Oh Brother

A normal family dinner

I stood in the middle of my room pulling up my denim shorts I was going to wear for dinner, I pulled a sweatshirt over me and went and stood in front of the mirror.

The door swang open and hit the wall as Cameron walks in, I jump at her presence and then relax when I see it's only her.

"Cmon we gotta go!" She says as she grabs her keys and bag

"Wait I'm not done yet-."

"It's fine, you look great." She says hurriedly, not even looking at me.

I sigh and slump out of the room, grabbing my phone. My legs take me down to Ethan's room where the door is open a crack; Hes out of bed spraying deodorant. He was coming to dinner!

A lot of Ethan's problems come from Dad leaving, I really hoped this could help him and help me.

I snuck away and down the stairs before he could catch me lingering outside his door.

"Ethan!" Cameron shouts

"Yeah- I'm coming!" He shouts back

Grayson stands near the door, looking mournful .

Ethan jogs down the stairs, I know his footsteps without having to turn around and look.

"I swear if he says any cheesy or cliche shit tonight i'm gonna-."

"You're gonna what, E? Hm? Break another rib?" Grayson snickers.

"Or maybe I'll break one of yours." Ethan sneers pacing towards his twin.

"Guys! Stop being douchebags and get in the car."

I was so nervous, I thought I was going to throw up.

"W-What if he has a girlfriend. He didn't m-m-me-mention anything at the hospital..." I say out loud, everyone turns and looks at me.

As all four of us sat in the car it was peaceful. No one was talking, and more importantly, no one was fighting. Perhaps because everyone was just as nervous as I was. There was tension because of how everyone felt about going to see our father who left us.

For a change, Ethan and I sat next to each other contently, there was no need for him to punch my arm for no reason or for us to start arguing, for the first time in a while he could bear sitting next to me without having to make my life hell.

"Thank you for coming." I whisper to Ethan

"I'm only doing this for you." He says and looks out the window. I smile and look out my window so he doesn't see.

We drove for a while, I thought long and hard about what could happen tonight.

I thought of how I never said anything when he sat in the hospital bed and cried about how sorry he was for what he had done.

"I w-want you to know that I forgive you." I spoke softly. He looked at me and smiled a genuine smile.

I forgive him for all the times he had laughed while I held back tears, for each meaningless beat down I fell victim to, for the times he had managed to be able to turn Grayson against me and make him hurt me. I forgive him.

Why? Because I was just trying to survive. If I could make my life easier I was going to from now on.
I had always been a second little brother to Ethan, gender didn't define our relationship the way it did with Grayson. Ethan had always treated daily beat downs and purple nurples like they were nothing, where as Grayson was normally more gentle. And as we headed to the home of the man who had single handedly managed to turn pubescent Ethan then into a ball of anger and violence, something felt nostalgic.