Borrowed Boy by Gene Gant

Author:Gene Gant [Gant, Gene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult
ISBN: 978-1-64080-598-9
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2018-11-13T06:00:00+00:00

THE SUNLIGHT in my face woke me. I blinked, squinting against the brightness as I pushed up on my elbows. Someone had pulled back the curtains, letting the full glow of the morning sun fill the windows of my room. The digital clock on my nightstand read 9:27.

Yawning, I threw back the covers, swung my legs around, and slid out of bed. Except for the soft hum of the air-conditioning system, the place was quiet. The air-conditioning was one thing I actually liked about being here. The Copelands apparently didn’t have to worry about sky-high energy bills the way my Memphis parents did. They kept the condo at a temperature so cool I could actually snuggle under the bedcovers, and I loved feeling cocooned that way. The boxes containing my stuff from Memphis were still stacked against the wall. Even with my Chicago mom offering her help, I hadn’t found the will to get that job done.

In pajama bottoms and T-shirt, I left my room and padded up the hall toward the kitchen. The door to BJ’s room was open. I picked up my pace as I passed, hoping to avoid contact if he was in there. I glimpsed an unmade bed and scattered dirty clothes but no BJ. Hopefully he was off somewhere bungee jumping without a bungee.

I walked into the kitchen, and there he was, my favorite brother, hunched at the table over the remnants of his breakfast—crumbs, a half-eaten slice of toast smeared with strawberry jam, an untouched boiled egg—while lost in a text fest. My heart kind of jolted at the sight of him, tingles of anxiety reaching down into my stomach. As long as our parents were around, he pretty much ignored me. When it was just the two of us, he did stuff that made me wish I was still an only child.

Like smacking me in the head.

Like shoving me into walls.

Like calling me country boy.

Like telling me to do our parents a favor and jump a train back to Memphis.

I’d never been bullied before, not on a consistent basis like that, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I mean, what could I actually do? Fight back? BJ was stronger and faster than me. When I hit or shoved him back, he just doubled down on the pain. Only yesterday he twisted my arm so far up behind my back that it went numb for fifteen minutes. Tell our mom and dad? I did that once, and they came down on BJ like a bulldozer. That night, BJ sneaked into my room and bulldozed me. So I mostly just tried to stay out of his way and avoid being alone with him.

Fortunately, both parents were in the kitchen with us this morning. Chicago Mom was pouring water in the coffee maker, and Chicago Dad was standing over the double-sized toaster waiting for something to pop out. They both smiled when they saw me.

“There’s the sleepyhead,” Chicago Dad said happily. He wasn’t goofy fun like Memphis Dad.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.