Like a Rock

by Rodney D. Lopez

At eighteen, my brother Luis is two years older than me and an academic all-star at McCardell Academy on track to being named valedictorian. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “You're Luis’ sister? Wow! You must be super smart too, right?” during my freshman year.

Yeah, my brother casts a big shadow. He’d also be the first to correct me: “I’m your half-brother, Julissa. We have different dads,” but I refuse to call him “half.” For no other reason than to bug him. Ha!

Don’t get the wrong idea; he’s annoyingly smart, but never lorded it over people. He just loves learning and shares his knowledge with anyone who’ll listen. Unlike most full blood siblings I know, we actually like each other and enjoy spending time together.

He helps me with schoolwork, which is how I was able to get into McCardell in the first place. We even watch different horror movies every Friday night. Tonight was supposed to be a re-watch of “Thirteen Ghosts,” but he never showed.

Worried, since he would never ever miss Friday Fright Night, I checked his location on the family app. That was how I found myself in the basement of Stewart Hall, McCardell’s elite dorm, at the baseball team’s victory party. And there he was sitting at the makeshift bar next to two empty beer bottles, chugging down a third.

My jaw hit the floor. Luis was never the partying type. And after his dad was deported back to the Dominican Republic due to excessive DUIs, he didn’t drink either. What the hell is going on here?

I waded through the crowd of our classmates, ignoring all the high school boys trying to get me a drink or to dance. I reached my brother just as they all groaned at the start of the karaoke portion of the evening. The team captain loves it; everyone else tolerates it.

“Luis? What are you doing here?” I laid my hand on his shoulder. He glanced back at me and huffed out a breath.

“Leave me alone, Juli,” he said. Something was definitely wrong. He never called me by anything other than my full name. Ever.

“Well, when my brother misses Friday Fright Night without a call or even a text, I get worried.” I watched him finish his third beer. He set the empty in line with the other two and grabbed another from the cooler next to him. After fumbling the top off, he took another big swig.

“Half-brother, Juli. We have different dads, remember?”

See? I told you. He just can’t help himself. He always needed information to be accurate. Keeping up with that borderline obsession was exhausting.

“We grew up in the same house,” I retorted, rolling my eyes. “As far as I’m concerned, that makes us full siblings.” I tightened the hand on his shoulder and turned him to face me. “Now are you going to tell me what’s going on or am I going to have to torture it out of you by quoting incorrect factoids?”

He glared at me for a moment, then a tear slid down past his glasses. My heart lurched. Luis never cried. Not when he broke his arm falling out of a tree. Not when grandpa died. Not even when my dad beat him within an inch of his life before abandoning us. Luis never cried.

“It’s all done, Juli. All my work. Gone.”

I wanted to say or do something, but what? Since we were kids, it was Luis helping me. Now that he needed me, my mind was blank. He took another swig of his beer. Maybe I should take the bottle away? Before I could decide, he continued.

“I’m going to get expelled.”

“What? Why?”

“Marcus—”

I groaned before he said anything else. Marcus was my brother’s roommate, kinda cute, and as extroverted as Luis was quiet. Near the end of last year, Marcus pulled a prank on a senior who was bullying freshmen. I’m not sure how it came down to Luis’ word, but he “alibied” Marcus out. They’ve been best friends ever since. I’ll never understand high school boys.

“What did he do now?”

“You remember the painting of the founder’s mother in the main lobby? The one from like eighteen seventy something?” Luis sighed and took another long pull from his beer. “He got it into his head that she looked like you. I don’t know how he stole it without being seen, but he stashed it in our room to give to you. The RA found it.”

“Oh my god...” I gasped. He stole a painting? For me? As my mind rushed to process this information, some random jock got called up to sing a power ballad. He was off-key and off tempo. His lack of talent would be impressive, like the Asian guy from American Idol, if his voice didn’t sound like screaming cats in a Tilt-A-Whirl. No wonder everyone hated these karaoke bits. Who, in their right mind, would want to listen to that?

“Exactly,” said Luis. “We got called in this afternoon to the disciplinary committee.” My brother’s voice shifted, mocking the head of the committee. “Not only is theft not tolerated at McCardell Academy, the significance of the item stolen leaves us inclined to expel you both.”

“What’d Marcus say? Didn’t he tell them he stole it?” A tiny flicker of hope in the decency of my brother’s friend coming to light. Luis shook his head, and just as quickly, that hope died.

“He thinks keeping quiet will get us through. That if they can’t pin the theft on either of us, we’ll both be fine.” Luis drained his bottle and reached for another.

“That’s your fifth, Luis,” I said, reaching out to take the beer from him. “Maybe you should stop.”

“Why?” he growled, pulling the bottle out of my grasp. “My supposed best friend—hic!—torpedoed years of self-control and study! You’d never understand, Juli.”

