A Dangerous Life [Teacher/Student]

Loaded Answers

“Have you ever met our father?” I paused and thought for a minute. I never really thought about Ricky and Eli’s father. In my mind Chris was their father, and if I had to be honest with myself he always would be. Chris was everyone’s father…he was the father of the dysfunctional family we had all created together. But I always knew Eli and Ricky were brothers, but I had always figured it was just the two of them and they both belonged to Chris. Now that Dylan was in the picture it made me wonder how many brother and sister they had.

“Yeah, I have.” He was silent for a moment; I could feel his chest shake slightly. I looked up at him to see his eyes blood shot and glassy, staring at the ceiling.

“I wish you hadn’t.”

“What happened today?” I asked as worry started to creep up my throat. I hadn’t seen Eli this upset before. I had seen him angry, frustrated, annoyed, and even hurt. This was different, he looked scared. He looked heartbroken, and that was an emotion I thought I would never see come across Eli’s face. He didn’t answer me, but he wrapped an arm around my waist and took a deep breath. “Eli…who’s Keisha?” he looked down at me and frowned.

“My sister…our sister.” I was going to say something else, because there were just so many questions bubbling up inside of me. Before I could even open my mouth, my phone rang. I was going to ignore it. Just push whoever was calling straight to voice mail because they weren’t that important, not in this moment. “Answer it.” I swear it was like he could read my thoughts. It had always been that way. I would be scared, doubtful, confused, but Eli always seemed to have an answer before I even thought of the question. “It’s Ricky.” I pulled my phone out and groaned at my laziness and having not put in his number yet, so I had no idea who the fuck was calling me.

“Hello?”

“I’m coming over.”

“You sound just like Chris.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“You’ve never called before hand to tell me that you were coming over before.” I said finding it weird that he was doing it now.

“Yeah well I don’t want to fight when I get there.”

“I don’t want to have sex Ricky.”

“Neither do I…” I was at a loss for words for a second. I looked at Eli, but his eyes were still glued on the ceiling. Never had I seen him so emotionally vulnerable, and I wondered if Ricky looked the same way.

“Don’t come over Ricky.” He was silent but I could still hear his shaking breath.

“Riley-”

“You have Alex to keep you company.” My heart was pounding as I waited for his response. He couldn’t come over; I was taking care of Eli tonight. My heart skipped a beat when I heard it, a sniffle. When he spoke his voice had a certain rasp that only came along with tears. I was getting scared. Ricky never cried.