Briar’s head was thudding when she woke up, and even before she opened her eyes, she knew it was raining. Hard. A headache was always a forewarning of the weather outside, and sometimes, Briar cursed her sensitive disposition.

Too hot, too cold, too windy, too rainy—something in her body would reflect the weather for every occasion. In this case, the headache indicated rain. She reasoned she would prefer it to the pain of a backache, but that was Briar Baker: eternal cockeyed optimist.

No matter how much it hurts, she thought, blinking against the grey light barely filtering in through her flimsy bedroom window.

“Colton?” she called without quite parting her lids. “Are you home?”

There was no answer from the inside of the apartment, and Briar grunted, lifting her throbbing skull from her pillow. She wasn’t sure why she would have expected her brother to be around—staying out all night was more or less his specialty. Her long legs touched the ground, and Briar’s jaw locked as she rose from her spot.

I need drugs. The harder, the better. She blinked her sky-blue eyes, the remnants of sleep replaced with pain, and she grunted, making her way toward the bathroom across the hall from her bedroom.

The apartment was almost eerily quiet save for the rain pelting against the windows of the eighth-floor apartment. They were old, cracked in some places, and Briar was certain they would not survive the next hurricane. She hoped they would survive this rainstorm.

Because God knows if they break, the super will take his sweet ass time coming to fix them.

Sharing the apartment with Colton was bad enough. Sharing it with flamingos was not an option. Suki, the black heathen cat, mewled at her from atop the toilet seat when she entered.

“Morning, you little shit,” Briar said. Suki hissed in response while purring simultaneously. Briar reached out to stroke her silky ears and was instantly rewarded with claws to her arms. “Every damn time I fall for it,” she muttered, disgusted with her own gullibility. She hated that cat and all it represented.

I should have left her in the apartment when I left, Briar thought bitterly, but even as she did, guilt flooded her. It wasn’t the stupid cat’s fault she was born wretched. She had never been cared for before Briar had entered the picture. It was why Briar had taken her when she left Jack. She couldn’t bear the thought of the cat being neglected at the hands of her ex anymore.

The only reason Jack had cared was that it had given him the upper hand, calling the police and threatening legal action if she didn’t return the feline of the damned, but Briar had refused to back down for the first time in her life. Somehow, Jack had faded away, forgetting about her and the cat. Still, she sometimes wanted to open the window and let Suki onto the fire escape forever.

“You’d probably fare better on the streets than I would,” Briar chuckled, a combination of affection and disgust lacing her words. Suki hissed again and leaped off the toilet lid to saunter into the apartment, and Briar reached into the medicine cabinet for a bottle of Advil. She would have happily downed an expired bottle of Percocet if she’d found it, but pain relievers were as good as it got in that household.

Alcohol, drugs, food, money—they all disappeared when Colton was around.

“Dammit, Colton,” Briar grumbled, realizing the Advil bottle was empty. She tossed it in the trash and moved toward the kitchen, hoping to find a backup bottle. It never ceased to amaze her how her brother did everything half-assed.

Outside, a clap of thunder caused her to start, and Briar turned her head toward the gloomy exterior. It was well-needed, the storm. For almost two straight weeks, there had been nothing but scorching heat beating upon them, as if the Miami sunshine was not bad enough without a heatwave. The rain should have been a relief, but there was something ominous about the way it flooded the streets.

Did they call for a hurricane in the middle of the night? Briar wondered. It seemed unlikely. That would be something she would have heard about days ago, though the way the wind gusted against the flimsy panes of glass made her ponder about it.

Briar turned her golden-blonde head away from the windows and refocussed herself on the task at hand. Suki meowed, butting her jet-black head against the stove as Briar poured through the cupboards, ignoring her. As she combed through the mess she shared with her brother, frustration began to mount inside her.

How can we live like this? He’s such a pig, and we don’t even have anything to make a mess with! This is a talent. Given her present financial situation, she knew she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Leaving Jack had put a hole in her pocket, one which seemed would never be filled. Not when I’m taking care of Colton now, too.

