Author's Note: Thanks to LizHaze for the editing.
****
I was still cursing under my breath as I finally made it to my brother's place. It shouldn't have always been up to me to keep track of him; he was the older one and by all rights it should have been the other way around. I was just pushing nineteen and had only recently started living on my own, and as far as I was concerned it was enough trouble just looking after myself. The fact that I had to climb five flights of stairs to get to his apartment didn't help my mood either.
I didn't even knock before using the key he'd given me to unlock his door and barge my way in. If he didn't want to respond to my half-dozen texts or answer his goddamn phone when I called, he didn't deserve the warning. In hindsight, maybe that particular decision hadn't been quite as well thought out as it could have been.
Typically, there was only one real reason Sam would ignore me, and that meant he'd found a new girl to occupy his attention. Following that train of thought to its conclusion would probably have allowed me to guess, accurately, that said new girl was most likely in the near vicinity when he decided not to answer his phone. In fact, she was still there when I burst through the door looking about ready to murder someone.
Sam's apartment was hardly what I would have called big. It was nicer than mine by a long way, but it still opened directly into a combined kitchen and living room. The kitchen half, in this instance, was occupied by girl who was looking more than a little confused at my sudden entry, and who also happened to be mostly naked. My brother, naturally, was nowhere to be seen, and so was absolutely no help in making the situation less awkward.
The mystery girl, who I assumed was Sam's current girlfriend that he had conveniently failed to mention to me, stared at me for a long moment while I stared right back. She had a half-empty glass of water in her hand, and was wearing nothing except for a pair of panties. She didn't even have the decency to be embarrassed at being caught in her state of undress, though given her body maybe it wasn't that surprising. Even as a girl I had to admit she was hot.
"Hello," the girl tried eventually.
"Hey," I mumbled. "Is Sam here?"
All the anger and righteous indignation I'd been storing up for my brother seemed to vanish, it seemed more than a little unfair to take it out on the relatively innocent girl in front of me. Even if her lack of shame annoyed me slightly.
"Oh," she said, brightening slightly. "You must be Sam's little sister. Lily or something, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, that's right," I said, mentally forgiving my brother slightly for at least having mentioned me. "I tried getting hold of him, but he was ignoring me."
"Mm-hm, I heard his phone going off, but he said he'd get it later. Do you need to tell him something?"
"Only if by tell him something you mean remind him that we need to leave like right now. Mom's birthday's today, and I am so not letting him skip at least showing up to supper. He knew damn well it was today too, I'm always having to kick his ass just to get him to do anything."
I stopped when I realized I was beginning to vent on someone I'd only just met, but she didn't seem to mind and in fact rolled her eyes in sympathy.
"He said that was tomorrow," she said. "He's so terrible at remembering things like that, isn't he?"
"You have no idea," I said, a little surprised at getting such easy support. "It's even worse when he's--"
I caught myself just before saying anything about how distracted Sam got when he had a new girlfriend, since in this case she was standing right in front of me.
"When he's got a naked girl hanging around his apartment?" she said, finishing my sentence for me anyway and looking rather amused as she did. "Speaking of which, I probably should go put some clothes on. I'll send Sam out while I'm at it. He was just in the shower, you know, cleaning up, but he might be out by now. It'll take like five minutes tops. Promise."
I decided I kind of liked this girl. Sure I could have gone without her subtle hint that she and Sam had been fucking shortly before I arrived, but her tone suggested that she knew how to deal with him and that getting him reasonably clothed and out of his room in a matter of minutes was easily doable. I knew from far too much experience that getting him to do anything on anyone's schedule other than his own was a skill even I had yet to master.
About four and a half minutes later, and I was counting, Sam emerged from his room dressed presentably enough for my purposes. The way he smiled at me was infuriating as usual, like he was sure he hadn't done anything wrong.
"Hey Lil," he said. "Ready to go?"
I punched him in the arm as soon as he got close enough. Hard. He gave me a look like a puppy that didn't know why it had been swatted.
"Don't ignore me when I call next time," I said.
"Aw, c'mon. I was busy with... you know," he said, jerking his head back toward his bedroom.
"What's new," I grumbled.
Thankfully Sam didn't require any more preparation to go than simply putting on a pair of sneakers, so we were soon ready to go. The stairs on the way down weren't nearly as bad, though they did leave time for me to gather my thoughts, and I wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing.
"So what's her name?" I asked, finally deciding there was a chance I'd need to know his girlfriend's name at some point.
"Who?"
"The naked girl." I gave Sam a warning look not to play stupid with me right now.
"Oh, I thought I told you about her already," he said, seeming to genuinely mean it. I softened a little since I knew it was entirely possible it really had just slipped his mind. He genuinely tended not to be malicious so much as careless most of the time. "Her name's Katherine, she goes by Kat though mostly. She's... well I guess obviously she'd my girlfriend."
