Afterlife: Redemption

41

HARRY

"Babe, stop," I sighed, trying with everything in me not to get frustrated with her.

She had been dwelling over this shit for the last half an hour, ever since we left her parents. I was met with either a stone cold silence as she stared out the window, irritatingly gnawing on her nails, or an incessant rambling of nonsensical questions, which I was fairly sure were more her thinking out loud than said with any real expectation of my answering her.

"You cant tell me that his behavior wasn't weird, Harry," she snapped, getting just as annoyed with me as I was getting with her. "He just kind of shut down and ran away. I mean what is that?"

I took a deep breath, one that was meant to be cleansing, one of the stupid little techniques my therapist had taught me back in England. When you felt yourself getting annoyed or like you were going to lose all fucking chill, take a deep breath. Apparently air had some sort of magical powers to control your wayward temper. And since I had such a temper, it was a means he had me attempt.

Never, ever, did it work.

"Lane, for fuck sake," I groaned. "Yes, it was weird. But who cares? The guy has been gone for five years, doing God knows what," I paused when I saw her frown, and immediately continued to explain myself. "If he was into something dodgy, you don't know how long he has been off it. Maybe he's just having some kind of withdrawal, some kind of reaction."

I heard her tisk me, her eyes turning back towards the window at her side.

Oh sure, I say what she had been thinking for the last two weeks since learning of his return home, and I'm the dick?

Lord, give me strength.

"Lane, I'm not trying to be a dick," I amended quickly. "I'm just trying to give you a reason."

"That's not the reason," she said quickly, immediately dismissing my attempts to calm her down. "Even if it was, what the hell triggered it? I mean, we were just talking about my job. Then about what he was going to do now that he was home. He was perfectly fine." Her rambling stopped for a moment while her hand returned to her mouth, chewing anxiously on her nails. After a moment she shook her head. "I just don't get it."

Glancing at her, I felt torn. I hated seeing her stressed out this way. At least before we arrived at her parents, I could make up shit to calm her. That he was probably all better now, he maybe found a girl that made him happy like I found her, blah blah blah. It was easy to make up shit when I could literally spin any tale I wanted. But now, she had seen him, talked to him, and got a feel for this new version of her brother she was going to have to come to know. Now, I couldn't have free reign for my lies.

I couldn't deny that the guy was odd. He seemed perfectly normal for the most part. Quiet, granted, but then again I was hardly one to talk. Before Lane, I could be known to barely say a word. I usually just listened, watching everyone else's conversations. Participating in life, but on the outskirts. It was my afterlife. My version of life that wasn't really...life.

I watched Adam when we first arrived, and his behavior seemed so similar to my own. Of trying to incorporate yourself just enough into daily living that no one questioned you. No one asked too much, no one wondered. You merely skirted along on token effort, all the while, locked within yourself. As long as you took part to a certain degree, you didn't have to answer questions to why you were a recluse, or what you were hiding.

But clearly, I had been hiding...just like Adam was.

I had no doubt something fucked the boy up. What it was, I hadn't a clue, and honestly didn't give a shit. My only concern was how his return was going to impact Lane, and so far, I was not impressed. While I tried to encourage her, to support her, and prompt her to move forward with him, he only seemed to sway back and forth, dealing her more confusion in mere hours. As of right now, he was not in my favor.