1 | My Brother's Keeper
“There’s my handsome!” Rayne squealed and wrapped her arms around her little brother Amir. The dude was twice her size now, but even though she had to stand back and tilt her head up to look into his eyes, she still saw the skinny little kid she made cry all the time.
“My cutie-cute!” He replied squeezing her head against his chest.
“Man, Mama was so sad, she thinks you’re not coming.”
They climbed into her raggedy old Honda Civic, the only reason that car was still working was because their Uncle Clive was one of those mechanics who used magic to fix cars.
“I can’t believe Tim kept his mouth shut.” Amir laughed.
Rayne narrowed my eyes at him, “Your ass gonna behave or will I have to punch you in the eye?”
“Damn, your mood changes fast don’t it?”
Amir knew just what she was talking about, and it pissed her off that he had the nerve to act all innocent. Her brother was like those Sour Patch Kid candies, but with a dick that he weaponized. Amir was sweet, sweetest guy she knew in fact and she wasn’t just saying that because he was her brother. He was a teddy bear! All the boy ever wanted was for literally anyone to cuddle him. He was also a vindictive whore, who would hit you where it hurt if you pissed him off. That mofo was calculating! He has caused drama within her friend group, because he was mad at her. How? By targeting the two most vulnerable friends, flirting with one, sleeping with the other and ‘accidentally’ letting them find out. Chaos! Crazy thing is, the girls would forgive him but not each other. In one fell swoop the friend group was disbanded.
Now, it was Christmas. The house would be filled with Ahsan’s hundreds of siblings and their thousands of children. They would be inviting their friends who would probably bring their children. Rayne’s friends were stopping by later too, and they had already been thirsting over Amir’s IG pictures. All that was well and good, but they were throwing alcohol in the mix. Rayne love her brother with her whole heart, but the kid was annoying and she knew we’re going to have at least one argument before the day was out.
“You try that shit again and I’ll chop your dick off.” She warned him.
“Ooo, scary.” He said dryly.
Amir was weird. She always thought her daddy looked like his mother, but Amir was the spitting image of their Grandpa Armand. He had been short and skinny most of his life, he hit fourteen and suddenly he just shot up, and for a while he was just big old hands and feet and bobblehead. They come from a military family, Grandpa Armand was a marine, their father Ahsan is a marine and Julie Ann all but fainted away when Amir talked about enlisting. He finessed her though. He finessed her good. He joined the Coast Guard and she never found out about it until she received an invitation to his graduation. Ahsan was amused but Rayne was sure she would have one less sibling the second Julie Ann caught Amir alone.
Okay, maybe he hovers over the water from a rope ladder most of the time, but he’s one of those dudes that they send into the worst areas during and after storms or who’s responsible for diving up the cocaine after traffickers try to toss the evidence. He’d always been a strong swimmer and Ahsan always handled him kind of rough. Somehow, during training Amir filled up and bulked out, and must have left his morals in a locker room.
Rayne could no longer beat my brother like she used to when he was smaller than her and she hated it. Amir needed to have his ass beat, often!
“So, are we going out tonight?” Rayne asked him.
“Oh…you’re crazy crazy.” He laughed at how she was back to being calm. “Yes. I’ve got two weeks off.”
“We’re doing all of the drugs then?” They shared a laugh. He was her lil homie. Her party buddy. “Man, I’m so glad I’m not stuck with prissy Nia.” She clapped my hands. “Zion’s coming too, it’s about to be lit! Oh shit!”
The car swerved, but Amir grabbed the wheel and steadied it, she rested her hands on the wheel, feeling her heart hammer in my chest.
“I’ve got two weeks off and you’re gonna kill me before I can even get my vacation started?”
“There was some ice there.”
“Stop lying!”
The siblings chatted about a lot of things on the ride home. There was so much to catch up on. What their mutual friends were up to, Amir’s job, that fine ass friend of his she trying to snatch from his wife, that foine ass co-worker he’s got with the muscles and the smile, him beating Rayne’s ass for hitting her and her taking the heat so he wouldn’t lose his job.
