Elizabeth.

~1~

Birthdays are usually fun. Balloons everywhere. Cake and ice cream. Pin the tail on the donkey. You know, fun stuff. But instead of all the fun stuff, I get to spend the day with my brother in the hospital. He's turning eight today, nine years younger than me. In the past few years life hasn't exactly been easy for us. About three years ago my brother was diagnosed with Leukemia. Around the same time I found out my parents were getting a divorce. My mother had caught my father cheating. The news didn't upset my mother very much, It was kind of like she knew. 

About a year after the divorce, my mom got remarried to my step-dad Marc. He seemed like a nice guy... Until about two months after the wedding, Marc began drinking. I still remember my fourteenth birthday as if it was yesterday...We were all in the kitchen, I was opening presents... Marc stumbled in, beer bottle in his hand. My mother tried asking him to put it down, but he just freaked out and started yelling and threatening to kill her or himself.. He didn't touch her, but his words hurt her like knives, you could tell. We then found out that Marc had been arrested back in '94 for assaulting a woman under the influence. 

It hit my mother pretty hard.. she became more distant from my brother and I, from everyone. Marc left, and it was just the three of us. After that my mom started drinking. She thought it would make her a stronger person, and she learned the hard way that all it does is make you weaker. Just a few weeks ago she passed of heart disease... My father heard of the news, and arranged for my brother to be admitted into a hospital, and for me to go and stay with his sister, Claire. He's not around much, he drops in here and there. But today, as of right now, i'm the only one sitting here in this hospital, the only one who seems to care.