When she’d first left her narcissistic ex, Briar had had a game plan for the future: stay with her brother for two months, help him get back on his feet, and do the same for herself.

That had been six months ago. The minute Briar had moved in, Colton had promptly quit his job and begun partying with his group of unruly friends. They were unsavory in appearance and attitude, and Briar wished her brother would apply himself instead of wasting away with a bunch of potheads who seemed to have no direction in life. And that was putting it mildly. Briar suspected the group dabbled in far more than just smoking the occasional joint, but she never bothered to ask.

Of course, Colton didn’t want to hear her thoughts on the matter, and instead of bringing them to the apartment, he started going out at night and not coming home for two or three days at a time. Briar started to feel guilty, like she had driven her brother out of his own apartment with her nagging, even though she was the one paying for the apartment and everything in it.

The sound of someone pounding on the door caused Briar to jump, and she ground her teeth.

Why is everything so much louder when one has a headache? It was one of life’s great mysteries, along with why people needed to make so much more noise when someone in the vicinity had a headache.

“Baker, open up!” a growly voice rasped. “I know you’re in there! I can hear you walking around!”

Briar considered ignoring whomever it was, knowing that nothing good would come of opening the door. For all she knew, it was her brother’s dealer, looking to get paid. Instead, she shuffled back toward her bedroom to pull out her work clothes for the day. It quickly became clear that whoever banged on the door wasn’t going anywhere.

“BAKER!” he yelled more loudly. “I ain’t going anywhere! I’ll stay here all damned day, knocking on this door until it falls in if I have to!”

Briar shuffled toward the door, grimacing with each step she took. She was mentally calculating how much money she had in her wallet to buy another bottle of pain relievers. There was nothing by way of groceries in the house, and she had to work that afternoon, which meant she needed gas and at least a sandwich to get her through.

There wasn’t enough money for everything. She wished it was the following day already. The days before payday were always the worst.

Why did I give Colton my last twenty bucks? Now I have to scrounge for change. Briar idly wondered why she had the same conversation with herself every single week. You could say no to him, she reminded herself, and she almost laughed at the thought.

“I swear to God, Baker, I’m going to break this door down if you don’t answer me. You’re really beginning to piss me off!”

I don’t need to eat today, Briar reasoned, pulling open the cracked apartment door. Instantly she balked, realizing who it was.

“James,” she gasped in shock. “I didn’t recognize your voice. Sorry!”

The superintendent eyed her, his face softening slightly, but the frown remained on his lips.

“I didn’t know it was you inside, Briar,” he said shortly, and she knew it was his lame attempt at an apology. “Where is your brother?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, offering him a weak smile. “He wasn’t here when I woke up.”

“Figures,” he grumbled. “Probably laying in a gutter somewhere.” It was a mental image that Briar could have done without.

“What’s wrong? Is there something I can help you with?” He cast her a look and snorted.

“Honey,” the balding man grunted, shaking his meaty head in pity. “You think you’re doing your brother some service being here, but you ain’t.” Briar bristled, a jolt of defensiveness flooding her body.

“We cleared it with you before I moved in,” she reminded him, trying not to sound angry. “You said it was okay.” The last thing she needed was to get into a fight with the super, not when she knew he didn’t like Colton already. Her brother certainly seemed to have that effect on people.

“It’s only okay if the rent gets paid!” James barked back. A look of contrition instantly passed over his face. “I really shouldn’t be taking this up with you, hon.”

“W-what?” Briar asked in confusion. “I—I paid the rent! I mean he paid the rent. I gave Colton money for it myself!”

James scoffed and shook his head in disbelief. “You probably did give him money,” he agreed. He seemed torn between wanting to lecture the girl and wanting to help her, but Briar barely noticed his dilemma.

“I saw him write a check,” she insisted. “I dropped it in the slot. Did you not get it? This isn’t Colton’s fault. I must not have—”

“I got the check, Briar,” James interrupted. “It bounced. Again.”

