Crave

chapter two: i was wrong

~~

I swore, I swore I would be true
And honey so did you
So why were you holding her hand?
Is that the way we stand?
Were you lying all the time?
Was it just a game to you?

~~

I finally got the courage to call Cory and my over-bearing mother, who urged me to return the rental car and wait for my brother to come pick me up.

"Come stay at the house with us until you get back on your feet!" she immediately offered, but my chest seized in panic at the thought. Not that there was anything inherently wrong with living with my parents once again, but after being solo for so long, moving back home felt nightmarish, a major step back from where I'd gotten myself before.

          Cory's bright red FJ Cruiser comes flying into the rental car lot then, and he jumps out, marching straight over to me and picking me up in a bear hug.

"Jesus fucking Christ, sis, don't you ever do something like that to me again!" he grumbled. "I thought for sure your mom was finally going to cut my head off once and for all."

          My mom loved Cory to death, but his humor, and choice in career, really rubbed her the wrong way. Cory was all set to become an engineer in high school, making the top marks despite running around with his favorite rag-tag crew turned successful rock band. He ditched the clean-cut path set before him, though, and became a music producer and songwriter, his other talent and passion. Back then, he was the guy that pulled out a guitar at parties, but he was actually good, and could come up with catchy melodies and a good hook in what seemed like no time at all. He and his friends worked on their last four albums together, and he's worked with hundreds of other bands and popular artists over the years, ranging from heavy metal to top of the pop, giving him a well-known name in the industry and a cushy salary to boot.

Despite his success, I was seemingly the golden child in comparison. I'd started premed at the one of the best schools in Southern California before I'd landed on Nursing instead, and started traveling out of necessity when the hiring pool seemingly dried up a few years back. They saw it as a noble sacrifice to help people get better. I saw it as a way to triple my salary, see the country, and get out from under my mom's thumb.

          "Sorry about that, for everything. It's a long story."

          "Well. Good thing for you, we've got a nice hour-long-plus drive home. Let's go." He gestures toward the SUV, and I climb up into the front seat. He all but tosses the luggage into the narrow trunk of the car and easily slides into the driver's seat.

To a passerby, we could totally sell that we were full-blooded siblings. We both had natural golden-blonde hair, blue eyes, and a light dusting of freckles on our faces from spending entirely too much time out soaking up the sun.
We were both relatively tall; he stood at a solid 6'3" and I was a trim 5'7". We were both athletic types, slim and slender from years of baseball and basketball on his part, and cheerleading and track for me growing up.

"Practically twins!" my mother would joke, albeit begrudgingly, over the years. The only difference between us – he was 2 years older and could handle his liquor, while I always swayed at a 3 drink max.

          We weren't always this close. In fact, when we first met, at 11 and 13, we practically declared war against each other, terrorizing each other both in school and eventually at home, when his dad moved my mom and I in. When they married, we both got sent home from the wedding early with my grandma for throwing food at each other. Then, when I hit middle school, something changed. We went from hating each other, to him becoming absurdly protective of me as we navigated our middle school. He was 2 years older than me, but only a grade above me, due to being held back for the first grade. That wasn't his fault, though – his mom died when he went into the first grade, the first time, and he missed weeks and weeks of school before and after her untimely death. Then again, if he hadn't been held back, he would've never met his solid core group of friends. Fate had a bigger plan in mind for him, it seemed.