theshipper101's Random One Shots and Short Stories

Big Brother (Original Story)

I should've known something was up when I first heard him crying. He told me it was because he didn't understand his homework, but he was a smart kid and this stuff shouldn't have been confusing him.

And it all went downhill from their. The first time he came home with a black eye, he said he had gotten hit in the face with a basketball in gym and I actuallly believed him. Some brother I was. Only an idiot couldn't see what was going on here. Kane was obviously being bullied at school.

Kane never said anything. He never cried over it. He never asked for help. He would go about his day as if everything was great, he would even tell me that. We would play video games together, watch movies, have nerf wars, build massivd lego towers, play sports, and even read comic books together. I thought I was a good big brother who was taking care of Kane, getting him through the pain of junior high, but I was all wrong.

I knew that Kane didn't have many friends. That's why we hung out so much. I had my own friends, but they were all busy saving for collage, working, doing homework, stuff like that. Not that I wasn't. I just wasn't planning on going to collage right after high school. I just would be ready yet.

I was a senior and Kane was in eighth grade. He was a skinny kid with a mop of shaggy brown hair and bright blue eyes and was the mirror image of me. We walked home together when we could. I wasn't as into sports as he was. He was a runner and loved cross county and track, although he also enjoyed basketball. I'll be honest, I'm more of a band geek myself and I play snare drum in pep band instead of being out on the court or the field. I liked how Kane was being his own person and finding his own intrests. As you can imagine with our busy scheduals, we didn't see much of each other until after supper usually.

This made it very easy for me not to notice what was happening to my little brother. Some kids in ninth and tenth grade had started to pick on him. As I said, he's a pretty smart kid. These were the dumber kids who have a strange need to take all of lives misery out on a smaller, weaker kid who was shy and easily felt threatened. This happened in the hallways, in the bathroom, before after and during practice, before school, walking home alone from school, well, you get the picture. Whenever I wasn't around. Of course, Kane never told me a thing. They scared him and they made sure that he knew that if he told someone, he'd be sorry.

And I found it all out one day when I picked up Kane early for soccer practice for a dentist appointment.

I parked my truck and walked up to the soccer field. Kane knew I was coming to get him and I was sure that he'd be waiting for me, but I couldn't find him. I walked into the school and even the locker room, but there was no sign of him. I walked around the school and saw a group of ninth and tenth graders surrounding a kid with a mop of brown hair that looked like mine and he was pressed up against a wall. He was crying and trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Hey!" I yelled, marching up to these kids. They glanced my way with a few scoffs. I was short for my age and a couple of these lowerclassmen were a few inches taller then me.

"Matt," Kane sobbed "I-I don't..."

I shoved my way through the bullies and grabbed my brother by the shoulder, gently, stearing him away from the bullies. He cried softly as I knelt down slightly to his eye level. "Did they hurt you?" I asked.

Kane swollowed and nodded.

"Can you show me?" I asked.

He lifted up his shirt to show me a variety of new and fading bruises, telling my this happened frequently. "Oh Kane..."

"I-I'm s-s-sorry Matt," Kane sobbed. "I-I-I should have t-told you." He grabbed onto me and cried into my shirt. "T-they hurt me. I d-didn't know what t-to do!"

I hugged y brother back. "How long has this been going on?" I asked.

"A f-few months," Kane said quietly.

"Months?" I asked, pulling away from my brother and holding him out in front of me. "You should have told me."

Kane shook his head. "I-If I t-told anyone, t they said t-that it would g-g-get worse."

I sighed. "Okay. I get it. I guess I'm just mad at myself for not noticing what was going on."

~

I thought that saving Kane would fix things. Sadly, that wasn't true.

The next day, Kane came home with a black eye and bloody nose after soccer practice. I helped him clean it up in the bathroom.

"Tell me the name of the guys who did this to you," I said.

Kane shook his head. "I can handle this myself."

I sighed. "If you don't get help, things will just get worse, you hear me? I've seen these things before. If you don't tell anyone, I'm gonna find you beaten to a pulp, lying in an allyway, bleeding to death! Promise me you'll tell someone, or so help me, I will tell the principle personally."

Kane nodded, not looking me in the face.

~

I was walking down the hall to the office when I saw Kane hesitate at the door. His fist was ready to pound down on it when an older kid grabbed him from behind. I was close enough to hear him say, "Snichin' on us, kid?"

Kane shook his head, visibly shaking. I marched over to them just as the kid drove his fist into Kane's abdomen. Kane doubled over but didn't cry out. I grabbed the kid ny the sweatshirt and spun him around. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked. "Don't you know that I'm his brother? I've dealt with guys like you, and you're nothing but trouble. I'm sorry, but your future rests in my hands now." I put a hand on his back so he wouldn't run and knocked on the office door.

~

Kane and I were walking home later. There was no practice today and it was nice enough to not have to drive.

"Matt..." Kane started. "T-thanks."

"Don't mention it." I said. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm just glad this whole thing's over.

"Just remember," I said. "If anyone is trying to hurt you, you come straight to me, okay?"

Kane nodded again.

"And I know how hard it is to tell anyone, but I promise that telling an adult will make things a whole lot better, no matter what the bully says. They just say that to make you scared."

Kane nodded one again. "Don't worry. People won't be messing with me for a while."

"Darn right," I said. I punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Now come on. Let's see who can make it back to the house first." I started running.

"Hey! No fair!" Kane yelled running to catch up.

I knew that it would take a while for Kane to get back into the swing of things, but I had full confidence that my little brother would make a full recovery and things would go back to the way it was. It was in him, I knew it.