Revenge is a Dish, Best Served Pissed Off

I grabbed Kaner by the arm and dragged him out into the kitchen. I spun him around until he was facing me, taking great care to pin him up between the wall and myself; no escape.
“Alright Kaner, listen up. That’s my baby sister in there that you’re making ga-ga eyes at; and I’m not ok with that. I’m not gonna punch you in the face because I know that you’re harmless, and she’s shoot you down anyway… but from now on, keep your thoughts to yourself.”
He nodded eagerly, trying to avoid any further confrontation; but I let it go at that. I turned away from him and headed back into the living room.



“So, you guys wanna do something today? Go out somewhere?” I asked over breakfast, as Tazer, Ellie and I sat around the table.

“Sure, what do you have in mind?” Tazer asked between mouthfuls. I shrugged my shoulders in response.

“We could go over to Kaner and Sharpies’ use their pool.” Tazer suggested as Ellie nodded and grinned; taking part in the conversation for the first time.

“Alright, sounds like a plan then!” I said as I grabbed my empty bowl of cereal off the table and dropped it off in the sink. Tazer and Ellie followed suit, and soon we were cruising through the streets of Chicago on our way to visit Kaner and Sharpie.


Probably the worst two people to ever live together, ever; Sharpie and Kaner always had something going on at their place.
Like a hundred times before, I boosted Tazer up over the backyard fence; not bothering to tell the boys we were here. I tossed Ellie over next, into Tazers’ waiting arms.

Once we were all in the enclosed area, we dashed off towards the pool; stopping only long enough to kick off our clothes and dive in.
We swam around for a bit, while Ellie and I made fun of Tazers baithing suit: “It’s not funny! It’s in style.” He shot back as we laughed at the orange Hawaiian print.

“It doesn’t even have the Hawaiian flowers on it… it’s just leaves. You look like a tree!” Ellie shouted before Tazer sent a ‘tidal-wave’ of water in her direction. I glanced around the perimiter of the pool, smiling once I saw what I was looking for.
The pool-made volley ball net was sitting off to the side; just waiting to be used. I pulled myself out of the pool, onto the walk way and headed over; burning my feet on the hot concrete as I dashed towards the net.
I lifted it up with one hand and tossed it on top of Tazer. Ellie laughed and dove out of the way before it knocked Tazer under. She climbed out of the pool and ran off to get the volleyball.

I jumped back in the pool next to Tazer, proceeding the drown him under the water, while I waited for Ellie to come back. It was the shock of seeing her in her swimsuit that allowed Tazer to escape my grasp.
He shot up through the surface of the water, beginning to ramble a string of profanities at me, before the look on my face caused him to fall silent.
He spun around in time to see Ellie coming down the stairs into the shallow end of the underwater pool. He turned back to me, a look of horror on his face.

Compared to the rest of her body, the horrible angry scar on her face was nothing. Littered across her pale flesh was a gruesome collage of burns, scars and yellowing bruises. I shook my head slowly, trying to remove the image from my mind as she swam across the pool towards us.
I glanced over at Tazer; his face was twisted in a mix of horror, anger, disgust and sadness - mirroring my own. I looked back to Ellie who was tossing the ball up in the air and catching it again, oblivious to our reactions.



“Man, we need to talk about your sister…” Tazer had crept down the hall to my room that night, after Ellie had gone to sleep. “I mean, is she doing that to herself or… or what?”

“I don’t know… I don’t think so. I mean, she didn’t do that to her face; maybe it was the same guy.”

“Yah but, it’s so… so much! I know your parents were having problems with her but… how long has that been going on for?” He looked at me expectantly, but all I could do was shake my head and look away.

I was the worse brother ever. Seeing Ellie like that broke my heart. I had no idea what I was suppose to do to make it better; but I was determined that I would. Someone had been hurting my sister for a long, long time… and now it was their turn to hurt. “Tazer, I’m gonna go to Wisconsin. I need to find this guy.”

I was surprised to see him nod in agreement; normally Tazer was the one who always talked me down from things. “I’m going with you.” He said, catching me off guard again.

“No, you can’t… coach will kill me if anything happens to you… besides, I need to do this alone.”

“You’re not going without me; you’re practically family and that makes her family. I’m not just going to sit here and wonder what’s going on, I’m going.”
I didn’t have the concentration needed to argue with him; already my mind was forming a plan. A plan that would allow me to find this guy without anyone else’s knowledge; a plan that involved a lot of pain for the bastard that did this to my sister.

