He went to Charlie and nudged him.
Charlie did a half snore and then grumbled. “What?”
“I need a light,” the brother said. His accent was thicker than Silas’s, but he carried the same deep tone.
“You should quit smoking.” Charlie leaned to one side, digging into his pocket. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the burn marks in the carpet in your room.”
“I dropped a cigarette.”
“You’re dropping them a lot.” There was a click, and the glow from a flame flickered just on the other side of Charlie’s head. I caught the flicker of a lean face and the flame lit up his eyes.
Charlie held the lighter close to him.
Silas’s brother leaned down, putting a cigarette to the flame and did a slow inhale. He pulled back, taking the lit cigarette with him and blew out the smoke above his head. “You should sleep in the bedroom,” he said.
“We’re all doing things we shouldn’t, aren’t we?” Charlie said.
The brother said something else, too. It was in Greek, though, so I didn’t catch what he was saying.
“English only,” Charlie said. “You know better.”
“We’re Greek,” he said. “We should speak our own language.”
“Not here,” Charlie said, and he sat back in his chair again. “Not while we’re here.”
The brother said something else, quieter and also in Greek and then walked away with his cigarette. Charlie stilled in his chair. A moment later, there was the sound of a door being closed.
Silas’s brother needed Charlie to light his cigarettes? Why wouldn’t he just give the lighter to him?
I waited another couple of minutes, allowing Charlie to go back to sleep if he was going to. After I heard a snore from him, I tiptoed as quickly as I dared. I didn’t want to run into Silas’s brother in case he was lurking around the hallway.
I entered the bedroom and locked the door behind me and fell into bed quickly. Silas turned over, dropping an arm over me. He didn’t say anything.
I was awake for a while, wondering about Charlie, the empty chair, the smoking brother, and the secrets that were as elusive and yet lingering like the smoke that floated through their home.
???
As dawn eased into the room, I woke to feel Silas’s hand gripping at my hipbone under the shirt and over the underwear I was wearing. His forehead pressed against my shoulder. My hand was on his arm. I drifted in and out of sleep. I noticed where his hand was, but I was too deep to care. It was comfortable, anyway.
A buzzing echoed through the silence, followed by a beeping. Silas stirred, grumbling. He kept the arm around me as he stretched out, finding his phone on the side table and putting it to his ear.
“What?” he asked in a dark voice thick with sleep. He remained quiet for a moment as he listened. He groaned, pulling away from me to sit up.
I moaned, turning over, pulling the blanket with me and shoving it over my head. Stupid Academy.
“But I’ve got Sang,” Silas said. “No, no. I’ll... yeah. I’ll take her over there. Fine.” He hung up, the phone landing hard on the table. He shifted back into the bed, and a hand found my hip again. He shook me. “Aggele.”
I moaned, grunted. “Mm?”
“We’ve got to go.”
“Nu uh,” I said, meaning it. It was too early. And it was Sunday! Why was there Academy stuff on Sunday?
Silas chuckled. He wrapped his arms around me over the blanket. His lips met my shoulder as he kissed my skin. “Sang?”
His kiss on me sent my mind into a frenzy. Silas kissed me! Because that’s what boyfriends do with girlfriends. They kiss. Would this mean he’d kiss me on the lips? Wasn’t he supposed to kiss me there first before kissing elsewhere? Did I still have to kiss him first? “Hm?”
He planted another kiss at the corner between my neck and shoulder. “Come on.”
I didn’t want to tell him, but the kissing was not motivating me at all to move. I grunted again. “Do we have to?”
“Sorry.”
I sighed loudly, pushing the blanket away and rubbing at my eyes. “Make Kota do it.”
Silas laughed, sitting up. “He’s the one that called.”
“Then make...uh...Nathan do it.”
Silas grinned, shaking his head. “Get some clothes on. We’ve got to go.”
I sat up as he got off the bed. I had just enough time between rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and him pulling on some jeans to catch the shape of his butt in the boxers he was wearing.
I jumped off of the bed, wobbling in my sleepy state. I found my bag, fishing inside of it for a pair of gray shorts. I put them on while Silas had his back turned. He sat at his desk chair to put on his socks and shoes while I switched out behind him into the blouse I wore the night before and put on the shorts. The shirt he gave me had enough room for me to put it on without taking the bigger shirt off. When I finished, I peeled his shirt away, holding it in my hands and wondering what to do with it.
When he stood up and turned to me, he looked surprised, probably that I was dressed and ready and did it in front of him. He grabbed his shirt from my hands, tossing it to his bed and motioned to me to head out the door.
I stuffed my shoes into my sandals while he grabbed our phones and his keys. I opened the door, grabbing my bag and he followed.
We stepped out just as a skinny guy was coming out of the bathroom. Silas’s brother. He was tall, with long dark hair hanging down around his cheeks, parted in the middle. There were dark circles under his eyes. He kept his arms tucked into his body, his head down. Despite my curious looks to his face, he never met my eyes. He was like a skinny version of Silas, with hollow cheeks and the eyes never really focused.
Silas nudged me in the shoulder, and we moved passed him together. Silas didn’t say anything to him.
His brother. He ignored him. I’d felt it the first time we’d seen him the night before, but I didn’t really think about it because I was still feeling anxi
ous and tired. Now that I was moderately awake, I realized there was something bigger here. Something that lurked in the shadows that caused his brother to avoid us. Something that made him got to his father to light his cigarettes.
Silas acted like his brother was invisible. I knew the feeling too well.
Silas unlocked the front door. I stepped out into the sun, my fingers shielded my eyes as Silas stopped to lock up behind us.
“What’s his name?” I asked.
“What?” Silas asked, as the lock clicked in the door.
“What’s your brother’s name?”
Silas turned to me, blinking as if he’d forgotten and had to think hard to remember. “Theo.” He reached for my hand, pulling me toward the stairs. “Don’t worry about him.”
“Why didn’t he say anything?” I asked.
“He’s fine,” Silas said, but his lips pursed into a tight frown.
I wanted to press him, but the tension radiating from Silas had my lips gluing together. I didn’t want to pry, but it was strange. Theo was invisible in his own home. Why? Wouldn’t Silas encourage him to be part of the family? Isn’t that an important part of the Academy life?
I followed him out to the parking lot, heading to his car. We got in and I tucked my bag between my legs as he started the car, pulling out of the space and turning to leave the complex.
“Where are we going, anyway?” I asked, putting on my seatbelt.
Silas took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I have to go to the Academy.”
The place? The actual Academy? I perked up, looking around as if it was nearby. Where was it? Should I be allowed to know about it? “Am I going?”
He smirked, shaking his head. “No. I’m dropping you off.”
“At my house?”
“No. I...” He stopped and then leaned forward, taking his phone out of his pocket. His eyebrow cocked and he answered it. “I’m heading out there right now,” he said immediately.
I waited quietly, yawning and rubbing my palms against my arms to ward off the morning chill.
“What do you mean, bring her?” he asked.
I perked up, looking over at him and meeting his eyes. He refocused on the road quickly. “Fine. I’ll do what you say.” He tapped the phone off.