After years of separation, Carl is finally about to meet up with his best friend again, when he hears shouting coming from her house. Why does she sound so angry? Will what should be a happy reunion become a disaster? Will Brianna and her big brother have to leave? Read on and find out!

Brianna's Big Brother - Chapter 3
Copyright 2007 by Heather Rose Brown

As I got near the end of the path through the woods, I noticed a muffled shouting. Brianna caught up with me and took my hand, looking worried and maybe just a little scared. "Is that Terri?"

"Sounds like it," I answered as we came out to a clearing. I stopped about twenty feet away from my best friend's house and tried to figure out what was going on. "That deeper voice sounds like her dad."

"Think maybe we aughta come back later?" my sister asked just as I was about to suggest the same thing.

Before I could answer, the front door to the two-story cabin opened and Terri stomped out. She swung around, nearly dropping the large bundle in her left arm, and shouted through the open doorway, "I hate you!" I half expected the graying cedar shingles covering the top half of her house to fall as she slammed the door. She caught sight of us and ran down the steps, but was slowed down when she had to shove her way through the knee-high grass and wildflowers that had grown over the dirt path leading through the clearing to where my sister and I stood.

The door swung open again and Terri's dad, still in his pajama's, stood in the doorway and yelled, "And where do you think you're going, young lady?"

My friend was just within arms reach when she spun around and yelled back, "Swimming! If I'm lucky, I'll drown!" Before her dad could come back with anything, she turned on her heel, grabbed me by the wrist, and led me back down the path I'd just been on. Brianna was still holding my hand and wound up trailing behind me.

I'd been taken by surprise, having forgotten how Terri always seemed to be dragging me around when we used to go anywhere, so it was nearly a minute before I asked, "What's wrong?"

I almost slammed into Terri when she stopped short, then barely managed to avoid falling over when Bri ran into me. My friend let go of my wrist, then turned on me and said with a low growl, "Men."

I couldn't think of anything to say to that, which was just as well, since I probably would have wound up putting my foot in my mouth no matter what I came up with. Brianna was still panting from trying to keep up with us when she asked, "What's wrong with men?"

Terri's expression and voice softened when she turned to my sister, "You're a little young to be learning this, but you'll have to eventually."

"Learn what?"

My friend closed her eyes. Pain filled her voice as she whispered, "Men will do whatever they can to get their own way, including lying to your face."

I wish I could say I was understanding when she made such a generalization, but my first reaction was anger. It took me a few seconds to realize she wasn't talking specifically about me. Instead of accusing her of being unfair, I swallowed my anger and asked, "Did your dad lie to you?"

A tear ran down her cheek as she opened bloodshot eyes and slowly nodded. The bit of anger I had shoved down melted when I saw how much pain Terri was in. Without a word, I opened my arms. I was in for a bit of a surprise when she stepped up to me and I held her close. Her loose, oversized shirt had done a pretty good job of hiding how she had ... developed. Once I realized why she felt differently than I'd expected, I did my best to ignore the strangeness and concentrated on hugging my friend as she cried on my shoulder.

Eventually, I noticed the crunch of footsteps behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Terri's little sister running towards us, shouting between pants, "Terri! Terri!"

My friend let go of me, thanking me with a smile, before stepping around me and shouting at her sister, "Cori! What the heck are you doing--"

Before Terri could say anything more, Cori ran into her and grabbed her older sister around the waist. "Please Terri, don't go."

Brianna stepped up to Cori, rested a hand on her shoulder, and softly asked, "What's the matter?"

Cori started sobbing, but still managed to answer, "Terri said she was gonna ... she was gonna d-drown herself."

My friend managed to loosen Cori's grip enough to slide down and hug her sister back. "I guess you must have heard me yelling at Dad." Cori just nodded and Terri hugged her tighter. "I made a promise to you and Mom I wouldn't do anything like that, and I meant it. I didn't mean it when I said I was going to drown myself. I was just mad at Dad and talking stupid."

I heard more gravel crunching and turned to see Uncle Rick (Terri's and Cori's dad) running down the path barefoot with the bottom of his bathrobe flapping around his pajama bottoms. He was still out of breath when he put his hand on Terri's shoulder and said, "Sweetheart?"

Terri flinched at the touch and shrugged his hand away. "Leave me alone."

"Please, just listen to me. I can explain everything."

My friend untangled herself from her sister and turned to face her dad. "You can explain why you were making out with your boyfriend in the kitchen?"

"We weren't making out. I was just giving him a kiss."

"That used to be the kitchen where you kissed Mom." Terri shot out an arm, pointing up the path. "That used to be OUR house." She paused. Her arm started shaking. "Then that ... that MAN came along and ruined everything!" Her arm fell and bright tears sparkled on her lashes. "You promised me he wouldn't be here."

He tried touching her shoulder again, but she stepped out of range. "You promised!"

Uncle Rick didn't seem to know what to do with his hands. Eventually, he shoved them deep into the pockets of his bathrobe. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Jason's seminar was canceled at the last minute and he had no place left to go."

"Couldn't he have stayed at the hotel?"

"Actually, he'd tried that, but his reservations wound up being canceled at the same time as the seminar. The hotel didn't have anyplace available because all the rooms had been booked up by another event."

Terri stared at the ground between her and her dad. The wind whispered through the tops of the pine trees all around us. I almost didn't hear my friend when she eventually said, "Oh."

Uncle Rick stared at the same spot. "Jason spent most of the night looking for someplace else. By the time he gave up and drove back home, it was after midnight and you and your sister were asleep. I had to go outside and talk him out of sleeping in the car. This morning, just before you walked into the kitchen, he'd been telling me how he'd made arrangement to stay at his parents' house."

Terri looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. "Didn't his mom say he wasn't to set foot in her house again?"

Her dad looked up at her and nodded. "He was able to get his father on the phone and explained the emergency, then his father talked to his mother, who eventually agreed it would be okay for Jason to stay for a couple of days."

My friend frowned. "You can't send him there."

"I'm not sending him anywhere. It was his idea."

"But staying there with the way his mom feels about him would be awful!"

My little sister surprised me by coming up with an idea I hadn't even thought of. "Ummm, maybe he could stay with my family at our camp site?"

Terri looked at her and smiled. "That's really sweet of you, but he's already got a place to stay."

Uncle Rick smiled too, but it seemed a bit forced. "That's true. Jason should be able to find something to do for most of the day, so he'll really only need to deal with his mother when he comes home to go to bed."

Terri reached out and took her dad's hand. "No, I didn't mean his parents' house, I meant ours."

His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows popped up. "You sure, sweetheart?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I always thought it was awful the way his mom treated him, and now I'm starting to realize I was being just like her."

"Terri, you've never--"

My friend covered his mouth with her free hand. "Please, let me finish." When he nodded, she pulled her hand back, uncovering a smile that looked a bit less forced. "What I'm trying to say is, I know you love him, which kinda makes him family, and family shouldn't push each other out of their own homes."

Uncle Rick reached out to Terri. Instead of pulling back like before, she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his chest. He sniffled a bit and hugged her around the shoulders, then kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Terri. I can't tell you how much that means to me."

Cori stepped up to them and did her best to hug them both. "I'm so glad ya's ain't mad at each other no more."

Uncle Rick held tight to both his daughters, then looked up to Bri and me. "Hey you two. You're just as much family as anybody."

Bri caught what he meant pretty quickly and joined the group hug. Feeling silly just standing there, I joined in too. Once I got over feeling awkward, I started enjoying just being close to people I cared about. It reminded me a lot of the group hugs I used to be invited to before Terri moved away.

The only thing missing was my friend's mom.