Splinters: Part One

Part One | 46

I scoffed. "I won't lose my sister to him."

She shrugged. "You never know. The two of you have gotten into a number of arguments regarding you and Collie."

"That's because Ursanne never accepted me and Collie."

"Will you accept Ursanne and Andrew?"

"Of course not!

She gave me a knowing look, and I had to resist the urge to yell at her. And then I felt guilty at that. Sighing in frustration, I dropped my head in my hands.

"I don't want her to date Andrew, Melissa. I don't."

"That's not your choice, Brayden."

"But that's not fair! I left Collie for Ursanne! Why won't she do the same for me?"

My aunt watched me sadly. And I didn't want that. I didn't want her sympathy. In all honesty, I wanted her to go force Ursanne to break up with him. But Melissa won't do that. She'll never do that. So I angrily stomped out of the room and went to go take a shower.

...

After fixing myself up, I went to look for Melissa, but only found Greg in his office sending emails.

"Hey, Greg," I said.

"Sup, Braydo," he smiled, glancing back at me, but I could tell he knew very well about my talk with Melissa.

"Can I go hang out with Collie?" I asked.

He spun around to face me. "Can you two spend at least twelve hours away from each other?"

I didn't laugh, but instead shrugged solemnly.

He slapped his legs. "Tell you what," he began, logging out of his email. He stood up and leant against his desk. "We haven't played any basketball lately and I sure want to see you do try outs." Yeah right. "Why don't we go play a bit, and if you still want to go see Collie, I'll drop you off."

I sighed. "Okay."

He smiled in victory. "Go get your shoes on."

After getting ready for the Rec Center specifically, Greg reminded the girls that Ursanne was in charge in the living room. She and I kept eye contact for about three long seconds before I angrily went to the car.

"Where's Melissa?" I inquired bitterly as Greg and I buckled our seat belts.

"Eda had another lip reading appointment."

I frowned, realizing I hadn't taken into account of Eda's hearing problems. Ridding my mind of my issue with Ursa, I asked Greg a serious question.

"Is Edaline going to be deaf? Like, completely?"

Greg glanced at me, the corners of his forehead fell and his eyes blinked slowly. He thought hard of his answer.

"It seems to look that way, Braydo." My stomach fell. "But all that means is that we may need to try a cochlear implant which your mother doesn't seem very keen on. And if that doesn't work, then I guess the family's learning a new language." His voice was joking, but neither of us laughed.

"Does she know?"

"I'm sure she does," he admitted. "They're her ears."

"Why is she going deaf?"

"It's hard to say, Brayden."

I could tell it was hard for him to talk about it by the tone of his voice. I felt bad bringing it up, but it had been something I was curious about ever since I heard them talking to Edaline about it in the kitchen. But from what I remember and Greg's words, Melissa didn't want to do the implant.