Infinity Read Free

give him control, frankly, too much. I refuse to let him ‘adjust’. My life belongs to me and if he refuses to get with the program and hop on the Infinity train, then fuck him.”
    “You’re arguing with me like I have anything to do with this. I told you a long time ago, family and business is not a good mix. I understand at the time why you chose him but you’ve changed and so has he.”
    I blinked back the tears that burned my eyes because she got to the root of the issue, and like usual, she was brutal with her honesty, which was straight-up with no chaser. For years Mason and I chased the illusion that we were still at the place when he got me and I got him. A time when we understood each other on a deeper level. A time when we were a team, him and I, orphans from the Fire and Ash war, adopted and loved by mom.
    Inside, I wept for the time when he was once my best friend, my world and defender when the kids at school made fun of my vivid imagination and the dreaded ravens that followed me around everywhere. He was even the one who recorded me goofing around singing, and laughed at the ridiculousness when the recording went viral which started my career. He was the one who supported me in my fight to go into the music industry when mom was adamant that I didn’t. It was him and me against the world, or so I thought.
    “I just never thought that it would end this way. But now all we do is spend our time figuring out all the ways we can hurt each other. He’s angry at me for some ungodly reason, which just ticks me the hell off and makes me retaliate. It’s a vicious circle that’s freaking destructive.”
    Mom clucked her tongue, shaking her head. “Sometimes it’s hard to come to terms with the reality of someone slipping through your fingers like sand. You can become desperate to hold on to what you can.”
    My heart thumped. “But there’s a fine line between love and obsession, and he’s dangerously close to that edge. I ignored the many years of him chasing guys away because I really wasn’t interested in any of them to put up a fight. And the business, well, I was interested in making music so I let him take care of everything else. But the things I’m seeing and hearing are not good.” I sighed, “I just don’t understand how a man that I idolized could just vanish into thin air.” Now, all that is left is the serious, grumpy and very secretive man who was plotting my downfall.
    Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t forget that wicked crush you had on him.”
    “Yes mom. Thanks for pointing that out!”
    “Well, if you’re going for the truth, let’s air it, baby. Besides, the truth of the matter is that things between you two haven’t been the same since he left years ago.”
    I just stared because I hated those memories—memories of waking-up that horrid morning to find him gone, with no note, no goodbye and mom refusing to divulge his whereabouts. I hated the memories of the hurt that lingered from his absence. The crying for weeks, feeling like my soul had been ripped apart without him. Eventually, the tears dried up and I found myself a little bit harder, and a little bit less trusting of the people in my life. When he came back years later, it was hard to rebuild trust, but we tried to make it work. It was hard at times, real hard—but we loved each other, so we made it work somehow.
    “But I thought we were rebuilding our relationship. Then, I woke up from my Rejuvenator haze and found out that things between us were not what they seemed. It’s just the end of our business relationship, he’ll always be my brother.”
    She exhaled, “Has it ever felt like that’s all he’s wanted from you?”
    “No. But that’s all that it could ever be,” I sighed. I was venting shamelessly about a situation that I created, and was at a loss in how to prevent the inevitable fallout from happening. “It’s time for a regime change,” I whispered before pausing to stare at the moon helplessly,