Chapter 3

Axel

I woke up with the sound of my cell phone ringing, rumbling in my room, and making my head beat more than it already did on its own.

I was lying on my stomach, my head tucked into the pillows, and blindly, I started to feel the bedside table looking for that infernal device.

When I finally took it, I pressed the button to turn it off, then threw it on the ground. No one is allowed to disturb my peace. 

I sighed and let my sleep envelop me again, but the troublemaker had no intention of leaving me alone. No, she started knocking like crazy at the door.

"Hey, asshole! I know you’re awake!" cried my sister’s harpy.

I snorted and turned around in bed, throwing myself on my back and breathing deeply while the bitch kept knocking nonstop.

"Don’t ignore me! Axel!" Alison shouted relentlessly.

"Piss off!" I shouted, bored.

"No!" she replied, "You woke me up last night, and now I wake you! It’s the afternoon, Axel! And I want to go shopping!" She screamed and kept knocking like crazy.

"Let your boyfriend take you, and don’t bother me!" I yelled back.

"What the fuck, what’s all this shit?" heard Liam’s voice and a room door opening.

"I don’t have a boyfriend, and then I’m asking you, so get up psycho!" She kept banging on my sister’s door, "I’ll give you five minutes then I’ll knock the door down!" she yelled before leaving.

I put my hand on my face, and then I got out of bed, and I went to unlock the door, and I went into the bathroom, and then I took a quick shower.

When I returned to my room, I found my cousin in my bed, a cigarette lit between his fingers and the smoke filling my room.

"What the fuck, Liam!" I said, walking towards the window with long strides, I opened it wide and let the smoke come out.

"Sorry, cousin," he said, carrying one arm behind his head and throwing more smoke.

His blond hair was a mess, and his face was tired, and his eyes were on the ceiling. I went into the walk-in closet and started getting dressed while I still smelled a cigarette in my nose, God, I hated it.

"I swear, if I find any gum in your room, I’ll smash your face in," I said, "And put the pillows back the way you found them!" I added.

"God, can you be calm? Psycho," I heard him snort.

I walked into the room as I put the belt in the passers-by, and watched him put the pillows in place on the bed the same way I did. A satisfied sigh came out of my lips, my being that was already relaxing.

"You told me we had to talk," Liam said, snorting and not turning around.

"Oh yes," I said, nodding.

"If this is about tonight’s bullshit, I’m telling you it won’t happen again, so there’s no need for a lesson," Liam said shrugging.

"The real question is, why did you do it first," I said, putting on my shirt.

"I don’t know," Liam sighed, "When I’m with Ellen, I completely lose track of myself, do things I wouldn’t normally do, and push myself over the edge that I didn’t even know I had. It makes me feel good, it makes me feel free," he admitted.

"Free? To me, it seemed the opposite. You seemed trapped in what you had taken, that’s not being free, Liam, that’s being trapped."

"This is how you see it," he replied, "What matters is how it makes me feel." 

"And how does that make you feel?"

"Well, it makes me feel good."

"Does it feel good?" I asked skeptically, "I think you’ve lost your mind completely".

"It’s my business, not yours."

"It’s my business if you put others in danger!" I said, "Fuck Liam, yesterday you had to take care of your sister!" I said.

How could he be so irresponsible?

"Don’t bring my sister into this, please," he said, snorting bored.

"You bring your sister into this! She’s worried about you!" I said.

"Please! It’s none of your business!" Liam said, throwing himself on the bed, "Why don’t you mind your own business while I live my life?"

"Because the people who love you are fucking worried about you, Liam!"

"But I’m fine! It’s okay, there’s no problem," Liam said calmly.

"What would have happened if I hadn’t been at this stupid party? If you had taken a few extra pills and found yourself alone with her? Who would think of you?"

"I am not a child, Axel, I know perfectly well what I do."

"It didn’t seem like that last night," I said cynically.

"You take care of your problems, I’ll take care of mine," he said, getting up. 

I sighed and shook my head, upset by my cousin’s behavior. I couldn’t understand it anymore. For a couple of months, it’s been like he’s become a stranger. Ever since he met that girl, Ellen, he’d go to any party, get drunk and pass out somewhere. Many times Mom had covered him up with the fury of Aunt Jess, she had hidden him at home when I picked him up in some bar because his beloved had left with another while he vomited his soul.

