Seeds of Tomorrow

21

Mark was on the porch having a cigarette when his brother's black Acura TLX pulled into the gravel driveway. He tossed his butt into a glass Coke bottle and rose to his feet, sliding his cracked phone into the pocket of his jeans. It was Naveah's old iPhone and had been in good shape until he threw it during that last argument with Brynleigh, the one where she told him even if Olivia's baby wasn't his, she was through.

He'd assumed she was being dramatic, that she'd take a few days to calm down and they'd be back together. When she posted the photos of her with her new boyfriend, Colton, a jocky asshole who came from upper-middle-class parents, he knew it was done. Bitch probably been letting him fuck her for a while.

Mark stepped down the squeaky porch steps, the wood giving slightly beneath his feet and gave his brother and Rocco a nod as he climbed into the backseat.

"What's been up?" Krist asked, glancing back at him.

"Living the dream," he replied sourly.

"Things not going good?"

Mark furrowed his eyebrows about the question, what the fuck do you think?

Clicking his tongue in the same way Krist did, he picked at a cuticle, "Aye, not really. Fuckin' Bryn broke up with me over some bullshit with Olivia."

"It's not really bullshit," Rocco pointed out turning to face his uncle who was barely a week older than him.

"We ain't even know if it's true," Mark protested.

Hesitating as he put the car into reverse, Krist sighed, "It ain't what I'm thinking, is it?"

"That she's pregnant?" Mark asked, "That's what she's claiming anyway."

"She show you proof?"

Mark grit his teeth, puffing his cheeks up.

"That a yes?" Krist asked as he stared at him in the rearview mirror.

He could see Mark's eyes move in his direction, "Just some fucking pee stick and a paper saying she was."

"How far along is she?"

"I dunno," he mumbled, sounding like the overgrown child he was.

"She didn't give you no date or nothing?"

Mark didn't answer.

"So they just told her she was pregnant with no due date or an estimation on how far along she was?" Krist asked firmly, he knew his brother was playing like he knew less than he did.

"I didn't read it. Just saw she was pregnant and her name, I don't really give a fuck about the rest of that shit," he muttered, "I ain't even talking to her now."

Krist could feel himself becoming frustrated with his brother and knew himself well enough to know that if he continued asking questions, Mark would shut down resulting in Krist saying some overly blunt shit that would make their relationship more strained. So he let it go.

"Aye, we got some fat fuckin' ribeyes," he told Mark.

"I know, you said that," Mark told him, "And that Fernando bringing birria or something."

Rolling his eyes to himself, he turned the volume up on the stereo and backed out of the driveway thinking to himself that he owed his own mom an apology for being such a fucking dick as a teenager.

Mark slouched down in the back seat, arms folded. He was annoyed that Krist was so damn nosey. Always in everybody's business except his own. Mark definitely was going to get a ride back home with someone else since his brother couldn't help himself from prying about shit and he sure the fuck wasn't going to tell him that as soon as Olivia showed him her "official" confirmation of pregnancy and the ultrasound photo that she'd been blocked.