Quiet

Orel was a quiet kid.

Joe would like to say it's always been this way but that wouldn't exactly be the truth.

Sure, Orel was pretty tame. He got good grades, he went to church every Sunday with out fail. The only time he ever really caused a scene was when he was misled, which sure, happened a lot more than he'd like to admit. But hey, Orel was a trusting kid. Now that Joe could say without a doubt has always been the same.

Another thing he could say for sure was that that kid has been through a lot. While who's he kidding, everyone in that town has, but with Orel it was just...different. Joe never really knew the extent of what went down on that April day at the moralton nature reserve and he doesn't think he ever really will. He wracks his brain desperately searching through his memories for the days leading up to it but he usually comes up blank. But he does remember Orel wasn't quiet that week, no, Orel was loud.

My dads taking me on a father and son hunting trip, Joe! Isn't that exciting?

Joe remembers being angry. For a different reason than he is now. Joe has always been angry, but hearing the golden boy go on and on about his seemingly perfect family, perfect dad, perfect plans. Joe wanted to punch him. He did.

Than Orel got quiet.

At first, Joe almost worried he was to blame. Maybe he had just gotten so mad, wishing, hoping, praying he had a better dad. 'A dad like Orel's' that would take him on fun killing trips instead of sitting in easy chairs collecting dust. So mad that he had taken it too far and now Orel had stopped talking to him. Not that it would even matter, it's not like he even liked Orel or anything. But that was a while ago, and things change.

Now, Joe was arguably one of the people who heard Orel talk the most. He hadn't realized how much he had missed it until he had gotten it back. He had always been Orel's opposite, but now it felt like they were two sides of the same coin more than the worlds apart that they used to be.

Now days Joe almost had to beg Orel to stop talking once he got onto something he was passionate about, which no shocker was just about everything. If Joe had one thing to thank God for it was letting this boy continue to see the bright side of things because honest to God Joe just doesn't get it.

Joe was born into hating things. Orel against all odds couldn't stop loving them. Joe wishes it didn't make him angry, he really does, but sometimes it just gets the best of him. That's when Orel would get quiet again.

All of this boils down to the fact that, in his mind, Orel should have every right to be mad, to snap. After every single inconvenience he's suffered through, every beating and lecture. Orel should scream. But Orel is quiet. Joe, however is not.

It's the little things that get to Joe. Overdue parking tickets, misplaced keys, people talking in movie theaters. To make a long story short, Joe had a short temper. Granted, it wasn't every day he would burst into fits of rage, but still shooting a glare and a quickly muttered dumb under his breath at his closest inconvenience earned him a lecture from his mother on his 'positive problem' as she liked to call it.

But sometimes things would get bad. People would make Joe angry. Half the time they didn't stand a fighting chance.

Joe wishes Orel would snap already. He knows it's selfish and he knows it's wrong. He says it's out of spite, but deep down it's out of worry. Because there's no way in hell that kid can take one more shove with out flying off the handle. Yet he doesn't. Orel takes shove after shove after shove, and sure he has his off days, days where Joe has to coax an answer out of him and force him to open up to even just tell him what he's thinking about.