Little Sis, these times are hard

Chapter One

The door slammed, causing Alma to look up from the book she was reading. Her older brother was standing above her while she sat on the living room floor. She couldn't tell if he was annoyed by her or something from before but something probably was ticking him off. He has that hard, scowl on his face.

"How'd you get home?" Al asked her as he passed by into the kitchen. She guessed it was to make some tofu burgers for dinner.

"Bus." Alma replied. She knew if Allen didn't pick her up a couple of minutes before school was over, then she would have to take the bus. She flipped over the page of her book and continued reading. She had finished three chapters before he had come home. It was 8:00 p.m. now.

She barely heard him mutter something before saying something that sounded halfway between a tease and a simple statement:

"Reading? Again? What book is that?"

Walking over to the couch, she held up the book so he could see it in the opening of the window in the kitchen and living room.

"Percy Jackson." She replied. Allen stared at the cover for a bit before going back to flip one of the tofu burgers, not bothering to ask anything else. He wondered if he should take her to a speech therapist. She never spoke in complete sentences. Only short snippets.

"How was school?"

".........Good."

He raised a eyebrow. She only hesitated when she was thinking about a response. The only time she thought about a response was when she was lying. She did not have a good day.

He'd let it slide for the time being.

_______________

The rest of the day was spent in Allen's room. Alma read her book and finished her homework while her brother flipped through the channels on the T.V.

"Where you going?" Allen asked as she picked up her stuff and put it in a neat pile. Her steady brown eyes looked up at him, this time they had a droop in them.

"Tired. Going to bed."

Allen gave a nod. He should have come home earlier...that way they could have spent a little more time together. The sound of his little sister's traveling footsteps became faint as she walked to her room.

Suddenly, they reappeared as her head popped into view of his doorway.

"Am I..........a trouble kid?" her voice was softer than he had ever heard it. Her eyes didn't look at him, but instead at the dark brown wooden floor.

Allen tensed, his eyebrows furrowed and a growl rose from his throat.

"Who told you that?" He asked, instead of answering the question right away.

".........No one. Just thinking."

His scowl grew deeper as he got out of his bed and walked towards his sister. With one swift movement, he picked her up and walked towards her bedroom. She wrapped her skinny arms loosely around his neck and buried her face in his broad shoulder, allowing a few tears to stream down her cheek and into the plain whiteness of his shirt.

"You're not a trouble kid." He muttered as he placed her in her bed and tucked her in. His red eyes looked around her room that was filled with clippings, posters, and drawings that she has taped to the walls. "You're just a very creative, misunderstood kid. If anything, I'm the trouble kid."

The twenty-six year old sighed and ruffled the hair on her head that matched his own. For a second, Alma thought she could see him thinking of a way to murder whoever told her this in a very painful way. His eyes seemed to almost glow with hatred. Then again, they always did that whenever he was looking at something or someone.

But not with her.

A look at Alma, and his whole expression softened. His red eyes didn't match the color of hate, but instead the color of love and caring. His eyebrows didn't furrow into a forever scowl anymore, but arched up and his lips would curl into the most smallest of smiles.

It was what his face did when he looked back that the fifth grader now.

"Get a goodnight's sleep, alright? It's a school night." He rose up and switched off the light, taking one last look at the now closed-eyed girl snuggled up in her patched blankets.

His red eyes glowed as he strolled down stairs and grabbed his nailed base ball bat, swinging as he grabbed his keys.

"Some kid or teacher's gonna be absent tomorrow." He growled under his breath.