The Last Thing He Needs Read Free Page B

good boy.
    Several months had passed before they were all home again. They were worse off in the state’s hands than they were in their own parents’—and that was saying a lot.
    As much as he resented Cal and Cheryl, he had to be grateful to them for pulling it together long enough to get the kids back. Cheryl could have easily bailed on them. She had only been a part of their family for a few short months, and Christ knew she didn’t care about any of them.
    Their first night back home that summer, Tommy promised them he’d never let it happen again. A stupid thing for a fifteen-year-old kid to promise, but so far, he’d made good on it. “ I’ll keep us together, or I’ll die trying ,” he had told them.
    “I was there that day,” Bobby blurted out suddenly as they crept into the hallway.
    Confused, Tommy stared at him. “What?”
    “That day… the day social services picked you guys up. I was jogging by and stopped when I saw the cops and stuff. I….” Bobby glanced at the floor before looking back to Tommy. There was that half smile again. “I was glad you didn’t have a gun.” He snorted a laugh and added, “I wasn’t sure who you would’ve shot first, the social worker or the cops hauling your parents off.”
    Tommy took that in, ignoring the faint glimmer of embarrassment trying to spark up inside him. “The social worker. She had the kids.” He knew it was a harsh thing to say, but he remembered how he’d felt that day. He had never been so angry and scared. He shook off the memory and quietly made his way downstairs.
    He found Collin still asleep on the couch and scooped him up with a small grunt.  The kid was turning ten in a few weeks, and pretty soon he’d be too big to lug around. Tommy stepped around Bobby at the foot of the stairs and carried his brother up to bed.
    When he returned, Bobby stood awkwardly at the door, shifting from foot to foot and—Tommy could swear—blushing slightly. He had his beef jerky in his hand. “I…. Well, I guess I better get going. Unless….” Not finishing whatever he was going to say, he looked oddly hopeful and nervous at the same time.
    “Yeah, I need to hit the sack soon. Twins’ll probably be up again when that stuff wears off.”
    “Right.” Bobby started to turn for the door, then hesitated and took another step before he turned back to Tommy. “Look, I….”
    “Hey, yeah, hang on.” Tommy went into the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboard under the sink. He had to snake his arm back so far it hurt, but he found the plastic bag under a strip of duct tape and peeled it from the wall. Their emergency money had dwindled down to tens and twenties instead of a few hundreds and fifties, but he had enough. Thank Christ , Tommy thought as he turned around on his knees. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he found Bobby standing over him.
    “Jesus, warn a guy instead of sneaking up on him.” He huffed out a small laugh as he pulled a twenty-dollar bill from the bag and passed it up to Bobby.
    Tommy caught an expression, quick and surprising on Bobby’s face, something that looked almost hurt when he saw Tommy pass the bill to him. “Oh… no, I don’t…”
    “I’m not a charity case, Bobby. I take care of my own.” He knew it was a stretch considering the relief he felt every time they got food stamps, and he didn’t even blink over lifting something one of the kids needed, but there were limits and he preferred good, honest thievery and state support over owing anyone anything. Ever.
    “Then why were you… if you had money here….” Bobby looked confused as he took the bill and shoved it into his pocket. “And I didn’t think it was charity, just… I’d do that for a friend, ya know?”
    Tommy got to his feet, knowing he couldn’t have kept his eyes on Bobby’s face with Bobby’s crotch inches from his nose. “Because it would’ve taken another hour to come home, get the money, go back out…. The babies needed