“I thought maybe this time you weren’t coming back.”

Bobby won’t meet my eyes as he shrugs his jacket off. “Why wouldn’t I come home?”

I shove my hands into the deep pockets of my favorite baggy sweatpants, my loose tank top billowing from the wind as he shuts the front door. “Another storm?”

“Yeah.”

I wait for him to say more. It’s a fool’s hope.

As he kicks off his shoes I ask, “Three days ago I woke up thinking you were at the house-painting job, until he called and asked why you never showed up. What do you want me to do here, Bobby? ”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh come on, I’m not dumb. Please look at me.”

His guilt stays fixed on the floor as he whispers, “Paige.”

I go to him and cup his face in my hands. “What were you thinking?”

Tears liquefy his sweet brown eyes, lashes fluttering with shame. “I was up two thousand and then it was gone.”

“It’s always gone! Rent is due on Monday and we’re already one month behind. Why did you do this to us?”

He holds my hands on his cheeks, voice hoarse, breath reeking of cigarettes. “If I won big I could have paid you back.”

Oh my God, you’re just like Mom.

Of course it was a noble idea that drove him to take the meager amount of pay he’d saved up and throw it down the pit called a poker table. That’s what breaks my heart even more. I covered his rent for the last four months. But my savings has been bled dry now. We had to shut off cable and Wi-Fi already. Electricity bills are bi-monthly so we have a little more time. Not that it will matter when we got evicted. Don’t need the lights if nobody is here to turn them on.

We grew up under the shadow of this disease until our mother found Gamblers Anonymous. When he showed signs he had it, too, Mom and Dad held him up for a while. But then they washed their hands of Bobby.

I couldn’t do that.

I just couldn’t.

When my brother’s gambling finally made him homeless, I asked my then-roommate to move out.

I have to take care of my brother.

You’re enabling him, Paige! Don’t you see he’s an addict?

I’m all he has.

But I never wanted to be homeless with him.

“Bobby! We could have begged the landlord for a little more time if we had most of this month’s rent at least! And you could have asked that contractor if he had more work. But you didn’t show up. I begged him to give you another chance and he said no! Why do you keep doing this?”

“I’m so sorry.”

I whisper, “I know,” staring at the ground.

He covers his beautiful face, groaning through trembling fingers, “I was up two thousand! It was incredible.” He drops his hands, glee shining from his eyes. “I wish you could have seen it! I thought my time had come.”

Childhood memories sting my eyes as I stare at my brother.

Defeated I ask him, “Are you tired?”

“Exhausted.”

“Why don’t you get some sleep...?”

He nods and shuffles to his bedroom as I flop onto this stupid old couch and bring my knees to my chest. What am I going to do? Our landlord is the biggest snob, an elitist bastard who inherited six wonderful apartment buildings from his much-kinder father who passed away last winter. Inman Park is too cool a neighborhood to not pay your rent in. He’s looking for any reason to get rid of us so he can get new people in here at twice the price. People who can actually pay him. He gave us until Monday and made it clear that he will slam a Notice To Evict letter on our door for the world to see if the cash isn’t in his insatiable palm by midnight.

We have no place to go. Shelby lives with her boyfriend in a one-bedroom. My boss, Jordanna, has seven cats that would send my allergies to the hospital after one night. I can’t live with Mom and Dad again. The dysfunction in that co-dependent household would have me slitting my wrists, especially when I know they’d never let my brother come with me.

“Paige?” Bobby tentatively whispers, afraid to come into the living room.

I lift my head and wipe my eyes. “Yeah?”

“I’m going to get a job. A real one. Not just painting houses for some asshole. I’ll pay you back.”

The hope in his eyes kills me.

“That’d be great.”

He smiles and opens his arms. “I’m so sorry.”

Rising to let him fold into me I whisper in his hair. “I’ll think of something.”