Young & Beautiful - The Menendez Brothers

6- Cool Water

TW:  substance AND emotional/verbal/physical/sexual ABUSE 

For the rest of that week, the Menendez home quickly became a flourished palace of wealth and culture and it seemed to complement their lifestyle perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that it was as if the house itself prepared for the arrival of the Menendez family who were nothing short of capable, successful individuals. 

Natural light buttered the walls and ceilings during this particular day. The sky was clear blue without a cloud in sight: a perfect day for tennis practice. 

"Boys!" José shouted from the marble foyer at the bottom of the staircase, "get down here." 

Erik traveled down the long staircase wearing shorts and a grey sweatshirt,

"Yes?" Erik asked his dad.

"Where's Lyle?" 

"I don't know. Maybe in the guest house setting his stuff up." 

"The guest house?" José wondered aloud, "There are fourteen bedrooms in this house. Unbelievable that not one of them is good enough for him." 

Erik didn't know how to respond to his dad, so he changed the subject, 

"What did you need?" 

"I'll meet you on the court in 10 minutes, get changed." José instructed his younger son, "it's a perfect day out!" 

Erik looked confused, "You said we could have the day off? With all the moving you said it was okay if we took this weekend off."

"Well plans change, get dressed." 

Erik began to stumble over his words little, reluctant to even give him another response, 

"D-dad, I-I made plans with Craig already. I told him I'd meet him in Century City at 2, s-s-so I need to leave now." 

"Erik, don't give me this shit. Tennis comes first, that's the commitment you made. You're going to follow through. Call Craig and tell him you'll be late." 

"Late to what?" Lyle entered the room. 

José turned around to face his older son, "Why are you not dressed either!?" 

Lyle stood sipping a glass of water, and watched as Erik picked up his tennis racquet off one of the chairs in the foyer. He put two and two together: 

"We have the day off, don't we?" Lyle asked José.

"Both of you stop whining, and be out there in 8 minutes." José commanded before exiting the foyer, leaving the boys alone. 

"Did you have plans too?" Erik asked his brother. Lyle nodded. "So much for new beginnings..." 

--

7 minutes later, Erik and Lyle joined José out on the tennis court in their backyard. José wasted no time putting them to work, and drilled them for about two entire hours before calling them over for what seemed like a break. It wasn't. 

"I told you adjust your forearm," José barked at Erik, snatching the racquet out of his hands and demonstrating for him."Until you get it right, you're not going anywhere with Craig". 

Lyle looked over to his brother with sympathetic eyes, "Here we can work on it together." Lyle offered Erik.

"No, no, no," José interjected, "you need to practice your backhand. Where's your head today? You've won multiple championships with a proper backhand. You know better than to fuck it up."