The Chaos Theory: Book One - Donnie

Monster

Chapter Eight

Donnie's POV:

7:18 AM.

The device on my desk was one that I've been working on for quite some time. It was a gadget to aid my brothers and me in our missions, as a certain brother of mine keeps screwing us up. Cue a dramatic cough. Leo.

It was getting late. My stomach, for the past four hours, has been reminding me that I need to eat. Yet, science is always calling, and I must answer. I exhaled a breath of relief as I stood up and stretched. My softshell, which was relieving from the pressure of my battle shell, was revealed to open air. I pressed a button on my Tech-Pad. The doors to my lab opened up with a hiss and a puff of steam.

Safe to say, what I discovered outside certainly did not match my expectations.

"Raph? Leo? Everything okay?" My two older brothers sat at the kitchen table, both muttering quiet harassments towards each other. Raph, who seemed much calmer, audibly sighed and stood up from his chair.

"I'm leavin' this one up to you, buddy. Let me know how it goes." My eldest brother left the kitchen, heading to what I assumed was his own room. Goosebumps ran down my arms. What were they talking about?

Leo was left alone at the table. He stood up, and I was struck by the unusual look of pure rage on his face. Soon enough, I came face to face with my brother. He hasn't even said a word and I could practically feel his anger resonating through my body. He was merely a foot away.

"Do you wanna tell us where you've been for the past, who knows how long?! You never tell us where you're going! You've been cooped up in your lab for forever! The only time you come out is for food, missions, and maybe on a good day, some other important reason."

I froze in place. Was he really about to start a fight over this?

My furrowed eyes locked on his. "You do realize it's not like that, right? I'm in there trying to help you guys. The main reason I'm stuck in there all day is because-"

"Oh, don't give me that sh1t," he spat, "Even Mikey agrees. He told us how you're demanding to go out on patrol late at night when it wasn't even your turn. You never tell us anything anymore! It's like you don't even care about the team!"

I felt like I was rooted to the ground. My head, at this point, was throbbing with anger. If I had the option, I'd have already punched that smug look right off of his face.

"Don't bring him into this. He didn't do anything wrong."

"Did I even say he did? No! So, answer the goddamn question, Donnie. What are you really doing in there? Why do you keep roaming off in the middle of the night? Are you making more crap to 'help' us with things that make us, us? Are you trying to get rid of our personalities yet again, brother? Only caring about the advancements of yourself? Because, trust me. We all know how that went last time."

"Excuse me? Do you want to maybe confront yourself with how controlling and self-absorbed you've been ever since you got elected leader? Oh, wait a minute! I take it back! You've always been a self-absorbed a$$hole, Leo. And you always will be!"

He took another step closer to me, and all I could do was stand there and take it. The tension was palpable in the air.

"So, what are you gonna do about it? At least it's something I'm able to acknowledge." he asked, his voice dropping to a whisper. "You know what? This has all gone too far. It's happened one too many times, Don. Sometimes I wish you weren't even my brother."