Page 33 of Quiet Obsession
I know what he’s getting at but I play dumb. “Elaborate.”
“You telling my sister to sit and her listening. That. What the fuck wasthat?”
“Sounds like something you should ask her.” I pull my cigarettes out, flick the Zippo and inhale the smoke.
“You treat her like a helpless child, Hyde,” Noah pipes in, either deflecting again, this time for my sake, or preparing to dig me a grave right next to my father’s.
“No, I don’t, I just...” He makes a frustrated sound at the back of his throat. “She’s been through so much when she was a kid, but this time around, she didn’t come out in one piece, and all I’m doing is trying to help, but I don’t understand her anymore.”
I don’t think he ever understood her, but I don’t point it out. Hyde’s been beating himself up for months perfectly well without my sucker punches on top.
“You coddle her,” I say, instead, locking eyes with him. “You act like she’s a lost little puppy.One slice, okay? You skipped breakfast, didn’t you? You need to eat, Millie, please,” I mimic. “She won’t disappear if you stop cushioning every word.”
“Sheisfragile, Creed.”
“No, she’s not,” Noah cuts in, getting on my nerves with all his unearned insight.
He spent three evenings with her. I’ve spent a hundred hours listening to Hyde vent, listening to him talk toher over the phone, listening to him spiral over the past and the present.
Noah doesn’t know shit about Millie, but he sure thinks he does when he adds, “I think she’s at war. You said her silence is a defense mechanism.”
Yeah? What’s her favorite color, motherfucker?
Dusty pink.
“That’s what her psychiatrist said,” Hyde mutters.
He wasn’t happy when Millie was released from Dr. Quinn’s care. I think he hoped for a clear diagnosis. One with a cure. Flu of the mind, if you will. Something that’d go away after a course of antibiotics.
Though given her history, pills wouldn’t be advisable.
“He might be right, but from what I’ve seen?” Noah says, leaning back in his seat. “She’s struggling. She uses silence as a shield, but it makes people either overlook her or walk on eggshells.”
Hyde scrubs a hand down his face. “So what? I should bark out orders like Creed?”
I shake my head. “No, your dynamic is set. You can’t change it. It won’t work. You’re the overprotective brother. Dash is the comedic relief; she smiles at him most.”
“Damn right she does.” The man in question beams.
“Noah’s the one she’s comfortable with,” I finish.
“And you?” Hyde questions, eyes narrowed. “What are you? How do you explain her not talking when you’re around but still listening to you?”
I inhale more smoke, holding it in my mouth for aminute, unsure how to answer. “I have no idea.”
“Creed’s a constant,” Dash chirps, passing the whiskey back to Noah. “He’s the only one not treating her like she’s made of fine china.”
Hyde turns. “We don’t—”
“We do,” Noah cuts in, resigned. “You hover, I tread lightly, and Dash... well, he’s clingy. Consciously or not, we bend over backward in our own ways.” He looks at me, jaw ticking. “Creed doesn’t.”
The fog clouding my brain clears and I see pastMillie’s obedience, a smirk curling my lips when realization strikes.
“Everything you do, she pushes back,” I say. “You ask nicely, she ignores it. You coddle her, she shuts down. You set boundaries and she jumps to test them.” I flick the ash off the end of my cigarette. “She pushes back.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Hyde’s hands clench into fists.
It means she’s a brat and needs to be bent over my knee.
