I Was Hoping For A Quiet Life, But You Gave Me So Much More

Pluviophile

Liam has only ever been close with one person in his life. Isaac. He always heard people talk about how siblings don't get along. How they fight all the time and are always at each other's throats, at least when they're teenagers. It was the same on TV. Siblings never seemed to get along in TV shows, especially brothers. The older brother would always pick on their younger brother, or basically ignore him. It was a stereotype Liam always found strange. Specifically because he was never like that with Isaac.

They fought. Of course they did. People fight with people, it's a part of life. If anything it would be more concerning if they'd never fought about anything. However, when they fought it always came from a place of worry.

Liam had a distinct memory of when he was about 12. It was a Saturday and both Isaac and their father were at work, so Liam was alone at their house. Their father had shut off the internet so Liam couldn't watch anything on their TV. If he found a way to turn it back on he knew what his father would do, and he really didn't want to test that boundary again.

It was around lunch time and Liam was exceptionally bored. It was a weekend, but he didn't have any friends to hang out with. Something about being the 'weird loner' kid. It's not like he wanted to be alone, but there was always a fear that someone would find out. That he might slip and say something he shouldn't. He couldn't risk getting himself or Isaac in trouble. He also didn't know how to talk to people. Most of his childhood was spent trying to figure out how to survive, not trying to make friends.

Liam was sitting in the living room when he caught a glimpse of a bright red bird. He realized late that it was a cardinal, but at the time he wasn't sure what kind of bird it was. He quickly threw on his shoes and slipped out the back door. The bird was sitting in a tree just past the border of their backyard. I hopped over the old ranch style fence and followed the color of the bird, which stood out amongst the browns and greens of the trees.

He watched the bird as its head flitted from side to side. Then it took off, and flew a few branches deeper into the woods. Liam followed it, careful to be quiet. He kept settling and then hopping further and further. Liam's eyes almost never left the red feathers. He didn't want to risk losing sight of it.

He was so distracted by the bright colors he didn't notice the shift in the landscape, the sudden hill that plummeted just where he was attempting to take his next step. He felt the world give out under him as his foot was meant with only air. He cursed himself as he fell. Something struck his face and, instinctively, he pulled his arms up to cover his face as he tumbled down the hill on his side. Just when he reached the bottom he felt something sharp against his arm. When he, eventually, stopped moving he opened his eyes and moved his arms away from his face. His entire body hurt, but he tried to get up off the ground and leaned against a nearby tree.

He winced when he attempted to lift his arm. A watched as a small stream of blood ran across his forearm. His knees and elbows were scraped and covered in small droplets of blood. He reached up to touch his cheek, he flinched when it stung. When he pulled his hand away he saw blood on his fingertips.

He took a deep breath, giving himself a second to collect himself before he started making his way back up the hill. His legs ached and every time he bent his knees they burned, but he kept moving.

When he got back to the house he slipped into the bathroom. He rinsed the dirt off his knees and arm and surveyed the mark on his face. It wasn't very deep, he doubted it would scar. He dabbed it with a washcloth and put a band-aid over it.

He grabbed a back of frozen vegetables from the freezer and placed them on his knees while he sat on the couch. It burned for a moment but then he felt it start to numb the pain. He tried to sit back and let his body relax. After what felt like an hour of just staring at the ceiling he felt his eyes start to close and he let himself fall asleep.