No Cops!

Chapter 14

Just after she had moved in here with Mrs. Nader as her landlord, Rob had paid her a quick visit. "You told me you were working as an intern upstate. Oh, I'm so stupid to trust you. Oh, what am I going to tell mom?"

She was bawling now. "Shh, it's ok, don't worry. Just tell mom that I'm fine. Will you do that for me? I'm staying with Tam and she's taking care of me."

She pulled away with her hands on her forehead. Staying with Tam? Her little brother still needed someone to take care of him.

She wiped her tears and composed herself. Where, oh where had she gone wrong in taking care of her brother? He was seven years younger than her; she would move heaven and earth for him. Had she been too lenient with him? Why, oh why, didn't he listen?

She tucked her hair behind her ears, rubbed a hand over her weary eyes and turned to him. "Who is Tam? How did she save your life? And more importantly, why did you need saving?"

Rob let out a sigh. "You should believe me Suzy, I wanted to get out of the gang for a while now. I-I..." He stopped and sighed. "Trust me, it's too hard."

She couldn't control her agitated tears. "Why did you get into it then? I told you I'll take care of you like I always have, didn't I? Why didn't you let me?"

"You know why! I'm sick of your babying me! I'm a man now, I should be the one taking care of you."

"And what a fine job you're doing of it!" She took several deep breaths to calm herself. How many times had she had this talk with her brother?

"And you're still having someone take care of you. Who's the girl?"

"I'm Tamara." Tamara stepped out of the washroom. She waved a hand towards Suzy. "Hi."

She plopped on the couch. "Don't mind me. I just got bored inside. And I could hear everything."

Suzy turned to her brother with an eyebrow raised. He was looking at Tamara with a foolishly lovelorn expression on his face.

Oh, how she wanted to shake some sense into him!

Rob saw her furious expression and cleared his throat. "Well, like I said before, this is Tamara. The gang was after me and she saved me and we are staying at her place now."

"What! The gang is after you? What did you do!" She was screaming. God help her, she was about to commit fratricide.

Rob covered his ears the same way he did when he was ten. "Don't scream please, I'm fine. Please tell mom that and don't worry about me."

"Oh my God!" She was suddenly too weak to stand. She grabbed a chair and sat in it, her head in her hands.

Rob kneeled down next to her. "Really, have some faith in me. I can take care of myself."

Tamara scoffed. Suzy raised her head to look at her and the other girl gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Well, I may have to skip town for a few months, but it's all taken care of."

She looked at her naïve younger brother. She loved him. She would move heaven and earth for him, even give up someone she deeply cared about for him.

Because she couldn't have both: a cop boyfriend and a brother with a juvie record.

"What did you achieve by hanging out with the Marauders? Did you become rich like you wanted? Did you get the girls, the fame?" Rob didn't say anything; he was waiting for her tirade to finish.

They knew each other well. After their father had died, their mom had become a recluse. Brother and sister only had each other to fall back on.

She had taken care of Rob for so long, she wasn't about to stop now.