Secrets we keep in bottles

Realization

The house air was just as sticky as outside, it was easy to tell they didn't own an air conditioner. Crushed beer cans and cigarette butts lay all over the living room floor and coffee table. Eric kicked past them and into the hallway bathroom without a second thought but both his guests made a silent face. Jacob had been over here many times before but he never could fully believe that Eric had to live in this. The room reeked of stale Corona and Pall-Malls. Faded white dust trails lined the edges of the coffee table, Parker didn't need to take a second look to know exactly what made them.

"Sit." Eric demanded, pulling Jacob gently into the bathroom. 

It was cleaner in here so Jacob took a seat on the closed toilet seat. It complained under his weight. Eric set a first aid kit on the sink counter, Jacob frowning skeptically. It looked like it had been chucked through a hundred year old coffin but as Eric opened it, squeaky clean supplies revealed themselves. Parker leaned against the doorway watching the two, hands in his jean pockets. The atmosphere felt unbearably tense so he abandoned his post to find a rag to wet to clean up the blood. He checked the kitchen cabinets first. No wonder Eric was so scrawny, there was barely any food to fill them. 

Jacobs nose has stopped bleeding by now along with his forearms and knee but he looked worse for wear. His light curls had escaped their gell prison and he looked exhausted. Eric knelt down in front of him and tilted his chin up slightly, looking into his big brown eyes. He looked back at him and tried again to reassure him with a small smile. This time Eric reciprocated it.

"I'm going to fix you right up Chee, don't worry." Running his thumb over his chin he releases it, standing up as Parker returns with a fairly wet rag.

He thanked him and started with Jacobs arms, wiping the blood off his skin from around the scrapes and being extra careful as he dabbed at them. Being attentive with the neosporin, he placed a band-aid over each of his cuts and moved on to his knees. They weren't as bad as his forearms but there had been pain involved. He cleaned those up just like before and moved on to his bloody nose. Jacob took over and stood up, exchanging the box of band-aids for the rag and stepping in front of the mirror.

A click from the front door startled the small group and Eric walked out into the living area to see who it was. Much to his surprise his mom staggered in, a tight, tacky green dress clinging to her form. Off her tits drunk too he noted, frowning.

"Oh. Hi mom. I didn't expect you back until tomorrow." His tone ran flat and he stepped aside as she flopped down onto the couch, beer cans crinkling underneath her.

"Yeahhwell me n the girls decided to go laterr so im hooomesupriiisee." She giggled, kicking off her shoes.

 His mom was always cross-faded and hardly ever home so this really was a surprise to him. It was bizarre to both him and his father how she managed to get the majority of custody of him and their assets. She was barely able to keep her nose clean the entire time the court case was in play. The only reason she got custody of him was because she had not yet been picked up for drug possession. There were no records of child abuse in the system yet either, just like their house was spotless when the investigators came over too look at the home. His dad still regrets getting into that bar fight a week before. Three counts of assault and one count of attempted robbery. The judge deemed him unfit to raise Eric seeing as he was a "violent man" and assigned him to his mother. It really took a toll on Eric's emotional health. Without his father around he had to raise himself as his mother got worse and worse. When she came home, if she hardly ever came home, she would smack him around. Demanding he do this and do that, why he couldn't be more like his father, why she had to put up with him when she could be out having fun.

You're the worst mistake I ever made.

If he hadn't had Jacob, he would have ended up just like her. Of course he told his father what had been going on but after a certain point he realized his father just didn't care anymore. He had had enough of her and he wasn't with Eric enough to care as much. He got frustrated when Eric brought it up so they never talked about it, he just sucked it up and dealt with it from then on.