Chad put his arms around her. “The campground ain’t far away. We will still find a way to see each other,” he assured her.
“This sucks,” Brayden said. “We need to do something fun to get our minds off of this.”
“Thought you were going to play pool,” Marissa reminded him.
“I can do that any time. What should we do tonight?”
“Can’t do much with a three month old,” Chad pointed out.
“Sure we can,” Brayden told him. “There is still that old drive in movie theater about 20 minutes away. No idea what’s playing, but it will get us out of the house for a few hours,” he suggested.
“I’m up for it,” Marissa said.
“And what if Anthony cries through the whole thing?”
“Then we are the only people he is bothering. No big deal,” Brayden assured him.
Chad nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” He began to pack a diaper bag while Marissa changed the baby and buckled him in this seat.
“Can we swing by and pick up your sister?” Brayden asked Chad, quietly.
Chad dropped the diaper bag. He slowly turned toward his best friend. “Are you dating my little sister?”
“Not officially, but we have gone out a few times,” Brayden admitted. “You are dating my cousin. And Melanie is only a year younger than I am,” he pointed out.
Chad sighed. He knew Brayden had a point. “Call her. If she’s coming with, she better be waiting outside. I’m not going into that house or waiting out in the driveway.” He picked up the diaper bag and the infant seat as he headed outside.
Marissa sat in the front seat, while Brayden and Melanie squeezed into the back with Anthony, who slept the whole ride. Marissa barely knew Chad’s sister, having only met her one time, but the girl had apparently gotten over her hatred of her brother from the previous year.
When they got to the theater, Chad paid for everyone’s admission, refusing money from anyone else. “Popcorn?” he asked once he parked the car. Everyone nodded. “Will you two keep an eye on him while we go get it?” he asked the couple in the back seat. Brayden and Melanie agreed.
Chad and Marissa got out of the car and headed toward the concession stand. Instead of walking up to the window, Chad pulled Marissa around the corner. Before he said anything, he leaned in and kissed her. “We will find a way to see each other,” he told her when he pulled away.
Marissa nodded. “And we still have two weeks. It’s not like I’m going all the way home. Not yet any way.”
“We will get through this and jump that hurdle when we get to it. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to be with you.” He leaned in and kissed her again.
Without another word, they walked to the concession window and loaded their arms with drinks and snacks for everyone before returning to the car.
Marissa had never had so much fun. None of them watched even a moment of the movie that was playing. Instead, they talked and joked around, throwing popcorn at each other. She had never laughed so much. Things would be so much easier if I lived up here, she thought to herself.
Despite the fact that everyone had a blast, the drive home was silent. No one wanted the night to end.
Brayden walked Melanie to the door when they dropped her off.
“As much as I hate the fact that my little sister is dating anyone, she definitely could have done worse,” Chad said when Brayden and Melanie got out of the car.
“He accepts us, so you should accept them,” Marissa pointed out.
Chad smiled. “I know. I’m trying.” He reached out and squeezed her hand.
Once they arrived at Brayden’s house, Marissa told Chad goodnight and went straight to her room. She collapsed on the bed, not even bothering to call her best friend. She fell asleep almost instantly.
~fifteen~
The next morning was Memorial Day. Brayden was going to spend the day at the park, and Chad had planned to stay home and work on some more homework. Marissa was torn. She wanted to spend the day with her boyfriend, but she didn’t want her aunt to think they were getting too close. After changing her mind multiple times, she decided to go to the park with her cousin.
“I know it’s hard keeping it a secret, especially when you want to run through the town screaming about how you feel and how happy you are,” Brayden told her as they walked through the cemetery. “Melanie and I have been together for about six months, but hid it from everyone. The other night, Chris figured it out while we were shooting pool, so I figured it was time to tell Chad. I’ll never tell either of them it’s been going on so long though.”
Before Marissa could reply, they climbed the fence and Brayden took off. She noticed Melanie was sitting on her boulder. She climbed up and settled next to her.
“You really like my brother, don’t you?” Melanie asked.
“Yes, I really do,” Marissa replied.
“Just be careful.”
“I will.”
The girls watched the game silently for a few moments. “If you really like him, then why are you here instead of with him?” Melanie asked.
Marissa explained how her aunt was making him move in and sending Marissa to stay with her grandparents.
“I’m glad she don’t want him to move in with Eric. He’s bad news. Chad would probably fall back into that world. You will find some way to make it work. He really likes you too. He must have started to call you a million times when you were gone, but he never went through with it. And he never went out with a single girl all year last year.”
“He had Anthony,” Marissa pointed out, secretly happy to hear that there was no one else. She hadn’t dated either.
Melanie shook her hear. “Not until March.”
Just then, Marissa noticed Chad pushing Anthony in his stroller across the foot bridge heading to the park. Marissa jumped off the boulder, but resisted the urge to run to him.
“You never come down here anymore,” Chris shouted at Chad. “Or did you just come to see your little girlfriend?”
“Actually, I came to see if my girlfriend and my sister wanted to watch my son while I kick my brother’s ass in football,” Chad shot back.
