Page 28 of Twister

Marshall

My phone took that opportunity to break the near silence of the hospital room.

“Sorry,” I said, shifting to the side to get it out of my pocket.

“Let me just see who….” I trailed off and groaned at the sight of my brother’s name on the screen.

All week, I’d been putting him off, but if I answered him now, I could cut the call short if I wanted to by telling him that Jackson or Daniel needed me.

“I’m going to have to take this. I’ll be right back.

” I swiped to answer as I rose from my seat.

“Hello, Anderson. Give me a sec, please.”

Holding the phone away from my ear, I walked over to the nearby seats that lined the hallway and sat down, grimacing at the hard plastic. I wiped a palm over my face and took a deep breath, knowing that this conversation was not going to be pretty.

“—told you days ago that you were expected back at work today, but you’re not here.

Again. This is typical of how irresponsible you are.

I’ve always had to cover every single one of your failings, and let me tell you, there’s a fuck-ton of them, and they only seem to be getting worse as the years go by.

Going to that fancy college out west messed with your head and gave you ideas above your station, and now you’re too smart for your own family?

You disgust me, you pathetic waste of space—”

Staring at the well-worn beige linoleum in front of me, I let my eyes blur out of focus and my brother’s words wash over me.

Experience told me if I let him get it all out of his system, eventually he’d run out of steam, and I would be given a chance to respond.

If I tried to interrupt now, his tirade would only get worse.

It was times like these when I missed the boy he used to be, when we’d had fun playing games together.

It had been so long since those carefree and innocent days that the memories almost felt like they were a fiction, conjured up by my brain to give me an anchor to cling to, knowing that I should still love my brother because he was family.

At what point do you give up on your family? Those that society demanded you love no matter what?

As he droned on, I cast my eyes to Jackson’s hospital door.

Hadn’t I just finished telling Jackson that none of what Brett had inflicted on him was his fault?

All he’d done was try to love his partner, the man he chose to consider as family.

Jackson’s injuries were obvious now that they’d taken physical form, but they’d started out as emotional.

Was Anderson treating me the same way? If I went back home and worked with him, would they evolve into physical injuries if I didn’t do what he asked?

Did I want to take that chance just because Anderson was family? Or did I want to cut the cord now completely and live my own life away from a toxic situation that would never get any better?

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself? Marshall? Fucking typical. Can’t even respond to a simple question. I don’t know why I even bother.”

I sucked a deep breath in and let it out slowly to settle the spike in adrenaline roiling through my veins. “I’m not coming home, Anderson.”

“What?” he asked, spluttering. He must have just taken a sip of water. “What do you mean, you’re not coming home? You’re needed here. Stop talking nonsense.”

“You don’t need me, Anderson. The company has been working perfectly fine without me for years while I’ve been at college.”

“Which you didn’t need to do. I swear, it’s that godforsaken college you went to, filling your little head with lofty ideas.

I’ll never understand why Mom and Dad let you go when there was a perfectly respectable community college here in town that would have given you everything you needed.

I tried to tell them they’d regret allowing you to go, but would they listen?

Oh, no. Not when their perfect little angel wanted to go. Fucking figures.”

Anderson had tried to get my folks to block me from going to college in California?

I blinked. That was news to me. Back when I was trying to decide what to do for college, Mom and Dad had encouraged me to apply for all the scholarships I needed so I could study out of state.

Dad, especially, had gone out of his way, spending hours upon hours researching what I needed to do to fill out the right paperwork in the most optimal way.

That didn’t strike me as what someone would do if they wanted me to stick around closer to home.

Had I misjudged Dad all this time? All his pushing to fill out the scholarship applications for the finance courses…

was that his own way of helping? Finance was the only thing he knew because he’d spent his life working in the field, and he was nothing if not logical.

Helping me apply for something he knew I had an aptitude for and that he had decades of experience in would be the most logical solution in his eyes.

As I sat there tuning out Anderson’s increasingly unhinged ranting, I let the memories of those final years of high school play rapid-fire through my mind.

