Branch didn't say anything more after that, deciding not to explain what happened to their grandmother, he didn't want to add on one thing after another. He had already been able to move forward and come to terms with the situation with Rosiepuff, he didn't need to deal with that pain all over again, especially with what was going on now.
And lucky for him, John decided he'd ask more about that later and just got back to the main point.
"I.. Branch, it was wrong, all of it was, I know. I.. I didn't realize that it'd hurt you so much, none of us did. The last thing we ever wanted to do was hurt you."
"Was it not supposed to hurt me?"
"No that's not what I mea-"
"I looked up to you guys, all of you. Not just as a band member, but as your little brother. You all cared and loved each other until you started not to. And you all settled that dispute by leaving.. by leaving me."
"None of it was about you Branch.. none of it, you gotta understand that it was just a decision between u-"
"Who cares?! That's my whole point, I couldn't have known that! But you all still just left me behind like as if it was about me! For so long I waited and waited for you to hopefully come back or at least reach out, but then I just gave up and just assumed none of you cared about me anymore!"
"We never stopped caring!"
"Well congratulations, you've all done a pretty bad job of showing that."
It was John's turn to snap now.
"Gee Branch, what do you want me to do huh?! Create a time machine so we can go back to the past and change everything?! Well I got some bad news for you little brotha, we don't have that kind of technology!"
"I'm not sayi-"
"You know what Branch," John interrupted, "with how much you're claiming that you were upset about us leaving you, you sure are being really ungrateful right now. Why can't you just be happy that I'm here, and that I set up this whole trip for us to go find our brothers so that things can go back to normal?"
Branch didn't say anything for a bit, but before he did begin to say something, what first came out was a little chuckle.
The short few seconds of silence allowed John to rethink his own words as he began to regret saying what he said.
"Branch, I.. I didn't mean-"
"No, no you did mean it, and it's okay. But to answer your question.. it's because that's not how it works, John."
He proceeds to point to himself.
"All this? All this trauma? I can move on from it, but it will never go away, and everything about this argument just proves my point. Nothing will ever be normal again. You can't.. you can't just flick a switch and except things to go back the way they were right after, the damage has already been done. You don't seem to be understanding that very well, and you probably never will."
Branch slowly turned around, his back facing John.
"But hey.. at least you're not the one who had to deal with the pain and sorrow for so long, right?"
A comforting talk
Start from the beginning
