Owen

A Last Second Insult

I let out a sigh, rubbing my eyes. Jase was staring at the TV.

"How's everything with Brandy?" I asked.

He shook his head, running a hand through his dark mop of hair as he looked over at me.

"That bad?"

He laced his fingers behind his head, still nodding. "Neither of us will budge."

"How'd this even come up? You guys have been together forever." I asked, cringing slightly at the pain radiating through my body.

It'd been off and on all day.

"Her best friend just got engaged and of course all she's talking about is the wedding and a new house and then kids." He sounded frustrated. "I love Brandy, I do. But I don't know if we'll get past this."

I didn't know what to say still. But Brandy was already apart of our family and I was gonna be bummed if she wasn't anymore.

"That sucks man."

He snorted. "Yeah, you're telling me. The Savas men seem to have some pretty shitty luck when it comes to women."

We shared a small smile, both of us chuckling at our misfortune. But he was right. Even our dad had lucked out.

I wondered for a moment if maybe we were just cursed.

"Want your last hit?" Jase asked me after a moment.

It was already after nine and I'd been yawning for hours. Jase and I were still treading water after our truce and I had to admit it was sort of nice.

When I got home from school I had started laying into him a bit but rather than fire back he had somehow figured out my bad mood was stemming from pain. It wasn't that the day had been particularly bad, I'd definitely had worse but I was tired and over it. If only I could spare us all the bull shit and just say that from the beginning. For some reason I couldn't.

"Yeah, thanks." I watched him shove himself off the couch and make his way to the kitchen. When he came back I asked, "you think my card will ever come?"

"I'll see if there's a way I can check on it's progress tomorrow." He handed me the joint, flicking the lighter on in one smooth motion. "Nan's right though, we gotta figure something out. I smell like weed constantly now."

I laughed, a cloud of smoke billowing out of me and straight into Jase's face.

"Sorry." I muttered between coughs. "Probably didn't help."

But he was smiling, probably one of the first genuine smiles I'd seen from him since he started fighting with Brandy.

"Definitely not. It's cool though, my landlord finally likes me know that he thinks I'm a stoner too."

That only caused me to laugh again. "Glad I could help."

He ruffled my hair as he stood, something he hadn't done since I was younger.

"Let me know if you need help. I'm gonna go call Brandy." He told me.

I watched him as far as I could before he disappeared out of sight. I took a hit calling over my shoulder, "good luck."

He already sounded defeated. "I'm gonna need more than luck."

————————

I got a couple hours of beautiful, pain free sleep before I woke to pinpricks firing through my legs. The high I had gone to bed on, long gone. I rolled myself to my side, groping through the blackness for my phone.