Like You to Me

“Do I need to send out the wedding invitations yet?”

I glared at my brother who was sitting on the couch when I walked in. Some mindless cartoon was on the television and a half-finished bowl of cereal sat on the coffee table in front of him. True to his nature, drops of milk were all over the place. When he saw me staring, he did his best to wipe them up with the t-shirt he’d discarded last night before he went to sleep.

“What are you talking about?”

He laughed. It wasn’t an over-the-top laugh, but it stood out enough to tell me he thought I was being an idiot. “You and Mike.”

“How do you even know that’s where I was?”

He shrugged. “You’re my sister. I know these things.”

Rolling my eyes, I plopped down next to him and turned so that my feet were in his lap. It felt weird to almost be living with my brother again. He’d moved out as soon as he turned eighteen; I was still living at home at the time and I thought I wouldn’t miss him. I did, though. I missed fighting with him to get in the bathroom in the morning; I missed knocking on his door at 4AM to tell him to turn his music down because I was trying to sleep; I missed him and his friends playing pranks on me when I finally did fall asleep. Even though we shared hotel rooms on the road, it wasn’t the same. Having him at my apartment, even if it was for one night, made me feel more comfortable than I’d felt in months.

“So, like I was saying about those wedding invitations...”

“We’re not getting married, Saxon.”

“Bullshit.”

I groaned and threw my head back against the arm of the couch. Why did he even bother arguing with me? He wasn’t a psychic. He didn’t know who I was going to wind up marrying. And even if he did, Mike and I weren’t even dating. Going from being barely friends to being married didn’t happen overnight.

“You’re such a dick, did you know that?”

He shrugged and shoved a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “I may have been told once or twice.” I ignored him. Making him think he was funny would only encourage him. Once silence blanketed my apartment (I’d drowned out the sounds of the television) he spoke up again. “Where’d Mike go anyway?”

“Home, I think.”

Saxon was always very protective of me. Ever since our mother left he took it upon himself to take care of me because our father was always too preoccupied with his job to know exactly what was going on in our lives. We didn’t blame him, though. With Mom gone we only had half the income. Since my brother and I were too young to work, everything fell on his shoulders. I always had to remind myself that he was just looking out for me when he held nothing back in our conversations.

“You sure he’s not off galavanting with his girlfriend?”

I had to remember that he was just looking out for me. He didn’t want to see me any more hurt than I already was. Sometimes he forgot that he was capable of hurting me, too.

“Thanks, Sax. You always know exactly what to say.”

I shook my head and removed my feet from his lap. There wasn’t any point in arguing with him, though. Mike had burnt his bridge with my brother the night I cried over him in the hotel room in Phoenix. That seemed like ages ago even though it was only about a week. It was the last time I touched alcohol. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, but with the rate things were going, not very long. It wasn’t even that things were particularly shitty. They weren’t; they’d definitely been worse. But Mike saying such perfect things to me while he had a girlfriend (or whatever the hell she was) wasn’t exactly good.

Saxon headed back into the kitchen and I took a leave of absence to the bathroom. My hair was greasy from the salty air of the beach and tour didn’t leave me smelling my best. Plus it’d give me time to think, although I didn’t feel like I had much to think about. I’d already decided that losing Mike wasn’t an option so if I had to indifferently deal with the fact that he had a girlfriend then that’s what I was going to do. But knowing it wasn’t me still tore me apart whenever I thought about it...which was, unfortunately, all the time.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, my brother called up the stairs that someone was there. I assumed it was Mike. He was really the only one who stopped by whenever he felt like it. Throwing on the first clothes I found, I rejoined my brother in the living room along with Adele and Vic. I looked between them cautiously. They never showed up together. Ever.

“Um, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

That was all the invitation Adele needed to start blabbing off about one thing or another. Apparently they hadn’t meant to show up at the same time. Adele wanted to talk to me about throwing a “welcome home” party for my brother’s band at the office and Vic wanted to talk to me on a more private level, probably about his brother. Once I told Adele to sort out the specifics on her own, my brother went outside to smoke a cigarette, leaving Vic and I alone in the apartment.

“So what’s up?” I asked him as I sat on the couch.

“I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

I smiled. “I’m managing.”

“That’s good,” he nodded. “Did Mike tell you about the new record?”

“He told me you guys were almost finished recording.”

He nodded again. “I think we’re all really excited about it. I have some demos if you wanna hear ‘em.”

I could sense the excitement and pride in his voice, but I had a lasting tradition with them that I wouldn’t listen to any of the demos before the album was released. I still bought all of their music, whether it was Before Today or Pierce The Veil. I wasn’t going to break that now.

“You know I’d love to-”

“-But you’d rather wait until the album comes out,” he finished. I nodded, earning a smile from him. There was a few minutes of comfortable silence before he spoke again. “We got offered a spot on Warped Tour.”

My eyes bulged. “You what?”

“Yep, our manager got a call about a week ago asking if we’d be down to do it.”

“And of course you said yes.”

“Right,” he confirmed.

“Wow, congratulations!” I squealed and threw my arms around his neck. It wasn’t their first Warped Tour but it was always an exciting experience nonetheless.

He laughed. “Thanks, babe.”

“When do you leave?” I asked as I returned to my previous position.

“The first day is in Carson and I’m pretty sure that’s the 25th of June, so probably the 22nd.”

I did the math in my head. If they left on the 22nd as Vic said, that’d leave them with about two months at home to finish recording. It seemed like a long time but it wasn’t the more I thought about it. Mike would be leaving for the entire summer while I was stuck in San Diego. Vic would be gone, too, and he accounted for my sanity half the time. Regardless, I was proud of them. They deserved it.

Saxon stumbled in a few minutes later and Vic immediately began telling him the news. I was never sure how Saxon felt about it, whether he was jealous or not. He always responded positively, though, so I assumed he was just as happy for them as I was. It was still hard for him to see Vic’s band gain so much attention while his own was struggling to leave the ground. I hoped, for everyone’s sake, that Anderson’s departure would bring more bad than good, kind of like Mike’s departure in the next few weeks.