Chapter 10 – I Became a Penniless Mastermind

“What on earth?” Arthur eyed on me, nearly spluttering out coffee all over my face.

Just then, Nathan entered the kitchen and parked himself on the kitchen table while rubbing his forehead. He looked just as messed up as I was—a blackened eye, a broken lower lip and a bruised, swollen cheek. Well, maybe not really. Despite the fact that I gave him a guilt free pass to beat the crap out of me, all I got was a bruise near my left eye and a nasty cut where I accidentally bit the inside of my lip. That last part wasn’t even his doing.

Nathan hit like a girl. He should work out more. But that wasn’t the point. We’d be dead in two seconds anyway in the hands of Arthur Walden.

“What’s for breakfast?” my brother asked innocently before I shushed him. We both received dangerous looks from Dad.

“Uh,” I cleared my throat, unable to think of anything smart to say. “It was all Nate’s idea.”

Nathan stiffened on his chair, running a hand over his already messy blond hair. “We, uh, tried out for… boxing! That’s right, boxing,” he muttered chuckling wryly.

Arthur just nodded bleakly. “I can see that. It was so clever for both of you to use each other as punching bags. And also, there’s this matter of my car being found by the cops in a tow-away zone just in front of Gilbert Murough’s diner at five in the morning.”

Nathan and I groaned almost at the same time. I knew that sneaking out was a dumb idea. And one of these days, he would be the end of me.

With a sigh, Dad put down his coffee cup and gave us his idea of a serious look, which by the way didn’t work because he was just too cool. “Nathan, you’re the oldest—“

“By two minutes!” Nathan complained cutting off Dad.

“Doesn’t matter. I expected you to be the one to look out for your younger brother. Not drag him to drink jack until you both pass out knocking the brains out of each other’s heads!” he roared.

It was the first time I heard Dad raise his voice. He had no problem with me drinking during my rebel years, but I guess he was just worried more about Nathan than me. He expected me able to handle myself and my liquor all the time—except last night—because he raised me that way. What he didn’t know was that Nathan was raised by a bunch of crazy drunks, which would explain why he was the only one who was still sober enough to drag all of us home.

He was clearly not human.

“And Leon,” Dad said, turning to me. “You’re the smarter one. No offense,” he paused to tell Nathan.

“None taken,” replied my idiot brother, grinning like a nutcase. He was clearly loving that I was being scolded in front of him.

“Between the two of you, it’s you Leon, who should keep your brother out of trouble.” Dad shifted his eyes between the two of us like he was trying to imagine how many times I stomped on his precious little Nathan’s face. He shook his head with a sigh. “You’re grounded, both of you,” he muttered before Nathan could smirk more.

“We’re eighteen, Dad!” he grumbled like a five year-old. I knew better than open my mouth at this point. It could only get worse.

“Indefinitely,” Arthur added. “No allowance. No credit cards. I’ll be confiscating those later. No drinking sprees. And no new car for you,” he said mostly to me. “If you think you’re eighteen then you should both better start acting the part.”

It was official. I was grounded for the first time in my life at the freaking age of eighteen! I was broke and not to mention, carless, no thanks to my brother. Now, how could we execute our super complex plan? Ugh, crud…

* * *

“So far, Sarah’s condition is stable,” said Doctor McAllister, dabbing a handkerchief on his shiny forehead. “She may ask more questions than usual and it’s okay to answer them but we want to keep her away from things that might cause severe stress or anxiety. Your concern that she watches more TV than the usual—I think it’s a compensatory mechanism, like she’s trying to fill in the blanks in her memory with new ones. Not something to panic for.”

Emma nodded as Freddy gave her hand a light squeeze. She looked a lot better now, unlike the past week. The permanent looks of worries on their faces seemed to fade with time, now that Sarah was getting better. Well, not actually getting better. So far, she still had no recollection of me or the past two years, but at least she wasn’t having the headaches anymore.

