above all (m×m) ✔

22) castles in the air

"I would never do something like that to you. I hate that asshole just as much as you do, remember?" Shirley's voice shook with barely restrained fury. She huffed and dropped her hands only to throw them in the air. It took Brandon a while for her words to sink in, as he was too engrossed with her anger. 

"I know that." Brandon breathed, then averted his gaze. "It was just that.. No one else, but you and Ash know about him and.. Wait, it wasn't from you?"

"No." Shirley hissed. "Never."

Brandon clutched his arms around his chest, sinking his fingertip into the flesh of his arms. He breathed in, out, in, out, until white spots danced in his vision. Could he have brought the picture himself and somehow forgotten all about it? He had blanks in his memory, so much so that what he could recall from his days was like a goddamn Swiss Cheese. Was he going mad? Had he imagined it all? Or had someone been in his house?

"Brandon.." Shirley stepped forward, placing a hand over Brandon's. The touch felt scorching on Brandon's skin and he fought against the urge to cringe from her. "You need help."

"I'm fine." Brandon insisted, mustering up all his defiance to glare at his sister.

"No, you're really not." Steven whispered, his face etched with a bundle of emotions: worry, guilt, affection, sorrow. Brandon couldn't bear it, so he shook his head and slumped to the couch.

"I love you to pieces and I won't.." Shirley's voice cracked, and Brandon had never heard it sounding so small. He could feel the couch sagging on his side and he lifted his head to look at Shirley. She went on: "I won't let you get hurt like you did last time, I should have been there to stop Tre—"

"Our dad.." Brandon hastily cut her short, then cleared his throat. He didn't want to talk about his dad, but if the alternative was to talk about Trey.. He had planned on telling Steven more about his father soon anyway. "He had this idea that he had the right to judge others when he became sober. He basically had to raise us when our mom failed to do so. He loathed her because she was an alcoholic."

Steven stood by the wall, leaning on it while his serious, intent gaze was fixed on Brandon. Like he was soaking in every detail, hungry for the knowledge it would give him about Brandon. If he had been drunk that evening, he didn't seem that way then. His eyes were clear and his movements unwavering. Despite his earlier nonchalance, he seemed completely alert then.

"A drink once in a while would have done wonders to him, seriously." Shirley pointed out. Brandon could see from her expression that she knew exactly how Brandon had brought their dad up just to avoid talking about Trey. "He was an uptight, arrogant asshole who thought he was, oh, so much better than everyone else."

Lucas was an idealist and a patriot, and his dreams of a perfect family culminated by those qualities. He was also a passionate hunter, and he tried to drag Brandon with him every time he went to the woods. Brandon, who shivered from the mere thought of shooting and skinning an animal, usually hid in the bathroom until his dad finally got the hint and stopped pestering him to come with.

"It wasn't just alcoholism he despised. He hated that I liked to draw instead of playing baseball and that Shirley didn't like to play with dolls 'like every girl should'." Brandon explained. 

A smile tucked up the corners of his mouth despite everything, as he remembered Shirley's dinosaur phase. She had this one tattered plushie called Mr. Rex, which she dragged around wherever she went. When it went missing, she didn't stop crying until Brandon gave her his equally decrepit action figure. That was the beginning of her Spider-Man phase.

"Later, I had this phase when I was into alternative clothing and.." Brandon shook his head, shivering. "He broke my arm, and the social service almost took us away, but he sweet-talked his way out of it. But he knew how to be nice too. He'd sneak us in drive-in theaters and buy us sweets. Until someone, meaning me, did something to piss him off."