THE BLEU BROTHERS|MJ

01 | BEAUTIFUL STRANGER

The beaming rays of the early morning sun spilled in through the window from the blue curtains being peeled back. He knew his Aunt Vivian came into his bedroom as a way of waking him for work. She was never the type to shake him from a deep slumber; she moved in silence. Although the door was still closed, he was able to smell the deliciousness of breakfast permeating the air causing his eyes to blink open, adjusting to the brightness that illumined the once dark room. A yawn parted his lips and his arms raised above his head as his body stretched out the good night's rest he was thankful to have recieved.

Often times he would suffer greatly from insomnia, but it was a result from the constant nightmares he still continued experiencing since childhood. Most times a trigger would set off from within any time it would storm, reminding him of that tragic night; it's why he despised them. The imagery of his parents were forever ingrained in his psyche and not even therapy was of any help. He just dealt with it, allowing the trauma to simmer.

Fully removing himself from the comforts of his bed, he egressed the bedroom and entered the bathroom across the hallway to urinate and wash up. Shortly thereafter, he got dressed in his work uniform leaving out his room and ingressed the kitchen to see his aunt sitting at the round table with a cigarette between her index and middle fingers and her lips, taking a slow pull from it. She was reading the daily newspaper that she held before her, covering half of her face.

Michael saw that his plate of food was fixed with a cold glass of orange juice on the side. "Good morning," he greeted, making his way over to her and kissing her cheek.

"Good morning, baby. How did you sleep last night?"

"I slept pretty good than normal," he answered truthfully, pulling back the wooden chair to sit. "I can't complain though."

"That's good." She took another pull of the cigarette as Michael started digging into his breakfast that consisted of toast, scrambled eggs, and three strips of bacon. She folded the newspaper to how it was before and set it down on the table in front of her. "Your brother is being released today. How do you feel?"

Michael was estatic to be honest. It had been five years since Khalil been locked up. After the death of their parents, he started getting caught up into the wrong crowds around age thirteen, pulling petty crimes here and there to make a little cash and have certain things that other children his age had. At first, he was getting away with it but everything came crashing down during another attempt that had gone wrong. He was the unfortunate one to get caught unlike his friend that got away. Luckily, his record wasn't too bad and he was spared and placed into a juvenile detention center until age eighteen where he was later transferred to prison.

Michael always knew that Khalil actions were a coping mechanism; he was never the type to show emotions at all. That's what always made them differ from each other because he was in tuned with his. Their Aunt Vivian knew she was dealing with a handful in regards to Khalil and done everything she could to raise him to be a respectable, young black man like she's done with Michael. Yet, she always knew there was no possible way to steer him in the right direction.

Truth is, she was relieved when he got locked up. It meant she didn't have to continue putting up with his constant bullshit. But she only fought hard for him because of Michael who done the same by putting his own life on pause to look after him. Now that they are older and can do for themselves, she let go of the reigns. She's done what she knew her older sister would have wanted her to do and that was to take in her children before the system did and separated them. Hopefully, with Khalil being released, he would have the right head on his shoulders and do something positive with his life for once.