I'm Better Off (BxB)

Prologue

"Nathan! Give me the fucking money!" My mother growls at me, her pupils are dilated and her eyes are bloodshot. I look down at her shaking hands. Her skin has a purple tint and she smells of smoke and alcohol. The strong scent of whiskey is oozing from her breath. I step back a few steps and glance back at my mother's eyes. She stares at me. "NATHAN!" My mother screams once more. I look back up to her and hesitantly hand over the fifty dollar bill from my wallet. Hannah, my mother, snatches it and walks out into the night towards Zed's car that has been parked there for the last fifteen minutes. I cup my face in my hands and gradually slide down the wall behind me. I am fueling her death. Zed was one of the many men Hannah spent her evenings with. Nathan would lay in bed for hours listening to the ongoing hysterics coming from next door, a sound Nathan was very familiar with. Then Nathan would wait till the staggering, old man left and headed towards the kitchen and get a shot of whiskey for his mother. Nathan had many scars to remind him that it was better to obey rather than not. Sometimes Grayson would be home, yet he wasn't a help as he would just sit there on the torn, leather couch and watch his blood run down his arms. Life had been like this ever since Nathan was a child. An endless routine that his money made possible. His mother would get addicted to another new drug, please the countless 50-year-olds, receive her paycheck then spend it on more drugs, leaving it up to her sixteen-year-old son to deal with the rest of the expenses. Nathan earned just enough to pay rent on the bare house they lived in and food for the week. He also, when payed a little extra, was able to put it towards his school fees and Grayson's antidepressants. His father would occasionally send them money, however, that was becoming less frequent as the years passed. Nathan didn't mind though, this was life for him and he knew better than to think things would change. He wouldn't leave either, not because of his mother... he hated that woman, but because of his older brother. Grayson had become reliant on Nathan. It wasn't always like that. Grayson used to protect Nathan. He taught him how to fend for himself, how to read, how to control their mother... when she could be controlled that is. Their mother broke Grayson. Nathan never knew how but one day Grayson stopped expressing his opinion like he normally would... to the point where he stopped talking at all.

Nathan sat there on the aged wooden floor facing the fact that his mother, yet again, was out there drowning her lungs in smoke. With the use of his money. Nathan sighed and stared at the blank wall, sitting on the ground, arms crossed. He sat there thinking of his mother. He sat there thinking of Grayson. He sat there thinking of his father. Not once did he think of himself.

He sat there a while.