“This could be bad. Chad will get arrested if he gets into a fight,” Melanie told Marissa as she ran across the field. She pushed Chad back, away from Chris.
Chad threw his hands up. “Easy little sis. I seriously just want to play.”
Brayden was standing next to Melanie in the middle of the brothers. They looked back and forth, from Chad to Chris.
“It’s fine. He can play,” Chris said.
Melanie pushed Anthony’s stroller over to where the girls were sitting. The baby was sleeping.
Much to her relief, there were no problems in the game. Chad played for nearly two hours before he heard the baby fussing.
“That’s my cue. Bye guys.” Chad turned to walk toward the girls.
“You can’t handle playing all day any more anyway,” Chris started in on his brother again.
“Seriously, what is your problem, little brother?” Chad turned and approached his brother.
“Little brother?” Marissa asked.
“Chad’s older by seven minutes,” Melanie explained as the girls walked towards the confrontation. Marissa stood to the side with Anthony, while Melanie walked up to the boys.
Chris pushed his brother. “My problem is you! No matter what stupid shit you do, you always seem better for it. Get arrested, have college scouts come see you wrestle. Have a kid, take a month off school, and still somehow seem to pass. Getting kicked out of the house and having a 12 year old girlfriend will probably win you the lottery.”
“Hey, I’m thirteen!” Marissa interjected.
Chad turned to her. “Just stay out of this and stay with Anthony please,” he said.
Chris took advantage of his brother having his head turned to punch him in the jaw, hard enough to knock Chad back. Chad stepped back and again put his hands up.
“I’m not going
to fight you.”
Chris swung again, but Chad ducked. “Since when do you back down from a fight?” Chris asked.
“Since I stopped acting like a little kid. Since I realized that shit ain’t worth it. You are the one with the problem here, not me.” Chad turned to walk toward his girlfriend and his son. Marissa expected Chris to swing again, but he just stood there, watching Chad walk away.
Chad took the stroller from Marissa and began to leave the park. She turned to follow, unsure of what to do or say.
They walked back to the house in silence. When they turned into the driveway, Chad parked the stroller and sat on the porch.
His jaw was already starting to bruise, and he was spitting blood.
“Are you okay?” Marissa finally asked.
“A bruise and a cut lip,” Chad answered. “It’s really not a big deal. This is nothing. One day I came home with a broken collar bone and two cracked ribs. But that time, it wasn’t my brother swinging at me.”
“What set him off?” Marissa asked, ignoring what Chad had said about the previous fight.
Chad shrugged. “I really don’t know. Believe it or not, he is the good twin. Me, him, and Brayden used to do everything together, before Tamara. Now, I feel like I don’t even know him anymore.”
Marissa had no experience with fighting with siblings. Her sister was only five. She had two older step sisters at her dad’s, but she really only ever saw them at Christmas. She had an older half-sister on her dad’s side, but she was 23 and lived in Louisiana in the Air Force.
“Maybe you should stay away from him for a few days,” Marissa suggested. “Give him time to calm down.”
“I’ll see him in school tomorrow,” Chad pointed out.
Brayden walked through the yard from the cemetery with Melanie. “Your brother has lost it,” he said.
“He has been acting strange for a couple of months now,” Melanie added. “Since Anthony was born.”
“Well, there is something going on with him,” Chad said. “He has always been the one pulling me away from fights, not starting them.”
“We need to figure it out,” Melanie told him. “I’m not losing another brother.”
Marissa, looking confused, opened her mouth to ask what she meant, but Brayden caught her eye and slightly shook his head.
“I can try to talk to him tomorrow,” Brayden suggested.
Anthony’s cries interrupted the conversation. “He’s probably hungry,” Chad said as he picked up his son. Without another word, he disappeared into the house.
“I should probably head home any way,” Melanie told Marissa and Brayden. “I’ll see if I can talk to Chris.”
“Be careful,” Brayden told her, leaning down to kiss her goodbye.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you later.” She turned and walked away.
Once Melanie was out of sight, Marissa spoke up. “What was that about losing another brother?” she asked her cousin.
Brayden sat down on the porch. “Dravyn,” he started. “He was Eric’s twin.”
“Was?” Marissa prompted.
“Dravyn committed suicide three months ago, just a few days after Anthony was born,” he explained. “He moved away from here last spring. I think he felt guilty for what happened to Chad. He was the one that introduced Chad to Tamara and the rest of the crowd that Chad got in trouble with.”
“Why hasn’t he ever said anything about him?” Marissa wondered aloud.
“Because it’s not exactly easy to talk about.” Chad was standing just inside the screen door.
“I’m sorry.” Marissa felt bad for bringing it up.
Chad shrugged. “Talking about it won’t change the fact that he’s gone, so why bother. You up for another tutoring session?”
Marissa knew that once he changed the subject, there was no going back. “Sure,” she told him as she stood up and walked in the house.
~sixteen~
Anthony was settled in his swing, and Chad had all of his work on the dining room table. Marissa sat down and began explaining the assignment he had in front of him.
