The Doyen

Chapter Twelve

7 years ago..

TEN YEAR OLD Nile Cadsmith sat by his bed, holding up an origami frog that he had managed to make before dinnertime. Usually, his older brother Ryan would help him with his origami–it was their odd way of bonding as brothers. Nile loved that Ryan shared this particular interest with him, but the young boy was unaware of the fact that Ryan had only been making origami with his little brother to keep him happy.

Missing the presence of his older brother, Nile got up and stalked over to his room. He stepped over the sprawled different colours of paper littering his bedroom floor and closed his door firmly behind him. As he pushed the door open to his brother's room without knocking, his breath hitched.

Sat at his desk was Ryan Cadsmith, pulling and yanking at his hair as he quietly murmured what he was currently trying to memorize.

Nile hesitantly moved towards his brother. "What's wrong?" He asked, hiding the origami frog behind his back.

Ryan jerked at his little brothers'  voice, thrashing an arm toward a bottle of pills on his desk and shoving them inside his drawer. He stared at his little brother with red, wide eyes, and flashed him a painful smile.

"I'm just doing math." He told his little brother. "Don't worry about it."

Nile eyed the drawer in his brother's desk. I've never seen those pills before..

Ryan closed his eyes for a second, before opening them once again to glance at his little brother. "What is it that you need, Nile?"

Nile flinched at his tone. He had always known his brother to be playful. But right now, Nile felt like a nuisance. He slowly brought out the origami frog he had folded earlier and placed it on his desk.

"Do you want to make origami with me?"

"What?"

"Uhm.." He said quieter. "Origami.."

A disappointed sigh could be heard beside the door, and Nile snatched the paper frog as he quickly turned around to be met with the sight of his mother.

"Paper animals, Nile? Really?" His mother complained. "You should be studying harder like your brother! Don't you know you're too old for things like that?"

Nile hid the origami frog behind his back once again. "I don't do it all the time! Just once in a while for fun mama..."

"Exactly." She sneered. "You're too old for fun."

Nile frowned at his mother's words. He couldn't have known that those few words would resonate in his mind years after they had been said, but they did.