“He’s not.”
“What?” I said, looking up at Brent’s confident expression.
“You really didn’t know he was dealing?” he asked me.
I looked at my brother in shock. “Wait… He was dealing? You knew this?”
“Of course.” Brent nodded. “Where do you think I got my pot from? But trust me, all I ever get from Phil is pot. I don’t buy any of the harder stuff he sells.”
“Oh my God,” I said, feelin
g light-headed.
“Why don’t you sit down?” Brent said.
I sat down slowly and shook my head after a moment. “Are you saying that Phil was your dealer?”
“Yes.” Brent nodded. “I thought you knew.”
“Why would you assume that?” I demanded.
He shrugged. “You were sleeping with him, weren’t you?” he said. “And, you seemed so close, I thought he had already told you, and you were cool with it.”
“You know I hate drugs,” I said. “That’s why I leave every time you smoke.”
“I just thought you hated me,” he said. “I figured that’s why you avoided me.”
I looked at Brent and wondered if I’d been unfair to him this whole time. Had I been a terrible sister, so involved with my new romance that I’d forgotten all about what he might have been going through?
“I don’t hate you, Brent,” I assured him. “I was just…”
“Preoccupied with Phil?” he said before I could finish my sentence.
“You should have told me.”
“You spoke to Phil more than you spoke to me,” he pointed out. “How was I to know that he hadn’t told you?”
“How long has he been your dealer?” I asked, scared to hear the answer.
“Since we met,” he replied. “That’s how we met, actually.”
I shook my head. “That’s not what Phil told me,” I said, feeling the tears resurface.
I felt more than betrayed, I felt completely and utterly disappointed. The perfect image I’d had in my head of the kind of man that Phil was had completely disintegrated and I wondered if I had myself to blame for all this. I had obviously been naïve. I had obviously been so thrilled that a guy like that had been interested in me, that I’d shut my eyes and believed him wholeheartedly.
I remembered the ex-girlfriend that we’d run into on our first date together. I wondered if he had told me the truth about her, too. What if their relationship went deeper than Phil had first told? I started to question everything…and it scared me how perfect my memories were.
“Hey don’t feel bad,” Brent said. “Phil’s always been a dick. He’s always lied to his girlfriends—it’s why he and Anna broke up.”
“Anna?” I said.
“Yeah.”
I sighed. “Is that the reason your friendship with Phil has been a little strained lately?” I asked.
Brent raised his eyebrows infinitesimally. “That’s exactly the reason,” he nodded. “I wanted to make sure he was treating you right, and I guess he didn’t like the fact that I was checking up on him all the time.”
“Did he tell you he had told me about the drugs?”