Right in Front of You

Time

November 2013

"A therapist. A fucking therapist." Kyle kicked the foot of his bed before dropping on it.

Sam twitched the tiniest bit when Kyle swore. Poor kid was starting to get used to it. Though he had made conscious efforts to stop. Well, fuck that when his mother thought it was a jolly good idea to send him to a therapist.

"Think about it for a second," Sam said reasonably. "You are obviously depressed."

"Am not!" Was too, but the only thing keeping him together was not talking about it.

Sam was the only ray of light in his otherwise miserable existence. Him and school were the only reasons Kyle didn't contemplate throwing himself out the window.

He actually really enjoyed his classes at the academy and college wasn't too bad either, even if he'd switched to IT like his asshole father wanted. And it fortunately reduced his time with his family to twenty percent of the day. And he could sulk in his room for another ten percent. Life was grand.

But the rest of his family drove him crazy. His mother kept babying him, his father scoffed, frowned and disagreed with everything, and Jerry... That stick up his ass was so long, Kyle expected to see it every time he opened his mouth. Jerry only nagged him, anyway. If there was ever a boring nag, it was Jerry.

"You haven't talked to anyone properly since you got home," Sam said.

"I talk to you."

"Yes, but we always talk about me, about my problems. I waited because it must be weird, I'm a stranger, I know, but... Don't you think it's time you told me something about yourself?"

Kyle considered it for a second, opening up to Sam, but there was already so much pressure on him from everyone. He was expected to be perfect, behave, cater to their father's stupid PI agency. Telling Sam about Kay, about how he never wanted to come home in the first place, about how Max had betrayed him, would only hurt Sam, make him feel as powerless as he did. And Kyle would never do that to his baby brother. Strangers nothing. He loved Sam.

"Maybe I'm just spoiled like Dad claims."

Sam huffed. "I've never seen a less spoiled person in my life."

"Right back at you."

Sam smiled and opened his mouth, but was interrupted when Kyle's laptop started ringing. "Who's skyping you?"

"My friends from Texas." Joey and Kelly were the only people calling him and it was the highlight of his week. He bit his lip. "Wanna sit in?"

Sam's face lit up. "Sure."

Kyle opened his laptop and answered the call. Joey and Kelly appeared on the screen, all smiles.

"Greetings from sunny Dallas," Joey said merrily.

"Oh, look, who's that?" Kelly asked excitedly.

"Sam, Joey and Kelly. Joey's my best friend and Kelly's his charming girlfriend who's way too good for him."

"Hey, hey, hey. Standing right here," Joey said feigning offense. "Hey there, Sam. Heard a lot about you. Thanks for keeping this guy alive."