Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Four Letter Words - 1. BRAT
“My brother’s a brat and I kind of hate him.”
I paused, watching as the crowd in front of me shuffled uncomfortably in their seats. I stood at the podium, resting on it with my fingers intertwined.
“I know I shouldn’t be saying that, because he’s my brother and all, but it’s true.”
Again, I paused. Everyone in the crowd before me was looking incredibly uncomfortable and obviously had no idea where I was going with this. Frankly, I didn’t know, either. I was winging all of this, saying whatever popped into my head.
“One time, he changed all the clocks in the house to be 3 hours earlier. I ended up getting up at 4 and thinking it was 7. I got all the way to school before I realized that it was way earlier than I thought. I could have walked back home, but then I would have had to face him. I definitely would have beat the living daylights out of him. I was so angry with him, I really, really hated him for a while after that.”
I couldn’t help but have a smile creep its way onto my face, but I hid that by looking down at my feet. In retrospect, it was kind of funny. “His pranks never actually hurt me, he just kind of made my life interesting.” I looked up and noticed that a couple in the back row were leaving.
“Oh, probably the best prank he pulled on me was when he added permanent dye to my shampoo. I had blue hair for weeks and weeks! It took absolutely forever for the dye to come out, it was terrible.”
But was he doing that to torture me? Looking back, he seemed to call me Mr. Blue with a bit of pride in his voice. All the other kids at school made fun of me, but not him.
“After like a month though, he’d actually help me scrub my hair, to try and wash it off. I never really thought about it until now, but I guess that was his way of saying he loved me. He never would just say it normally… he must have been trying to express himself through pulling pranks on me.”
I sighed, as my perception about my brother was shifting, fundamentally. Looking through the crowd, I could see the faces before me soften, as they picked up on my changing emotions. I looked at the front row, where my mom was sitting. She smiled at me and nodded.
“I love my brother, too. It makes me so sad that I haven’t realized this up until now. He never hated me, like I thought he did. He’s not a brat. He’s my loving little brother that looked up to me and was just trying to express something that he wasn’t able to put into words.”
I stepped back from the wooden podium and turned around. I approached the open coffin of my little brother.
“I love you too. I’m so sorry. I wish I realized this sooner and could have told you this. I’ll miss you forever.”
- 5
- 1
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Recommended Comments
Chapter Comments
-
Newsletter
Sign Up and get an occasional Newsletter. Fill out your profile with favorite genres and say yes to genre news to get the monthly update for your favorite genres.