West||Life Story

Chapter Four

"Woo! Go Jake!" The girls yelled from the lawn as Jake and I prepared to play our one on one game.

"I'm rooting for West! Damn dat boy be fine!" Alexis yelled.

I chuckled to myself before feeling something wrap around my leg.

I looked down and saw Winnie's bouncy blonde curls.

"What's up Moe?" I asked, picking her up off the ground.

"Lawwy kicked me." She cried.

"Okay baby, I'll beat him up for you." I said, sitting her on the lawn next to Wade. "Wyatt Edwin Harrison!"

"West Ethan Harrison!" He replied in a mocking tone.

"Why the hell did you kick Moe?" I demanded.

"I don't know. Why did you get our parents killed!?" He yelled.

"I didn't do shit Wyatt! You need to realise that family is all we have now, there's nothing I could have done to save them." I hissed.

"Go to hell!" He yelled before punching me in the face.

"You little bitch!" I yelled tackling him and punching him repeatedly.

This went on for a while until Jake ran over and pulled us apart.

"Wyatt, I know I don't know shit about you, but knock it the hell off. You kicked a three year old, you're fifteen, you could have seriously hurt her." She then turned to me. "West, I know you're just trying to hold everything together, but do it in a more orthodox way than beating the shit out of your brother."

I released my grip on Wyatt's arm and backed away, wiping the blood off of my lip.

"I'm done. I'm absolutely done." I heard Wyatt say as he walked into the house, probably to his room.

I stood for a few minutes, lent up against the picket fence that runs around the yard of the farm house until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"You okay West?" Jake asked, leaning next to me.

"Yeah... I'm sorry you and your sisters saw that." I sighed.

"Don't worry about us, to be honest I'd be more worried about the fact that Alexis, Miah and Taylor all want to jump your bones." She laughed.

"Your sisters are pretty and all, but I've never really had a thing for blondes." I chuckled. "Although there is an exception I'm willing to make." I said, looking at her.

"I never really liked douchebags that beat up their brother, but there's an exception I'm willing to make too." She smiled.

We both turned to the horizon and watched as the hot sun submerged past the dry red dirt and gum trees that blessed the land, the darkness slowly enveloping the farm.

"Everyone inside! Grubs up!" Tom yelled.

We all walked inside and sat at the table, where Kelly and Tom were sitting.

"What's for dinner? Jake asked, jumping over the back of her chair.

"Two minute noodles." Kelly smiled. "Grocery shopping tomorrow."

"What're two minute noodles?" Wade asked.

"Those cups of crap West was living on before the neighbours started bringing food to us." Wyatt answered.

"For your information I was living on them for a long time before that." I corrected.

"No wonder you're so damn fat." He hissed.

"Yeah, says the one who gets to two point five on the beep test to the one that gets to nine points eight." I retorted, rolling my eyes.

"Ya know, suddenly, I'm not that hungry anymore." He said, walking away. "Two minute noodles are shit anyway, parent killer."

The rest of dinner was ate in silence, once I'd finished my food I walked upstairs to my room and sat in the window. There was no fly screen, so I opened it up and hung my leg out, looking up at the stars. We don't see them often in Sydney. Too much light pollution, but here, they shine bright, beckoning for me to watch them closely as if one would move and land on my fingertips.

I started writing in the little book I stole from the study at home.

The shine on the stars reminded me of the sparkle that was always in my mother's eyes, the one she'd passed on to Wyatt, but failed to do so to the other three of us.

I think part of the reason I'm mad at him is he reminds me of her too much. The glistening in his eyes, the blonde mixed through his hair, it all reminds me of her. Even the smallest things like the colour of his skin even the way his nose twitches when he needs to sneeze. He's my little brother, my Irish twin, but he can't stand to even talk to me. I hate it.

I hate myself for it.

The blame he casts on me eats me away, he thinks I killed them, that if by some random turn of events that if I was with them or if they didn't go, than they'd still be here, when in all reality I know it's not true. If I'd went with them than chances are I'd be dead too, they'd be here alone, Winnie would never talk to anyone and they'd be without not only our parents, but without their brother.

I could never want that for them.

I stopped writing and sat the book and pen on the desk across the room before returning to my place in the window.

"West? Can I come in?" It was Kelly.

"Yeah." I called, surprised by the saddened crack in my voice.

"I know how it feels ya know. Loosing your parents. My parents abandoned me, so it's a little different, but I want you to know I'm always here. It's not gonna be easy living in a house full of girls, but Jake will keep you sane. I promise you that."