A Reason to Exist

Chapter 18

While mum was out in the garden after school on Monday, I went in to Tate's room and knocked softly.

'What?'

'It's just me,' I said, slipping into his bedroom. He was watching a YouTube video of a couple of gamers playing a game he liked to play.

'Isn't it more fun to play the game than watch people play the game? Like what's the point?'

'I learn things,' Tate said. 'They're funny.' He pressed pause on the video and looked at me impatiently.

'Sandra's not pregnant,' I said.

Tate shrugged his shoulders and made a throat clearing noise. 'So?'

'So she can't have kids apparently. She was so lovely. She said it's a blessing having you and I in her life because she can't have kids of her own.'

'She can't mother us,' Tate said, his eyes darkening.

'No, that's not it ... she just said she likes having us around.'

'What's the big news then?'

'They're buying an apartment. They'll still be close to here. It's bigger. They'll have three bedrooms, so you and I can have a room of our own.'

'What for?'

'Sleeping in.'

Tate looked back at his iPad screen and pressed the play button. 'I thought you'd be happy for them,' I said. 'It's a big deal for dad to be able to afford to buy a place, after renting for so many years.' But those over zealous gamers were talking loudly and excitedly and I'd completely lost my brother's attention. What's wrong with Tate? He never reacts to anything like a normal human being. It was like banging my head against a wall trying to understand members of my own family.