Over-raged and Under-aged

When I woke up the next morning I could hear the sounds of the Ellen show floating up from the living room. I rolled over and glanced at the clock; shit, wouldn't be able to keep sleeping in like this when the season starts.
I took a stroll down the hall after throwing on my sweatpants, searching too see who was still in bed. My answer; apparently no one.
I headed down the stairs, deciding against taking the banister - coach would not be happy if I injured my groin again.

I looked over to see the back of Ellie's head on the couch, Tazer was beside her; but he was turned around looking at me. I gave him a questioning glance in Ellie's direction but he just shrugged and turned back around to the TV.
I went into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of Lucky Charms before heading into the living room to join my new room-mates.

It took all my power not to gawk at my sister as her face came into view. The part of her mouth and cheek that had been covered by gauze the night before; was now showing.
Stealing glances at her cheek I counted 9 stitches holding the angry red cut together, that ran from her mouth up towards her ear; forcing the right side of her face into a permeate lopsided grin. The rest of her didn't look much better.
Her hair was knotted and unkempt, her eyes were unfocused and outlined by purple bags. She felt my stare and turned to look at me; giving me a small smile, a peace offering to ease my mind.
It did the opposite. Her actual smile accentuated by the cut in her face caused a gory mockery of the little girl I knew; I had to look away. Guessing at the shock on my face she let out a chuckle.
"It's not as bad as it look, when they heal they aren't so noticeable."

She spoke so calmly, so matter-of-faculty that I felt anger boiling up inside me; someone had done that to my baby sister, and she didn't even care. "Who did it?" I asked, trying to take the edge out of my voice.

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "does it really matter?"

It didn't really, there was nothing I could do about it. "Yes... it matters to me." She looked over at me, without emotion, and then over at Tazer; who I had all but forgotten.

"My mom told me I was coming to live with you... when I told some of my... friends... they got angry."

"You're friends did this to you?" I spat, standing up of the chair to tower over Ellie.

"They have a bad temper..." She replied quietly, her eyes staring ahead at nothing.

"Well, you're here now so... we'll give 'em the old 1-2 if they try anything again!" Tazer joined in, making dumb punching motions as he spoke; causing Ellie to laugh.

I sat back down, trying not to flip out. What kind of brother was I? The sound of someone's body being slammed into my front door brought me out of my thoughts. "What the fuck was that?" I asked, more to myself than anything. I looked over at Ellie and Tazer; he shrugged, she looked terrified.
I opened the door just in time for Kaner to fall face first into the entrance way.

"What the fuck was that?" I repeated, this time directed at Sharpie who was stepping over Kaner to get into the house.

"Your doorbells' broken" Sharpie laughed as he headed into the living room. I reached down and grabbed onto the back of Kaner's shirt, pulling him up to his feet; before following after Sharpie.

Sharpie stopped dead in his tracks and stared at my sister, his mouth openly gawking. Kaner came in and finished the words Sharpie couldn't start: "What the hell happened to your face!" He shouted at Ellie. Not asked, shouted.

"Kaner! Fuck man!" Tazer shot him an angry glare from the couch. Ellie just shook her head.

"Do you know what a Chelsea grin is?" Sharpie let out a low whistle but Kaner shook his head no. "Well, there's a few ways to do it but... the way I had it done to me was just with a knife... and they only got me on one side..."

"Just with a knife?" Kaner asked, on the verge of shouting once again.

"The other ways are worse." She answered simply, turning back around to the TV. Tazer shot a warning glare at Kaner before he also adverted his eyes to the TV. Sharpie turned to me with a questioning look, I motioned for him to follow me into the kitchen.

"She's my little sister." I said quietly once we were in the protective, closed-in walls of the kitchen.

"I never knew you had a sister... what the fuck happened to her?"

"She... she just has alot of problems alright. You don't know her!" I shot back more heatedly than was called for. "Look man, she's living here now so just... don't... just leave her alone ok?"

He nodded, before turning to Kaner who was staring at the box of Lucky Charms I had left on the counter. "Ugh, go for it Kaner." I sighed, drawng a smile from his lips as he grabbed the box and headed back into the living room; diving onto the couch between Tazer and Ellie.

"Lucky Charms... he's the crazy fucking leprechaun if you ask me..." Sharpie said as he shook his head, heading back out to join everyone else.



The idea of keeping Ellie a secret was a dumb idea. As the night went on and more and more of my team-mates stared to show up; I wondered how I'd ever thought that hiding her would work.
On the plus side, she seemed happy enough. Besides Kaner's out burts this morning, everyone else knew better than to start asking questions, allowing Ellie to just relax and have a good time.
She was actually laughing and smiling with Tazer; which made me glad. They had both had a rough couple of days (well... Ellie longer), but it was nice to see at least there'd be peace in the house.

