Asleep

62 Sister

Nora~~

I don't know what to say.

It now makes sense that Avery brought Charlie up the other night.

Neither Raymond nor Ricky looks surprised, but Ricky does shift his weight between his feet as if he's itching to bolt.

As Charlie locks the door, I do a sweep for any mics or cameras.

"She's not loyal to our dad," he says, though that thought had yet to even cross my mind.

I shake my head. "I'm still on the matter of you two being siblings."

Avery takes a few steps toward us. "I'm not blessed like Charlie to be a favored child." There's venom in her voice.

"What she means is that she's not one of our dad's legitimate children."

Avery throws out another way he could have phrased that.

Charlie pinches the bridge of his nose. "Please don't call yourself that. You're all my half-siblings anyway." He drops his hand. "And don't go spewing the favored nonsense, not to me."

Rolling back her shoulders, she huffs. "I've been in the dream since I was ten."

"And I've been here since I was seven."

"You get to leave."

"To carry out Dad's orders."

I step between them. We don't need a fight between two Lucid breaking out. "Avery, how old are you?" This whole time I've been convinced she had to be at least sixteen.

"Fifteen."

Charlie places his hands on my shoulders, my back to him, and says against my ear, "You're full of surprises." A shiver races down my spine, and I can't say I mind.

Avery's eyes flick between the two of us; at first they're filled with confusion and then replaced by understanding. They darken. "After our conversation, Nora, Charlie was the last person I thought you'd bring tonight, but I can understand your hesitance to tell us."

"Really?" Charlie says drily. "You would have expected her to bring Dad over me?"

"She said she didn't trust you." Her eyes drop to his hands on my shoulders. "And that she wasn't fond of you."

Charlie doesn't let go of me. "If I'm here, clearly you're the one she doesn't trust to divulge information to."

"Enough." Ricky swears. "I forgot how annoying siblings are." He strides over to us and holds out his hand to Charlie. "I'm Ricardo. I own the club."

Charlie shakes his hand.

"I've known Avery for about a year."

"You've known who she was?" I ask him.

Raymond nods while Ricky shrugs and says, "She's my best friend."

His arms crossed, Charlie steps out from behind me. "You look like you're at least thirty."

"Twenty-nine. She's like a sister to me."

"Yes, well, her actual brother is here now."

This is a disaster and not the kind I was expecting.

Don't give up.

I massage the back of my head and slip in front of Charlie. "Avery, I understand why you didn't tell me who you were. Ricky, Charlie, Avery has too many brothers for this to even be a contest. We have Raymond here, and Charlie who knows how to get us into the room to wake the master dreamer. Can we please use this time to be productive?"

They take a step back, nodding.

"Thank you, Charlie," Avery says slowly as if testing the words, "for coming."

"I've missed you."

"You could have visited."

"So could you," Charlie says, his tone shifting to the defensive side.

Raymond claps his hands together. "Let's not waste any more time." He pulls a holo-laptop from his computer bag and powers it up. "Here's how to wake the master dreamer."

I think this is the start of a beautiful brother/sister friendship . . .