Desolate - h.s. ✓

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     It was three in the morning. By the crash that sounded in the hallway, my brother had definitely just gotten home. Rolling my eyes at the thought, I counted to seven before I heard the low muttering that was probably coming from my father. At this point, my mother had somewhat given up on Ethan, whereas my father was still trying to teach him "life lessons." Although, considering it was three in the morning on a school night, it was clear they weren't working very well. Not to mention this was the fourth time this week Ethan managed to try and slip in stealthily, but failed epically.

"Dad, no, come on."

"Ethan, I'm not joking, you need to pull your shit together or you're going to end up like me."

"Dad, you're rich as fuck."

Smack.

"Ow!"

Smack.

"Dad, stop."

"Don't be smart."

"I wasn't—okay, okay, I was. I'm sorry."

"You and I both know that if you ended up on the streets like I did, you'd be a lost cause."

There was silence in the hallway. Their voices were low, but with Ethan's bedroom adjacent to mine, I could hear their chatter. At this point, I was supposed to be asleep, but I was up scrolling through social media for no reason. Honestly, I should have gone to bed hours ago, but there was just something so interesting about people drawing that got me invested in hours of watching. Watching different videos of people coloring, creating works of art. They were always so enjoyable to watch, and I usually got stuck watching them at ten and by the time I was finished it was three in the morning. It was like some sort of wormhole that I always fell down.

"I apologize, Dad, really," I heard Ethan say softly. "It won't happen again."

"You've already said that."

"No, but I'm serious. If you kick me out, I won't be able to do anything for myself."

There was a long pause. I wondered if the two of them would call it a night after what Ethan had said, but I also fully doubted it. After all, the thought of my father letting my brother off the hook so easily was just unlikely. He hadn't before, why would he start now?

"Fine. Then you start looking for a job."

"Dad, I have—"

"You have to start looking for a job," he continued. "I don't want to hear it."

Again, there was an odd silence that followed. It left me questioning where the conversation may lead. Of course, I was kind of surprised that my father was pushing my brother to get a job. It wasn't like he hadn't tried to get a job before, most places just didn't like how unavailable he was because of his baseball schedule. Though, it was clear that was not something my father was going to allow any longer. My brother needed a job and he needed a job soon.

"Yeah, yeah, okay."

"Goodnight."

"Night, Dad."

There were footsteps, followed by a door shutting far down the hall. I could hear Ethan banging his head on his door the way he normally did when he got in trouble, but that noise soon ceased, another door opening and shutting softly. After a few more scrolls, I finally plugged my phone in. It had come time to deciding that it was also time for me to completely turn off for the evening, knowing that in three hours I was not going to be very happy at all. But, I figured three hours today was better than no sleep whatsoever.