low tides

chapter 10

TW: mentions of drugs, drinking

Samantha goes outside and waits on her townhouse steps for her half-brother to show up since he lives in the next neighborhood. To her surprise he's early.

Usually, Samantha stays with her grandma on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and stays with Ryn for the rest of the week or sometimes she won't come to Ryn's apartment because Ryn is either in bed or sleeping in.

But this week he seemed a bit closed off. "Hey!" Samantha smiled and waved as she walked down the steps to greet her brother. "Hi.." Ryn waved awkwardly. "You can be so awkward sometimes!" Samantha laughed and she started walking down the sidewalk with Ryn following her. The trees were covered in snow as it just snowed in NYC a day ago, and kids were out playing on the concrete jungles throwing snowballs at each other. The snowflakes fall down from the sky as Samantha tries to catch one on her tongue. "I hate the snow." Ryn coldly stated walking behind her. "Ugh, you don't like anything." Samantha was a bit annoyed. "Yes, I do!" Ryn defends himself, "I mean anything but the goth stuff" Samantha finally reaches Ryn's apartment building. "It's not "goth" it's grunge dumbass." Ryn opened the door for her. As the two siblings walked into the elevator ryn pressed his floor number. "This elevator is so old, how come no one ever cleans it?" Samantha asked as she looked around the elevator.

"I wonder the same thing." Ryn monotone as the elevator reached his desired floor, Ryn walked out of the elevator while Sam followed.

////

While Samantha was watching TV, she noticed something was off in the vase of one of the fake plants in her brother's apartment, She turned up the tv to full volume, testing if he would come out of his room, after a minute she knew he was asleep. She'd turn down the volume quickly and looked into the vase and saw a bag of "powder" with his name on the label. "He's such a liar.." Samantha said quietly, disappointed because he told her he was "better" when he wasn't. As soon as Samantha looked up, Ryn was right there standing. "Why are you rooting around my stuff?" Ryn asked annoyed as he swiped the bag from her hand. "Because why would someone put drugs in their vase..." Sam answered giving him the same energy back. "You didn't have to lie to me." Sam folded her arms.

"If I told you the truth, you would have snitched on me to Grandma like last time, remember?" Ryn was frustrated as he put the bag in a drawer in the small kitchen. "You can be honest with me, I'm you're sister!" Samantha retorts following him to the kitchen. "Still it's none of your business." Ryn pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "You told me you were going to get better, but obviously you aren't!" Samantha raises her voice as she starts to get teary-eyed. "Listen! I had a rough week, okay? I was trying to get better and when that week hit, I-I just needed something to get my mind off it." Ryn sighs as he also feels some sort of disappointment going through his mind. "I don't want to argue here when Sarah's around. Let's just go to my room." Ryn walks back to his room as Samantha follows, closing the door on the way in. "You know there are a billion other different options to choose from to get something off you're mind besides drugs." Samantha continues the argument and she leans against the wall. "...It's still none of your business to even be asking these questions. You're 15, you're not my age-" "Really? Are you serious?! It's always been my business ever since you got into that stuff! You used this shit to cope with you're problems and it's not a good coping mechanism if it puts you in the hospital twice!! You threatened to hurt yourself and others if they dared to touch you're precious little crack. And to add you're ten times worse on alcohol as I've seen you cry on you're kitchen floor drinking insane amounts of beer to cope. And don't you dare say I don't "understand" because I'm 15 when you tried to be 21 when you were 16, 17, and still now but this time you're using 18 as a way of thinking you're grown-up when in fact you act like a damn child! I just wish you had gotten help after we ran away because these drugs are NOT helping you at all." Samantha was in tears and out of breath while also cutting Ryn off. "Just please get the fuck out of my room.." Ryn spoke, and as his voice gave away he was about to cry. Samantha stormed off to the bathroom as Ryn started to burst into tears. He went into his drawer and grabbed four bottles of beer as he was about to drink away all of the sorrow and disappointment he felt.