Liam wasn’t just putting himself in danger, he was putting everyone in danger because if Aunt Jess found out what was going on, she would take it out on Mom and Dad because they covered for him too often, even though they didn’t know what else to do.

I was wondering how far Liam would go if he jumped off a cliff or if he would let the rest of us help him. It wouldn’t have been easy in the coming months, especially for him.

I sighed and looked at him, "Get something to put in my closet, I have to take the hysterics to shop," I said.

Liam nodded and disappeared into the closet. I picked up my phone from the ground and turned it back on, and I was immediately bombarded with messages and missed calls. I first called Dad because he’d been looking for me, hoping he needed something at the office so that I couldn’t go to the mall with the viper.

"Hey," Dad said on the phone, "Everything okay?"

"You? Do you need something in the office? I can go right now if you want," I said immediately.

Dad laughed, "Calm, boy, try to relax. I don’t need anything," he said, and I snorted, "What?" Dad said, laughing again.

"Alison’s making me take her shopping," I complained.

Dad burst into a loud laugh and heard Mom say something in the background, "There’s nothing to laugh at, Dad," I said, almost pissed off.

"Sorry, but it reminds me a lot of when your mother makes me carry her around," she said.

"Why is it a problem for you?" Mom said.

"Now it’s your fucking business," I muttered.

"Axel," Dad scolded me, "Just check on your sister. Bye!" he said and suddenly hung up.

I frowned at the phone and then shook my head. Liam came out of the walk-in closet fully dressed, threw his shorts in the dirty laundry basket, and looked at me.

"I’ll give it back to grandma tomorrow," Liam said, frowning.

I sighed, I almost forgot about lunch at my grandparents' house tomorrow, and I had to call the other grandparents, maybe I would get dinner for tonight since I didn’t trust my sister’s culinary skills the hysterics that just then made her appearance.

"AXEL!" she shouted from the lower floor.

Liam laughed and shook his head as I snorted, "I’m here, hysterical," said the second softer word, so he couldn’t hear me.

I put it all in my pocket and walked out of the room after Liam, "Can you make it home or do you want a ride?"

"No, I’ll do it myself, I already know I’ll have to suffer the wrath of my mother," he said, almost terrified.

"At least you deserve it," I commented as we walked down the stairs.

Alison was waiting in front of the door, her arms crossed at the chest, her hair tied high in a tail, her black locks brushed against her shoulders, she was wearing skimpy shorts and a top that didn’t even cover her navel.

"I understand why you want to go to do shopping since you have half the clothes you should be wearing. Is that the fucking way out of the house?" I suddenly snapped.

"Don’t piss me off, Ax. You? Are you okay or do you want to throw up somewhere? At least you’ve recovered some color. The next time you want to be a blowhard to fuck a slut, do it at someone else’s house," Ali frowned.

I put my hand over my face as I walked over to the shoe rack and put on my shoes. I felt Liam get stuck next to me.

"Don’t talk about her like that" he warned her.

"Oh, what should I call someone who was jerking you off while making out with someone else? Princess maybe?" she said, raising an eyebrow as if she didn’t really understand.

"You’re just talking a bunch of crap," Liam said as he walked out the door.

"Think what you think, you’re an asshole!" Alison yelled at him.

She sighed and turned to me looking at her very frowning "What?" she asked innocently.

"Have you ever heard of delicacy?" I asked her.

"He is not two years old, better to tell him at once than to make him believe in the illusion of the dark princess in love only with him," she said, "Hurry up, set the alarm, I have Dad’s credit card to loot," she continued in a good mood.

It was rare that my sister was in a good mood, very rare. Most of the time it looked like she had a pole stuck up her ass and no one ever understood why. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, that’s what Miles always did to her, every time they saw each other and we could all hear their meetings, to Dad’s delight, she came back in a good mood, away from the gloomy and depressed Alison we used to see. That shell he’s been showing everyone to protect herself from who knows what.

I set the alarm and closed the door as I picked up my phone and walked toward the car.

"I’ll call Grandma and ask her to eat at her place tonight," I told Alison as I pressed the button to open the car.

"Why? I thought I should cook!"

"Not so good? I wouldn’t want you to poison me."

"It’s always tomorrow, Ax, don’t worry," Ali said as he got into the car.

I sighed and called grandma, hoping she’d give me a roof over my head for the next seven days.