Solomon' Daughters

Chapter 6

Liz walked from the bus stop towards her and her brother’s house happy about how her sleep over had gone and regretting that she hadn’t been able to convince her brother to go with her. She thought back to that party and the only night she had ever been the target of his anger.

She knew he didn’t go over there anymore since the party where Cassie had thrown herself at him, and then her boyfriend had come over to surprise her and caught her in the middle of trying to get his pants unzipped. Anthony being as smart as he was realized what had happened immediately had push her hand from him and left.

“Sorry, didn’t know she had a boyfriend,” he said as he passed on his way to the door. Cassie’s boyfriend had looked at her with sadness and disgust plain on his face and she began to cry. Dropped the bouquet of roses he was holding on the floor turned and left her there sobbing on the floor.

“She doesn’t,” was the boy’s reply as he walked away. Liz had walked in from Cassie’s pool fifteen minutes later and she was sitting there on the floor against the bed with knees pulled up to her chin and her armed wrapped around them crying in heaving sob. Liz got her calmed down and into bed and sat there till she fell asleep and seethed with anger. She’d only managed to get the part where her brother had rejected Cassie from the weeping girl not the why.She had gone home and confronted her brother trying to keep her anger hidden under a calm face.

“Hi Ant,” she greeted him.

“Hi little one, did you have fun at the party?”

“Yeah up until you left Cassie crying sitting on her bedroom floor,” her calm façade cracked and her anger pour out.

“Why would you reject her and then leave her crying like that without at least coming to get me to comfort her.”

With each word his back stiffen in indignation, at her accusation and the rebuke in her voice, anger flashed in his eyes. He stalked forward towards her and she backed away from him. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her but her instincts backed her away from the anger she could read in his eyes and the tenseness of his body. When her back hit the wall he stopped in front of her raised his hands to the wall on either side of her pinning her in place, He leaned in so his face was directly in front of her and glared at her.

“I didn’t reject her and leave her there,” he hissed in fury. “She had my zipper half way down and her boyfriend walked in. I didn’t know she had a boyfriend, but you knew Liz. I walked out and came home. Then you come and start accusing me of… What exactly Liz? Am I a bad person because I would not help her act like a slut? Or maybe I’m a bad person because I didn’t stay there and yell at her and insult her for being a slut, is that it little sister,” he hissed at her.

She flinched at each of his questions as her anger drained from her.

“She’s not a slut’s,” she shot back weakly. “Why is it ok for a guy who sleeps with multiple women, but not for a girl to have multiple guys?”

“You know full well the argument won’t apply here little sister, unless he was screwing around on her as well. I saw his face, Liz, he was crushed he wasn’t cheating I know that. She isn’t a slut for wanting multiple guys. If she slept with every man in the western hemisphere she wouldn’t be a slut. Hell if her boyfriend knew about what she was doing and was ok with it would have been ok with me. But he didn’t know she betrayed him,” he said his voice rising with the last statement.

He leaned in even closer and allowed his anger to twist his face.

“She betrayed him and she tried to use me to do it, would have used me to do it if he hadn’t walked in right then,” he growled.

“And you my loving little sister,” he mocked then pain flashed across his face as tears rose to her eyes. He backed away from her toward the hall to his room and his voice dropped to a normal decibel and went flat as his face when utterly blank.

“And you, after your friend tries to use me, you come home and accuse me of insensitivity. And you are angry at me because I didn’t help your friend that I didn’t cooperate in her betrayal of someone for all I know has never done anything to deserve such a humiliation.”

While he talked he backed away from her like you would back away from a rattle snake about to strike. When she raised a hand to stall his retreat he spun and took the five long strides to his room and slammed the door.