Brothers-ish

Sugar Cuts Bitterness Pt.1

The image stood out clearly in his mind as his imagination formulated the description piece by piece. It reaches so high it touches the clouds. The ocean is visible while you're suspended in the air. Clean, smooth steel the wheels effortlessly glide across. Blink going down and you'll miss it. The sensation of plummeting to your death makes it impossible to keep your eyes open. The wind rushing so loudly in your ears, the screams of people can't even be heard. Speeds so high it constantly feels like you'll be thrown off at each and every turn of the tracks. By the time it's over, you'll be kissing the ground. What was the name of this monstrosity of a rollercoaster? Vik couldn't recall despite JJ having said it numerous times in the past few minutes. The drowsiness infused with worry of the impending doom soon to hit like a bomb from the brownie made it difficult to concentrate. Still, the animated man ranted about this dream rollercoaster he saw on a TV show about the top ten biggest coasters in the US. Apparently he's never been to an amusement park. He's waiting until he has enough money to go visit this one. Vik has been to an amusement park once. That was way back when he was first adopted. It was something fun to get the new family acquainted. Although Vik was not nearly tall enough to ride any of the big coasters; so instead he got to wait with Josh, maybe play some carnival games or eat cotton candy, whilst Simon and his mom rode every coaster. Those giant things never interested Vik. He preferred to keep his feet safely on the ground.

As his mind wandered, so did his eyes. Beside him was Simon with his gangly limbs sprawled out all over the couch and Ethan - who occasionally flashed photos on his phone to Simon for them to laugh at. They'd interject at times sharing their two-cents or break down laughing at JJ for saying a word kind of funny. JJ was standing to give himself the space necessary to stretch his arms wide in order to show approximate measurements of the ride. Vik recognized the sunken-eyed look on his brother's face he sees every other day. Ethan dawned the same appearance. Upon closer inspection, Vik noticed Simon was chewing the inside of his cheeks. Never has he seen him do that before. The usual suspects are paired with some sort of habit. They helped Vik indicate what indulgence Simon might be partaking in. He so desperately wanted to ask, but figured he should save the question for tomorrow. What did JJ look like? It was hard to tell because of how much he was moving around. Given his immense energetic, talkative behavior was amped up by 110% to the point where his words ran over each other, Vik guessed the pupils are probably pin-point. In health class they were shown images of pupils on different drugs. That alone indicated why JJ was acting so differently from the other guys.

Then there was Harry. He still took up the entire futon. His thumbs mashed away at the blue Nintendo DS as he fidgeted his feet. Pulling up and pushing down his aged white socks with his toes. Vik always wanted a Nintendo. Perhaps the other boy would let him have a turn. Harry glanced over, eyes almost immediately locking on Vik. It was as if he was under surveillance. An almost twisted, nauseous feeling in the pit of Vik's stomach arose. He wondered if that feeling was showing on his face. The uneasiness still lingered after Harry's focus resumed to his game.

It was all so surreal. The people in this room could be mistaken as zombies. This is how Simon spends his freetime? This is the big mystery Vik needed answered? It's not nearly as exciting as he expected it to be. Yet somehow, they were all still having enough fun to do this regularly. Of all things to share... Some guys stumbling around, rambling about nothing, and making dumb decisions since that's the only real source of entertainment. Why would Simon want to show this? It was actually fun 30 minutes ago before they became sedated. They have the ability to utilize their freedom however they desire, yet they waste it just sitting and talking. Tattoos are the spiciest thing they can come up with? Surely Simon does more wild things than that. That taste of freedom was sugary sweet on Vik's brain. He was anxious to do more just for the sake of being able to do it. Maybe they could... could... What was he thinking about? Suddenly Vik had difficulty remembering.