The Only Brother by Caias Ward Read Free Book Online

slide. His friends followed, hovering at the sides in the hallway. People floated by, avoiding eye contact with me, just wanting to get past the scene that was about to happen.
    ‘What do you want, Hayden?’ I asked.
    ‘Just wanted to know if everything’s working out. You never keep in touch any more.’ He faked a smile. I caught a fit blonde in the back of the crowd who didn’t look like she wanted to be there: Caroline. We’d only gone out for a few weeks, and she was fun as fun could be, but we both thought it wasn’t a good idea to keep together, since Hayden would make her life hell for doing anything with me. This was just before Sara showed up and spun my life around. Caroline looked concerned, and I wondered if she was going to speak up, if she still fancied me.
    ‘Been busy,’ I said as I tried to step past. Hayden stepped back in front of me, his crew adjusting to block my way.
    ‘Too busy for your mates?’ he said. ‘Or got too many important things to do?’
    Here he goes again. This is getting old.
    ‘Well, yes. Too many important things to do,’ I said with a smile. ‘So, I don’t want to waste time doing unimportant things, like being seen in the same town with you and your minging girlfriend.’
    Hayden seethed; he liked being the centre of things, the important part of everything.
    A few people passing by stopped, catching what I’d said and laughing at Hayden. Caroline smiled; I smiled back.
    Hayden wasn’t smiling, not when people laughed at him. He stepped up, but then stopped.
    ‘I’d give you a good slapping, but you might have a brain problem like your brother…’
    ‘Hayden,’ Caroline pleaded, ‘Just leave it alone…’
    ‘Was it hard to pull the plug, Andy? Or did your parents rush to it because they didn’t want a cripple or a stump at home? Where do you take a vegetable on holiday, by the way?’
    I just kept on punching, and punching, and punching. I knew what I was doing, but I don’t know why I was doing it. I didn’t love my brother. He was a jerk. But then Hayden was a jerk too, and he had no idea of the kind of raw deal life had dealt my brother. Maybe there was a small part of me that wanted my brother and me to be family, real family, and it just rose to the surface.
    Hayden had wanted to get a rise out of me so that he could show off to his mob; he’d got one, and a black eye and bruised cheek for it. My back was killing me from getting thrown into the wall. My arms hurt from when Hayden’s friends broke us up and dragged Hayden away, getting him out of sight before any teachers arrived on the scene.
    And Caroline had pulled me away from the fight, putting herself between me and Hayden, pulling at his arm when he tooka swing at me. I’d forgotten how wonderful she smelled and how soft she felt.
    Then she broke away from me, half-dragged by some of Hayden’s boys, who scattered before a teacher showed up. She left her hand on mine for a moment longer than she should have. Her glance lingered, longer than perhaps it needed to. Even as I scrambled down the hall, I could hear Hayden yelling at Caroline for helping me.
    But I could tell that she still fancied me. I was sure of it.

    ‘So, how does that make you feel?’
    Do these doctors say the same damn thing all the time? This one was different, though. He didn’t bitch at me about my relationship with Sara, open and strange and odd as it was.
    ‘Good,’ I said. School’s done for the term, so I have a little break, even with work. Idid well in classes, didn’t get caught in that fight, and the job is going alright.’
    ‘And physically?’
    ‘Better, Rich. My back still hurts from Hayden shoving me into the wall. Only been a week since the fight, but I figure another day and I’ll be OK.’
    Dr Richard Wright smiled, pushing up his wire-rimmed glasses. He was younger than the others, mid-thirties. He didn’t give me disapproving looks. Mostly his reaction to what I told him seemed like genuine