“Rayne dropped the charges.” She said.
Amir snorted, he hated Rayne. “You gon’ go back to him now?”
“No, are you crazy?”
He gave his sister a look out the corner of his eyes and for a moment she thought he knew she was texting that nigga again. Boy-Rayne and his sister Rayne have been off and on since she was eighteen, she had this crazy, primal love for the dude.
“Ray-Ray, all I’m saying is you’re hot. You can do better.”
“Why are you accusing me though?” Rayne snapped.
“I’m accusing you? Oh, my bad sis.”
A tense silence settled between them. Amir definitely knew something. She knew her brother wouldn’t say anything to their parents, unlike Nia, that ho just liked to make her look bad. Rayne had been on a couple of dates since she moved in with their parents; she’d had some one night stands too, but nobody made her feel the way Rayne did. She was starting to worry that maybe he knocked a few screws loose and she was no longer capable of loving anyone but him.
“Since we’re talking about love lives, what about yours. What happened to that girl…um…I wanna say Susanna?”
“Soleil?” He shrugged.
“You whore.” I muttered.
“I’m not a whore, I just get bored quick.”
“My dude, one of these days a woman is going to come out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet. I feel you though, if she don’t match your goofy, don’t wife her.” Amir knew how to treat a woman, as he should, dude had two sisters and was raised by gentlemen.
Rayne felt a sudden pang in her chest, this was their first Christmas without Grandpa Louie. Julie Ann had spent the week trying to get Gran’Mere Michelle to come up to West Virginia, but she decided to go to Julie Ann’s sister Louise in Georgia instead.
“I used to think that couldn’t nobody give you the game.” Louie said to Rayne when somebody with a big ass mouth let it slip that Rayne put his hands on me. Grandpa Armand may have had looks on his side but Grandpa Louie was smooth as butter. That man could charm the birds from the trees, and he tried it but Gran’Mere snapped him back real quick. The disappointment in her grandpa’s eyes nearly killed her! It was not enough to make her leave Rayne though.
Rayne knew how a man should treat a woman; the Sarif and Boudreaux men treated their women right. Compliments, gifts for every occasion and just because, doors being opened, chairs being pulled out. All that was why Amir was so good at getting and keeping women. That wicked, twisted part of Rayne wished a woman would break his heart, he needed to be humbled.
Her mind went back to that day, about a month ago. Maybe she antagonized him, she did give herself permissions in his phone after all. Rayne knew the man was cheating on her, it would not be the first time. She didn’t go into his phone looking to get herself hurt; she went in giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was overreacting. Nope!
It was two o’clock in the morning and Rayne was up, smacking her boyfriend in the face with her laptop that had previously been on nightstand. She is all of five-two, one hundred and twenty pounds, so when he jumped up angry and swung, she fell backward off the bed and he pinned her. Rayne may have been big, but her brother was bigger and strong. She had just gotten her nails done, stilettos, when she brought her claws across his face, two broke off, one dangerously close to his eye and the other one caught in his lip. In the five seconds he was up, she wiggled free, sent both of her feet into his stomach, snatched up her cell phone and locked myself in the bathroom.
Amir was on the way home from work, and in what felt like two seconds he banging on the front door, when nobody answered he busted one of the living room windows with a crowbar and wiggled in. No questions were asked, she heard Rayne shriek and when she opened the bathroom door Amir had him pinned much like he’d had her a few minutes before. Rayne rarely saw her brother angry, but something inside her knew that had she not gotten Amir in a headlock, boy-Rayne would be dead and Amir would be in prison. She didn’t know what they taught the Coast Guard guys, but they had to know a thing or two if they were dealing with drug lords, pirates and human traffickers right? Not to mention the Sarif kids all went to boot camp growing up.
Needless to say, when the cops arrived she said that she had beaten her boyfriend up in self-defense, Rayne knew better than to open his mouth and say otherwise. Regardless, the cops cuffed her and took her downtown. When Amir got the real story, Rayne thought she was about to get her ass beat again.
“Your ticket is booked, Nia is gonna take you to the airport.” Was what he said instead. Her Honey Bunches of Oats always had her back!
