did. He cut the cake at exactly at 7 in the evening in the midst of his friends, my friends and some of the closest neighbors and of course my mom. He cheered and clapped and shouted in excitement that he had celebrated among his friends after three long years. Nick's friends brought gifts for him which included a cute hand drawing of their gang in the school and some handmade chocolates which their mothers had made them.

After all that, it was series of actions: dinner, dancing, jumping, talking and singing karaoke and some more dancing. Finally at ten, each child was exhausted and ready to collapse where they stood. My mom had talked with their parents that they could sleep in our house so mom ushered the sleepy kids to the temporarily arranged guest bed room and made them all sleep there with Nick among the kids and they soon passed out as soon as they hit the bed.

Mom, Alex, Nat, Dave and I took up the tedious task of cleaning everything so it took another one hour to do all that. By the time the last popped balloon was picked up, my mother was also ready to pass out. So she excused herself to her room warning us all to sleep as soon as possible.

Typical thing to say for mothers.

But we know we couldn't that. We had so much to discuss. We sat in the living room on the floor in a circle at the fire place and gazed at the flickering flames in silence for two minutes. Sure we enjoyed, we danced but there was the thing that hung at the back of our heads and that is about Nat, our dearest friend.

Dave was the first to speak. "How long are we going to stare at the fire" he asked turning to face us.

He continued. "And Nat has something to tell us."

Nat smiled. It seemed unhappy. "Yes. I have decided what I wanted to do after I graduate."

Alex and I perked up on hearing that. We both were busy preparing Nick's birthday preparations so Dave had been with her all this time. Now that Nat's mom unceremoniously threw her out, she was in a huge dilemma what to do with the college and all

Nat continued. "I am going to attend community college."

There was questionable silence among us which implored Nat to talk further.

"This morning my brother called me. Somehow he got to know that I was kicked out of my home and suddenly was very concerned for me. He said that I was better off without that home rather than living in a caged house." – she took a long breath – "He also said that he is ready to help me being him as my brother and after talking with him for a long time catching up on all the things, I finally decided to attend a community college in our town with the aid of my brother." Nat concluded and looked down into her lap.

Beyond shocked, I looked at Dave and by the look on his face, I guaranteed that he was not happy with the decision and of course, neither are we. At the start of this month, we all decided to attend the same university which is fairly a four-hour distance from our town; so on hearing that Nat will not attend would surely be a blow to us. I couldn't expect the Dave's reaction to it.

I stood up and sat beside Nat and side hugged her. "Are you sure?" I asked still not able to digest the fact she told.

"Yes."

"Why is your brother helping you now?" I couldn't help but ask.

Her smile was forced. "My brother loves me, Amy. But due to the tensions in our house, he became elusive. Before he had gone out from the house, he asked me to come with him and said that he would be my guardian and all but I refused. How can I? I thought I could get my mom's love and now I clearly failed in it. But my brother, he clearly wanted me to have a life I wanted and I want to have a good relation with my brother so I accepted his help."