Brady Tyson & The Two Little Liars

Chapter 0 - Which Came Before

"Happy birthday to you~ happy Birthday to you~ happy birthday dear Bra-dy~~ happy birthday to you!"

...

"...Brady?" The man pushes his glasses up his nose as he leans over me; "You can blow out the candles now."

He puts a hand on my shoulder, and I look from it to the cake in front of me. The dull flames of ten candles are all that illuminate the massive room. This whole dining floor is as big as my old house, but I still liked that better. My eyes strain into the dark as I gaze out of the massive glass window on the other side of the room. Why do we have to be so far up? Why can't he just have a normal house? There's no one here besides us anyway.

"You idiot!" My eyes drift over to the small girl to my left. She glares at me, her face twisting into a grimace as she looks up at the man leaning over me. "Daaaaad, he doesn't know what to do! Just blow them out for him already!"

My head gets hot, and I blink a few more times to get the red out of my vision. Why can't she ever use my name? It feels disgusting.

"Ofelia!" He pushes his glasses up his nose again. "What have we discussed when it comes to name calling? Do you want me to take away your punching bag again?"

"Dad!"

"Come on Brady." He ignores her, and I look up at him again. "Remember what Ofelia did on her birthday? You just make a wish and blow out the candles. Do you think you can do that?"

I look down at the candles again. They've already burnt down halfway, dripping colorful wax onto the white frosting. I wish that Ofelia would go away. No I don't. I don't want anyone to go away. I wish that I could see my parents again.

With one big inhale, I extinguish all of the candles, and the room gets completely dark.

"Good job, Brady! One second, let me go get the lights."

Footsteps take off into the dark behind me, and Ofelia whispers at me; "Suck up." Then the chandeliers overhead flicker on, and I turn to see Mr. Argyros jogging back to the table. He has on a baggy shirt and even baggier pants. I think I like that more than any of the presents he got me. He wears too many fancy clothes.

"Alrighty! Let's get this cake into our stomachs already! I hope it's good, I wanted to try a new recipe for the occasion."

"That's not fair!" Ofelia whines; "You used the old recipe for my cake! Why does he get a special cake?"

"Because, daughter dearest, this is a recipe from the new cookbook that your dad's dad gave to him for his birthday." Mr. Argyros sets a massive piece of cake in front of me. "My birthday comes after yours, remember? So, since I didn't have the new cookbook yet I couldn't have-"

"No!" Ofelia shouts, and her dad shoots a threatening look at her. She glares back, and eventually he just sighs and gives her a piece of cake. She immediately begins to fork it into her mouth.

"Ofelia! Wait until the birthday- Oh, nevermind." He sits down with his own small portion, and pushes his glasses half way up his nose before pausing and taking them off with a sigh. "These are really just the worst, you know that?"

He shoots a wry smile at me, and then motions for me to eat. I'm not really hungry, but I pick up my fork anyway and take a bite.

"Well? Is it good?"

I nod, and Mr. Argyros beams before taking a bite of his own helping with a 'mmmm' sound.

Honestly, I can't really taste it. I haven't been able to taste much in a while. But nonetheless, I finish my cake. Ofelia has already long since finished hers, and her eyes look me up and down as I push my plate away.