To the moon and back

Nobody likes Petunia's, Dammit

SOTD: NO EASY WAY OUT BY KID ASTRAY (BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER IS LIGHT AND THIS SONG MAKES ME HAPPY AND I WAKE UP TO IT EVERY MORNING!)

ANDREW

She hadn't answered any of my calls or texts.

She probably hadn't even thought about me.

"You okay?"

I quickly looked up from where I sat and looked into eyes so much like my own and nodded, "I'm fine"

My older brother, Trent, gave me a gentle smile and placed his elbows onto the counter, across from where I sat.

"What's going on?" Trent wondered, "Are you still thinking about her?"

It was easily the stupidest question anyone could ever ask but, coming from him, it had an underlying meaning, "Don't worry, I'm not crying while building dads new website, okay?"

I rolled my eyes and pushed away from the island, making a beeline for the living room.

Since the day of the hospital, I had basically locked myself in my room all day long.

It wasn't for about two weeks that I finally even looked at my phone screen. I hadn't wanted to answer Trent's call, I really just wanted to dwell on what I had lost, but there was no denying that my father needed me.

Differences aside, he would always be my father and I never wanted to see him suffer...even though he had allowed Trent and I to suffer for practically seven years when he decided it was better to fraudulently flip houses and sell them for far more than they were worth.

My dad was scum, this I knew, but he didn't deserve to lose everything he had spent his entire life working on...although I was slightly happy he had lost some of it.

He was a lot like how I remembered him, before my mother died at least. His sense of humour was so much like mine that it made it almost impossible to not crack smiles at his ludicrous jokes.

He was odd and caring in the most untraditional ways. Something as simple as him asking if I was hungry was enough to make my heart pang with some kind of guilt.

"Andrew, you can talk to me" Trent hollered following me into the living room, where I threw myself onto the couch.

I laid with my head in the cushions for what felt like an eternity before turning over, "It was so weird"

Trent's eyebrows rose, obviously surprised that I had taken him up on his offer, "How so?"

"I knew she would be angry about what I did but...but not that angry" I murmured, "It was like she didn't even know what she was doing"

Still confused by my words, Trent blinked, "Well, she seemed fine all day and if there's one thing I know about Harper it's that if she had even had the slightest suspicion of what was going on, she wouldn't be able to hide it. That's why she's a master at avoiding people, she always lets her emotions get the best of her"

"So..."

"So, it was so unHarper like" I shrugged sitting up, "We...I mean, we...after...you know...IT...she blew up. The Harper I know wouldn't even let me touch her let alone...that...had she been truly upset by anything"

Trent stiffled a grin and I sighed, "Give me a break, okay? I'm still not sure how to talk about sex with my estranged brother"

The room quieted and Trent looked away, "I...I didn't mean it like~"

"It's fine" he nodded giving me a small smile, "It's not like it's a lie"

I nodded and rubbed my clammy hands against my jeans feeling the awkward air that always seemed to hang around whenever Trent and I were together, descend.