Life At Its Finest (Brother's Bestfriend)

Breakfast Is A Bitch

My arms were crossed in fury. I wanted to rip his smirk off, slap the hell out of that jerk to let him know he was not the only one who could play jokes. But I was the better person. I took a deep breath and relaxed instantly, I was still livid, but I knew how to control my temper. We were home and we had just dropped off Cory at some trashy apartment.

"Gonna stomp upstairs like the fleeing coward you are?" Conrad said to me. 

I spun on my heel, all the anger I fought to hold back bubbled inside of me again.  

"Hell no," I said, tone as even as his. 

"No?" He chuckled and leaned against the stairs like always. 

"No. You have explaining to do." Although I was flaring at him for the embarrassing scene in the ice cream shop, I put that behind me. I wanted to know about Cory. "How do you know Cory?"  

He shrugged, pushed off the stairs and walked to the fridge to get a beer.  

"Asshole." I muttered after realizing he was ignoring me. 

"What was that?" He turned and cocked an eyebrow as a challenge. 

"You're an asshole." I shot, letting him know I wasn't afraid of his intimidation. Not at that moment. "And I entirely despise assholes. Why are you acting like a child? I just want to know about Cory." I approached him quickly so he had no escape. Of course he would be too into 'reading the label' of his beer. Taking the beer from his hand, I smashed it down, not caring that it got on the both of us. 

"I'm acting like a child? Who's the one calling names?" He got closer to me but I wasn't backing up this time. 

"You called me a coward." I pointed out and threw my hands up in frustration. "Cory is close to me, why won't you just tell me how you know him?"  

He rolled his eyes and wiped beer off his t shirt. Conrad sighed in defeat, which was when I knew he would tell me. "He's my brother." He said. I probably stared like an idiot because he smirked a bit. "My adopted brother. My 'family' is slightly neglectant so I'm usually the one to take care of him." 

I nodded and walked over to the kitchen table to sit down. I was thinking that was all Conrad would tell me, but instead he took the seat beside me and started again, "We adopted Cory right after he turned six, and my dad thought it would turn his life around." The atmosphere around us was no longer aggressive. The tension rose due to the awkwardness. Conrad was talking to me. "I have one other brother. He's two years older than me and he's gone living his successful life, but my dad has been a mess for years. Up until I was thirteen, you could say I was pretty happy. Then out of nowhere my mother left. She left us all. Like she didn't give a shit that she was throwing everything she had away. Throwing us away." Conrad's voice was still strong. But I could almost feel it fading. I was just fiddling with my thumbs confused out of my mind of what caused Conrad's sudden turnaround. Wondering since when this man talked to me with a non-hostile tone. "My dad still doesn't know how to take care of a kid so it's my job to watch Cory. Be his dad and his brother. I knew him before we adopted him, though. It was always a thing my mother and I did when I was younger. Visit the orphanage." Conrad hadn't spared me a glance, and there was embarrassment in his tone, so I was anxious to see what was in his eyes. 

Without thinking I reached out and grabbed his hand. 

"What you're doing for Cory is so sweet. He deserves it." He hesitantly looked back at me, a tad of pain clouded his eyes. But in an instant it was gone. I let go of him and he looked away. Everything we talked about, all friendliness we shared had vanished along with the faint memories of our mothers.