Free By Degrees by Elle Casey Page B

him what he demands.   “Fine.   I see it, I feel it, and to be honest, I fucking hate it.   I’ve been trying to pretend it’s not there since the minute we started following his story.   But it’s awful, Scott, okay?   It’s really, really awful to feel Austin so close again, so I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
    He nods, his good humor gone.   “Yeah, I get it.   I do.”   He throws an arm across my shoulders.   “I’m sorry I pushed you, sis.”
    A lump develops in my throat over that name.   Sis.   We both thought I was going to be his sister one day, but that never happened.   Austin was gone too soon for us to make our family connections official.
    I punch him in the ribs, making his arm drop.   “Don’t worry about it, bro.   We’re all good.”   I never let Scott see how hurt I still am over what happened to Austin.   I need to be strong for my almost-little-brother.
    After he recovers from my abuse with some exaggerated deep breaths, Scott swings his arm up again to rest on my shoulders.   “So … who’s ass shall we kick first?”
    “I’m giving everyone a free pass today, unless they do something stupid in the meeting.   We’ll see what shakes out after.   And, Scott … I have something special I need you to do.”
    “Yeah, you name it.   I’ll all over it.   Your wish is my command.”
    “We’re moving in to Tarin’s place for at least the first week.   I need you to stick to him like glue.”
    His arm drops away.   “Uhhhh … no.”
    I smile, not even looking at him.   “Uhhhh … yes.”
    “Bitch be smokin’.”
    “No, bitch be serious.”
    He shifts to whining to try and convince me.   “But I’ve got really important shit to do!   I can’t be running around playing babysitter all day.   This isn’t in my job description.”
    I put my hands on my hips and face him. “Oh yeah? What important things?”   He thinks he has me fooled.
    “ Very important things.   Really, very, super important things .”
    “Video games are not really, very, super important things, Scott.   Try again.”
    “Maybe not to you!”   His face gets pink with indignation.   He’s sensitive about his gaming.   I think he spends so much time doing it just to avoid contact with other humans, and it makes me hate the games like they’re bad people.   He thinks he’s developing hand-eye coordination which will somehow be critical to future plans he hasn’t even made yet.
    “If it makes you feel better, you can bring your stupid games to his place if he doesn’t already have what you need.”
    His arguments go silent.   Then he sighs.   “For how long, did you say?”
    “A week or until we’re sure he’s playing fair and doing what he says he’s doing.”
    Scott shifts from his whining voice to his negotiating one.   “I’ll need a raise.   And money for expenses, too.”
    “I figured.”
    “And lots of mint chocolate chip ice cream.”
    “Done.”
    “That was too easy. Fuck. I should have asked for a car or something.”
    “I already bought you a car on our last job, remember?”
    “Okay, a Vespa, then.   I should have asked for a Vespa.”
    I smile.   “Play your cards right and maybe it’ll happen.”
    He grabs my arm.   “Are you serious?   Because don’t play with me like that if you aren’t.   You know how much I want a Vespa. I’m Vespa Desperate.   It’s a medical syndrome, you know.   I see Vespas and I want to chase them down the street like a rabid terrier.”
    I smile and say nothing more.   It’s going to be fun torturing him with his scooter obsession.   For some reason he denies himself the things he wants most, even though he makes enough money at this job to buy pretty much whatever he wants.   The only nice things he has are gifts from me and the video games his brother gave him before he died.
    “I need a red one. Or blue.   But not pink.   Don’t you dare make me ride a pink one. Because it’s a