I knew he was hurting, but that comment stung all the same. Luis jumped to his feet. For a moment, he teetered. I got ready to try and catch him, but he kept his balance. “You go out with your girlfriends, partying, and having fun! Not a care in the world! Don’t you think I wanted to do that? Of course I did!

“But I’m the older brother. It’s my respon...resp...” He frowned for a moment then continued. “My job! To be strong. Protect you.” He waved his arms to fend off imaginary threats, almost toppling over. I grabbed his waist, keeping him upright. “Mom can’t, Juli. Not by herself.”

At any other time, my brother getting shitfaced for the first time would be funny, but the tears in his eyes spoke to the anguish he’d kept buried. I’d never known how he felt, even though I’ve lived with him my entire life.

Luis took care of me. Babysitting while Mom was on shift, playing with me when she was too tired, even helping with homework. There was only a two-year difference between us, but it might as well have been ten.

Now, when the tables had turned, I had no idea how to help him. I wanted to say something clever or inspiring, anything to make him feel better, but the words never came. I could only play for time, let him vent and hope that we could figure a way out.

“You think if I get expelled, in my senior year no less, there’s a college in the country that’ll touch me? Nope!” He was getting more agitated. As he got more desperate, his voice rose in volume. “What kind of college can I get into with a GED, huh? Huh?”

Silence—that telltale moment that happens at every party, at the exact moment you don’t want attention on you. I was so caught up in my brother and his situation, that I hadn’t noticed how much attention we were attracting. The baseball team captain shattered the quiet.

“Luis Gutiérrez, time for you to sing, man!”

It showed how drunk Luis was that he didn’t bat an eye at the idea. He slowly pulled my hands away and staggered up to the mic. I’ll never know how he didn’t smack into either of the two lyric monitors. He moved on autopilot, like he’d been doing it all his life. He whispered to the karaoke DJ and the guy rolled his eyes.

The vibe of the party had been slowing down. Everybody was waiting for karaoke to end so the real music could restart the party. The lyric monitor facing the audience showed the song my brother picked:

“BABY GOT BACK” AS SUNG BY SIR MIX-A-LOT

My eyes widened and my heart rate ratcheted up. A couple people scoffed. Luis whispered a brief apology to any fans of the song and waited for the spoken intro to finish. Oh, no! I buried my face in my hands. This is exactly what my brother didn’t need, a final humiliation crowning the end of his academic career. The first lyric appeared and my brother transformed!

There was no other way to describe it. The quiet, bookish nerd I’d known for the sixteen years of my life was gone. In his place, stood a juggernaut. He owned the stage, moving from one side to the other with power and charisma. He didn’t miss a single line, performing as if he’d written the song himself.

His energy was infectious. Within seconds, the entire crowd was on their feet dancing & feeding off my brother’s performance while simultaneously energizing him. I hadn’t seen anything like it outside of professional rock concerts. By the last verse, I’d joined my classmates, dancing and cheering with everyone else.

They didn’t let Luis off the stage. He sang that song about rocks from the car commercials, a song I’d never heard of, and ended with Santana’s, “Smooth” to resounding cheers. Finally, a path opened and he walked down. He reached me and whatever had kept him going faded. He lurched again. I gripped his shoulders and steadied him.

“Okay, concert’s over. Time to go home.”

I put his arm around my shoulder. My brother wasn’t a big guy, but still really heavy. Thankfully, his dorm wasn’t far, and his room was on the first floor. Ever the responsible one, Luis had his keys on a ring through a belt loop, so getting inside was easy.

The room was dark and empty, but I’d been coming here multiple times a week for the past year and a half, so I knew where to dump his body, so to speak. I didn’t bother undressing him, just took off his shoes and put a blanket over him.

“Where’s Marcus?” I tried to keep the rage out of my voice, but I’m not sure how well I did. Given how drunk Luis was, though, I don’t think he noticed.

“Went home. Be back Sunday night.” He wanted to say more, but his voice faded as his eyes closed. I’d never seen him so relaxed. It was weird, but also heartwarming. I shook my head.

“You’re going to have such a hangover tomorrow,” I said, my voice softer but not quite a whisper. I stood to leave when he shot up and grabbed my hand. I thought he’d woken up, but his eyes were still closed.

“Don’t say anything, Julissa,” he said. “Don’t tell Mom. Let me...I’ll figure out what to...” He fell back onto the bed and started snoring. I smiled. Of course, I wouldn’t tell. Come what may, I’ll always have my brother’s back.

 ***

The rest of the weekend was bad for Luis. His hangover finally faded by Sunday, but his anxiety over the disciplinary committee’s decision ate at him. Sunday night, I video called Marcus myself. He answered on the second ring and had the audacity to smile at me!

“Hi, Juli—” he started. I saw red. Cute or not, I wasn’t about to let him try and sweettalk his way out of this.

“You proud of yourself, asshole? My brother is getting expelled thanks to your little stunt with that painting. I hope it was worth destroying his life!”

