He stood at the top of the stairs, his big arms crossed over his chest. I always thought Levi looked like a bodybuilder, he was so strong.
“Zephyr? What did she do?”
Levi was scary when he got angry…which was a lot. Ben was never angry, and Mom would only get annoyed with us sometimes. Levi, though…
Zephyr cringed. “I took her doll, and she chased me, so–”
“So she broke your fingers?”
Zephyr stayed quiet.
While I knew I was safe with Zephyr, I felt really small.
Levi tended to do that. He usually talked about me like I wasn’t there. He didn’t even bother asking me what’d happened, because a lot of the time, he didn’t believe me. I knew better than to try explaining myself, though. He’d asked Zephyr, so Zephyr had to explain.
“You broke his fingers?” Levi asked, his tone getting a little more mad.
“It was an accident,” I said weakly.
The next moment, Levi ripped me out of Zephyr’s arms and pulled me toward the stairs. I stumbled after him, and Zephyr scrambled to follow us, his eyes wide as he held my doll.
“It was an accident,” Zephyr repeated. “I took her doll.”
I shuddered as Levi pulled me through the wall. I could hear Zephyr’s protests from the other room, and a few seconds later he came through the doorway.
“Iris,” Levi snapped.
My mom was sprawled out on the couch with an ice pack on her chest. She’d been having her bad days again. When she got like this, she just stayed on the couch with her ice pack. Sometimes she’d read a book or watch TV, but most of the time she seemed like she was sleeping.
She sighed before opening her red eyes to stare at the ceiling.
“What,” she said, her tone flat. Levi stopped his advance for a second, chewing his lip before he spoke.
“Your daughter just broke Zephyr’s fingers.”
My mom jolted, sitting up so quickly her ice pack slid to the floor. She scrambled to pick it back up, then held it against her chest as she looked back and forth between us.
“Hisfingers, Skye?”
I started to cry again.
“It was an accident,” I said.
“Don’t whine,” Levi said sharply. I only sobbed again. I didn’t think I was whining. I didn’t know how tonot whinewhile crying.
“Lay off, Levi.” My mom said, sounding mad. Levi’s face twisted, but he didn’t talk back.
“I took her doll,” Zephyr said, panting from charging up the stairs. “I was being a jerk.”
My mom sighed, then nodded. “Let me see your hand.”
“I fixed it,” Zephyr said, showing her his healed fingers. “Just two fractures. She didn’t even fully break them.”
Mom’s eyebrows were high on her forehead as she looked at Zephyr’s hand.
“You fixed it,” she said, then smiled. “Good job, baby.” She squeezed Zephyr’s cheek before looking to where Levi and I stood.
I was still shaking, tears streaming down my face. I didn’t like when Levi acted like this. Sometimes Mom listened to me, and sometimes she listened to Levi. Usually when Zephyr got hurt, she’d listen to Levi.