“About her memory,” Emma started. “Will there be a chance that she’ll be able to remember?”

The doctor removed his rimless glasses with a sigh. “We can’t say for sure. Some patients with the same condition recover their memories with time. But most of them don’t. I don’t like to give false hopes, Mrs. Byrnes, and all I can advise now is for you to help her cope with the changes.”

As we stepped out of the doctor’s office, Freddy told Emma to go ahead and tell Sarah that it was time to finally go home. We both watched until she was out of eavesdrop before Freddy patted me on the shoulder.

“What are you planning now, sport?” he asked with a sigh.

I stared at the white tiled floor before answering. “What do you mean?”

“Well, clearly, you’ve got some obligations to attend to in L.A. and you’ll have to deal with your producers sometime soon.” We walked in silence along the hallway for a while before he looked at me with tired eyes. “You know, Sarah needs you now more than ever, but I can’t force you to stay with her while we both know there’s no guarantee that she’ll get her memories back.”

 “I’ll take my chances. I promised to stay with her and even if she doesn’t remember that, it’s still recorded in here.” I pointed a finger on my head.

With a satisfied smile, Freddy nodded at me. “That’s the Leon I know. Now, the Leon I know would have a plan by now. What could it be?”

I filled him in with the exact details while we headed to Sarah’s room. He just listened intently and nodded in silence. I wasn’t sure if he’d let me do it but he deserved to know.

“If this plan of yours actually works, I’d actually badger Arthur to send you to medical school.” He laughed dishevelling my hair so that it looked more like a bird’s nest. “Just so long as you promise to return Sarah without a single scratch. I trust you know exactly what I mean,” he said grimly.

I knew exactly what he meant. He’d rip me to pieces if I so much as touched Sarah. Gulping, I nodded before watching him go over to the billing section.

Sarah was sitting on an easy chair, already out of her hospital clothes, wearing a black T-shirt that said, ‘Come to the dark side. We have cookies,’ and a little green alien in front carrying a giant cookie jar. Her hair was tied up into a bun and secured with a number two pencil.  While she switched channels with the remote, she fitted a pair of black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose. Finally, she found Discovery Channel. Myth Busters just started.

I entered the room and said, “Hey, Nerdy,” sporting a smile. Sarah just gave me a look like, “Uh, you’re here,” then resumed her quality time with the TV. Something wrenched in my chest but I didn’t let it show on my face.

Beside her, Emma sat, flipping the pages of a photo album, smiling at me. “Look, Sarah. Here’s the photo of you and your friends during your sweet sixteen,” she urged, trying to get her daughter’s attention.

“Yeah, Mom. I saw that already,” she muttered, almost irritably, eyes still fixed on the TV. Her lips twitched down at the mention of sweet sixteen. “But I can’t remember anything, so why bother?”

Emma just breathed out and closed the album. “It’s okay Sarah. We’re not forcing you to—“

Sarah turned off the TV and tossed the remote on top of the bed. “Mom. I’m tired. From now on, can we not talk about that? If I couldn’t remember those things, then they’re probably not that important. So it’s okay. I’m okay.”

With that, she stormed out of the room, brushing past me like I was somehow invisible to her. I swallowed hard, about to run after her when Emma stopped me.

“We should allow her some time alone.” She shook her head, getting up to collect Sarah’s stuff and put it in a duffel bag. “I’ve been trying to help her but she kept blocking me off. Sarah has been always like that—always keeping to herself. She didn’t mean what she just said. I know her memories are important to her. She’s just really having a hard time.”

“I understand,” I replied, hurrying to her side to help pack up Sarah’s things.

Under Sarah’s pillow, I found the sapphire drop pendant I gave her for her eighteenth birthday. After making sure that Emma wasn’t looking, I pocketed it, feeling like a thief. Right now, it won’t mean anything to Sarah, but soon, I thought. When she finally realized who I was in her life, I’d give it back to her.