The closed-door meetings with Anderson when he was home from his own out-of-state college experience while I caught up on my homework in another room; the dirty looks he gave me when he stormed out of those catch-ups, grumbling under his breath but never loud enough for me to hear what he was saying; the sympathetic looks Mom and Dad gave each other when they emerged several minutes later; the way Dad would come over and ask me if I needed any help while Mom would snuggle me into her bosom and kiss me on the top of my hair, laughing when I tried to swat her away.

Mom was always the warm, outgoing one of the pair, but that didn’t mean Dad didn’t care. He simply cared in a different manner.

They wanted me to find my own way in the world.

“I gotta go, Anderson,” I said, interrupting him from whatever he was droning on about. “I need to make a call.”

The sound of his screeching cut off when I hung up on him before I quickly searched for Mom’s number and hit Dial.

It rang twice before she picked up.

“Marshall! My beloved son who refuses to give me any grandchildren no matter how much I keep asking! How are you, lovely?”

I grinned and leaned back in the unforgiving plastic seat and stared at the ceiling while I stretched. “Mom, are you near Dad?”

The sound of rustling filled the speaker. “Yup. I can see him in his office across the way. Does this need to be a group call?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

“Got it.” More rustling before the noise of her office door opening filtered through. “Heading to him now. Any update on your car situation?”

“Not since the last time we spoke.”

“Sounds like they’re slackers.”

Chuckling at the humor in her voice, I shook my head and said, “To be fair, we last spoke two days ago, and I’d told you then that it would be at least a week before they got the parts in.”

“Pfft, you know my memory isn’t what it used to be. I’m getting so old and decrepit. If I had a granddaughter to dote on, I’m sure my memory would get better. Ask Rose. She agrees with me.”

“Mom,” I said blandly. “You’re in your forties. You’re not old or decrepit. You still run half-marathons, for God’s sake.”

The sound of her knocking on Dad’s office window echoed through the phone, and then I could hear his door open and shut. “Ah, but you didn’t say anything about Rose becoming my granddaughter. I’m so happy that you’re starting to see reason.”

“I’m not. I’m simply choosing my battles.”

“Is that Marshall?” Dad’s voice carried through loud and clear, letting me know Mom had put me on speaker. “Are you winning the war?”

“Yet to be determined,” I said. “Hi, Dad.”

“Your mom tells me you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere while you wait for your car to get fixed. Are you okay for money? We can top your account up if you need more.”

Even as I rolled my eyes, I smiled. Trust Dad to worry about the financial aspect first. “I’m fine, Dad, but thank you for asking.”

“That’s what we’re here for, Marshall.”

“I know,” I said before I paused for half a second. “Um, can I ask you both something?”

“Of course, sweetheart,” Mom said, her interest obviously piqued.

Nibbling my bottom lip, I gave myself a moment before I asked, “Back when I was applying for colleges, did Anderson try to convince you that I should be sent to community college instead of going to college out of state?”

A fraught silence filled the line. I ran my fingers through my hair as I waited for a response.

When I began to wonder if the call had dropped out, Dad responded quietly and carefully, “We didn’t think it was fair to send only one of our children to college out of state. We thought they should each have a chance to spread their wings and find their own independence.”

I let my eyelids flutter closed and felt my shoulders slump. That was about as close to a confirmation as I was likely to get.

“And if that independence leads them in a different direction than they’d originally planned, then that’s okay,” Mom said just as carefully, with Dad grunting his agreement a moment later.

“Life is nothing but a series of choices, Marshall. Sometimes those choices can be predictable and take you on the path you’d set yourself on.

Other times, unpredictable opportunities can pop up that encourage you to go down a different path. ”

I hummed my understanding.

“Has something unpredictable popped up?” Dad asked gently.

Wiggling my head from side to side while I sucked at my bottom lip, I wondered how to respond. Maybe it was best to just rip the band-aid off. “I’m not coming home. I’ve decided to stay in Rockdale.” I sucked in a deep breath. “At least for the next few months.”

Another silence fell between us before Mom eventually whooped with joy. “About damn time!”

I blinked. “What?” What was happening right now?