Weak Hero Short Stories

Childhood Pt 3

Julia's POV:

Today is the day, I get to see him again. I'm ready to see Gray again. Though, I wish it was not under these circumstances. I don't know why but apparently my brother got expelled from his middles school. I know him, I know he would never do that without a good reason. My heart is pounding in my chest, as I anxiously clean one of the guest bedrooms in my flat. I live here, using the money my father gives me for rent, in a modern, residential area, expensive flat. I just moved in before this summer, my Father said that since I was going to be a high schooler when August came, I might as well live as one.

I looked back at my work. The room was spotless, vacuumed, dusted, with windows washed, and personal bathroom cleaned. I hope he likes it, I worked hard to make sure he felt at home. Turning from the room, I walked down the hallway into the Livingroom at the clock. It's 4:30 now, and he is supposed to be getting here at 4:45. The time gave me a dose of stress. I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to take my meds. 

The pills I took were to help with my anxiety. It wasn't as bad as others, yet it still would help me to take them. I rushed to the bathroom, and quickly took the pills and a glass cup out of the cabinet. Swallowing my pills and placing everything back in its correct spot, I rushed to the kitchen. It was then I heard a knock.

I took in a deep breath and opened the door, there stood my father. I barely listened to his words, and only caught some of the things he said, "He's dangerous, are you sure your okay with this?" he spoke as if I was not 100% sure that this was what I wanted. "Yes, he's my brother." Father shook his head and walked to his car. And out of the car came Gray.

In that moment I knew something was incredibly wrong. I barely got to look at him before Father drove off in a rush. "Gray," I called with a smile, "I missed you!" He turned to look at me, and in an instance I felt angry. The look in his eyes, the look of pure brokenness. Who did this!? Who broke him to this extent!? Who even dared!? His eyes quickly darted away, seeming to be glued to the ground. I quickly ran to him and pulled him into a hug. He didn't push me away, nor did he embrace me.

"Thank you for letting me stay Julia." He spoke barely above a whisper. Julia, Julia, why did he call me that? In all my life I had never once heard him call me Julia. It was always "Julie lets go play" or "I'll help you Julie." or "I'm never too busy for you Julie." The level of volume he used along with his tone just screamed that he was hurting. Who did this to you Gray?

"Of course," I answered, "Your my brother." he didn't reply. I grabbed his sleeve and led him to his room, talking all the while. Desperately trying to start a conversation. Though from that day forward Gray didn't say another word.

I lived in this flat with my best friend, her boyfriend, and a mutual friend of my and my best friend. They all tried to start conversations with him, though, they had less luck than I did.

A couple days after school had started I got a message from my boyfriend, it was the first Saturday since school started so I had no idea what to expect:

Hey, can you meet me?

I hesitated before responding:

Of course, where? 

He told me the location of a cafe, not too far from my flat. I decided to walk over and it took me about 15 minutes. "Hey," I said smiling brightly when I saw him "What's up?" The look in his eyes were cold and his words scared me, "I don't think this is working, we should break up." he said with seemingly no shame.

"But.. why?" I asked dumbfounded

"Julia, you are a lot of work," he started, "and, not pretty enough to be worth the hassle." I took in a deep breath, "You know I've always had a thing for blondes, and me and Courney are going to get together. I wanted to break up with you first, since I know seeing us together would be absolute torture." ending his sentence with his hand around my shoulder. I was mad, I slapped his hand and yelled, "Touch me again and I'll show your torture!" 

Without giving him even a second to reply, I bolted away, running until a got home. Closing myself in my room, and staying in until the weekend had passed.

It was Monday morning, and I felt sick. Placing a hand on my forehead, I confirmed that I had a fever. It was early, my bestfriend, who I shared a room with, had not come back last night. Her and my other flatmates, except Gray, had a party at a bar yesterday, they probably won't be at school either. I assume Gray has already left, so it's safe to cry. I couldn't cry though, no matter how hard I tried. I always kept my emotions in a bottle, my brother and I were raised to do that. I couldn't cry, nor could I bring myself to rise from my bed.

I sat in bed and curled into a ball. I didn't cry but I let out small whimpery whines. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. I panicked, but replied with a "come in" Gray peeked his head through the door. I was trying to look less pitiful, it didn't seem to be working. As fast as he appeared, he disappeared and closed the door. Oh, not even my own twin wanted anything to do with me. I laid there in silence until the door opened again, and Gray reappeared with a plate of biscuits cut in half with strawberry jelly on each side, and a glass of water.

He placed the objects on my nightstand and extended his hand to touch my forehead. "Are you okay Julia?" he asked. No I feel like crap, physically and emotionally. "Yea I'm just a little under the weather." I replied, faking a smile. He studied me for a moment, for a second I felt exposed, as if he could see straight through the front I put up. "Are you okay Julie?" he asked once more. In that moment I began to cry uncontrollably and sob "No...." sometime in there Gray had wrapped his arms around me. He was repetitively telling me "It's okay Julie, I got you." and "It'll be alright, you can tell me."

Somehow between sobs I managed to tell him what happened with my boyfriend. And then at the end I said something I didn't mean to say, "And.. the worst part is.. I think you hate me." He looked shocked and surprised, "How could I hate you Julie?" he asked.

"You haven't said more than ten words to me since you got here, and you always try to avoid everyone. All you do is go to school and study." I said, my voice barely above a whisper. He sat there looking somewhat sad, he pulled me into a tighter hug and replied, "How could I hate you Julie. For some unknown reason you have put up with me being awful to you this whole week, I've neglected you and barely done more than acknowledge your existence. I'm so sorry Julie."

I smiled and said, "I forgive you." He met my words with a look of joy and happiness. Suddenly, I remembered something important, "Gray? What about school, you should go." He looked at me like I was crazy, "And leave you here alone, sick? Over my dead body." he spoke. "But aren't you busy?" the words came out faster than I could speak. "I'm never too busy for you Julie." He said while pulling out of our hug and handing me the glass of water.

Silently, I opened the drawer of my nightstand. His eyes and focus readjusted to the drawer. I pulled out a single book, the cover a bit faded, and the pages worn. Then I simply handed it too Gray and smiled "I think this is yours." I handed him the book, and he opened it to the very first page. Looking up from it, he simply said "I love you Julie."

"Love you too Gray." I replied, my tears dry, knowing that it would be alright, because now I at least had someone on my team, my friend, selfless, kind, my other half, my brother, and my favorite.

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Yay, I finished another fic. This was really fun to write and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I decided to finish it today because I had waaaayyyy too much time on my hands today.

 To all you who answered my Serious Question, I was not trying to some off as I did. I really just meant that one day I logged onto my Wattpad and I had 32 notifications that were comments, votes, etc. It doesn't bother me at all and I enjoy reading the comments but, whenever I'm about to type to reply to someone, I  think about the number of notifications they may have, and how sometimes it gets kinda overwhelming. But I decided I will be replying to some of those, cause why not. It might be a sec before I publish my next fic, thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day y'all.