"Where have you been" my brother yelled at me when I walked through the front door. "You were supposed to be home over an hour ago."

I dropped my bag by the door and looked at my brother. Carl stood in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest. His face was red from yelling and his jaw was clenched in anger.

"My car broke down" I said as I walked past him.

Me and my brother had a love hate relationship. He loved to hate me. Ever since I was thrown out of my house by my drunkard parents, it was either live on the streets or live at hotel Carl.

"Your car broke down?" He asked. "Why didn't you call?"

"I tried" I said as I opened the fridge and pulled out a bowl of leftover spaghetti an I started to eat it. "My phone was dead and and the pay phone cord was cut. I lost a quarter tonight so we're both upset."

He sighed. "How was your game?"

I smiled but he couldn't see it. "We won."

"That's good" he said as he lead in the fridge and pulled out a beer and I frowned at him when he twisted the cap off. "What? You kept me up worrying about you. I deserve this."

I nodded quickly and rushed to my room. Once I was in my room I was greeted my poster covered white walls. I flopped on my bed and stared at the ceiling.

I hated it when my brother drank. Since we were both children, we watched our parent drink every hour. Unlike me who swore to never touch it, he was drinking a can a day. He was never drunk, he just drank to take the edge off.

Slowly, I stood up and slipped of Joes jacket and placed it on my bed. I rushed to the bathroom and stripped off my clothes. Once I was in the shower I turned the knob a hot water cascaded over my body.

Very gently, I ran a soapy washcloth over body. I winced as I went over the spots I've been hit at that were most likely going to be black a blue tomorrow. Pain wasn't nothing new to me, I had a lot worse done to me. Like during my first game, I was pushed into the railing an I went over and fell five feet on the cement floor. I had a large ugly bruise on the side of my stomach and my right forearm was black and blue for weeks.

After I was done I shut the water off and wrapped a towel around myself. My body no longer felt the abusive chill from earlier. With care, I maneuvered myself into my pajamas and went back to my room.

I sat on my bed and look at the jacket that didn't belong to me. Even though I'll never see him again, the thought of having a fun, happy moment with a guy made up for all of those years being alone. I slipped the jacket on the coat rack by my bed a fell asleep.

___________________________

The next morning I felt like crap. Since I spent over a hour in the cold messed with my body. Ever since I walked out of my bedroom, I had my blanket wrapped around me like a cape.

I was like a lion on the prowl as I looked for a can of soup. After a few minutes of rummaging though cabinets, I let out a small cry of victory as I found some chicken noodle soup. I open the can and dumped it in the pot.

A minute later, Carl stepped into the kitchen and gave me a weird look when he saw me with my arm extended and stirring soup. "Why are you standing so far back?"

"Because a flame and a blanket is not a match made in heaven" I said very nasally. Oh god I hated being sick.

"Here" he said as he shooed me away and started to stir the soup. "I don't want you to burn down the entire apartment complex."

I smiled as I sat at the kitchen table. "Thanks."

Carl turned the flame off and poured the soup in a bowl and set it in front of me. He then turned to the coffee pot a filled his mug and then sat in front of me.

"Were did your car break down?" He asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"About ten miles outside of town" I said to him after I swallowed a spoonful of hot soup.

He almost did a spit take with his coffee. "TEN MILES?"

"Maybe eleven" I smirked.

"Did you walk the entire way home?" He asked.

"Well" I said as I leaned back in my chair. "I skated, then walked, stopped, started walking again, then...picked up."

"You got into another persons car" he exclaimed. "Are you stupid? That is completely idiotic of you."

"Why are you freaking out?" I asked while I avoided looking him in the eyes. "Would you rather have me freezing or warm in some guys car?"

"A guy!?" He asked in a shocked tone. "Did he do anything to you?"

"No" I said with an annoyed tone. "I really don't feel talking and I also feel as if I'm about to throw up."

"Don't change the subject" Carl said to me."

"No. I'm about to vomit" I said as I rushed to the trash can.

I could hear my brother snickering as I was bringing whatever was in my stomach up. "Having fun?"

"Shut up" I said as straighten up. "I'm going back to bed."

"No your not" Carl said as he stood up and set his mug in the sink. "Your coming with me."

"I don't want to" I whined.

"To bad" he said ad he slipped his shoes on. "My friends loaning me his tow truck to get it and you need to help me."

I sighed and went back to my room to put some clothes on. I didn't have the motivation to put real pants on so I settled on some old sweats.

Once I was out of my room, I slid my shoes on and followed my brother out of the apartment and to the truck. We both hopped in and drove to my car.

It was right were I left it. I watched my brother backed the rear of the truck to my cars front bumper. It didn't take long to hook up and then we were off to the mechanic.

The ride was silent until my brother spoke. "Since I'm your legal guardian, I forbid you into getting into a strangers car."

I some how managed to smile through my sickness at him. "I'll try."

The rest of the car ride was silent as we drove to the mechanics. I was relieved to find out no serious harm was done to my car, just something simple that could be fixed in a day or two.

When we arrived home, I went straight into bed and sleep. I don't know if it was my sickness talking, but I slept until Sunday afternoon.

Even though I was still in a shitty state of being, I managed to get all my homework done as well as an essay that would be due on Tuesday. I felt pretty proud of myself. When ever I was sick, I could always get work done as opposed to when I'm healthy.

By the time Monday came around, I felt better but decided to stay home anyway. I was all alone. Carl was at work and all my derby teammates had day jobs. Out of boredom, I ransacked my brothers DVD collection to see if he had anything decent enough but he had a lot of porn.

I sighed and gave up. I went back to my room to sleep off the rest of this cold.