A flush of humiliation burned through Briar’s face. “What?”

“This is the second month in a row. I’m going to have to start the eviction process.”

“Wait, what?” Suddenly, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. “Please, James! You can’t do that! Colton’s not working, and we have nowhere to go!”

“You owe me two months’ rent. If I don’t have it by the end of the week, I’m filing the papers, and I don’t care what bullshit excuses he comes up with. I ain’t kidding, Briar. I like you, but this might be for the best. You being here only enables his ways. Your brother ain’t no saint.”

James lumbered down the hall before she could say anything, though Briar was grateful for that. There was nothing she could say. Her brother had been taking her money and doing God only knew what with it.

Oh, Colton, she thought, shaking her head as she retreated into the apartment. What the hell are we going to do now?

There was no way she would be able to come up with that much money in a week. Hell, if she’d been able to do that, she would have moved out of Colton’s place by now. Or would she have? It was impossible to say, her mind whirling as she thought about where she could have been by now if she hadn’t felt it was her duty to take care of her brother.

There was more to the story than met the eye, of course. It was easy for James to look at her as the enabling older sister, but the truth was, there was a deep-rooted sense of guilt which had followed Briar for as long as she could remember.

It isn’t Colton’s fault he is the way he is. Our parents left a lot to be desired.

She locked the door and made her way back to the bathroom, her headache fully reverberating through her skull now. If Briar couldn’t have the drugs, maybe a hot shower would suffice, though she did not have high hopes for that. Minimally, she hoped it would calm her nerves. She closed the bathroom door and turned on the rusted faucet to get the water to run as hot as she could, but it would be a few minutes before it became lukewarm.

Suki nudged her way inside and resumed her position atop the toilet only to squeal in protest that she had not yet been fed.

“Shit,” Briar muttered, grabbing a towel to wrap around her now-nude body. “Come on, you little bastard. Let’s feed you.”

Pulling open the door, she re-entered the kitchen and picked up Suki’s food and water bowls. She noted with added despair that she was about to use the last of the cat food.

I guess we can’t even live off that if need be, Briar thought sarcastically, dumping the remaining cat food into the cat’s bowl. Suki didn’t even wait for Briar to lower the bowl and leaped to the countertop to stick her nose inside her food. as though she hadn’t been fed in a week.

“Oh, poor you,” Briar muttered, wondering why she was mocking a cat. “You are so hard-pressed, sleeping all day and being fed at whim. Hell, everyone even leaves you alone. I feel so sorry for you, Suki.”

I’ve officially gone off the deep end. I want to trade places with that demon cat.

The feline ignored her, and Briar turned back toward the bathroom, but before she could take a step, her eyes fell on the glass fruit tray in the center of the table. It had never had any fruit, of course. It was just an eyesore that had been there for no good reason until Briar had given it a purpose: to harbor her keys.

Which were no longer there.

“SON OF A BITCH!” she cursed, running toward the narrow balcony. Throwing open the door, she jumped into the driving rain, craning her head around the corner of the building as far as she could see. Her vehicle wasn’t where she’d left it the previous night. She wasn’t surprised, just furious.

“I am going to kill him!” she howled, kicking the metal side of the patio. Thunder rumbled again, and Briar stormed back into the house, hyperventilating, but she didn’t know why. It was not the first time Colton had done something like that. She located her phone and called out with trembling hands. Colton’s cell went directly to voicemail.

“You better be on your way home with my vehicle,” she spat furiously. “I swear to God, Colton, if there is one scratch on it, I am going to dangle you over the balcony by the ankles. Call me as soon as you get this. I mean it, Colton! I have to work today!” Briar disconnected the call and flopped onto the ugly brown couch, causing a cockroach to scurry away. She was too furious to even shudder at the sight.

Suki wandered in from the kitchen to look at her curiously, and she rose to pace about. She had to work at noon, and when Colton stayed out all night, he was rarely home before evening the following day.

There was nothing she could do but wait for her brother to come home or make contact. In the meantime, she had no idea where to look for her van.