Lexi
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked my brother who was now in my fridge rummaging for food.
"What? I can't come say hi to my big sister?"
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I guess not," he muttered under his breath
"Who are those from?" He asked, referring to the bouquet of flowers on the kitchen counter.
"I ask the questions here, young man. Why are you in San Francisco?"
I said, folding my hands across my chest, waiting for an answer.
He scratched his head and took a step forward, placing the bottle of water and left over pizza he'd found on the fridge on the table carefully.
"Don't get mad but… I… I lost my scholarship."
I blinked at him, hoping I had heard wrong.
"No," I shook my head as if saying no would magically unsuspend him.
"I'm sorry!"
"You are sorry? No sorry is going to fix this. How did you lose your fucking scholarship?"
He looked away as if he was too ashamed to admit what he'd done.
"Well, I was caught doing something a little…illegal."
"Oh my God, Jace." I said, grabbing my head like a fed up mother.
"Before you judge me, It wasn't planned. I was helping a friend out…"
"Shut up, Jace. Just shut up, please,"
I groaned, lowering myself on the couch.
There was no way this was happening.
"Does Mom know about this?"
Jace shook his head, "No, not yet. I came here first. I didn't want to bother her."
"Good, very good. You're not going to tell her about this, okay. We'll figure this out,"
"How?"
He asked, his tone very skeptical.
"I don't know, we will figure it out. In the meantime, what did you do?"
"A friend of mine gave me his backpack to hold and the police found drugs in the bag,"
"What kind of drugs?"
I asked.
Silence.
"Jace, what did they find in your backpack?"
"Coke…" he said quietly.
"You've got to be kidding me. Why did you help him hold his bag?"
"Huh… because he was my friend and I wanted to be helpful…"
"You wanted to be helpful? Do you honestly want me to believe that?"
"It's the truth," he said quietly.
I stood up abruptly from the chair and began to pace.
My mother and I gave Jace everything to be able to get a scholarship to an ivy League school. We paid for all his practice and now this?
What was I supposed to do? I had no job, no way of supporting two mouths but I couldn't possibly tell my mother about this, it was bad enough she was sick, I couldn't possibly add this to herkist of problems.
"Okay, here's why you're going to do. You're going to get a job in San Francisco, you going to defer one year and then we'll both save up enough to get you back in school."
"And what about my career?"
"I'll go to your school and try to talk to your Dean or something,"
"That's not going to work."
"And how do you know that?" I asked with a frown.
"Because, The Dean is from hell and you're insane."
Jace said.
I wish I could deny that but he was right. I am known to be quite the difficult person. A sentiment I absolutely resented. It wasn't difficult. People were just mostly assholes.
"Can't you call in a favor from one of your rich friends?"
"No, they've done a lot for me lately. I can't keep running to them whenever there's a problem,"
"Isn't that what friends are for?" He asked.
"Well, Maybe you can ask your drug dealer friends for help too." I snapped.
That shut him up real quick.
I sighed.
"Didn't think so,"
My brother's lips thinned into a straight line and slowly turned towards the fridge to get something.
Goodness, he was so unserious.
It irked me.
"We are going over to your school first thing tomorrow. That's plan A."
"What's Plan B?"he asked as he gulped a bottle of root beer.
"I guess plan B would be to get jobs and work our butts off,"
Have nodded, solemnly.
"And plan C would be to ask you friends for help "
"Shut up,"
I sighed.
This wasn't part of the plan.
Nowz I really had to fucking get a job. I doubted I'd get anyone as good as… no, I wasn't going to think of what I had lost.
There were better things I could do with my time.
That gigolo could burn in hell for all I cared.
I'd die before I worked for someone that placed bets on unsuspecting women.
I pressed my fingers into my temples and exhaled slowly, trying to massage the stress away. Jace slumped onto the couch like he hadn't just dropped a life-altering bomb on me. He was scrolling through his phone like we were casually talking about weekend plans and not cocaine possession and a revoked scholarship.
"Do you even realize how serious this is?" I asked, pacing again. "You're lucky they didn't charge you."
He looked up from his phone and shrugged. "I know, okay? I'm not proud of what happened."
"You shouldn't be, you did something really stupid, He looked up from his phone and shrugged. "I know, okay? I'm not proud of what happened."
His jaw clenched, but he didn't say anything. Maybe he knew better.
I plopped back onto the couch beside him, rubbing my eyes. The truth was, I couldn't really stay mad. Jace was my baby brother.A dumbass, but mine. And we'd been through too much together already to let this be the thing that broke him, or us.
"Don't worry, sis. I have everything under control."
I didn't answer. I couldn't. It was futile.
I stood up and was about to start pacing again when the doorbell rang.
"Who the hell was it now?" I groaned, more than annoyed by the interruption.
Wi
th an annoyed sigh, I matched towards the door and swung it open without looking at the peephole.
My eyes widend when I saw the billionaire gigolo standing at the door staring at me…
"What the hell are you doing here?"