The Silver Lining

And so it Begins...

I approached the skeleton horse and saw it was tied to a post. I approached it quickly and untied its reigns, leading it over to my younger brother. I carefully lifted him onto the horse's saddle and got on myself. I heard Dream's voice getting closer and I snapped the reigns. The horse neighed, then it took off running.

We came into view of a village soon and I started yelling for help. Two villagers see us and one runs to get a medic. I almost cry tears of happiness as I stop the horse and jump down. Two men run into view holding a stretcher and I gently bring Tommy's limp body down. I cradle him in my arms as the medics get closer to us.

"We're here Tommy! We're safe—you're safe." The men load him onto the stretcher and I follow them into a small house, praying to whatever god is out there that he'll make it.

Present Day~

"Tommy! Pancakes are ready!" It only takes a few moments for the bedroom door to open with such a force that I thought someone was trying to break in.

"What's in 'em this time?!" He says excitedly making his way over to me. I flip the pancake in the air once more before plopping it on his plate and responding "Bananas and cinnamon! I'm trying something a bit different today, tell me how you like 'em."

With that, I grab the syrup and he gets the silverware, and he starts digging in.

"Pog." I laugh in response and get myself a plate.

"I'm glad you like them! How are you feeling? It's your first day as a junior, are you excited?" He takes a moment to swallow before responding.

"Feeling good, little nervous though." He looks worriedly down at his plate. "Do... Do you think..." He sighs before looking at me. "Do you think they'll treat me the same?" He self consciously pulls at his white hair and traces his scars.

"Do you want me to be earnest or frank?"

"Frank."

"Alright, then I'll give you a frank answer." I take the pan off the eye, then turn it off, and I take a seat next to him. "People are going to treat you differently–" he looks down "–But. Not all their responses will be bad. When I started work I got a lot of reactions and questions about my scars. A few good people, like Veronica, were mostly worried and concerned about how I got my scars. Almost everyone thought my hair was really cool, so I don't think you'll have to worry about that. The rest were kind of scared because they just kind of assumed I was into some really shady business and that I could fuck them up at any time." He laughed, and so did Tommy.

"But you're built like a damn twig!"

"Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'! It was ridiculous! Like I had these big dudes in tats look away from me when I gave them their drinks! It was hilarious!"

"Look! The point is, you're either going to be the most feared or the most babied and there's really no in-between here, besides being inherently sexy which you get from me anyways–"

"WILL!" His eyes grew as big as saucers before he burst into laughter again.

"What? Believe it or not, certain people do find scars very hot. Oh, my baby brother's gonna be a player! Where did I go wrong?" I say all of it very dramatically and he joins in on the bit.

"Everywhere bitch! Oh, the women I will meet there."

"You may be a player now, but are you a quirked-up white boy with a little bit of swag?"

"HA! And you better believe I'm goated with the sauce."

I gasp. "And he's goated with the sauce?" I say in a loud whisper. We wait a moment and crack up in giggles again. "So back to serious mode, I don't honestly think you'll have too many problems other than the occasional troll."

"Alright, that makes me feel a bit better," he ends it with a nervous laugh at the end and I give him a soft smile.

"Glad I could help, now! Finish your pancakes! Don't want you to be late for your first day of school!" I get up and walk back over to the kitchen to take care of the dishes.

"Right!" He says with a big smile and starts inhaling his food, which makes me smile. We continue to get ready for the day. He comes out in his classic T-shirt with a white long sleeve shirt underneath, and I'm in a trenchcoat, which is similar to my old one from the war, and a simple pair of trousers. I give him a packed lunch and tell him to grab his school bag while I wait by the door. He almost forgot his bag a whole week in a row last year, so I've made sure to remind him every day since then.

"Alright! Let's go!" We walk to school, not talking much. We get a few stares from the passerby but I told him to ignore them. As we neared the block the school was on, I stopped him.

"What's wrong? Why're we stopped?"

"Tommy, do you want me to finish the walk with you?" He looked back up at me in confusion.

"Yeah I want you to finish the walk, why're we stopped?"

I sighed, "No, I don't think you understand the question." Why's this got to be so damn hard?

He crossed his arms and glared at me. "Oh, I see. You're asking me if I want to be seen with you or not." Damnit, Tommy.

"I'm just not sure how accepting they'll be, go into school today, tell me how things are, and text me whether or not you think that they'd be okay with me or if I need to pick you up at the corner." I hope he understands what I'm trying to say. "If the worst-case scenario does happen then I don't want you getting bullied because of something that could've been prevented."

"...So today is a trial run, and you'll pick me up as normal if the worst-case scenario doesn't happen?" He's skeptical but he understands so I guess I can't really ask for a better response.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. If everything turns out normal then we're good but this is a different school and sometimes it's ok to be a little extra cautious." He stares at me for a few more seconds before turning away and fixing his backpack.

"...Fine. But if I text you the coast is clear you BETTER be there to walk me home. Agreed?" I let out a sigh of relief as he stared at me over his shoulder.

"Agreed, now have a good day of school, Tomathy." I let out a chuckle at his alias.

He smirked at me and responded, "You too, Cindy!" And with that, he ran laughing while I stood there gaping like a fish at the nickname my coworkers gave me. How did he find out?

"Jerald is so getting it today."

Authors note:

ALRIGHT!!!! FIRST CHAPTER IS DONE!!!!! I do have a plan for the overall plot and now that we're in summer I have time to actually write! I will try not to lose motivation with this and I'm hoping that I'll finally finish a story now that I'm planning to actually post a chapter. Do reply to this if you get worried about the next chapter because I will see them and I think it may help me to keep writing knowing that some people actually care. I'm looking forward to the next chapters and I've got a wonderful plan for this story just wait! Signing off,

—Author :>