My brother and I had become the best of friends over the course of my thirteen year life. He was seventeen, but the age difference didn’t seem to matter to him.
“Hey, Parker!” I called from downstairs. “Parker, come downstairs! The football game is on!”
“Colts?”
“You bet!” I replied. The Colts were our favorite team. “Hurry down! They’re about to start!”
I heard his feet padding against our carpeted stairs. He hadn’t missed a game this season, and he wasn’t about to break his perfect record.
He ran to the kitchen to grab a bag of chips, and then sat down on the couch. He opened the bag and offered some to me.
“Did I miss anything, sis?”
“Nope,” I said, grabbing a handful of chips and shoving a few in my mouth. “Thanks for grabbing the chips.”
“No problem.”
We watched the other team score a touchdown, but neither of us were discouraged. The Colts could beat those wannabes with their eyes closed and their hands tied behind their back.
“Go, baby, go baby, go baby,” I said as they’d begun to run down the field. “Yes! He scores a touchdown!”
“Yeah!”
Both of us got up and high-fived each other three times. It was like our secret handshake for every time the Colts pulled a touchdown out of the blue.
Suddenly, interrupting our game, our mom walked inside. “Parker, Madison, why are you out here?” She walked over to the TV and turned it off.
“Ah,” we said simultaneously.
“It’s time for homework,” she said, and we groaned. “Now!”
We both walked upstairs and into our bedrooms. At least we had caught the first quarter of the game, which meant our perfect record wasn’t broken, but I was still disappointed.
It was the middle of the school day, which meant lunch. My brother and I went to the same school, because it was a middle school as well as a high school.
I rested my chin in my hands as my friends chattered about this and that. I was still very bummed about the game the day before.
“You haven’t said a word, Madison,” said Janelle, my best friend. “Is there something wrong?”
“I missed the last three quarters of the Colts game yesterday,” I said, sighing. “It sounds stupid, but I’m still really disappointed.”
“Ah, I’m sorry,” Janelle patted my shoulder affectionately. “I know how much seeing every game means to you.”
“Thanks.”
I sat there, picking the pepperoni off of the pizza that my mom had sent me with, and then taking a bite.
“I’m really sorry about you missing the game,” said Janelle, breaking the silence and awkwardness.
“It’s really not that big a deal,” I protested, but they all knew that I was lying. “Um, you don’t believe me, do you?”
Melanie and Miranda, my sibling friends, flashed a crooked smile. They did everything together, even though they weren’t even twins.
“Not a chance,” grinned Melanie.
“No chance at all,” agreed Miranda. “We know you well enough to know when you’re lying to us.”
“I’m not…well, I mean, I may have…never mind,” I said. “I’m just digging my hole deeper, aren’t I?”
“Yup,” nodded Melanie.
“Pretty much,” added Miranda.
I sat there, awkwardly, sheepishly, and chagrined. The bell rung, saving me from more embarrassment.
“Gotta go!”
I got home about three thirty, and for some reason, my brother had told me to go without him. It was two hours before he finally got home.
“Where were you?” I asked curiously.
“Just shut up!” he said, shocking and hurting me all at the same time. “You don’t have to know everything about my life!”
“You…you’ve never told me to shut up before,” I whispered, out of breath from sheer shock. He grunted and kept walking. “You’ve never told me to shut up before.”
The two days after were similar. He got home late and then treated me like dirt. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.
“Parker, the Colts game is on!” I called from downstairs, flipping on the TV, but I got no answer. “Parker! Parker, where are you?”
“I don’t want to watch it!”
“But, Parker, we have a perfect record!”
“I don’t care!”
That was it. I walked upstairs and knocked on his door, but he didn’t answer, so I walked in. What I found was shocking. Parker was smoking, and it wasn’t any ordinary cigarette. It definitely seemed like weed by the smell of it.
“Wh—what are you doing?”
“Madison, calm down,” he said, grabbing my shoulder as I tried to walk out. “This can all be our little secret, okay?”
“No! It’s not okay! I’m not going to let you do this!” I screamed. “I’m not going to let you ruin your life.”
“I’m not ruining it, Maddie,” he argued. “I’m making it better. Everything feels wonderful now.”
“It won’t in a year or two,” I protested. “Just stop now before it’s too addicting to stop! Please, Parker! Please!”
“No, and if you call the cops, you will wish you hadn’t!”
“Don’t threaten me!” I said, running to the telephone. My fingers touched the buttons, but I couldn’t dial. My hand locked up.
Parker was my brother. He meant the world to me, so I couldn’t have him smoking weed, but I didn’t want to see him going to jail.
“Everything would be better if you just didn’t dial the number.”
But I did it anyway. I told the police everything. I told the police about his threat, and his smoking, and they came to pick him up that night.
“Goodbye, Parker,” I said as they hauled him off. “I’ll see you soon, I hope. I…I really do love you.”
“Yeah right, Madison! Yeah right!” he screamed at me as they walked away. “If you really loved me, you wouldn’t be doing this.”
“No, Parker, I’m doing this because I love you.”
And they took him away, only for him to start up again after they let him go. I know I did the right thing, but he never got over it.
And he never watched a Colts game with me again.