Christmas went off without a hitch, Amir was on his best behavior and her girls kept their hands to themselves. At five the next morning, Amir, Zion, Tim and Rayne were just stumbling into the house. They didn’t even go to a bar, they just hopped around some family and friends’ parties. Everyone clambered into the downstairs bedroom that her parents had decided would be the guest room—it just so happens Rayne became a permanent guest.
They were woken up in the afternoon by TJ throwing a tantrum. TJ was spoiled rotten, and Rayne thought had it been one of them kicking and screaming, Ahsan would have whooped their ass. She was about ready to beat TJ down until Amir sat up and snapped at him. Tim seemed a little peeved but he said nothing, just picked up his child and left the room.
“You beat that lil boy’s ass don’t you.” Rayne asked laughing.
“Nah. He just knows I don’t play that shit.” Amir picked a rogue eyelash strip off Zion’s face and she snatched it out of his hand.
“Is the next one still there?”
“No,” Rayne answered cracking up. “I think you left that one in the club.”
The strange thing about the two of them was, they didn’t get hangovers. Tim had to crash out the rest of the day, much to Nia’s irritation. Zion left to go to her dad’s place and Nia, Rayne and Amir were tasked with cleaning up the house and backyard. “Who was even out there?” She whined, “It was like…negative one hundred degrees yesterday.”
Ahsan glowered at her, “Y’all drunk people.”
“Oh…”
Amir was supposed to be cleaning the kitchen, but he came out with an obnoxiously large turkey sandwich, begrudgingly, he gave a half to Ahsan and the two watched a rerun of the basketball game. Rayne was sure they watched it live the day before. Men and their sports!
She left the men to their game and found her mother in the cubby that Julie Ann had turned into an office. “What’s up?” She asked her. Julie Ann played it off well, but they all knew something was up. She wasn’t a talkative person, but she was still unusually quiet. Not to mention her baby boy was home and she didn’t cuddle him once!
“What do you mean?”
Rayne sat on a beanbag chair that she accidentally ordered one drunk night. “You know what I mean.”
Julie Ann shrugged, “I’m just tired.”
“You mean tired tired or Grandpa tired?” Grandpa Louie had said he was tired too, and a few months later he was dead from cancer. Rayne was still traumatized.
“Tired tired. You think that party put itself together?”
Rayne gave her a long look but decided not to press the issue. “Alright then, I’ve got work tonight so I’m heading back to bed.” She kissed her mother on the cheek and left.
She didn’t even give the strange interaction a second thought until Nia called a few months later.
Zion was into some weird shit, but she made bank so Rayne usually hit her up for a soft loan that she never asked her to pay back. Rayne needed to get her nails and hair did and needed some new clothes for work. It was a good ass day too! Zion had Venmoed her the money the night before, so she got up early to go shop, then she would get her nails done and spend the rest of the day at Shontel’s while she hooked her up with a custom lace-front.
Rayne went to the nice nail shop, the one where you sat in a massage chair and got free champagne while a girl worked on your feet, and she was in the middle of all that when her phone rang. She ignored it, that bubbly was hitting! It rang again and she declined the call again. On the third ring Rayne answered and was about to shout at her sister, but Nia was already screaming into the phone. Rayne couldn’t understand what she was saying, and for a moment she thought that she would have to catch a flight to kill Tim for hurting her. She could hear him talking to Nia in the background and his tone sounded too rough for Rayne’s liking.
“Hello?” He finally said.
“Hello? Man, what the fuck is going on? What did you do to my sister?”
He sighed, “She got a call from the Coast Guard.”
Later, she would be unsure if she heard what he said next, or if she just reacted to just knowing that something bad had happened to her brother from Tim’s first sentence. Rayne remembered dropping the damn champagne flute and stumbling out the spa chair, leaving puddles all through the people’s shop. She didn’t even realize she left my slippers there until she needed them a few weeks later.
Nothing but her grandmothers’ prayers got her home in one piece. Rayne was numb.
How do you process someone going to work and then just...
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