A Player, A Bet and The Badass Nerd

Escape The Castle & Forward March To Battle

Bree's POV

I sat in my car out in the parking lot and I stared up at the open balcony door. I can't remember ever seeing that door open except when it was being cleaned or redecorated to fit the different stages of puberty my mom imagine Brad would go through. He's here. He's really here.My heart raced at the thought of seeing my beloved twin. I got out excitedly slamming the door as I ran up the steps of the extended balcony; usually I would go through the kitchen and say hello to Carmen but today nothing else matter. I literally flew down the hall and flung his bedroom door open looking around frantically.  One look at me and someone else would've thought I was a mad woman but Brad just lifted his head from the pillow and grinned at me. At the sight of him I lost it rushed over to him and dove up top of him tears in my eyes.

“Big brother!” I exclaimed snuggling close to him.

“Hey kid,” he replied ruffling my hair not even seeming to care that I was sweaty and sprawled on him.

“I'm so glad you're here,” I bawled.  He didn’t say much, he just gave me a strange look as though he couldn't understand why I was behaving this way. “Are you out for good?” I asked and watched as his face darkened.

“Yes and no,” he shrugged seeming to think that was a good enough answer.

“I don't understand,” I replied down-heartedly, honestly puzzled at his answer.

He sniffed my hair and then shoved me off of him causing me to fall off the bed.

“Oww!” I complained rubbing my butt that was now throbbing from my fall.

He analyzed me for a second tilting his head to the side. It was times like these you could tell we were twins because of the minutely similar gestures. Even though we were so different there were little things that still linked us together and I praised God for it every time a little of it showed.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that you would’ve gotten hurt if I did that,” he said rubbing the back of his neck.

He stared at me intently as neither of us said anything. I just sat there on the floor taking him in, my beloved brother who was a masculine version of me. He was my other half and hated how we’d been separated for so many years. I hated how many restrictions because he was a bit different and misunderstood. Sure he had hurt that puppy when we were younger but it wasn’t like he was evil or anything. I just sat and dazed into his beautiful blue eyes as I imagined the childhood we should’ve had together and all the memories my poor brother missed out on. He missed ski trips at the Lodge, summers in the Hamptons, and spring breaks in Europe.

 I know what you guys are thinking, here’s a guy that strangled an innocent pup with his bare hands but that’s not the whole story. The truth is that the puppy had playfully nibbled my fingers and I had yelped, a little afraid that it was going to bite me. I was so young when I saw my brother kill the poor animal that I had always thought that he was a monster. However a few years back when I went to visit him despite my mother’s protests I had gotten a chance to speak with his therapist. The therapist had told me that the reason Brad had killed the pup was because he thought it had hurt me and he had done what he did to protect me. Ten years my brother had spent institutionalized and feared by his immediate family when all he had done was protect his younger half. As the closest person to him I felt like I should’ve been that one to at least give him a chance or try to understand back then why he did it but I didn’t and he suffered all those years alone. I made it my business after that to meet with the councilors to help oversea his progress. I wanted to understand my emotionless brother and eventually I did.

Things that a normal person would be able to emphasize with he couldn’t. You had to be completely transparent with everything you said or did in order for him to understand. After I came to understand that I was able to rebuild my relationship with the brother that was locked away from me at birth. To me he was just an overgrown child that needed to be monitored and taught and as long as I remembered that we got along great. Anyway, despite what anyone said or thought I loved Brad unconditionally and I knew him good enough to know that he would never hurt me or anyone else intentionally unless he thought it was necessary.