The Resistance

Chapter 50

{Jahmir}

As I was about to go into the living room, I couldn't help but notice how much fun everyone was having. Eric was at the front of the room, and from the sounds of it, he was telling them about his college experiences. They were all laughing and commenting about it.

I walked over to pops and tried to tell him something, but he shooed me away. I guess he was just all into the story.

True enough, I could have just sat and joined everyone, but I chose not to. There's always school work I could catch up on, so once I found my laptop, I went to the patio to work on it.

My focus wavered multiple times as my eyes got heavy. I'd been up since four this morning and it's now almost eight at night.

I attempted to do a few more things, then I just gave up.

Not even thirty minutes into my nap, a noise woke me up. I instantly sat up and made eye contact with Victoria. She had a blanket in her hand.

"Oh umm, sorry if I woke you up. You looked cold." She gave me the blanket, awkwardly looking at the ground. "Didn't want you to be cold." She mumbled.

"It's okay."

I expected her to go back inside with everyone else, but she just kept standing there staring at the ground. It was kind of odd to see her act this way.

"Umm, want to sit down?"

She sat beside me and I spread the blanket out over our legs. What she did next wasn't anything I expected: she started crying.

"What's wrong Vic?" I asked as I put my arm around her.

She hugged me and just continued to shed tears. Coming from someone who I've never seen cry, this came as a surprise to me.

"I've been a horrible big sister."

"I wouldn't say that. Jackson adores you."

He really does. I watched how they were interacting at dinner. He didn't really want to talk to anyone else, but he was enthusiastic while speaking to her. They were laughing and  being silly together. They showed me what it was like to have a good relationship with your sibling. I can tell she's a really good big sister.

Jackson. That boy has grown so much! The last time I seen him, he was ten months old. I just remember being so proud to be a big brother. I was working on what I thought would have been the perfect first birthday gift for him. Valorie would take pictures of him each month. She would hang them up in his nursery. I would sit in there for hours with him. Just talking to him and playing with my toys. One day, I got the idea to draw them in a sketch book. On his birthday, I would have a 'picture book' to give him of the first year of his life. Aside the pictures, I would write what I thought was different or cool about him every month. Honestly spending time with him was some of my favorite memories.

Now at fourteen, he hates me. It's nothing I've assumed, it's what I know. After dinner, I tried to talk to him. He spazed out on me, telling me that I may as well have never existed. He told me all these hateful things about me, that I'm pretty sure Valorie probably brainwashed him with. The embarrassing part is that everyone was around when he was saying these things. Pops tried to talk to him, but at that time, he ran into a room and locked himself in it. Like Valorie really painted a picture of me as a fucking devil or something.