His brother pointed him behind the counter, and Dustin went to the small EMPLOYEES ONLY toilet room that doubled as a supply closet. He avoided his reflection after he washed his hands, dried them quickly, and went back out to find his brother staring at his phone.

“Who’d you take the fall for?” Dustin asked, wanting to keep the conversation on his brother’s life instead of his own. His brother was stingy with his words and was more the brooding silent type. He watched as Nicholas pulled out a bag of tobacco and rolled a cigarette at the tabletop. Dustin’s mouth twitched even though he didn’t smoke often. He thought about how the only times he ever smoked were with his brother and at late-night study groups where students were open to anything to help keep them awake.

“Shall we?” Nicholas asked, holding up two perfectly rolled cigs.

They smoked out front on the sidewalk, Dustin leaning against the metal gate pulled down over the storefront, while his brother paced on the sidewalk before him. Dustin gazed out at the grimy street, litter trapped in the dirty melting slush. Fortified by nicotine, Nicholas told Dustin he had met a methhead from Arizona in rehab, Natalia, and she was the one who got busted with drugs. They were together when she got caught with them, so he took the blame. Nicholas added he had been clean for two and a half months already and was ready to get sprung anyway. Their dad had been informed and had shown up the next day and the two of them, father and son, had flown back East together in absolute silence. He tried to tell their dad that the drugs weren’t his, but his words fell on deaf ears. “Never trust a junkie, I guess,” Nicholas said, signaling his story was over by dropping his butt onto the sidewalk and stubbing it out with his shoe.

Dustin believed his brother’s story, even though Nicholas was known for embellishing the truth for his own purposes. Dustin now understood the lengths a guy would go for the right girl.

“You going to see her again?” Dustin asked, hoping perhaps there could be a happy ending for at least one of them.

“She’s supposed to text when she gets out. We’ll see. Natalia ain’t the most reliable chick I ever met,” Nicholas replied, walking back into the restaurant.