My only problem was Kaner, not only did he keeps staring at Ellie's face; but he was openly hitting on her. The last thing I needed was for one of my team-mates to sleep with my 16 year old sister. I looked over to where he was standing now, after being shooed away by Sharpie, watching Ellis interact with Tazer; a jealous look on his face. Of course he'd be jealous... only one girl in the room and for once she's not fawning over him. He pushed himself off the wall and head in their direction.
Perhaps it's time to remind Kaner that she's only 16; I thought as I interrupted him in the middle of the room.

A Certain Type of Homecoming...

"Adam... we're sending your sister to live with you." My mother was crying and I knew how hard this was for her; she only wanted what was best for Ellie.

As much as I loved my sister I was worried, I wasn't the best role-model, and Chicago wasn't the best city for someone like her. "Mom, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, Chicago's worse then Wisconsin... she might get into more trouble here."

"Unless this is my fault Adam!" She fell into renewed sobs, I felt useless; I should be able to protect my mom and sister... but evidently I failed at both.

"Mom! It's not your fault ok, you can't change her... she just attracts trouble. It's fine. She can come here... things are gonna be ok, you'll see."

"I hope you're right... I'm sorry I'm doing this to you. I just, I- I don't know what else to do. She won't go back to school, she never comes home... my baby won't even talk to me anymore."

"How are we doing this?" Ellie was stubborn and hard-headed, this wasn’t going to be easy.

"Your father is going to take her down. They'll be there tomorrow evening."

"And you don't think she's going to run? You think she'll stay here?"

"I don't know Adam, we're out of options." I sighed, I knew she was right. What else could they do? My parents had done everything to try and straighten Ellie out but, for whatever reason it wasn't working.

We got off the phone and I grabbed my hat, heading for the rink. I only lived 4 blocks away so I walked, enjoying the August air as I made my way through Chicago.
I was happy that I lived alone; even happier I had opted for a three bedroom town-house instead of the one bed-room bachelor pad I was originally going to get. This way, Ellie had her own room, and I didn't have to tell my team-mates what was going on.

Maybe it was my fault. I didn't believe that the blame could ever lie with my parents; they were both so committed. They did everything they could to be there for me and help me with my hockey career. Hmm... maybe that was it. I had always had hockey and they had chauffeured me around everywhere; Ellie didn't really have anything besides her bass.

I was nine when mom got pregnant with Ellie; she had been a ‘surprise’ my mother didn’t plan on having any other children. After she was born things continued on as they always did; focused around me.
My parents had spent all their time with me and she had grown up in my shadow. She wasn't that bad... I make it seem like it's the end of the world, I guess it is when it's someone you love.
She smoked dope and took hits of ecstasy, drank like crazy and slept with men for alcohol, clothing or money; she was also 16.
I wasn't sure why she did it; maybe it was pay back for being ignored, or maybe it was because she felt like she didn't have anything else.
I sighed as I reached the arena, I hope she stays, I hope I can help her... what do you do with a 16 year old girl though?

"Hey Burish!" Sharpie shouted as he saw me enter the dressing room. Keep her away from Sharpie for one thing, I thought as I nodded my greeting at him.

"Buuuuurish!" Kaner shouted, throwing a water bottle at my head. Ah, and Kaner too... definitely keep her away from Kaner, I thought as I sat down beside him. I glanced around the room, watching the boys interact with each other. Should probably just keep her out of here completely... just... never tell them she's here...

"Whatcha thinking about man?" Kaner asked, noticing my lack of energy.

"How hot your sister was last night..." Hmm, probably should stop with those jokes now also… shit this list is getting long. Not really sure what to do next, I slapped Kaner on the back of head, hard, and hobbled out to the ice before he could retaliate.



After practice some of the boys came over to play Xbox and order some pizza.
I was in the kitchen cleaning up when Tazer approached me. “Hey Burish… you thinkin on ever gettin a room-mate?” He asked, handing an empty pizza box to me.

“Nope. Why?” I shoved the boxes into a bag and threw them out into the garage. He still hadn’t answered so I turned around to look at him.

“Ummm…” He started quietly, shifting his weight from foot to foot, “please don’t say anything to any of the guys but… I think Mandy and I are breaking up.” He looked away quickly, making sure no one had overheard him.

“Oh shit… Tazer… I’m sorry man, why?”

He shook his head and gave a small chuckle, “I think it’s just too much for her. Trying to date someone she never sees… and… I think there’s someone else.” I let out a low whistle and felt a stab of pain for my friends.
Tazer was a good guy, he had been with Mandy for a long time, but everyone on the team knew that this last year had been a struggle for them. Mandy was a very needy, clingy girl; she was also very sweet, but I wasn’t surprised that she had found someone else to fill the void.

