The Tuxedo Man (boyxboy)[Wattys 2016]

Chapter 2 - On My Mind

[Picture: Ruth Marine Harrel. Video: Outsiders - Against The Current]

I come home to the scene of my mom screaming like the world is going to end at my brother, Max.  Unfortunately, the scene which looks like it came straight out of an episode of Orange Is The New Black, was taking place in the living room, making it impossible to get through unnoticed. 

"How could you be so irresponsible!" Mom yells, arching her back as the brunette strands of hair flow with every move her head makes. 

Max opens his arms to get his point across, the veins on his arms become more prominent and his biceps flex. "It was one time! God!" 

"What is happening?!" I manage to yell, catching both of their attention. Max takes a deep breath before he looks at me with furrowed eyebrows. Mom raises her hand, pointing all five fingers to him. 

"Max was smoking a cigarette in the backyard." 

I raise an eyebrow. "And?" 

"It's an irresponsible act!" 

My brother points to me, and suddenly I have become a part of this dilemma. "See? Braydon gets it. It's not a big deal, mom!" 

"Your father and I never touched one cigarette in our entire lives! Max, why would you do such a thing? Do you even know what that could do to your body?" 

I shake my head and sigh. "Yeah, Max. Your face like droops down when you smoke. You won't be having that pretty face for long." 

"It was one time, Braydon." 

Mom retaliates, even though Max was talking to me. "And one thing leads to another and before you know it you're smoking three packs a day!" 

I head upstairs, leaving the two to their own problems. I don't really want this day to be ruined, because I just got to see and wave at a cute boy in a tuxedo. As I get to my room, I strip my shirt and collapse on my soft bed. The cotton against my skin feels so good already, and my body is aching to be comfortable tucked under the covers and sleep for the next eight to nine hours, but it knows that I have to shower first. 

I don't understand how people are just able to fall asleep on their bed right after they've been out. I mean, if I decide to sleep, I have to be clean. It just feels so uncomfortable if I don't shower first before heading to bed, feeling all sticky and just ugggh, gross. I connect my phone to my bluetooth speakers as I blast some good ol' Delirium by Ellie Goulding as I head to the shower. I bring the speaker with me and set it on the bathroom counter. 

Max isn't my real brother, he was adopted. Max's real parents were close friends of my mom and dad, when I was younger, they left him here to stay with us while they were on a business trip to Europe. I was probably around six or seven while he was eleven or twelve. We weren't really close back then, since Max has already matured into a teenager while I was still revelling in my fantasy world and watching Cartoon Network at night. On their way back from Europe, their plane crashed in a technical mishap that they didn't have enough gasoline to make the trip. Apparently, there was something wrong with the plane's gas sensors or something that lead to the misunderstanding between the machine and the pilot. From then on, my parents decided to raise Max as one of their own, and I had to adjust to the fact that I was going to be living with him, and considering him as my brother. 

Now, we're pretty close. Max is taking his master's degree in music production at a nearby university, thus not requiring him to move into the dorms like everybody else. We both connect musically as we talk about different songs and dissecting their instruments and layers. I personally didn't mind if Max smoked once, he's twenty-three, the man can do what he wants to do now. I just hope that he's not destroying his body.