Connection

Chapter 2

Connor ignored the pokes from his little brother, rotated back towards his soup, and continued to daze off.

"Connor! Come on, Gramps and Grams are taking us home now! Wake up! I know you don't wanna go! I'm gonna tell Grams!"

At that, Connor shot out of his chair, snatched his soup from the table, slammed open a cupboard, grasped a plastic container, and poured his warm soup into it.

He stood over Gavin, and stared at him breathing heavily. Connor pushed him out of the way. He pushed the lid on the container tighter, and headed to where his grandparents musty garage lay, where the little red punch buggy car was waiting to escort him to his warm home.
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Connor's home wasn't far from his grandparent's. Only about a fifteen minute trip.

"Connor," Gavin began, "What happened today at your schoo-"

"Shut up." Connor snapped.

"I was just asking!" Gavin apologized.

"I said to shut up!" Connor blurted.

"Stop yelling at me! Please!" Gavin whimpered, close to tears.

"Jesus Christ!" Connor spat. "Why won't you just shut up!"

Gavin started bawling and screaming loudly, creating a scene and began throwing punches at Connor's angrily pinched face. One made critical contact with Connor's jaw, and could feel and hear it crack.

Not good, he thought.

Connor planted an elbow on Gavin's nose. Hard. Gavin began to cry even harder, which made Gramps spin around in his passenger seat to look at what was happening.

"Would you two stop your tussling! I can't-"

But what Gramps saw when he landed a perfect eye on the two brothers in the backseat was horrific.

A nose dripping with blood which belonged to Gavin.

A purple welt on the side of Connor's face.

The car swerved off to the side of the old, bumpy street. Then came the yelling; "What were you two thinking!? Gavin, why would you ask your brother those kinds of questions! You know how he feels about that! And same goes for you Connor. I know you get mad, but this was outrageous! You gave your brother a bloody nose for heavens sake! I am going to tell your parents about this incident and let them decide the punishment. But Gavin, clean your nose with a tissue Grams has in her purse. Connor, use some of the frozen soup Grams is bring to your home as ice. And Connor, passenger side. I need to separate you two." Connor and Gavin obeyed.

Gavin wiped his nose clean with a soft tissue, and Connor iced his head with a chilly container of soup. All Grams could do in this whole scene was just gape and shake her head. She felt ashamed of the two kids, and wanted them to care more about each other and treat each other with respect. Not pounding on each other constantly.

"Honey, why did you two fight in the first place? Your Grandpa was blasting the music very loudly up here."
Although Connor felt it was quite awkward to be riding up front by the most elderly person in the car, as well as still calming down from the earlier incident, and barely being able to talk because the welt on his jaw tripled in size managed to choke out a few words.

"Gavin asked me something that I didn't want to talk about."

"And what is that, Sweetie?"

"I hurt a kid at school." It took Connor a second to realize what had just escaped his mouth.

He confessed.

On accident.