Teach Her, The Ways Of A Heart

Under better circumstances

I'd fallen asleep out of anger. My parents always travelling and barely being around was the reason why Kenlan and I were as close as we were, besides our friends,we were all we really had for one another.

"Eli?" My father shook my body awake. "Hmm?" I turned to face her. He'd dressed himself in professional attire. "I missed your face." He whispered and sat in front of me,  brushing a stray strand from my face.

"It doesn't seem like you do dad." I muttered, still feeling tired. "You know Eli'Yana, your mother and I. We do this for Kenny and you." "He doesn't like being called Kenny,  Elijah." I interrupted him. "It's dad to you."

I scoffed. "We do this for you El, please bare with us. We aren't going to do this forever. When you and Kenlan have finished school,  Versatile will become yours." I turned away from him. "Okay dad. See you when you get back then." I muttered as he kissed my temple.

Fifteen minutes after the front door closed I decided that I'd go to my brothers room and spend the night in it, just like we always did whenever we were left alone.

"I'm pretty pissed." Kenlan mumbled as I entered his room and settled myself into his arm.  "Yeah, me too, but we should really be used to this." I pulled at a strand of his hair.

Our conversation died out when my phone whistled as a message had come through. We resorted to social media and music playing too low for my liking but for one or other reason, I wasn't complaining Bex: Hey you. Bex texted with a wink emoticon. Yana: Hello. Bex: You know, they say that when a girl greets a guy like that, they're bound for marriage. This caused me to laugh.

Kenlan looked at me as if I'd lost my marbles. "I always knew that I was the normal one between the two of us." He mumbled. "Laughing is the best medicine." I said as I hoisted myself up against the edge of his bed and he rolled over to his stomach.

"Yeah, it's not going to help with the headache I've got right now." I turned off the radio. Yana: Your theories entertain me. Bex: Hopefully, it's a good quality. Yana: It's definitely lightening my mood, I'll hand that to you.

Bex and I's conversation had dragged out into early hours of the morning. Kenlan had fallen asleep, not long after he'd complained about his headache. Bex had wasted no time to interrogate the reason for my mood weighing heavy on my shoulders.

He seemed to understand quite a lot. He wasn't like the kids who tried to convince me about how cool my parents were and how they'd wished to be me. I felt comfortable with talking to him about it.

Days had turned into weeks and after a month, Bex and I would spend the hours we were awake texting whenever we were free and with an exchange of numbers, we took turns to call each other and say good night.

"Kenlan has been detached ever since our parents last trip. It's as if he's becoming more and more depressed at the fact that he doesn't know much about them than they do about him." I explained to Andie while we made our way to the regular table. Where everyone beside Kenlan had been seated.

My heart shattered by the sight of my brother, sitting on his own at the table just after ours except he was sitting at the end furthest away.

"Hey, are you okay Ken?" I asked as he threw his head onto his arms and groaned a very distant no. "Wanna talk about it?" "I've got a headache right now. Maybe when we get home?" He mumbled as he looked up at me. I nodded and kissed his forehead before walking away.

"Is he okay?" Kyani asked,sounding far too worried. "He only chased me away when I asked him this morning." She continued. "He denied that he was okay. He told me that he'll talk to me about it later. Sorry Ky."