Finding Brii {FTFE Prequel)

Part Three

I thought I was happy-

until I figured out how happy felt

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The most powerful thing she remembers that night is dinner. Her father had sat down last, and as they were served, nobody made a sound. Brii and Ricky exchanged nerves looks over the table, nervously taking small bites of food. The clock sounded like a bomb, and Brii watched silently as it struck 12, and in that instant her father spoke. "How was your guys' day?" he spoke calmly and so casually, like asking his family how their day was the complete norm for him.

Brii could hear her mother breathing steadily from beside her, "Great, yours?" her mother replied sarcastically.

Father let his fork drop onto his plate with a clatter. "I just asked you a question, you don't need to be snide about it."

"I do when your acting like this!" her mother exclaimed, dropping her fork as well.

"I'm trying to fix this, what ever "this" is!" 

"Well, maybe if you put the bottle down and actually spent time with your own kids and I, we wouldn't be broken!"

"Oh, okay, so its my fault?" Her father roared.

Her other was silent for a moment, "Yes. And I am so done with you, your drinking problem, and being our wife." She replied calmly and lowly to him, throwing her napkin onto her plate and storming to her room. Her father immediately got up after her, pure outrage on his face.

Brii almost rolled her eyes, "As if you really have a right to be mad." She thought bitterly.

"Brii-that wasn't very nice, he is you father." Her angel conscious told her. That thought made her stop her fork mid-bite.

Realization hit her-

"No, he's not."

Nobody ate anything after her parents left the table, Ricky toyed with his peas on his plate, and Brii didn't have the heart to tell him to eat them. Rob stared out the window, holding his napkin under his eyes, catching silent tears. Brii sighed and got up, getting smaller containers to put the leftovers in. Halfway through doing this, her mother came back out to the living room. 

"If anyone is coming with me, pack your bags." For a second nobody moved; Brii dropped the container she was holding onto the floor, going to the room she shared with Rick. She took out a bag and started packing. Rick peaked his head into the room, "Sissy, your going right?" Ricky asked fearfully.

"Yes, I am. Do you wanna go or no?" she asked him.

"Yeah!" Ricky exclaimed, "Wait, where are we going?" He suddenly questioned.

Brii shrugged, "I don't know Bug." She told him, using the nick name her mother and her used.

Ricky thought for a minute, "Will you help me pack my bags?

"Of course." She told him, smiling softly and pulling him into a hug. He hugged back tightly before letting go and running to go get his duffle bag. Brii helped him pack and they sat on her bed, waiting for something o happen. A while later their father appeared in their doorway, red faced and bloodshot eyes, but still holding a beer bottle in his left hand. "You guys don't have to go you know." he told them, his eyes unreadable. His voice cracked a bit and Brii almost felt bad for this man, whoever he was.

"This man is the man that pretty much left us. The alcoholic who is so ungrateful that we're even alive that he ignores us. No way in hell I'm, staying here." Brii thought to herself. Ricky looked up at the man who he had constantly been afraid of, the man who was never around, the man he didn't even know.

"Father, we go." He mumbled childishly, even though he was in third grade already.

"I know, but you don't have to go buddy." The man said softly, crouching down to look into Ricky's downcast eyes. Brii cringed at the nick name her father had the nerve to call Ricky.

Ricky shook his head no.

Her father stood back up, blocking the doorway with his figure. He opened his arms, one hand containing the now empty beer bottle. "At least give me a hug before you leave." He commanded.

Brii looked at Ricky, hugging him to her side as they went to hug the unfamiliar man. The hug was odd and seemed more like a punishment more than a loving gesture. It was over within a coupe seconds before Ricky squirmed his way out of the mans grip and ran out of the room. 
"Take good care of him." he told her.

Brii bit back the urge to roll her eyes, instead responding, "Yup." and pushed her way past him. She had done just fine taking care of him so far, hadn't she? She asked herself the question she knew the answer to.

Yes.

Her mother was in the hallway hugging the life out of Rob,  sobbing onto his shoulder. Rob was teary eyed as well, but as the three of them, Mom, Brii, and Ricky, pealed out of the driveway and into the night, Rob stayed with his dad, hiding in his room as his father drank himself into oblivion that night.

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That escalated quickly.....

-Lila