Ripped and Stitched

13: The Breakdown

Brady had arrived home with his family yesterday. He had gone straight to his room and collapsed on his bed. His parents hadn't changed a thing about his bedroom. His old desk and chair were next to his bed, his sports trophies were still lined up on the bookshelves, even his old clothes were still in the closet.

He hated it.

Brady was no longer the teenager who had lived in this room. So after tossing and turning all night, he woke up with a goal in mind: clean out the room. He started with the closet, tossing all the things that no longer fit him onto the floor. He then started tossing all the garbage he had accumulated throughout the years. Old school assignments, the books he had never read, random crap he had once cared for, and then he looked over at all the basketball trophies. Anger began to fill his veins. Without thinking, he immediately began smashing them onto the ground. One by one he grabbed each one and continued to break them each one.

Then his brother ran into his room.

"Man, what are you doing?" Hayden yelled.

Brady ignored him and continued to trash the trophies. Hayden tried to grab him, that was a mistake. Brady not only flinched at the touch of his brother but then recovered and tackled him to the ground.

"What's your problem?" Hayden said as he fought with his brother.

Their parents ran in at once, just as Hayden got the upper hand.

"Boys stop it!" Mr. Carson yelled.

"Hayden, get off him," Mrs. Carson said sternly.

Hayden grumbled under his breath as he let go of his little brother and stood up.

"What's going on here? Brady, what happened to your room?" Mrs. Carson asked.

Brady just turned away from everyone and continued to grab medals and trophies off the shelves and toss them into the trash bag. .

The Carson's turned to their other son.

"I just heard loud noises and found him trashing his room," Hayden explained.

"And yet you somehow ended up wrestling?" Mr. Carson asked.

"He freaked when I tried to stop him," Hayden explained exasperatedly.

The Carson's glanced at each other and then back to Brady who was about to smash his state championship trophy.

"Brady stop, that trophy was everything to you," Mr. Carson said.

Brady looked at the trophy in his hand and without so much as a second thought smashed it into the ground.

Mrs. and Mr. Carson eyed each other nervously.Mrs. Carson signaled for them to step outside.

"Let's get Alison over here," she suggested.

"I don't think we should bother her, Mom," Hayden said wearily. "Whatever Brady's going through, she's probably going through the same thing."

"We have no way of understanding him, she does," Mrs. Carson explained desperately.

Mr. Carson nodded. "Hayden, why don't you go over and see if she can help."

"Alright. Where's the keys to the Porsche?"

"On the counter, but why don't you take my car instead? Let's give Brady the Porsche back and I'll look into getting you a new one, okay?"

Hayden nodded. "Okay, sure."

So, Hayden set off to Alison's in his father's Audi. Not that he was complaining. Hayden had gifted the Porsche to his little brother thinking that he would be going to the University of Alabama for football, when he found out Brady and Alison were missing, Hayden took the next flight out and came home. Missing the summer training camp had cost him his spot on the team.