“She’s pregnant, and she isn’t even going to tell the father. She’s not even going to try to get his help because she has me.” He raises his arms in the air, the whiskey sloshing around in the bottle, but he’s drunk enough that it doesn’t spill. “She knows she has me too. It’s not like I have a future. Or fucking college eight hours away. No.”

Yeah, he’s really mad. And he has every right to be mad. “This is not on you. You don’t have to do anything for her.”

He laughs darkly, sniffing. “Bullshit. Everything is always on me.”

It’s a truth we both know, but one I’ve never heard him ever speak out loud. He’s always just taken it in stride, but I knew it had to bug him. I knew that deep down, it kills him that he couldn’t ever just be a kid.

He deserved that. I place my hands on his shoulders and look into his eyes. “You don’t have to take this on. You’re going to college.”

He laughs again, so lost and broken and sad. “We both know I’m not. She can’t do this on her own. I was worried about her taking care of Lucy alone. But now, there’s going to be a baby.”

“Not your baby.” I’m so goddamn mad at his mom and frustrated with him for being so selfless. “You deserve to go to school to have your own life. You don’t have to be everyone’s keeper all the time, Camden. You can’t do that.”

“What am I supposed to do? He left. My dad left, and she had no one.”

“You’re her kid,” I say firmly. Maybe I should have done it years ago, but I know how stubborn he is. “Not her husband. Not her caretaker. She should have taken care of you.”

He waves me off, swaying slightly on his feet, the booze now hitting him. “That’s not how this works, not with my family, and you know it.”

I do know it. And it’s so fucking sad.

“Come on.” I take the bottle of whiskey from him, leaving it behind for other partygoers, and walk him to my car. By the time I tuck him into the passenger seat, he’s nearly passed out, mumbling something.

I drive him to his house and help him into his bed, the rage boiling through me as I sweep his hair out of his eyes and tuck him in. He looks so young and vulnerable when he sleeps. It’s the only time he doesn’t have to worry about anyone else.