𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯 𝔟𝔬𝔶 [2]

19

My brother followed me as I kept walking. I wasn't wearing shoes so the pebbles on the road and sidewalk had started to hurt my feet. I finally stopped at a bench and pointed to it, "Sit."

"I'm not a dog, Wren." But he still sat down on the bench, draping his arms across the back of it.

"What's your name?"

"Atlas."

"Atlas?"

Atlas smiled effortlessly, "That's what I just said, is it not?"

I huffed out air and sat down next to him, "Don't say that."

"Why not?"

I look over at him, "Cause I say that. You sound like me."

Atlas smiled again, it seemed like he was alway smiling. I dislike it, "Well, who's older? Then we can truly find out who sounds like who."

"When's your birthday?"

"Two days ago. I'm sixteen."

His smile falters a little bit and I lean back in my seat, "So, you're older than me. How does that feel for you, Atlas?" I test out his name on my tongue but a question burns my mind. Who named him Atlas? I know my mom named me Wren cause she liked birds, but what does his mom like, atlases?

"Weird."

"You say so little for someone who wanted to talk so bad." I poke a little at his silence, both of us know how weird this situation is. Meeting your sibling through a shitty father who's been in jail for the past ten years; well, it's not normal, "I'd prefer if we didn't waste either of our time and we talk about our lives."

Atlas brings his hands down to his lap, fiddling with his fingers, "My parents were high school sweethearts. They broke up, then a couple years later they had a drunken one night stand, at least that's what my mom says. He didn't know I was even alive until after you were born, but you know, he had another family. Then we didn't hear from him again. I wasn't allowed to ask about him, ever. I couldn't remember my own father so of course I'd be curious. Then my mom remarried. Then he came home. Said he had no where else to go. My mom kicked him out but I wanted to meet him, you know. He told me the times he saw me when I was a baby, said he was so proud."

"When did he show back up?"

"I don't know."

I laugh, "He has a way of making things confusing. God, I can't believe him."

"Yeah, he showed up during a family dinner. Kind of ruined everything, but hey, he didn't know. Then he told me about you, his little birdie," I stiffen at the pet name, I didn't like it when Gunnar called me bird and I hated it when my father calls me by the name, "I wanted to meet you."

"Don't you hate him? He wasn't there for any of your life, the part he was, you can't even remember. How is this so easy for you?"

"It isn't. But Wren, listen, he was in jail, it's not like he could come and raise me."

I felt a small pain in my finger and I looked down to see that my fingernail had pierced the skin of my finger, "He was in jail because he got in a car drunk and killed someone. He got in the car because of me, he was coming to get me." I stood up from the bench and faced Atlas, "He had the chance to raise me, he just lost it by being a dick. I hate to say it because I seriously don't know what has happened in your life but you should be lucky you never had to live with him."

"Wren-"

"Our father is the reason my mom is dead. He's the reason we moved, if we hadn't moved she wouldn't have gotten into a fucking car crash. If she had never met him, she'd still be alive."