Aphmau Graduation days : Zanevis story

Two bros on a wire

It was a sunny day, no clouds, perfect, for Garroth anyway. Garroth was already waiting for Zane, second guessing wether he was actually gonna come or not, "Where is he?" He asked himself as he looked around for his brother, no sign of him. He wouldn't be really surprised if he didn't show up at all, he was just that way with things like this, especially with things that had to do with either of his brothers, he hated it, but as always, was forced in. Garroth tapped the picnic table he was sitting out, kinda bored of waiting. His picnic table was sitting across a tree with a really fidgety squirrel that seemed inoccent enough, but Garroth was suspicious of him, with that gray fur, and beady eyes, and that red tie, what squirrel does that?! "That squirrel keeps coming back to that couple over there." He said as he squinted at at them sharing an ice cream, the squirrel seemed very happy with himself, he even got close to them without betting "shooed" away. "I'm watching you..." He mouthed, trying to stare into this squirrel's soul. But something interrupted his mind's thought, and lost focus when he heard the sound of chains clashing onto other chains from a far, he turned to see who it was, and proved himself right, "Hey look, it's Zane!" He said casually. He waited for a couple of seconds, but slowly realized something, "Wait. It's Zane!" He thought, "He actually showed up!" Garroth said cheerfully. Zane didn't really look at Garroth, he looked more at the floor, he was acting shadier than usual, not only because of the sun wich he hated, but something else, something was on his mind, "I-I'm here" he stuttered. He sat  oposite to Garroth and finally looked up, he saw a smile on Garroth's face, "So," his smile spread, "you really do care for your family? Don't you?". Zane rolled his eye for how dumb that was, "you mean, "you mean, I was comepletely foreced to do this, and had no other choice, then yeah, sure." He said in a sarcastic tone. "Aww," Garroth said all upset, and looked on the bright side instead, "well, either way, you showed up, so that's enough for me!" Garroth hoped to get a smile from, nothing. Zane just sat there, all grumpy, "What are we doing anyways? Some papers I have to sign or something?" Garroth looked at him happily, and laughed. "What? No!" He responded, "We are here to catch up with each other, you know, just an ordinary chat." Zane looked at Garroth very confused, he knew there had to be something more to it. "But why did I have to sign a formal letter for?" Zane asked, Garroth looked at him,a bit glumly and sighed, that was the question he wanted to avoid. "Well, you know how mom and dad are always trying to get you getting along with me and Vlyad and be, you know, brothers?" Garroth couldn't belive he was saying this, but continued, "They knew that if they told you in person, you would have never came here to talk to me like brothers should normally, unless they showed you that they were watching, and told you in a formal way. And they hoped that there might have been a chance for you to actually come and talk to me, because we're family." Zane gave a look at Garroth, and back to the picnic table, he knew all of this was true, he would've been running away by now if it wasn't for that letter, but he didn't feel anything, no emotions at all. "Do you realize how sad that is?" Garroth blurted, "Do you realize how many years you've been like this? You, deciding to be far apart and distant from your own family." He tried to catch Zane's eye, but he was really invested into this picnic table, nice and woody, he doged all the questions with silence. The mood was getting really serious, too serious for Garroth anyway, he wasn't that kind of guy to be sad all the time (that job was taken anyway) so he toned it down a little by talking about something else instead, Zane didn't seem to care anyways, at least he thought. "But we still have time to fix this" Garroth said positively, Zane didn't like the word he used, "Fix", there was nothing wrong with him and there never was, but felt like his family viewed him like that, like he wasn't right, he took this very personal quick. Their view on him was really the only thing keeping him distant from his family, well, that and Garroth (he didn't mind Vlyad as much) But Zane wasn't the type of person to let everything out and open up. Especially his family, so he everything a secret. Zane decided to leave it for now, but he needed to cover up the silence gap, "Well what do we talk about?" Zane asked, he didn't know what brothers were supposed to talk about, Garroth's eyes lit up, but kept cool "Alright, well, let's start with our days. How is your day so far, huh?" Garroth asked all friendly. Zane thought for a moment, "well," he started, "that lady, Jenny, she keeps coming to me with a bunch of messages about the family." Garroth raised his eyebrows, "You too? I thought it was just me." Zane didn't expect that answer, "really?" Zane asked, his brother nodded, Zane was excited to know that his family didn't think he was weak. "Did she send you the same letter?, the one where mom wrote this sappy, but encouraging message?" Zane got serious, Garroth was about to nod, but he shook his head. "What? No" Garroth said with a confused tone. "It was from dad, he just told me to keep an eye on you and make sure that you don't leave campus in the middle of the night to trash some place. And he also told me to do a great job in college and become a great man that will some day lead the company with great pride and junk.". Zane pointed his eyebrows down as he could feel his guts and feelings, slowly morphing into envy (*whistles*, wow.) "oh, did he now?" growled Zane, it was like he was trying to rip the table apart. "Yeah. Crazy huh?" Garroth didn't notice the darkness coming from his eye, "I wish I had a letter from mom, I wanted to feel special for once," Garroth looked down, Zane couldn't belive how naive his brother was, "I'd do anything to get mom--" Zane couldn't take it anymore, "That's it!" Garroth looked up suddenly. "How come you, the most pathetic one of the family, could one day be in charge of a company?!" Garroth was speechless, but it didn't stop there, "I mean seriously, you have always been the golden child to this day and never understood, once, why you were always the one to rule all. All this time, sure, I didn't always follow the rules, but my marks were very good and got me here, but nobody ever decided to congratulate me like they did for you! And dad, he never praised me like he does to you. He never even bothered to pay attention on what I've become, because he dosen't care, he" Zane looked down and covered the rest of his face with his hair, "...he...he, dosen't care....." (Boi, A lot of drama for the park if you ask me.) Garroth sat there in shock, not knowing what to think or say. "Zane?" He asked calmly, but quite dissapointed, "Listen to me." Zane didn't look at him, but he was listening to what weak debate he would bring up, he knew that his argument stood strong, or so he thought. "Do you know how much pressure I've had from dad all these years?" Zane didn't, in fact, never even thought about it, he listened more intently, loosening up his tense muscles. Garroth continued, "'Son, you better do good on this' and 'son, you better get good at it by tomorrow to show off, because that's gonna help you get places in life'" Garroth was holding back tears, lots of them, but continued to speak with a dry face. "The only reason I get those "celebrations" is because I did what dad wanted me to do. I never chose or did what I wanted to do." All of this was new to Zane, maybe he wasn't the only one with secrets. "Hockey, basketball, studying like crazy for a test that I already did three weeks ago. The only thing I chose was baseball, Zane. The rest came from dad, mom or school events the school that everybody wanted me to try out for the school teams, and I'm not finished yet! I know I can be 'pathetic' sometimes. That's why I'm always being praised by dad. I can be self-conscious at times too, so he's there when I need it. Mom's always been too busy with you because you feel this way, and Vlyad, well, he does his own thing, you know? Dad doesn't show it often, but he does care about you Zane." Garroth looked up at Zane "both of them". As Zane looked up, he looked into his eye very carefuly. "I care about you" he said sweetly. Zane had never had a conversation this deep with his brother before, he wasn't really sure what to feel or if he even felt anything, but the one thing he was sure of, was that the envy monster, was gone for sure.