The Two of Us

Coming Back

"Ow, what the shit!?"

My name is Riley Tenner, but most people just call me by my middle name, which is Baby.

"Whoops, sorry! Guess I didn't see that pothole."

I'll never understand why my parents chose to make that my middle name, but whatever.

"Sure you didn't, Dad."

I was busy sleeping until my dad purposely drove over a pothole so that my head would hit the window. Something he also did the last time I saw him, which was over a year ago.

Why hadn't I seen my dad in over year? Because I had spent most of my life living with my mom in Hurricane, Utah. The last time I was allowed to visit him was the summer following my freshman year of high school.

And now I was going to live with him and my older brother because my mom had just gotten another job overseas.

"Why did you wake me up anyway?"

My dad doesn't really care if I swear in front of him as long as I don't say the f word, which is why he didn't say anything when I uttered the word "shit".

"Because we're nearly there!"

Dad pulled into a residential area and we started to pass a bunch of houses.

"Oh yay." I could have sounded more excited, but I was still half asleep.

"C'mon, where's your enthusiasm?!"

"Oh yay!" It came out louder that time, but my voice still sounded pretty monotone and dead inside.

"Okay, better! But I'd still give it a four out of ten."

"Wow, that hurts. That really hurts," I replied sarcastically.

Dad chuckled, pulling into the driveway of the house that I'd be living in. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I just really feel like you didn't give that performance your all."

"I'll be sure to do that next time," I replied as I got out of the car.

I had barely even set foot on the concrete before my older brother came bursting out of the house like a fucking maniac. 

'I see he hasn't changed.'

We both had red hair and a rather fair skin tone, but aside from that, we didn't really look that much alike. He was super tall and had really strong facial features that made him appear older than he was, whereas I was really short and kinda baby-faced. 

"Hey, Riley!" he shouted.

Most people would just wrap their arms around you when they hug you, but my brother was the type of guy to lift you up in the air and squeeze you so tightly that you can't fucking breathe. 

The fact that he was kinda muscular didn't help.

"I missed ya!"

"Hey Ed, don't deprive your sister of oxygen before she even gets inside!" Dad yelled as he opened the trunk.

Eddie dropped me back onto the ground. "Oh yeah, sorry!"

I picked myself up off the ground. "It's fine... Missed you too."

Eddie started to ramble on about how much fun we were gonna have and stuff as we started to take my junk with me to the guest bedroom, which was now my room.

I didn't really have that much stuff so it didn't take me very long, but Eddie talks really fast and he managed to squeeze everything he wanted to say into that short span of time.

I honestly couldn't process half of what he was saying to me, but it's good to know my older brother's list of fun activities still included things like, "Guess What Mystery Food I Stuck in the Mayonnaise" and "What Things From the Hardware Store Can I Use to Apply Makeup?"

"Aren't you excited?!"

"Yeah, I totally can't wait to attempt to apply lipstick with a jigsaw."

"Me neither!" Eddie said. "We'll do it over the weekend! In the meantime, I'll leave you to unpack!"

'Oh boy.'