An awkward silence filled us the whole while we drove home from Milford Regional. Sarah and I were practically brushing elbows in the backseat. But the whole time, she just stared away and staring out to the window.

I was brought back to that time in sophomore year when she used to ignore me. All the time, I was afraid she’d catch me secretly looking at her. I was scared to say anything, worried that I might say something stupid or that she’d just hate me even more.

Those feelings slowly came back to me. I was a coward then. Old habits die hard.

“Here we are,” Freddy announced arriving in front of their two-story white and brown three-bedroom house.

Nothing much had changed about Emma’s house over the past two years except for the new flowering plants in the front yard. There were a couple of digging holes on the perfectly mowed lawn, courtesy of Kidnap. Since Emma got in the unemployment line, the house and the garden couldn’t have been more picture-perfect.

Just as I hopped out of Freddy’s Ford, Kidnap scurried from the backyard, his floppy ears dangling up and down. He completely ignored me and jumped up straight into the car and to Sarah’s lap. He pawed on her face, standing on his stalky hind legs. Sarah just looked startled, a small surprised smile curving the tips of her lips.

“We have a dog?” she asked Emma, looking surprised. “You never liked dogs.”

Smiling, Sarah’s mom just shook her strawberry blond head. “First, you have a dog. And second, I do now.”

“He’s been dying to see you,” Freddy added as Kidnap whined, burying his brown furry head under the crook of Sarah’s arm.

I stretched an open hand to help her get out of the car. Sarah just looked at it then stared at her sneakers. Sighing, I pocketed my hands and said, “His name’s Kidnap,” as the dog yapped at the mention of his name. “I gave him to you on your sixteenth birthday.”

With her blue-gray eyes melting, Sarah hugged Kidnap and looked up to me. “T-thank you,” she whispered with a thin papery voice, a sad smile making its way to her lips as she got out of the car, still with the beagle in her arms.

“You’re welcome…” I blinked smiling. “Here, let me. He’s really heavy,” I offered.

Sarah just shook her head gently. “I can carry him.” Without so much as glancing back, she headed to the door.

I felt like I should stop her, but I didn’t know what to say. My brain just about shut down while my head pounded like crazy. Seriously, I couldn’t get the hang of asking a girl out. Normally, they’d be the ones to make the first move so I guess I just didn’t try until now. And technically, Sarah and I hadn’t really gone through the phase of boy-asking-the-girl-out, which would explain why I got zero experience.

“Sarah!” I called, jogging over to her.

She paused to look at me before dropping her gaze to the ground. Apparently, she wasn’t used to being called by her real name. I opened my mouth, swallowed, feeling my stomach in a whirl. Hurriedly, I pocketed both my hands to keep my finger from twirling involuntarily. Force of habit.

“The guys will meet up on Saturday and I was hoping you could come.” Smiling my best smile, I watched her eyes dart everywhere but my direction, thinking Please say yes. Please say yes. Please…

“W-will Becky be there?” she asked hesitantly.

I thought, no. But instead I replied, “Yes.”

A free Becky was really hard to come by these days. She was really in demand among dudes named Drake and… mostly Drake and had been out of stock since then. They could’ve bought a private secluded island just for the two of them and it won’t even surprise me. I’d have to do something about that if I wanted my plans to go smoothly.

“Oh, okay then.” She reached for the door handle, looking a little flustered that I had to open the door for her. “Thanks,” she mumbled.

“Okay. See you then.” I let out an awkward chuckle. “I’ll pick you up at six.”

She closed the door with no clue what I’d planned to throw her into. I backed away slowly, feeling my confidence meter dropping a notch from an okay level, down to uncool. Leon Walden. Certified hit maker. Award-winning musician and actor. Singer, and composer. Now confirmed loser of all time.

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Your stares are burning me! *sobs* Sorry about the late update. It seemed like I undermined your voting ability! Now I had to hurry to make a chapter haha. So see you again after 30 or more votes and I'm coming back with the ctual plan. Promise!