Climax King

•0.8•

After a lengthy interrogation driven by probably the best younger brother, we were finally released from Rosalind's.

I had gone up front to pay for the bill while Finn talked effortlessly with my brother. As U glance over, I seen a scorched look of pure embarrassment on Ash's features. That, does not sit well with me.

Once the cashier hands me my card back, I rush to help my brother but I can't help but overhear a small bit of the conversation taking place between Finn and the small boy.

"I know the system better than anyone. I know the feeling of disgrace, disappointment, the feeling of a fist, cigarette buds, but Ash, if you need to talk, and I'm not talking shitty therapy sessions, you ask Mena for my number. If something is ever bothering you, the past or future and you can't talk to your sister, talk to me. Okay, buddy?"

Ash nods, a couple tears trickling down his Irish little cheeks. The sight and sound of this very moment was drawing me into tears myself, but I needed to play it nonchalant. It wasn't my place to ask Finn and any theories that came up in the heat of the moment, I push aside. Surely they were wrong.

"Ready?" I ask, taking cautious steps as Ash wipes away his remaining tears.

The boy nods, standing up just as Finn does. The unexpected happens next as Finn pulls my little brother into a tight hug, and the boy returns it. It was a sight that felt all too personal between the two like a bond that I'd never been able to create for us. But it was probably better this way. Ash would need someone like Finn. As long as he doesn't pick up too many qualities that is.

•———•

After my short talk with Ash, I felt achieved. He was truly a magnificent kid who had a bright future ahead of himself. Especially with the Grace sisters looking out for him.

By the end of my shift most of Rosalind's had cleared out except for the occassional night shifter who was usually just a trucker taking his pit stop in our small town.

"Heading out," I call into Freddie's office. She was older than she looked which was the beauty of her restaurant and herself. But she always said working late makes for a better night sleep. Although I personally never understood her philosophy.

"It's an hour past your clock out, Finn. I'm not paying you overtime," she threatens although I know perfectly well she will. It was her nature to give someone what they earned, but she knew why I truly stayed. It was the perks of being the child she never had.

"Then don't. The coffee needed refilled for night squanderers, tables needed wiped down, kitchen needed mopped, bathrooms needed cleaned, and I'm just making up for the hour I took break." I drug as though it was nothing which in my book, it wasn't. There was no doubt I was the hardest working member on the team with of course the exception of Freddie who worked endlessly for days. But Rosalind's was my own safe haven over the years, it gave me pride in working hard for myself and not living off the money that I never earned. There was no point.

"Philomena Grace has an adorable brother," she says, her voice approving and both curious. I was like Casper when it came to Freddie. She could see through me better than I could. I suppose it's due to the days she's always been there for me through thick and thin.

"He really is," I smile proudly. "He deserves to have a sister like Mena." I state, pulling out the chair positioned in front of her desk because U already knew I was here to practically stay.

She nods, her hands folding on her desk. "She's a keeper."

I find myself nodding while getting lost in her green eyes that are brighter than anything I'd ever seen. The way her presence makes a room light up is just as admiring and curiously astonishing. It was like the Sugar Plum Farris took flight in their magnificent dance to Tchaikovsky's soft rhythm.