Free One True Thing by Piper Vaughn

real
    or just all in my stupid head, and I couldn’t do that
    unless I saw him at least one more time. Still….
    “What about the other day?” I asked. “I saw
    you at The Banana Leaf with that girl.”
    Archer was quiet for a moment. “What do you
    mean? What girl?”
    “The blonde?” I reminded him. “Nice chest.
    Looked kinda like a Barbie?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I
    didn’t see you anywhere, and I don’t hang out with
    any blondes of the female persuasion.”
    I blinked, my mouth twisting in confusion.
    Either Archer was telling the truth, or he was a
    damn good liar because he sounded totally baffled.
    “So you’re not bi?” I asked. “You don’t have a
    girlfriend?”
    “Hell no,” Archer replied with a laugh. “I am
    110 percent gold-star gay. Trust me. I’ve never
    even touched a boob. Don’t want to.”
    I couldn’t think of a response for that. I’d seen
    him at that café, I knew I had, and he’d seen me.
    But he was talking like that entire incident had
    never happened. Maybe he really was just that
    good a liar. We were in California, after all, the
    state with the highest concentration of actors
    anywhere. How was I to know he wasn’t one of
    them playing a game with me?
    Archer’s voice cut into my thoughts. “So do
    you want to go out on Friday or not? I know this
    awesome little Indian place. And maybe after we
    can go dancing.”
    Say no , I told myself sternly. Say no. “Sure,”
    I said instead, and just barely resisted the urge to
    slap myself in the forehead, even as my mouth kept
    running. “Sounds great.”
    Asher
    “HELLO?” I picked up my phone. I knew the
    number. Why Archer’s boss had my number was a
    different story. A story called my brother, who
    didn’t answer his phone when he didn’t feel like it.
    “Hey, Ash. I’m sorry to bug you. Can you go
    get your brother out of bed? He’s late again.”
    “Ryan, I was up really late last night working.
    You owe me.” Archer’s manager and I had this
    sort of half friendship thing going, mostly because
    we talked so often. He sent me gift cards to the
    store all the time. I had a big enough collection that
    I could’ve walked out with most of the fall line. If
    I ever got around to it.
    “Please just go wake him up. I need his ass in
    here. I’m doing inventory tonight, and I can’t cover
    his shift.”
    “Fine,” I grumbled and hung up. I tossed some
    sweats on and stomped over to Archer’s room,
    annoyed that I was missing sleep to— What the
    hell?
    The shit wasn’t even in there. His bed was in
    its usual unmade state, there were clothes flung
    haphazardly over every available surface, but
    there was no Archer. My phone was still in my
    hand, so I tried to call him, but it went straight to
    voice mail. Son of a bitch.
    There was no way I was going to spend my
    day chasing after my errant brother when he
    couldn’t be bothered to go to work. I was just
    going to have to step up my game or… God, I
    didn’t even know what.
    I was about to turn and walk out of the room
    when I noticed a pile of envelopes squished under
    a pair of shoes on his dresser. Yeah, I knew it was
    bad to snoop. I really wasn’t planning on snooping.
    But why did Arch have all those envelopes? I
    didn’t see that much mail for him usually, unless he
    just never threw it away.
    Against my better judgment, I reached out to
    move the shoes so I could look at the pile. The top
    envelope was a bill, for a credit card at a store. So
    was the second, and the third… oh my God . I slid
    the papers out of one of them. The card was maxed
    out. Same with the next one. I couldn’t stand to
    look at any more.
    Archer was twenty-six years old, and I
    wasn’t his parent. I could barely take care of
    myself, let alone him as well. I had no idea where
    to go from there other than out. And out was
    somewhere I wasn’t quite ready for.
    I made the call to Archer’s manager, telling
    him that once again we’d