Trophy Child (On Hold)

Chapter 16

The night after our screaming match in the living room, Mom and dad went out to some fancy restaurant. It was probably so that they could relieve some of the recent stress I'd caused them and pretend for a little while that you didn't have kids to be angry about. Parents were funny that way.

Their date left me alone to take care of Andy and make dinner. Which was always my favorite way to spend the night. Note the sarcasm, please.

The weird thing was that the entire time I was in the kitchen, Andy didn't come bouncing in to bother me. Not once.

Usually, he'd be watching and blabbing on about school, or whining about how I needed to hurry because he was dying of starvation. You know, obnoxious ten year old behavior.

But that night he didn't show up until I called him, and even then, he didn't come running. He walked in, dragging his feet, and mumbled about not being hungry. None of it was like him. When I thought about it, he hadn't been like himself for days.

While he sat down, my gaze drifted to his bruised face and I wondered again how it had happened. More importantly, I wondered if it was what was causing his behavior. Mom and dad were still convinced that it was a sibling fight, since Andy hadn't said otherwise. I denied it, but it didn't do much good when Andy was still moping and avoiding me after I'd kicked him out of my bedroom.

Sure, I'd hit and pushed him around before. Of course I had. He was my brother. But I would never hit him like that.

I could have asked him where it came from. I should have. I just wasn't sure how.

How do you connect with someone you've spent your entire life pushing away?

***

"You almost done with your homework?" I asked.

I was on the couch, guitar in my lap, avoiding doing anything productive. Andy on the other hand was sitting crisscross on the floor in front of the coffee table, his worksheets spread out before him.

It was one of mom's rules that Andy couldn't do school work in his bedroom. It was another of her rules that someone always be around to watch while Andy worked in case he needed help. He almost never did, but she was always worried.

He didn't respond for a few seconds while he wrote something down, but then he set his pencil aside and nodded.

"Yeah, that's it," he informed me.

"Okay, good, I was sick of sitting out here. Go to bed."

Once he'd gathered everything off of the table, he followed me up the stairs. He paused for a second when we reached my door. Like he wanted something, but didn't really expect it.

I realized then how right Benny had been, even if I didn't want to hear it at the time. I'd been so distracted with what was going on in my own life that I'd overlooked what was happening to Andy right before my eyes.

He was becoming me. Bitter, closed off, and hateful.

Even if he annoyed me, even if he constantly absorbed all of our parents' love and attention, I decided that I didn't want that for him.

Which meant that I needed to steel myself and at least try to be the brother I'd never been.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said, but it sounded hollow.

"You sure? If you're not we can... talk or something. I guess."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," he said hesitantly.