the spade brothers' little sister

four

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Jace was able to control himself at dinner and didn't explode at Brady and Larson like I thought he would. Luckily at that point, I was done eating because the way Brady was looking at me was making my tummy feel queasy. We ate the rest of dinner mostly in silence except for when Charlie would do his best to lighten everyone's moods, but no one was having it. Jace was pissed at his two brothers who left me home alone. Brady was fuming at me and Larson was too. I didn't know how to feel. I felt really bad that I had accidentally spilled the beans, but I also felt like Brady and Larson deserved it for leaving me by myself all afternoon.

After an eerily silent car ride, Jace sent me up to my room and told me he would deal with me later. I didn't even do anything wrong so I didn't know what I deserved to be sent to my room. I protested a little bit but when I saw Jace's exhausted face, I felt bad and just shut my mouth and ran to my room.

"What the fuck were you two thinking leaving her home alone all fucking day?!" Jace shouted at his two brothers. We had dropped Charlie off at a friend's house on the way home. He clearly didn't want to be home when the fight between brothers broke out and I was mad at him for ditching me and leaving me with my fuming brothers instead.

"We left for two fucking minutes!" Larson shouted back. "She's almost fucking 13, Jace, I think she can take care of herself for two minutes!"

"She's still a kid, Larson! She's not even a teenager yet!"

"She almost is, Jace!" Brady spoke up. "I could take care of myself when I was twelve, so why can't she?"

"She still plays with fucking Barbies and you two idiots wanted her to stay home alone?" Jace raised his voice again.

I heard a loud sigh and someone flopped down on the couch. I cracked my bedroom door open and creeped to the top of the steps so that I could listen to what they were saying since they were apparently done yelling.

"But she can't be home alone, Larson!" Jace spoke firmly. "You know that."

"I know," Larson admitted. "But I needed to take care of something."

"And you needed to take Brady with you?" Jace asked. "For fuck's sake, leave him home to watch Brenna if you need to go out!"

"I wanted to go with him," Brady interjected.

"Where did you guys go?"

"Um," Brady stuttered. "Lunch."

"I won't buy that shit, Brady," Jace sneered. "Don't lie to my fucking face." Jace was always so nice and loving to me but when he was mad at one of my other brothers, he would be insane.

"Listen Jace," Larson started. "If I tell you the truth, you can't get mad."

Jace murmured in acknowledgement.

Larson lowered his voice and I had to creep down a few more stairs so that I could hear. "I sold someone a batch of oxy." Oxy? Was that the medication Larson was using in the hospital and the pills he was talking about with Brady before?

"You're fucking deal drugs now?" Jace asked, but it sounded more like a regular statement than a question.

"It was a one time thing. We need the money, Jace, you know that," Larson explained.

"We do need the money. But that doesn't give you an excuse to sell your fucking pills. You need those for your head."

"Nah," Larson replied. "Coke works like a charm for the pain."

"Fuck," Jace whispered. "You're not on coke again, are you?"

There was silence for a moment.

"Brady, go upstairs to your room. We'll talk later," Jace commanded. After a few complaints and protests from Brady, he walked over to the stairs. I was stupid and forgot to move from my perch and Brady ran into me as he was running up the stairs.