A Light in the Dark

A Sibling in the Drug Business

“What do you want Ashley?”

“I heard your brother has something I need.”

“What?” What the heck was she even talking about? Her eyes looked desperate as they flitted from me to my friends behind me.

“Ashley, get lost.” Mason looked especially ticked off.

“Can you talk to your brother for me? Please?”

“Ashley, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” At that, she perked up a little and smirked at me.

“You don’t know? Hmm, I figured that was the only reason Mason was hanging around.” My head whipped to face my boyfriend who looked equally as confused as me. At that moment, Ronnie walked down the hallway and Ashley released me, grasping for my brother.

“Get away from me!” He yelled.

“Please Ronnie I-”

“I told you I was done helping you a month ago, find someone else, I’m sure there are plenty of them around.”

 He shoved her away and sped down the hallway. Ashley grunted and stormed away, but I didn’t bother to ask her anything more. I sprinted after my brother, hoping my friends would be following. He was in front of an expensive yellow car (probably Marina’s parents’) when I caught up to him.

“Mind telling me what all that was about?”

“Kaitlyn, please don’t get involved.”

“You’re my brother, I’m already involved. Now what was all that about?”

“Drugs,” Curtis said from behind me.

“What!” I turned to Ronnie, who was halfway in the car. I could see Marina’s face inside as well as her mother’s. I sighed. “I will see you at home later, we are not done talking about this.” I walked away and slipped my hand through Mason’s as I went. I turned to see Curtis and Dani right behind us.

“Are you okay?” Dani asked. I nodded, though I wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling. A month ago. He said a month ago. Did that mean he wasn’t selling drugs anymore or he had just dropped her as a customer? I thought he had dropped all of that last year.

“My life can’t be normal for just one day, can it?” I slung my free arm around her as we walked.

“Hey, you don’t know exactly what happened…”

“True, but he was probably the person who got drugs for her. He said a month ago. The last time I heard he was selling drugs was last year. I just don’t understand.”

“Just don’t think about it. Wait until you get a chance to talk to your brother, but until then I say don’t worry about it,” Curtis said. It was good advice. Worrying didn’t do much for anyone, I just had to figure out what was going on.

We made it to Mason’s and after hanging out for a while, I took my car to work. Of course when I got there Dan did his best job to get me as irritated as possible. By the time I drove home, I was high strung and angry. Not the best way to lecture my brother about drugs, again. I sighed as I put my keys on the kitchen counter, rubbing my eyes and sighing again.

“What’s up kiddo?” My dad said. I looked at the kitchen table where he was drinking coffee and eating a sandwich from Subway. I cracked a smile.

“I hate my co-worker, that’s what’s up.”

“Sandwich?” He asked, pointing to the extra one on the table. I nodded and sat down to eat.

“Is Ronnie here?” I asked and Dad looked up at the ceiling as if he could see through the floor to his son’s room.

“Yeah, so is his girlfriend.” Great, I would have to get rid of Marina first. Unless she wanted to hear me lecture my brother. I finished my sandwich, telling my dad about my first two final exams. Then I threw away the garbage and made my way upstairs to my brother’s room. I knocked softly and heard, “Come in,” from the other side. Marina was lying on the floor of Ronnie’s room with her feet up on his bed while he was spinning around in his chair. Marina looked up at me.

“Well good luck,” she said to Ronnie as she got up and left the room, “see you tomorrow if you’re still alive.” Ronnie waved solemnly to her and I closed the door.

“So…” Ronnie said, with a sense of foreboding in his voice. I sat on his bed and leaned back against the pillows.

“Well, you’re going to have to tell me everything. Then I’ll decide if I want to drag dad into this or not.”

“Okay…” He took in a deep breath, “well, when dad was in a coma, I thought I wasn’t doing enough to help. You were bouncing between jobs and I couldn’t even help you. So I decided to try to get money for dinners and stuff-”

“And you thought selling drugs was the way to do that? Really? You couldn’t have walked dogs or babysat or something?”

“Look, I’m sorry okay?”

“Ronnie…”

“I don’t know what else I’m supposed to say. Ashley is crazy and extremely addicted. She needs help, but she keeps asking me to get her more drugs. I didn’t think she would ever ask you. I stopped when I realized it wasn’t doing anything but making dad’s situation worse.” I knew what he meant. Selling the thing that made dad the way he was wouldn’t prevent it from happening again.

“I just figured it would help, but I was wrong. I’m done now, I promise. Marina and I quit smoking cold turkey, and believe me it wasn’t easy.” That reminded me that I never got to ask him why he did that.

“What made you guys decide to do that?”

“Well I did it for you… Marina said she would if I did so we’d be able to help each other.”

“Wait, you did it for me?” He nodded.

“You got so worried when you saw those guys in our house that one time…. and you’ve always hated that I was into drugs and all that…”

“Oh Ronnie… really? I’m glad that you stopped, and I don’t ever want you to start again, but why didn’t you just do it for you?” He gave a bitter laugh.

“It wasn’t enough motivation. Trust me, I tried.” I got up and hugged him.

“Okay, please just promise me it can stay this way for a while?” He pulled back and smiled at me.

“I promise.”

A/N: *shurg* idk, I dont really think this chapter was all that good but hey, whatever.