Free Live Today (Live Today #1) by Savana Jade

My eyes had widened when I realized that they would be seen by dad. Brennan only laughed and mentioned they were in his room.
    There was a day when I was about thirteen when instead of practicing, he asked the guys to pick up some stuff to make an album. I had been down that day, and he always knew and still knows how to cheer me up. We sat in the garage for hours that day. We made a photo album for each of us. My heart tightens as memories flood my mind when I turn over the front cover. The first page is Brennan as a baby. Chubby cheeks, baby blue eyes, blond curl on the top of his head. He was the perfect baby, or so what he tells me anyways. I suddenly jump when I hear the door shut from the basement. I look up to the doorway with watery eyes as he enters the room.
    “Hey sis,” he says cheerful then he notices my expression. “What’s wrong Jenna?” My throat is knotted up as all I do is shrug. Brennan takes a look at the album on my lap, then sets his guitar down and comes to sit by me, pulling me back onto the couch with him, his arm holding me tightly. “You okay?” He asks softly, I don’t answer him, I continue to look down. “Jems, talk to me. You’ve been relatively quiet since we moved in. Remembered what we promised?” Tears begin to form, I nod. “Okay, then don’t break your promise. I know I’m not Will, but will you let me try.” Swallowing the lump in my throat, I rest my head on his shoulder while he pulls the album over so it sits on both our laps and turns the page.
    “Don’t you miss it?” Looking up at him, seeing the confusion in his face, I continue looking down at the book “This,” I run my finger over the picture of the two of us swimming in a kiddy pool, he couldn’t have been more than five. “Them, the house, all of it? Brennan, you weren’t even a kid.” I hear Brennan take a deep sigh before he lets go.
    “You know what Jems; I have everything I have ever dreamed of. I have you.” He kisses my head as he turns the pages a few times until he stops at the picture of when we both got guitars for Christmas. He was ten. I was six or seven. It didn’t matter that I was too young for a guitar; dad bought the same thing for the both of us. It was “easier” that way he always said. If Brennan got checkered slip on Vans, so did I. No wonder I’m a tom boy at heart. “I’ve got her.” He chuckles when he points to the guitar in the corner as I look down at the picture. Why men call their guitars and cars “her” is beyond me.
    “I kind of miss it Jenna, but I don’t miss what we have. Mom left us both, but to be honest, she was long gone before she even left. You don’t remember this because I kept you busy.” He turns the page again to the picture of us both looking at dad. We are both in front of the computer watching YouTube. That’s how Brennan learned to play the guitar. Every time he learned a new note, he would teach me.
    “I kept us both busy sis. I did have childhood,  I just made sure I had it with you.” 
    “Do you think things would be different if they stayed?” I ask, not sure I want to know the answer. Brennan took over custody of me and became my legal guardian when I was around fifteen. He took over the bills; he became even more of my world. Not only was he my best friend, he was my superhero. I hated myself when dad left. When mom left, I didn’t know any different at the time, I was so young.
    But when dad left, I thought I had done something wrong. I had found Brennan’s pot stash that was apparently part of his stash for dealing. I had no clue he was selling marijuana among other things. And boy when he found out, did he lay into me. I always wondered how he was able to keep things “normal” financially for us.
    “Jems, I don’t think about that. I don’t want to. Do you want to know why? Because it is the way it is. If it was different, maybe you and I wouldn’t be this close. And I can’t even fathom being apart from you. I