Riot

Chapter 4

Alison's POV

With Marylee gone for the evening, I was able to 'interrogate' my brother about his recent break-up. He was usually not very open about his feelings and he was a bit of an introvert extrovert, if you will. I hadn't been going easy on him, but he knew me well enough to realize that I wasn't going to let this go easily. In the end, he had told me everything. I could have sworn I saw some tears shimmering in his eyes, although he refused to cry in front of me. It hurt me to see him like this. My big brother.

After our serious talk, we quickly fell back to our habit of casually chatting about anything and everything. He seemed genuinely interested in my recent activities, and I couldn't wait to hear his stories. He had been to America for a couple of weeks, but he got bored of it after a while. That didn't surprise me, the American culture was not his cup of tea. He loved Eastern cultures, in particular the Chinese culture fascinated him enormously.

He proudly showed me all the pictures he had taken on his travels. I had to admit that he was a talented photographer, yet another thing he excelled at. He often added his own pictures to the articles he wrote for a local newspaper in Manchester, the place where both of us were born. Our parents still lived there, and I honestly didn't see them as often as I wished I would. I missed them, but my father had a fultime job as a lawyer, and my mother was a volunteer. They were consumed by their work.

'I wish I could come with you sometime. I would love to see all these beautiful places in real life, rather than just on paper', I mumbled. Mike softly patted my shoulder and gave me a sad smile.

'I will take you there, someday. You have my word, sis', he promised. I couldn't help but grin at those words. He had never broken a promise to me, so I had to believe that he meant this.

'Do you want another drink? I believe there's some beer, too', I offered. He shook his head.

'No, thank you. I think I'd like to get some sleep now', he said, getting up out of his chair. I nodded.

'You can sleep in my room. There's an extra mattress there, and that way we won't disturb my roommate when she comes back', I told him, leading the way to my bedroom.

Ten minutes later, we were both lying in bed. I was already drifting off to sleep when I heard a soft voice beside me.

'Allie, are you asleep?'. I giggled at his question. It reminded me of our childhood. When we were kids, we used to sleep in the same room. Every night, he would ask me that same question, and I would always pretend to be asleep. He'd try again every few minutes, until I answered him.

'Yes, I am', I said. Instead of laughing, like we would do when we were children, he just sighed.

'Do you think that I'm wasting my life?', he asked. It took me off guard, and I didn't know what he was referring to. To me it seemed like he had his whole life figured out, and he had always known exactly what to do and what he wanted. He cleared his throat, still waiting for my response.

'Of course not! What makes you think that?'.

'Nothing in particular. Just wondering, I guess', he muttered. I turned around, coming face to face with him. He was looking quite lost, like he had no idea what he had to do from this point on.

'Is this because of your break-up with Eve? She was never right for you, you know', I tried to cheer him up. He rolled over on his back, staring at the ceiling.

'It's not Eve. Truth be told, I don't think I'll miss her all that much. You're right, we were probably not meant to be together in the first place', he admitted. I nodded approvingly.