Tazer had told me something private, and seeing as how I knew I wouldn’t be able to turn him down if he showed up here with his bags; I decided I would tell him my secret too. “Listen, you know that you’re always welcome here… but… my little sister’s coming to live with me.” I finished the last part quickly; hoping Sharpie wasn’t anywhere nearby.

“I didn’t even know you had a sister…” He looked a little bashful and ashamed as he said it.

“Oh, no don’t worry… I never would have mentioned her. She’s a… hmmm.” I sought for a way to describe her in a way that was respectful but honest. “She’s giving my parents a hard time, she has her reasons but, they don’t really know what to do with her in Wisconsin anymore so-”

“So she’s coming to live with big brother Burish.” He laughed at the thought, then smiled at me, “I won’t tell them… don’t worry.” I nodded my thanks and we started walking out into the living room.



Tazer had been right; Mandy and him ended things the next day. I had just finished lunch, when he stumbled up my front steps, looking like a zombie. I grabbed one of his bags and followed him up the stairs to one of the empty bedrooms. I told him I was sorry, and that if he wanted someone to talk to, I’d listen. He just nodded glumly and sat down on the edge of the bed; he looked numb.
This wasn’t exactly what I needed right now; having to worry about my friend and my sister, but what else could I do? I couldn’t even call the boys to come hang out with us, because Ellie could be here at any time.

When the door bell finally rang at 6pm, I took a deep breath and answered it. My dad greeted me with a warm, one-armed hug; he was carting a giant blue suitcase with the other hand. I looked behind him, searching for Ellie but I couldn’t see her. “In the car.” My dad answered before the question had even left my lips.

“John’s moving in too dad… Ellie’s got the room at the end of the hall.” My dad nodded and starting carrying her luggage up the stairs.
I threw on a pair of shoes and headed out to the car. Ellie was sitting in the back, her head against the window, her arms wrapped tightly around her pillow; which she was clutching to her chest.

“Hey Roosevelt…” I called softly as I opened the door she was leaning against. She moved over, so as not the fall out of the car, then she glanced up at me.

She looked weathered and beaten. Her eyes were blood-shot and covered in black eye make-up; her cheeks were pale and the right side of her face was covered in gaze, right by her lip. I knew I shouldn’t but I couldn’t help myself, “What happened to your lip?”

“Ever hear of a Chelsea grin?” I shook my head, she sighed and looked away.

“Ready to come in?” I asked awkwardly, leaning in the door.

She continued to glare away from me, refusing to answer my question. I tugged on her arm a bit and she finally snapped her face back to me. “You don’t have to pretend. I’ll leave as soon as dad’s gone… I know you don’t want me here.”

Her words stung. “Why wouldn’t I want you here Rosie?” Rosie, Roosevelt; all the nicknames I had given her as a child. My mother had named her Eleanor; after Eleanor Roosevelt, and I use to tease her about it growing up.

“You’re some rich, famous hockey player now… why the hell would you want your whore sister living with you?”

“You’re not a whore Ellie,” She gave a sarcastic laugh at that, “and… I do want you here.” I continued on, ignoring her. I waited a minute but she didn’t respond. “Ellie, get out of the car… or I’ll take you out.”

She looked up at me, and gave me a death stare; she knew I would throw her over my shoulder if I had to. She hung her head and in a quick series of movement, threw her legs out of the car and headed towards the door. I followed behind her, leaving the rest of her things in the car.

She waited in the entranceway for me, following me up the stairs; completely ignoring my father who had reappeared. I lead her to her room and she went in without hesitation; stopping only to close the door in my face.
Knowing better than to press her anymore, I headed back down the stairs to say goodbye to my father. “You’re sure you don’t want to stay the night?” I asked him as he put his shoes back on.

“Oh no, if I leave now I can make it back before 10. She’d probably do better with me gone anyway.” He said quietly, looking towards the stairs. “Listen Adam, if it gets to be too much, I’ll come get her… I don’t want you ruining your season because-”

“I won’t. Don’t worry dad, she’ll be fine. Give mom a hug from me.” He nodded and hugged me goodbye, closing the door on the way out.
After I saw my dad drive away, I closed the door and heard music coming from upstairs. I crept up the stairs slowly and began to listen to the music sneaking out of Ellie’s room.

It got much worse when you were in high school
From guy to guy you wondered why you never felt a thing…

I sighed, not sure of what to do anymore. I turned and headed back down the hallway, stopping to peer into Tazer’s room. He was lying on his back, his arm folded over his eyes. He wasn’t sleeping, but he wasn’t moving; I continued walking.
Tonight was the first night anyone had stayed in my house with me; tonight was the first night it had ever been this quiet.