2015 || H.S

Welcome Home

She jolted upright, feeling water rush over her face.

Jack's laughter erupted into the room as he held the bucket in his hands. She dived back under her soaked blankets.

"Piss off, asshole!"

"Don't swear at me, little sis," he said with a grin. "C'mon, just come out and smile for the camera."

She froze in place. "Camera?" She slowly pulled down the covers and sighed to see he was holding his Go-Pro live video camera.

"And the reason for all of this?" she said with a scowl.

He shrugged and smiled. "2015."

This is my year, she kept repeating in her head. She had to say it for it to be true. This was just a minor set back in her mind. He was a minor set back.

"Jack," she called him as sweetly as she could muster. He turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Maia..."

"I need to go out today to buy a new-"

"No way. You know my rules." He was sharp about anything to do with leaving the house. Maia had made up her own excuses for him, but she believed it was unfair. And it's 2015.

"I'm going out, Jack."

His shoulders tensed and his expression hardened. It was always now she backed down from him, ever since she was twelve.

"You aren't leaving this house. You know I won't have that, Maia."

"Tell me again why, and listen carefully to your logic," she said, sitting back down on her bed. She didn't like being under him, but she didn't want to be so close to him either.

"Because that's how mom left," he yelled. His nostrils flared as he glanced down at her. "Why do I need to tell you this again?"

He would never admit the full truth. It hurt Maia, especially because she was the victim of it, but she would never lie to herself. Jack knew what happened, but he couldn't handle the truth. Even a decade later.

"Why did mom leave, Jack?"

"I don't know!" He was lying. She could tell because of the tears forming in his eyes.

"Just please stop talking about it so I can go make breakfast for Christ's sake."

"You went out to that bar," she began. 2015. It was her year. And he needed to hear it in words for once in his life. "You got really drunk that night, didn't you?"

"Don't, Maia," he said in a tensed tone. He was about to snap, but she kept at it. "You came home and let your disgusting friends come into my room—" she started choking up at the memory of it. "And then... Mom tried to help..."

"I didn't know what I was doing!" he screamed. "They gave me drugs, I didn't mean any of it. It was all a huge mistake, Maia. Why do you have to talk about it?"

"You're my brother, but you're also my warden. You won't let me out of the house because you're trying to protect me. You're always trying to protect me, but you don't know what you're protecting me from. It's because the only thing I need to be saved from is you, Jack."

"I just want you to be okay again." He began to sob into his hands. She barely made out his last sentence. "You're the only one who stayed, Maia."

"Because you lied to me. You never told me the full story," she whispered. She watched him fall onto his knees in front of her. His cheeks were swollen and his eyes were red. She couldn't remember a time in the last eleven years she had ever seen him cry.