By the time they had finished for the night, Chad’s missing math work was almost completely caught up. Marissa had almost forgotten about the problems with Chris, but not about Dravyn. After she helped Chad clean up the dining room and get Anthony settled in bed, he pulled her outside, away from her cousin.
“I don’t want you to think I was trying to hide my brother’s death from you,” he told her. “It just hurts too much to talk about.”
“You don’t have to,” she started, but he interrupted her.
“Dravyn and I were always pretty close growing up. Once he got into the partying, we were still close. It was at his party that I met Tamara. He is the one that I was always able to get liquor or drugs from. If I wouldn’t have gotten arrested last year, there is no telling how bad I would be right now.”
“But you’re not,” she tried to speak again He put his finger to her lips.
“Please, let me finish, because I won’t do this again. Losing Dravyn tore me up, and if it wasn’t for Anthony, I probably would have escaped into drinking and drugs again. Just thinking about my brother makes me want to.”
Marissa watched Chad intently. She could see the tears welling up in his eyes. She could see how much this conversation was hurting him. She almost wanted to stop him, but she realized he needed to get it out as much as she wanted to hear it.
“I never got as into the drugs as he was. I smoked weed and did ecstasy. That was it. He was into coke for sure, and I think heroin. But that was probably where I was headed too. He ended up overdosing. I had just seen him the day before, to tell him about Anthony, and then he was gone.” The tears were falling down his face, but he didn’t bother to wipe them away. Instead he put his arms around Marissa, and he held her close, burying his face in her shoulder. “It would be so easy to disappear into that world again, but I can’t. I have to be strong, for Anthony, but sometimes I just cant.”
Marissa held Chad tightly, running her fingers through his hair. She didn’t know what to say.
The couple stood there in the dark, holding each other in silence for several minutes.
Eventually, Chad pulled away, turning from her, and wiping his tears.
“I’m sorry,” he told her. “I shouldn’t have lost it like that.”
Marissa put her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her. “Don’t apologize. You can’t hold things in like that. You can tell me anything.”
Instead of answering her, Chad moved in and kissed her, longer and more intense than he had ever kissed her.
Marissa’s heart was pounding and she was out of breath when they separated. Chad turned away.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
“I’m not,” Marissa told him. Marissa leaned in to kiss him again, wrapping her arms around his neck. He put his arms around her waist, holding her tight.
It was Chad that pulled away first. Marissa tried to keep him close, but he was able to break her hold. “We can’t do this,” he said as he tried to catch his breath.
Marissa nodded. She knew he was right. She didn’t want to lead him on, and they were out in the open where they could get caught at any time.
Chad reached for her hand, heart still pounding. “Someday, we won’t have to hide this,” he assured her.
Again, she nodded, unsure if she could trust her voice.
“I should probably go in and get some sleep. Back to school tomorrow,” Chad rambled.
Marissa reached up and hugged him. “Goodnight,” she whispered.
He turned his head to kiss her cheek. “It is now,” he replied. “Thank you,” he said, breaking the embrace.
“For what?” she asked.
Chad opened the screen door and turned back to her. “Everything,” He walked into the house and down to the basement.
Marissa entered her bedroom and closed the door. There is no way I can sleep now, she thought. She picked
up the phone and began to fill her best friend in on how things were going.
~seventeen~
Over the course of the next four days, Marissa fell into a routine. She would spend the day with Anthony while the boys were in school. She tried limiting the time he slept during the day, in hopes that he would sleep better for Chad at night. She would lie on the floor and play with him or take him for walks around town.
Once the boys were home from school, she would sit at the dining room table with Chad for hours, helping him through his seemingly endless pile of homework.
On Wednesday, they had finished his math and moved on to physics.
Sometimes, Brayden would join them, and Marissa would help him as well. Other times, he would leave to spend time with Melanie or play football with the guys.
On Friday night, Marissa convinced Chad to take a night off from homework. They invited Melanie over to have a movie night in the basement.
Halfway through the movie, they heard footsteps behind them on the stairs. They turned to see who it was.
It was Chris. No one had mentioned his name since the day of the fight.
Chad stood up, defensively. “You need to leave.”
Chris put his hands up. “I’m not here to fight,” he said. “I just want to talk.”
“So talk,” Chad told his brother.
“Alone. It’s about Dravyn.”
Marissa squeezed Chad’s hand at the sound of the name. “I’ll be outside if you need me” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and started up the stairs. Brayden and Melanie followed, leaving the brothers alone with the sleeping baby.
“What do you think that’s about?” Brayden asked when the three had stepped outside.
Melanie shook her head. “I have no idea. Chris hasn’t said a word to me all week.”
“Same here,” Brayden said.
Melanie turned to Marissa. “Dravyn is our brother that died a few months ago,” she started to explain.
“I know. Chad told me all about it the other night,” she told them.
“I’ve never heard either of them talk about him since it happened. Chris didn’t even seem to care,” Melanie said.
Summer Love (First Love Book 1) Page 5
