Page 69 of The Fire Between High & Lo (Elements 2)

“God. Their mom is insane. I forgot how insane she is. She actually makes Erika seem…normal?”

“She’s a tough one, that’s for sure.” Kellan dropped his head a little and stared at his shoes. “She’s not completely wrong, though.”

“What?”

“Erika’s in this panic mode. She’s rushing to marry me, just in case something happens. Just in case, things go wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be her husband but…” His words faded off and he looked back up into his home, which seemed like it was seconds away from exploding.

I wanted to dive deeper into his thoughts on marrying Erika, but I could tell by his body language that he wasn’t in the mood.

The conversation going on inside the house must’ve hit its boiling point, because Lauren went storming off. Erika quickly started clearing the dining room table, breaking plates in the sink, and rearranging chairs while Alyssa stood back watching.

“Uh, should we go help her?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It’s part of her process. Just let it happen.”

I snapped my band once more. Or twice. Maybe fifteen times.

“You know what’s crazy? I smoke and you get cancer.”

“What’s yours is mine…”

“And what’s mine is yours,” I replied.

“If it makes you feel better, you can’t get colon cancer from smoking. But you should stop smoking.”

I huffed at his parenting voice.

But he wasn’t wrong.

“Grandpa had colon cancer,” I said, my voice cracking. It was what ended his life.

“Yeah.” Kellan nodded. “I know.”

The only person in my life who loved me like my brother did was my grandfather. Watching his life be sucked away from him was the hardest thing I’d ever had to witness. What was even worse was how fast it happened. One day he was there, and a few months later, he wasn’t. I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye, because he lived so far away.

“Listen. Maybe I should move back here for a while. I really had nothing going on back in Iowa.”

“Yeah?” he asked, sniffling his nose, placing his hands on the back of his head.

“Yeah. No big deal. I might even go see Ma soon. See how she’s been doing.”

“It’s not good,” he said. “I was going to go grab her food stamps card and take her some groceries later this week.”

“I can pick it up tomorrow.”

He cringed. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Logan. You know…with you being clean and all. Plus, with what you just found out. I don’t want you falling back into that world.”

“It’s fine,” I assured him. “I can handle it.”

“Are you sure?”

I laughed and shoved him. “Dude. You’re the one with cancer, and you’re sitting here worrying about me. Stop. You’ve taken care of Ma and me our whole lives. It’s my turn, okay?” When the word cancer fell from my lips I felt like dying.

“Okay,” he sighed, crossing his arms. “I have a few things to do tomorrow after we go see TJ, but Erika can drive you.”

“She’ll do that?”

“If I ask, yeah. But don’t be surprised if you have to make a few stops beforehand.”