Bruised in Royal Colors

Chapter 1

His blinked a few times in the mirror, sighing as he grabbed his straightening iron. He didn't want to think about that, it was a good morning so far, he didn't want to spoil it for himself. He tried to focus on the bacon again as he plugged it in, starting to look for his heat protector.

Who knows, maybe today would be his lucky day; if he behaved, of course.

But even if she didn't, Travis wouldn't be too upset. It wasn't her job, anyways, he would have nothing to be upset about. Besides, she probably saw him as a pest of some sort. She practically refused to acknowledge his existence, that seemed like a good reason why. If she did see him as a pest, then he at least had some way of making sure her day stayed pleasant for a while. He would be leaving soon, and when he left, Mother's mood would be even better, and she could be happy. Truly happy. She deserved to be happy, that was her right, no matter what.

Mother always had to deal with both his and Father's existences when she wasn't at work, which had to be taxing. She was always happy to have Father gone, so he knew that she would be even happier to have him gone as well. He was his father's child, after all, so he obviously had some of his qualities. If you have the sinner finally gone, why would you want the sin?

On a brighter note, Father didn't hurt her or anything of that sort, so he never had to worry. He just posed as a nuisance for her, which made Travis what?

Even worse.

Father was always yelling and complaining about everything; he'd break things and made Travis bleed. Then she would be stuck cleaning it up. At least she was regarded rather highly by Father—he always treated her well— and so she wasn't cleaning up after both Travis and herself. She didn't have to hurt the way he did, she was safe.  Maybe she didn't love Father either? That could be a reason why she was glad to have him gone.

Well, whatever the case was, she was happy, and the rest didn't matter.

His mind wandered from there and more into today as he sectioned out a piece of his hair and applied the heat protector to it. It was a Tuesday, which typically sucked on its own. Yet, on a plus note, Father wasn't here, which made the day significantly better. Sure, he'd probably be here later, nitpicking any flaw he saw, yelling at Travis and destroying any dignity he had left once again; or he'd be violent with it. Possibly both, which was most common in his experience. Sure, the discipline wasn't exactly fun, and it left him constantly looking over his shoulder while double checking that everything was perfect, but it was necessary, wasn't it? He always managed to mess almost everything up; it was vital to try to teach him how to do better.

How to be better.

He knew that, of course, but it didn't stop him from feeling relieved that Father wasn't around just then. It didn't take away from the mild safety that he felt, nor did it prevent his bacon-sedated nerves from being soothed about not needing to worry. He tried to keep on the positive side, no need to ruin a perfectly decent morning. It was typically hard for him to think positively, he was usually the pessimist. The cynic, the killjoy, whatever word people felt comfortable with using to describe it. He usually didn't have much good to look forward to.

At least, he didn't have it before. He did now, so he had been trying a little harder to be on the upside. Sal had mentioned once that trying to see the best in most situations may help make everything seem a little less dreadful, so he was trying in hopes that Sal was right. He kept straightening his hair as he thought back on the memory. Sal had come up to his locker that day, it was sometime in the afternoon, because he remembered being happy that the school day was almost over. Sal had asked him about the book he was reading, since he had walked into the school reading one. He had listened to Travis ramble all about the story, the characters, the writing style, everything. He would like to say that it was casual, but he knew that he had to have seemed like a giddy child talking about a random rock they found in the park.