Damaged Beyond Repair by Kashmira Kamat (KittyKash) (best short books to read TXT) 📗

“Hey, Claire. It’s me.”

“Alana?”

“Yep.”

“Ohmigosh! How are you?”

Not great, all thanks to your dear dear brother.

“Fine.” I answered.

She realized something was off about my tone, “Really? Then why would you be calling me past mid-night.”

“Yeah. You got me.” I had been robbed off the ability of speech, the energy being drained mentally and physically.

“It’s about my brother, right? He did something to you.” She sounded unsure and something else. Maybe scared?

“Claire, I never called you to complain or bitch about him. I would never do that.” the hand still hurt, “the other day I met you, you were about to tell me something about Rowan that I didn’t know.”

I thought she hung up for a while, but then I heard her voice, “It was all years ago so promise me you wouldn’t judge him.”

“I promise.” Though I was scared shitless, scared I might hear what I feared so deep down.

“You wouldn’t believe when I say that Rowan used to be a black sheep of the family, he used to drink regularly, drugs and all the wrong things. I have watched him tear the house down and he used to find a sense of peace in it and honestly, Alana, I was scared of him. I never wanted to even been in a three mile radius of him.”  I could hear her sob on the other end. I felt guilty all of a sudden, guilty of forcing her to dig out the old sack which had clearly been a painful memory.

“Andrew was his only support. He understood Rowan like nobody else but when Drew died, Rowan was back to his usual self, in fact, it was worse.” She whispered the last line, “he even tried to off himself, but Minnie helped him overcome the depression, and since then he’s been trying very hard.”

“Then, how is he taking care of Minnie? Are you not worried he might lose his cool one day and...

“She was his only support after Drew died, Rowan would never hurt Minnie. Not in a million years.”

I didn’t doubt that.

“Alana, you’re not speaking from the hospital, are you?”

So Rowan was capable of sending me to a hospital?

“Nope.”

“Good.” After a pause she said, “What did he do?”

“It’s nothing major.” I so wanted to hurl up everything, but I didn’t want her to worry or think that her brother was unleashing some Psycho chemical yet again. “So..how do you suggest I handle him?”

“The mood swings, right? Don’t give it much thought, I know he could get difficult, but I have this feeling, Alana, that you might change him for good. You love him, right?”

“So much Claire, I want to help him, but I’m not sure how.” Claire’s tears were contagious; I wiped a tear before it touched my cheeks.

“Just do what you’re doing, but not out of pity or sympathy. Just be yourself.”

“God, Claire. I don’t pity him.”

“He’ll be fine.”

 “Thanks Claire.” I mumbled. “I feel a lot better after talking to you.  

“Sure, anytime. Uh—by the way, I have a flight to Bucharest in five hours so..I need some shut eye.”

“Oh yeah, me too.”

   My head hurt so much; I sauntered further into the room in the dark, opened a few drawers and searched for a pain killer. I gulped it down with enough water and ignored the growling stomach which was in desperate need of some food. I never even bothered changing clothes, and before I knew it I drifted into deep sleep.

A world free from problems.

A world free from Rowan Masters.