Brother.

Chapter I

Where were you?

What did I tell you about going out on a school night?

Danny, answer me!

Why are you going to bed, you have school in an hour!

"School will be there tomorrow, get off my case!" The slamming of his bedroom door came from upstairs and I glanced up at the ceiling where the chaos went on above me. A few minutes later, Mum returned looking beyond stressed.

"Mum, he-"

"Don't Sarah." She put her coffee cup in the sink and walked out, still talking as if I was following her. "I'll be home before you today, we're having dinner as a family. Make sure he is here!"

He was Danny and family dinners never ended well. Dad would yell, Mum would get upset, Danny ended up storming out and I was the one left doing the dishes. Apart from that, our family wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Dad was an electrician and serviced the majority of the south. Mum worked at a local hotel as head chef, which had her doing long, random shifts, and Danny and I were in our final year of high school.  

We lived comfortably, if not a little modestly two streets back from the ocean. From the outside, our home wasn't overly impressive; just a standard two-storey beach shack in desperate need of a make over, much like what the rest of the street was filled with. If you climbed onto the roof you could see the water or the fireworks when the Spring Festival was on, but my favourite thing about our house was the white picket fence I helped dad put up two summers ago. Mum had planted roses all along it and I couldn't wait to see them in full bloom again.

Half an hour later I headed upstairs, carrying the mug full of coffee as if it was some kind of precious cargo. Stopping in front of  Danny's door, I knocked once before going in. Loud snores greeted me and shaking my head I navigated my way over to the bed, stepping over shoes, clothes and who knows what else that had been thrown all across his floor.

Pushing away empty coke bottles and red bull cans, I sat the coffee on the bedside table and opened the curtains. The snoring stopped, a raspy cough taking it's place as Danny slowly woke up.

"Why do you do this to me?" He groaned, putting the pillow over his head.

"Because I'm your sister and you've scared our mother off to work early." I snapped back, going over to his bed I pulled off the doona that he had wrapped around himself and waited for his attack.

"Fuck. Off. Sarah!" He kicks his legs out reminding me more of a three year old chucking a tantrum than a seventeen year old.

"No. Get your ass in the shower. If you want to sit in Paul's shed smoking pot and I dunno, watching porn all night, fine. But it's Monday and we leave in twenty minutes." I sound like mum now, always nagging him.

"I'm not going to school."

"Yeah, you are!"

The yes, no argument lasts for another five minutes before he gets up and dramatically throws his pillow at me. I catch it, launching it back as he reaches for the coffee.

"I'm not like you, I hate school!" He mumbles, but at least he is up. "All those judgmental fucks."

"I don't exactly love it either Dan. What if you suddenly decide what you want to do next year and it all revolves around you getting to graduation? Exams start in like three weeks, don't ruin your life because like for the majority of teenagers, high school sucks."

"Whatever."

He walks out and thankfully it's to the bathroom. I give him some space and sure enough he comes down freshly showered and in new, clean clothes.