Page 81 of Kaine

“At one of the local shelters downtown. I was waiting for them to get me into one of their detox centres. It’s a quick fix, and there’s no guarantee I can get into a rehab program after, but at least I’ll be clean, detoxed to start.”

“Oh honey, you... you can’t do it that way, it’ll kill you.”

“The drugs will do that any way, sis. And this is all I, we, can afford. Anyway, I was just staying there overnight, they said they’d probably find a place for me today. So, I can’t stay here for long, as soon as there’s a spot I’ve gotta go. But Scaryman threatened my knees, so I came back to tell you I’m okay, and that I’m sorry. And to pray for me,”

“You’re not going anywhere. Well, not just yet.” Kaine comes up and gestures for us to sit down. He hands me a hoodie and I pull it over my toga before sinking into the couch next to him.

“What do you mean?” Gabe asks.

“We’ve... we’ve gotten you into a rehabilitation clinic upstate. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll take you,” Kaine explains. I grab his arm and he turns and smiles at me.

“No, I...” my brother starts.

“Don’t do it for you, don’t do it for me, do it for your sister.” His words are simple, but he delivers them straight into Gabriel’s eyes. And I see them burrowing into his mind.

“Please, Gabriel,” I say, not even knowing the look of begging flooding my eyes.

“Oh, sis.”

“Do this for her,” Xavier comes over and joins us on the couch. “And maybe I’ll let you keep your legs the shape they are.” He winks at me.

Gabriel takes turn looking at us. I can’t even pretend to know how hard this is for him. Facing us. In all the years he was in trouble, his pride never wavered. He would come back, swear up and down he had everything under control. And every time he fell off the wagon, the worst was watching the way it chipped at his self-respect. That was always worse than watching what the drugs did to his body, his mind; those wounds I knew could be fixed in time. How he would feel about himself when it was all over was another matter altogether.

“Jade?” my brother says, his eyes wet.

“Please. Swallow your pride and do this for me. If I mean anything to you, let Kaine do this for us.”

He takes a deep breath and exhales, and it’s like he deflates into a small, helpless young boy again.

“Okay.”

“Gabriel!” I jump up and run over to him, almost tripping on my sheet as I go as it falls out from under me, leaving me in just a long hoodie, barely covering my butt. He catches me in his arms and holds me as we cry. All we ever have is hope.

“Sis?” Gabe asks after we’ve calmed down.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“So, can I ask you a question?”

“Anything!”

“Why the hell are you wearing a bedsheet in a stranger’s apartment?”

I reach out and the squeal I hear is exactly the same as the one I used to hear whenever I pinched his ear.

***

Five hours later we’reon our way to East Hampton and the Dunes Rehab Center.

We’d spent the morning talking, catching up at the apartment, and then swinging by Macy’s after lunch to grab Gabriel some essential items for his stay.

Sitting in the limo now, next to Kaine, I’m watching as Gabriel’s head bobs up and down as he fights sleep.

I know a tough time is ahead of him, and I don’t know if this time will be any different, just that for the first time, even though we’d pleaded with him to do it for me, this time he’s doing it for him. He’s sick of being sick of his own reflection and he’s sick of wasting the life for which he has so much potential, that was meant to be limitless.

“Hey, you okay?” Kaine whispers into my ear.

I lean back against his arm and pull his other around my chest, enveloping me in him. We haven’t had a chance to talk about what happened last night, and what he’d said this morning, but I’m just letting myself enjoy having him as support right now. We will have to talk about him organizing and paying for Gabriel’s treatment, but I didn’t want that to get in the way of Gabriel accepting the help.