You Love Me ♡ Ray Beech x Reader/OC

3: Fate or destiny

~Your POV~

As soon as I get home I beeline to my room, excited to try something new on my keyboard. My parents aren't the happiest with my love for music but I get good grades so they let it slide. Most of the time.

"Knock knock." I hear my mom say from the already opened door. I look up at her and smile.

"Hi mom."

"Hi baby, do you know where your brother is? I wanted to talk to you two about your first day." She asks excitedly.

"Umm, not sure," I half-smile, "Maybe he's in the garage? I know he wanted to work on a new set he's learning. You should really hear it. He's getting really good."

Charlie and I both know that we don't have the same vision as our parents but we respect that they want good for us. However, we figured over time we can wear them down little by little by supporting each other without being disrespectful about it.

"Oh honey," Mom chuckles, "You know that drumming is just a little hobby for Charlie. I wouldn't encourage him too much. You and your brother have such big lives ahead of you. He'll be a soccer star, and you missy will be the smartest student Stanford has ever seen, hmm." She affectionately rubs my shoulder.

I mentally finish her sentence. The part that's never seen but always there.

Just like Tommy

"Yeah, mom. That's us." I force a happy face to show her.

"Yeah," She sighs, probably thinking about Tommy, because even when he's not here, he suffocates everything, "Well you should probably get on your homework hm? Won't become the smartest student by whacking away on those keys all day."

She leaves my room, presumably to find Charlie and give him the same speech. I land face first on my bed, my hair fanning out around my pillow.

"No, just the happiest. But why would that count for anything."

~Time Skip To Next Morning~

Charlie and I are walking to first period when I bring up last night.

"Mom talked to you didn't she?" I ask him, throwing a curious glance his way.

"Yeah," He sighs, "You too?"

"Yeah."

We both silently walk for a bit, thinking about our separate conversations that of course have the same topic.

"Do you hate him?" Charlie quietly asks. Of course "him" being our brother. The one reason why we can't be free to follow our passions.

Surprising myself I let out a soft, "No." Charlie looks at me with his eyebrows raised. I take this as a sign to continue.

"I know it's easy to. Because after all if he just wasn't so perfect there wouldn't be an expectation but why should we be mad at him? Because mom and dad decided that he's the standard? All he did was follow his passion."

Charlie seems to fidget nervously, "Yeah I guess you're right. It's not his fault." I grab his hands to stop him from fidgeting.

"Hey, I get it. It's normal to feel some type of way towards him. Just.. think about what I said?"

For the first time in this conversation, Charlie genuinely smiles.

"Yeah. Okay, I can do that."

~Timeskip~

We make it to class with enough time to hear Principal Brenigan rant about being nominated for 'School Administrator of the Year'. Good to know the competition is rigged because the students sure as heck didn't vote for him.