“If we both stay quiet, then-”

“What, you think you’re in the mafia? What’s really fucked up is that even now, freaked out and betrayed, he still calls you his best friend.” The words landed. Marcus’ face fell. I must admit, seeing him hurt felt good. Looking back, I’m not proud of that moment, but at the time, I was too angry to care. 

“That’s the person you hurt, Marcus. And for what? Some laughs? A cheap thrill?”

“No, I was trying to get you—”

“Don't even THINK about bringing up your little crush on me! Yeah, I know about that,” I said, responding to the shock on his face. “You think I would ever go out with someone so self-involved, whose head is so far up his own ass that he would sabotage my brother's entire life?”

“Juli, listen I—”

“No, you listen! You’re gonna fix this; you hear me? Call them, email them, send smoke signals. Whatever. I don't care. You fix this, or I swear to God, I will never speak to you again. You’ll be dead to me for the rest of your life!”

I slammed my hand on my keyboard, ending the call before he could say anything else.

 ***

Monday morning started bright, but cloudy. He didn’t have class until the afternoon, so I stopped by Luis’ room around ten o’clock.

I let myself in. Marcus wasn’t there. Luis was still in bed, curled up and swearing at the curtain for having the nerve to let light into the room.

“Pretty inventive language there, bro.” My girlfriends all tell me that Luis’ glare is terrifying, but I’ve seen it my whole life. Maybe I’m immune? In any case, he glared at me, but I just smiled in return. He sat up and smoothed out his rumpled shirt.

“What are you doing here?”

“Sisters are allowed to check on their big brothers, you know.”

“Half. Half-brother, Julissa.” I rolled my eyes and opened his laptop. The screen powered up immediately. The school’s student portal was open.

“Hey, your inbox has two messages.” Before he could do anything, I opened his email client. I never passed on a chance to snoop, but as soon as I saw the list I froze. “Luis, there’s an email here from the committee. Sent at eight o’clock this morning.”

What little color remained in my brother’s pale sweaty face drained away. I let him yank the laptop away from me, expecting him to open the message, but he just stared at the screen.

“Well? Are you going to open it?”

His bleary brown eyes, so wide I could see the whites all the way around, lifted from the laptop to stare at me. His pupils were blown and his lips started twitching. I took his computer, clicked open the message, and read out loud.

“Dear Mr. blah blah blah... Due to the recanting of...” I gasped and flapped my hands back and forth. “Oh my god, Lu!! Marcus contacted them. He confessed!” I squealed. Yes, I did. I’m not proud of it, but my brother was off the hook; I’m allowed one, right?

“What? Let me see that!” He took the laptop and started reading, tracing the lines with his finger. “He called. Told them he did it on his own....” He paused then frowned. “But due to the closeness of your relationship, lack of evidence proving you didn’t assist...” Another pause. Then Luis slowly exhaled. “They put me on probation for a month.”

“What does that mean?”

“As long as I don’t do anything in the next month, I’m free and clear! Yeah! Ow.” He shifted the laptop to his bed and massaged his temples. The incoming text alert sounded on my phone. I checked and saw a message from Marcus.

Marcus: Tell him I’m sorry.

Marcus: Please don’t hate me.

That drama could wait. Right now, I was so excited for my brother, I could hardly contain myself!

“I dodged a bullet, Julissa. And I’m not going to waste it.” He stood up and started unbuttoning his shirt.

“What does that mean?”

“I remember last night. How much fun it was—”

“To drink yourself into a stupor?” I couldn’t resist. Now that the danger of my brother getting yeeted out of school was past, my snark was back in action.

“No, idiot. Singing.” He took off his shirt and started digging in his bureau for a fresh one. “Can you head to the lounge and wait for me? I need to shower and change.”

“Okay. And the whole ‘dodge bullet’ thing?”

“I’m going to join the choir! ‘Loser Luis’ is going bye-bye. I think it’s time I live a little!”

“Fine,” I said in mock frustration. “Just so long as you don’t miss Friday Fright Night again!”

“Never again. I swear.” He stopped rummaging and stepped towards me, holding out his hand with the pinky extended. I rolled my eyes and completed our ‘sacred’ ritual by wrapping my own pinky around his.

“So it is sworn,” he said, his voice serious. “So mote it be.” Our promise sealed forever. I shook my head again and huffed out a breath.

“No longer a loser, but still a nerd.”

He stuck his tongue out at me and went back to searching for clean clothes. I returned the gesture, though he didn’t see me, before heading out to the dorm’s first floor lounge. Even though he wouldn’t have as much time to help me, I was glad he was looking to sing in the choir. It’s about time he did something for himself. My brother deserved a life.

If that meant I’d be on my own more from here on out, who cares? I was a sophomore, soon-to-be junior, at McCardell Academy, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country. It’s high time I grew up a little and stood on my own two feet!