Dangerous Game

-Laurence-

I groaned as I unlocked my dorm room. As far back as I remembered, Ralph made my life a living hell. I didn’t understand why I put up with it so much. Mom said it was because I looked up to him so much when I was younger. Thinking about that made me shudder. Ralph is pretty much a criminal. When I say “pretty much,” I mean is. Yeah, it’s that bad.

Where do I begin? He’s just a sea of headaches. It didn’t help that he was quite attractive, intelligent, and really popular with the ladies. All three of those make a deadly combination. Ralph used people and adorned sex and money. I believe the best word to describe him is a sociopath. It’s lucky that he just does minor crimes and not do something really bad like kill someone. Then again, he could have someone else do it and look all the more innocent. I did my best to steer away from that thought.

Ralph discovered his charm when I was born. He sometimes used his baby brother to get attention. In the beginning, I followed him blindly because I admired him. He was my older brother after all. I would do anything to keep him happy. His schemes started out as harmless childish pranks. Like a model little brother, I went along with them. I didn’t think about the consequences initially. Ralph insisted that it would okay.

“It’ll be fine,” he told me. “We won’t get caught for it.”  Like the dumb little sucker I was, I believed him. Half of the time, we got away with it. When we did get caught, guess who was the one to take the fall? Yep. It got worse when we grew older.

While Ralph discovered money and girls, I finally wised up to all his schemes. He would pull anything to get what he wanted. From the simplest scans to elaborate cons, Ralph proudly did them all. Every girl that crossed his path fell for his smooth words and charm. In the end, he broke their hearts and they ended up coming to me, crying. Yes, somehow I ended up being the one picking up the pieces. From being blamed for the shit that my brother did to turning into a shoulder to cry on, I found myself cleaning up after Ralph. I am sick of it! People can only take so much, you know? I’m just about at my limit with my brother here. Still, I keep doing the same crap over and over again. I still don’t have a legitimate reason for doing so, but mom would say it was love. I snorted at that notion. Yeah, love…

Today, nothing has changed. He still fucks everything up and I am left to clean up the shit. I lowered my head and sighed. Why do I even bother anymore? This is so dumb.

I flopped back onto my bed. He’s at it again. This time, Poppy’s mixed in it. I can’t sit back and let it crash and burn once again. She’s already suffered enough. I rose to my feet. I have to stop him! However, I hit a small problem as I head out the door.

How do I stop him this time? I didn’t even know the details of his latest scheme. I frowned at this pitfall. Damn it, I’m stuck! Suddenly, my cell phone rang. I jumped before I realized what it was.

Oh… I reached into my pocket and answered my phone.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Larry!” a woman’s voice cheered. I rolled my eyes.

“What do you want, Tori?” I asked.

“Aw, don’t be like that,” she said. “I only want to help you.” I narrowed my eyes at her words.

“Why?” I asked.

“You need a strategy, right?”

“Well, yeah…”

“So, I can help! Plus, I can’t stand the perv!”

“Right…” I mumbled. “Yeah.” I had a bad feeling about this.