An Obscure Luminosity

Asher: Hey, Brother, Do You Still Believe In One Another?

Warning: There is lots of foul language used in this chapter!

Asher P.O.V

2011

"This is such shit," Grayer groans.

"Stop nagging. They've been like this since we were one," I say as I flip the pages through our homework. As usual, mom and dad are in the living room drinking. As usual, Grayer's pissed off.

"Yea well maybe I'm tired of this," he says.

"You say that every time," I mumble. He turns his face to glare at me which causes my hands to go up in apology. Resent and hatred take their rightful places in the house as Grayer walks out the door. Sadness and regret, their neighbours, follow soon. I groan inwardly as I throw away my homework aside and get ready to go after Grayer, just to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

The odor is almost unbearable. The stench of vomit fills the air mixing with a strong smell of our daily Jack Daniels dose in this household. How are these two even alive? My dad lies asleep on the sofa, half covered in puke, while my mother is walking around mumbling unintelligibly. There's another piece missing out of the sofa today. No food out in the open indicates that they didn't even sober up from last night. We might even starve to death and I wouldn't be surprised.

"Ey brother," Grayer yells. I roll my eyes.

"You see them drinking and you hate it, so you go ahead and do it," I say. He falls onto my father on the sofa. "Logic." I say as I point to my head.

"Try it man, it takes you to a whole new world. They're the parents, these douchebags have to be in control, we have to drink. It's practically law. We're teenagers, stop being such a goody goody Ash, look at our fucked up family and accept the fact that none of us are ever going anywhere in life except maybe jail," he finished off.

"Way to put an optimistic twist on them brother, I love listening to you ramble about our useless futures," I say. He throws a bottle of Jack Daniel's at me but of course I duck and it hits the wall behind me, adding yet anther mark to the alcohol dried art piece. Oh look, there's some blood on there too. Like I said, art piece.

"Get a drink Asher just let loose for once in your life," he says. As I stare at the wall, which is now in front of me, it hits me that he's right. Our parents are the ones that messed up. We tried, well I tried, to fix some of their mistakes but it'll never work. We're just a bunch of stupid teenagers. I have no bright future, neither does he, and with that I pop the lid of the bottle and start gulping.

When I stop drinking only to take a breath, it's like my whole body stops functioning. My hands release the bottle and it shatters on the floor. Maybe we can have another masterpiece on there. My vision is blurry and I feel like the whole world is twirling around and around and around. There's a sudden pang of electricity running through my body. I want more. So I have more because there's no one to stop me.

I don't know how long it's been since I took my first sip, or how many more sips followed but I feel so good. I feel as though I'm so relaxed. For once in my life I'm not the one worrying about everybody.

"How does it feel?" Grayer asks as he throws his arm around my shoulder. I try to punch his shoulder, try being the key word. Thrown in the air with my hand, my body flies down. The floor is getting closer to my face, and the floor is my face. Well damn that hurt.

Grayer lifts me up and throws me on the sofa, which causes me to burst with laughing. I'm sitting on my dead beat father. I poke his face which causes Grayer to start laughing. Sounds of joy echo off the walls of our house, sending the usual aura into dismay. On a normal day, these joyous sounds would be replaced with screaming, insults and cries. My fathers wakes and clearly, he's not happy. He rolls me off of him, causing me to slam my face onto the floor again. It only triggers my laughter.