My Brother’s

Keeper

TJ Lee

Copyright © 2024 The Weird World of TJ Lee

All rights reserved.

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DEDICATION

To those awesome siblings who just can’t give up on their loved ones, even when the world already has. You are a role model to us all.

Prologue

Fiona

“Tonight is going to be ep-ic.” I rolled my eyes at Katia as she moved both hands through the air, as though she were outlining a lit-up sign. Most likely imagining her name in lights.

“Oh yeah, and why is that?” I was only pretending to be ignorant. I knew exactly what she was talking about.

She’d spoken of nothing else for weeks. And the look she gave me was worth it. My smile cracked at her “I will kill you if you are serious” look. 

“Fi….”

My smile turned into full-blown giggles as we walked down the hall. “I’m just messing with you.”

Katia was the one rolling her eyes this time. “I can’t believe you. Tonight is important, Fi. You have to be there for me.”

I wiped an amused tear out of my eye as I wrapped an apologetic arm around her shoulder. “I got you, Kat. You know that.”

She sighed and we stopped walking. “I know you do. I’m just nervous.”

I placed both my hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “Hey, it’s all good. Nothing is going to happen that will mess any of it up. I babysat the twins last night and got 50 for it. Just enough to buy my ticket to the game, and dinner after to celebrate. I will be standing right there on the sidelines, recording every minute of it.” 

I used to only get half that for babysitting the Walker twins, but ever since the youngest was diagnosed with diabetes, their parents have paid double. The six-year-old terror was not a fan of watching what he ate, whether his brother had to as well or not. They also trained me on how to check blood sugar and give insulin. I figured it was a good life skill to have, you never knew what the future held. 

She grunted uncomfortably. “You don’t need to record it. Both my parents will be doing that.”

I pushed her playfully as we turned to keep walking to our first class. “Girl,” I tsked. “I need to have my own copy. Besides, we both know your Dad’s hands always shake while holding his phone up for longer than 5 seconds and your mom will be crying, which means she won’t be all that steady either.”

Plus, I was gonna take my copy, clean it up, and do some fancy stuff with it before I gave it to her for her birthday next week. It didn’t matter that it would be recorded with my phone. I had a gift with computers and stuff. For now, computers were just a hobby of mine, but one day…

Katia agreed with a shy grin before we stepped into our first torture session of the day. 

A few hours later, I headed toward the lunch area to buy my ticket for tonight’s football game - the one my best friend would be singing the National Anthem for - her first time with such a large crowd. I was proud of her. She worked hard for this. I was hoping to make the video epic enough for her to use later, when she finally caved to her real desires to apply for Julliard. Her dream school. 

I barely stepped out the double doors that led to the outdoor patio area - a large circular set up with picnic tables, trees, and lots of dead grass, surrounded by the school buildings that housed the classrooms - when I heard the ominous sounds of a fight off to the side. It was more shaded in that area, due to a few larger trees. A perfect place to pick on someone out of the semi-carefully watching school security.