By Chance

Chapter One : By Chance

Brady's POV

"I'll miss you, man," my brother Kaine tells me as he helps me pack up all my clothes and belongings into my Jeep.

"I'll miss you too," I reply honestly. Deciding to leave the only family I have left has by far been the hardest decision I've ever had to make. I love my brother more than I love myself, but I despise this town and what they have seen.

"Tell me again why you're leaving the place you've called home since the day you were born," Kaine demands as he shuts the trunk of my car.

"You may wish to stay here in Berry, Alabama, but I do not. I need to get away. I want to go to a place that doesn't know who I am and what I've been through. There's nothing here for my anymore other than you and Gracie," I answer, understanding his frustration with me leaving. If it was the other way around, I wouldn't let him go.

He's just a better person than I am.

Kaine looks at me right in the eye, his blue eyes identical to mine, pleading me to not leave him as the rest of our family has.

"So you're just gonna leave? Going to go and forget about mom and dad? About Avery? They were our family, Brady. You can't just expect to move a couple hours away and have all the pain and memories go away. That's not how it works," Kaine informs me as I walk to the driver's side door of my car.

"That's not why I'm leaving and you know it," I say as stare at him, over this conversation we've argued over several time already. "I'm so god damn tired of getting sympathy stares and 'I'm sorry's' everywhere I go. Please, just let me do this without making me feel like the shittiest brother."

Kaine lowers his head and plays with gravel on the street with the bottom of his shoe before he looks up at me. "Alright, I get it," he admits. "I just wish you could find a way to stay. It just seems like everyone leaves."

I look at him and begin missing him already before walking over to him and lean against my Jeep. "I wish I could too, you know that. I just need something new. I'm not leaving you, Kaine. I'll try to come see you as much as I can," I answer him as he comes and leans on the car next to me.

Kaine takes a deep breath before checking the time on his phone. "If you want to get to Gulf Shores before it gets dark, you better take off now," he says as pushes himself off my car and turns his back toward me.

I stand up and face Kaine's back, suddenly feeling so sorry for escaping this town for my own sake. I know how much Kaine has been struggling the past few years, but I can't stay here another day. We both stand there for a few second before I finally say, "I love you, Kaine, and I'm not going to be in Gulf Shores forever. I'll call you when I get there."

Kaine nods while he turns around, his face absolutely void of emotion. "Love you too, drive safe," he states as he wraps his arms around me. I hug him back and give his back a slap before I let go and open the Jeep door.

I start my car as Kaine takes a couple steps back into the grass of what used to be our front lawn. He gives me a one finger wave as I put the car in drive, and I respond by giving him one back. As I drive away, I look out the rear view mirror and see Kaine slowly make his way back to our -or his and Gracie's- house.

A sense of nostalgia hits me as I officially leave the town of Berry, Alabama. This town may have seen what terrible things Kaine and I have been through, but it used to also be happy place where my family and I spent all of our days loving one another. My family, the Holt's, were what you might call a perfect family: a mother and father who adored each other more than anything else in the world with three loving and healthy kids who would do anything for the other. We were just a middle class family trying to make our way through life.

That all changed the night of November 13, 1999, only a few weeks before my 6th birthday. Ever since then, my world as I know it, can never and will never be the same. Ever since then, only bad things came for me and my family. Ever since then, the only feelings I've ever known has been anger and heartache. I really fucking hate that day.

I shake the thoughts of that harrowing night from my mind as I turn up the radio and settle in for a five hour drive. The distance from my brother may have been a little more than I meant it to be. Kaine is the only family I have left, and he's the only one in the world to know what I went through, but I have to live next to the ocean. It's the only place I will ever be able to truly try to let my past free and be okay with what happened. My mom and I always bonded over how much we loved the ocean, even with all the salt that gets in your eyes and mouth, and all the sand that seems to never want to get off of you.

I turn the radio up even louder and let the music drown out any further thoughts I may have as I say goodbye to Berry, the place of both my happiest and most terrifying experiences. I take a deep breath and settle in for the next five hours and the next part of my life away from anyone or anything I've ever known.

___________

I swing open my car door, getting out into my new garage. I shut it and the sound is amplified by the emptiness of the cement room. My new house may be move-in ready, but the garage couldn't be anymore bare. I didn't bring anything with me other than clothes and necessities because 1) I couldn't take it all and leave Kaine with nothing, and 2) I want no part of Berry to get into my new life here in Gulf Shores.

This place sure is beautiful, but it's expensive as fuck. I may be making plenty of money with the job I have as a successful banker, but I would have never been able to afford my new home without the money my mom and dad left me.

I take my first step into the house and let the newness engulf me. Setting my keys on the kitchen counter, I begin to take a quick tour of the house. It was stupid at the time, but when I bought this house I hadn't even visited it yet. I saw it online and in the heat of the moment, I told an agent I would take it. This is the first time ever seeing it in person.

I couldn't find a place here with only one or two bedrooms, so I had to buy one with four. I decided that if the rent becomes too much, I'll just get a roommate.

The garage door opens up into the dining room and kitchen, and to the right of the entrance is the living room, which holds the front door. Through the living room you can enter a hallway, which leads to four doors, 3 of them bedrooms and 1 of them a bathroom. Through the kitchen is a doorway across from the door that opens up into the back yard. That doorway leads to the basement, which has one bedroom, a bathroom, an office, a living room, and a storage room.

I suddenly feel so small living alone in a house clearly made for a family. As I start to feel like I made the wrong decision and should just move back in with Kaine, my phone begins to vibrate in my back pocket. I pull it out and see Kaine trying to FaceTime me, so I answer it, realizing I forgot my promise to him.

"I thought you were gonna call me when you finally got there, you piece of shit," Kaine says when his face pops onto my screen. I laugh at him and apologize for forgetting before he follows with, "What's your place like?"

I take my phone and show him around the place. "You need to come down and visit me when the school year ends," I mention to him. "This place has four fucking bedrooms, you could even move down if you wanted," I tease at him. "When's the last day there?"

"We get out the 23rd, teachers have to stay until the 25th," he responds. Kaine has been a high school special education teacher for the past six years and he excels at it. All the kids and teachers love him. If I was respected as much as Kaine was, I might not have left Berry.

Kaine and I talk to each other for a few more minutes before he had to leave to pick up his girlfriend, who is also one of my best friends. After we hang up, I can't help but start to panic that this was the stupidest decision I've ever made. To get my mind off things, I decide to start carrying in boxes of all my shit.

One man, four bedrooms. How the hell am I supposed to decide which one will be mine? After much consideration, I decide on the room downstairs. It's the coldest, has an attached bathroom, and has a television set up in there.

I set up my new bathroom and get a few articles of clothing out before I decide to call it a day. After brushing my teeth and changing into a pair of shorts, I lay down on my new bed and stare at the ceiling. Gulf Shores sure seemed like a better idea three months ago. I force myself to settle down long enough to let sleep take over. Just as it's about to consume me, I hope that the nightmares stay away tonight.