Soberly Drunk

A/N: Hi there! So, this is my first story and I'm hopeful it'll be successful. :) I'm hoping you guys will like it and please leave constructive criticism for me! 

The young woman grasped her elder brother's dry palm reassuringly. Always the protector of the two despite their age difference.

Her doleful, hazel eyes caught the pastor's, the pastor inconsiderately flinching at the woman's current estate. Her brother inquisitively followed her weary gaze, simply leaving his irritation to heighten considerably, having the pastor to flush profusely.

"Dex," she chastened jadedly. 

He merely sighed in response. "You're too soft, sister."

Emmeline's head swerved to address her brother, her cracked lips thinning as her eyebrows knitted warily at her brother.

"Will you quit it?" she snapped. "Don't act like this is all alright. It's our mother's funeral, show some respect." Emmeline disengaged her tangled fingers, her dim fingertips urging into her palm. Though, the anger ceased as quickly as it ignited at the startling confrontation with his disgruntled appearance. 

He was as sad as she, though he had mastered the skill of discreetness more readily than his sister. 

"I'm sorry," Dex muttered lowly, his relentless stare burning searing holes into her temple. 

Emmeline remained silent, though her hand had then slithered to firmly grasp her brother's. 

She had forgiven him already.

I'm sorry for your loss. The words appeared to be rather well-liked for a solemn occasion such as the one the two siblings were compelled to endure. She never knew common words that united would be able to crumble two, defined siblings.

Condolences were one thing, overbearing pity was another. Candid eyes that consisted nothing, but  resolute pity which scorched the vain pride that the Kingsley's so desperately clung to preserve. 

A simple, rational reason why Emmeline and Dex confided in the shadows. 

"She's not really gone," her brother would say passively. "Mom's coming back. She's just doing something that's urgent. She'll be back, sis." 

Both had trusted the condescending words to the fullest extent. Simple words having the capability of assuring them for a short fragment of time. Though, after several years that have flown by without even a brief notification of her presence, then you'd eventually relieve any hope you'd have left.

With an addition of derision hopes, their own father declared her disappearance and inevitable death every day due to his drunken ramblings. What led him to inflicting crude anguish towards his own children, they never knew. Nor did they want to understand.

 The unknown were better left unknown until the biased were fixed. 

"I'm sorry for you loss, I truly am. We were all hoping she'd return," a voice interrupted her spewing thoughts. 

Mournful eyes collided with pitiful ones, resultantly causing the grinding of her teeth. A blonde bimbo by the looks of it. She was clothed with a pinstriped overcoat with a sheer, white skirt as a partner. Most likely one of her father's whores, but Emmeline held respect for her mother. Her mother always made her abide by a certain rule: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Fortunately, her brother replied for her. "Thank you. We were as well. I'm certain our father was as well," he quipped coldly, his gaze settling on her nose. None of them were able to handle anyone's eyes from the day the word spread about their mother's disappearance and their father's incapability to nurture his nearly orphaned children.