A Family Podcast (english)

Chapter 41

Jackson

"Coulder, you alright?" Thea stared at our brother as we dropped Coulder off at his school. He had slept through the morning, but he still looked pretty worn out.

Coulder glanced at me, and I lightly shook my head. I had already told him this morning that he must not tell anyone about the drugs under any circumstances. The story was even pretty far-fetched for us, and I didn't want to end up with a lifetime of grounded punishment.

"I'm just tired," Coulder finally said, and I sighed. He wasn't good at keeping secrets to himself. For the next few days, I definitely had to keep him away from Taylor if I wanted to survive this.

We continued walking, and Thea glanced back at Coulder with concern before glaring at me. 

"Something's not right with Coulder. And I think—"

"He's just tired," I interrupted her, hoping she would drop the subject.

"And I think..." Thea repeated, crossing her arms. "... that you know exactly what's going on."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I picked up my pace a bit. It was time to get to school, where I could avoid her better.

"Tell me!" Thea matched my pace.

"Coulder messed up. I have nothing to do with it, but I promised him not to say anything," I explained, knowing that she would keep bothering me if I didn't.

Thea pondered for a moment. "How bad is it?" she asked finally.

Pretty bad, I thought, but instead, I shook my head.

"It's not a big deal," I said as convincingly as possible. Thea scrutinized me suspiciously before reluctantly giving in.

"If you say so."

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Als we arrived at school, Thea went to join Risa, and I headed to the lockers to grab my books.

Lennon approached me with a questioning look.

"I didn't know your sister was dating Mason," Lennon leaned against the locker beside mine. "But you've told her that guy's an asshole, right?"

I snorted as I packed my math book. "Thea is definitely not dating Mason."

Jerome paused for a moment, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I couldn't imagine that either, but you know... there's this photo, and I-"

"What photo?" I closed my locker and looked at Lennon curiously. I had no idea what he was talking about. Thea had nothing to do with Mason, and I was pretty sure that hadn't changed in the past few days.

Lennon tapped on his phone before handing it to me. I stared silently at the photo.

"That's not Thea," I finally said, annoyed, and handed the phone back to him.

"But it looks a lot like her," Lennon said cautiously. "It's probably just a misunderstanding. Maybe they're not really together."

I shook my head as I made my way to the classroom.

"You can't even see her face," I stubbornly retorted, although I had to admit that the girl in the photo looked very similar to my sister. I recognized the dress, one of Thea's favorites. The hair and the figure matched as well, but still, I knew my sister, and she would never do something like that.

Lennon knew me well enough not to say anything more and silently walked beside me.

Once we reached the classroom, I searched for my sister and pulled her aside, gripping her arm.