The Unadulterated Life

The Sugar Coated Truth

On October the 19th at 1:00am Horatio was woken up by Greg and was told his mother had gone to hospital to give birth. He jumped out of bed and raced to the car. Greg sped down to the Monash hospital. By the time they got there Aaron was already born. The boom gates at Clayton station and made them late, but Horatio didn't mind. He couldn't wait to see his new baby brother. That was the happiest moment of Horatio's life so far. At that moment he didn't care about the bullies. He didn't care if he didn't remember his father. All he cared about was his new family. Just him, his amazing mother, new brother and Greg.

3 weeks had past since Aaron's birth. Horatio had a normal day at school and when he got home he was surprised to see his mother and brother waiting for him. He dumped his school bag in the hallway and rushed to greet his brother. Greg smacks Horatio over the back of the head, "fucking wait will you. He just got home. At least give him some space before you smother him". Horatio knew from that moment on he would have trouble getting along with Greg.

On one Saturday morning in particular, Horatio woke up to the sound of Aaron crying. So he got up and went to see if anyone else was awake. He looked into his mum's room and found Marg and Greg sound asleep, so he thought he should look after Aaron. He walked into his brother's room and tried to calm Aaron down. All his attempts failed. So he picked his brother up and carried him to his mum. "Mum, Aaron's crying so I brought him in". Marg sat up straight away and looked at Horatio. "Noo. You're holding him wrong. You have to support his neck", Marg walks over and takes Aaron from Horatio. "Sorry. I didn't know", Greg gets out of bed and grabs Horatio by the throat. He drags him out of the room and throws him outside. "You fucking idiot! You could've broken his neck". Though his tears Horatio replied with "I know. But I didn't know how to hold him. You guys didn't show me". Greg grabs a bamboo stick from the ground and whacks Horatio with it. "That's why you fucking ask!" Marg hears the whack and comes running outside. "Stop it! It wasn't his fault! Leave him alone!"

The next day at school Horatio's life got worse. "Look at scabby. Even his parents want to beat the crap out of him". That's what all the kids would say when they saw his bruises. Even Jesse turned on him. "Hey scabby. I was only friends with you because I felt sorry for you." Horatio had enough of their shit. It was only the start of grade 3 and everyone he thought were his friends had turned on him. He decided it was time to fight back. He walked up to Jesse and punched him right in the jaw. The next thing Horatio remembers is waking up in the first aid room with a massive headache. His attempt to stand up for himself had resulted in him getting knocked to the ground and getting the shit kicked out of him.

Horatio got home and told Marg and Greg what happened. His mother went into protective mode and made sure he was ok. Once she was done Greg dragged him outside and punched him to the ground. "How do you expect to be able to fight back if u don't guard yourself". Horatio stands back up only to get kicked in the chest and sent back to the ground. Horatio was pissed. He grabbed a wooden stake used for the garden and went to whack Greg over the head. Greg catches it and yanks it towards him which send Horatio flying forward. He was met half way by a knee to the face and a hand around his throat. Greg sent him head first into the shed's brick wall and let him drop to the ground. "You're pathetic" he mumbled before walking inside to pour himself a drink.

The rest of the year was pretty much the same. School was the same. Same insults. Same attempts to fight back. Same injuries. However life at home was a little easier after Horatio told Marg about what Greg did with the shed wall. Greg had laid off him due to his mother's orders and he spent a lot more time with Aaron. He was so proud when Aaron started crawling. He was even prouder when Aaron's first word was Horatio.