"No shit."
"Don't be grumpy Lil, it's just me. You know how I am."
"Yeah, I do. Doesn't mean I have to like it though."
We eventually made it to where our cars were parked; Sam insisted on taking his own because he had 'plans' for later on. It would have made more sense to me just to share since I was already there, but I wasn't about to argue the point. Beyond making sure he showed up for supper with the family, I had no intention of trying to babysit my brother.
****
The evening went well enough I thought. Mom loved having both her kids over, and of course never had the slightest clue that Sam had been very close to not showing up. Dad didn't have quite the same blind spot about his son, and he tossed me an appreciative look when Sam showed up, clearly having a much better idea of the trouble I'd gone through.
I did enjoy the occasional visit home, but I was still happy to get back to my apartment later on. It was so nice to have my own place and not to have to worry about anyone but myself. Partly I just liked my privacy in a way that most people, my family included, didn't seem to really grasp. It wasn't that I needed to be alone for any particular reason, I just... liked it.
As I walked down the hallway toward my door, I noticed a half-open door a few apartments from mine. It was a little unusual since most people kept their doors closed when not entering or leaving, the people living in the area weren't necessarily always people you could trust after all, but it wasn't enough to draw my attention for more than a couple seconds. It was only when I got closer to my own door that I realized something might actually be wrong.
I never left my door open when I left my apartment, never even left it unlocked, yet it certainly wasn't closed. In fact, there appeared to be damage on the frame as though it had been forced open.
"Hello?" I called softly, hoping desperately no one would answer. It was possible there was a perfectly innocent explanation, even if none sprung immediately to mind.
When I saw the inside of my apartment, it was pretty much as bad as I could have expected. I didn't have that much space to work with, so I'd gotten pretty good at keeping things tidy, but the sight that greeted me was exactly the opposite. It seemed like every single thing I owned had been scattered across the floor as if to make the biggest possible mess. My computer and tv, two of the very few semi-valuable things I had, were just gone.
I stepped carefully through the debris, still unwilling to admit it was all that bad, until I made it to my room. It was the same story in there as well, with my clothes having been ripped out their drawers and what little jewelry I owned conspicuously missing. It wasn't like any of it was even worth anything, except for the sentimental value.
I sat down on my bed and stared at nothing for a solid few minutes. I had been well aware that the neighbourhood I had chosen to live in wasn't entirely the safest one out there, but somehow I never expected anything to actually happen to me. It wasn't easy to process, but it seemed my misguided belief in my own untouchable status had been far, far from matching up with reality.
It wasn't fair; that's what I eventually decided. It just wasn't fair. Sure my apartment was kind of small, and in a shitty building, and in a sketchy part of town, but it was supposed to be mine. I was supposed to be able to decide who got to come in, if I let anyone in at all. Now... that seemed like a joke. One of those jokes that wasn't meant to be the slightest bit funny.
I wasn't proud of it, but I almost started crying a couple times. When I'd moved into the apartment I swore I'd never have to move back in with my parents and I could be my own person. All of a sudden the safety and certainty of home seemed like a much better deal to me than it ever had before.
After far too long doing absolutely nothing, I finally decided I should probably do something about the situation. I wasn't sure what exactly since cleaning seemed very much like a waste of time, and from the look of the doorway on my way in it wasn't anything I could fix on my own. I did still have my cell phone, even if it took me longer than it should have to remember it, but I wasn't sure who to call.
The police were my first thought as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and stared at the screen. This was probably exactly the sort of situation one should call them, in fact. The problem was I really didn't want to. They'd just ask questions, and I couldn't handle questions right now. Even helpful ones. My parents were a bad choice for more or less similar reasons, with the added downside that they'd worry and try to help and generally just suffocate me.
There was another choice of course, and his number was conveniently sitting right at the top of my 'recent calls' list. I very, very rarely asked my brother for help, but this time I felt like I needed to. I flat out couldn't handle the situation on my own, and he was a good compromise of someone who I hoped would care, but not to the point of actively making things worse.
I sat there as the phone rang, hoping that this time he'd actually pick up and not leave me hanging again. It had only been annoying when he'd done it earlier, this time I would be legitimately pissed. Or maybe I actually would just have that cry I'd been contemplating. I'd have to wait and see.
"Hey Lil, what'd I forget to do this time?"
Sam's voice came through, irritatingly cheerful to me given my current state of mind, before I even realized that the ringing had stopped. He naturally assumed I was just calling to pester him again, and I truly wished that was all it was.
"Can you come over?" I said, struggling to keep my voice even.
"Um... does it really need to be now?" he said, his tone dropping some of it's levity as he picked up a little on the fact that I was in no mood for jokes.
