DON'T YOU TRUST YOUR BROTHER ? | ✅

chapter one ; salting the roads

12/9 ; 10:54 PM ; ????'s House Party

Nix Ansel Durance sat in his seat , tapping his foot against the coffee table to the music that blared across the old and beaten up stereos . His face laid slack , and in his hand sat the ever so American red solo cup . Inside was fruit punch Nix was partially inclined to believe was spiked .

However , that wasn't going to stop him from drinking it .

So long as he could keep what he put down down in the morning , he'd be fine . Great , even . He had learned to choke down the returning alcohol and work through the headaches . His liver was still a shot in the dark , but considering how rarely he drank , he was sure he'd be fine .

Maybe he wouldn't , but Nix liked the blur too much to worry , something he could rare not do . Nix had always been inclined to worrying ; there was never a minute when he wasn't on the edge of his seat . Sadly , That wouldn't change until Harvard : the place he got a full paid scholarship to .

The place everyone conveniently forgot about because of Alex's scholarship to UCLA .

Alex Tobias Durance was Nix's older brother by nine minutes exactly . That nine minutes was something Nix spent alot of time thinking about , even if he knew it was petty . He always took it as Alex's way of saying ,

" Sorry , Bro . I'll always be the main priority . " Even now , Alex was out doing him , his arms wrapped tightly around Jaime Vern's waist as their lips moved in sync with the same blarring music from the speakers that sat next to Nix , making him number to sound by the second . Quick pecks followed by moments of heavy breathing and then deep kissing . Nix watched it , swirling what was left of his drink around in the cup .

Alex was pressed against the brick wall of whoever's house this was ; Nix didn't get the chance to ask while he was being dragged here by Alex . All he knew was that he'd likely be leaving the couch soon , returning home so Alex could partake in other activities with his girlfriend of a month .

Jaime's arms hung around Alex's neck loosely . Comfortably , even . Her thin fingers laced into his hair . Her own blonde cascading down her skinny frame which was tucked into Alex's rather infamous red and white letterman , her own patch right under her nose without her suspecting a thing . She had no idea what was coming , and although Nix felt bad for her now , he knew any sympathy for the girl would be demolished within a span of twenty minutes in a week or two .

The red letterman was infamous for a reason - it was a list of sorts . A list Alex wore on his body as a sign of pride . The actual letterman carried no other value than being the standard one he got each year he stayed on the team ; each growth spurt he raised a size . No , what Alex spent many tedious hours hand sewing to the letterman was the real reason he carried it like a badge ;

The patches .

A patch equals a girl . Each patch unique to her , each a story that Alex would share with Nix as Alex sewed and Nix studied . They were never long stories , always a few words or so , but Nix remembered them because it seemed Alex cared about the jacket . Maybe even more so than he cared about Nix , or their Mother , or himself .

Nix had seen what every one of those jackets had gone through . Each variation had carried numerous spills and with each wash dulled in it's natural cherry red . With each new jacket , the patches would be removed from the old ones and resewn on the new . It took up an entire day of Alex's summer , but with each year the look of the jacket just got better and better . Now , in his senior year , Alex was almost done with the jacket .

Nobody other than Nix and Alex knew what the patches meant . Everyone saw them as Alex just being goofy old Alex : the social butterfly that could light up an entire room with his smile was just adding decoration and accessory . Nobody even caught on to the fact Alex was a sex addict underneath all the jokes and laughs . Somehow , word never got around after a break up - no matter how pissed the girls were .