Life with Three Brothers

Chapter 7

"Why do you hate me?" I asked after a couple minutes.
"Let's not have this conversation over dinner, okay?" Maverick sighed.
"I don't care. This dinner is already ruined from our previous conversation. Now answer the question." I replied.
"We don't hate you. You're just a little brat that needs to be put in his place." Maverick said.
"I'm not a brat. Stop calling me that. My name is Uriah." I replied.
"I'm aware of what your name is. And you are a brat." Maverick said.
"I am not." I retorted.

"Yes you are. You always get everything handed to you and you never get into shit for anything that you do." Maverick told me.
"That's because I'm the youngest. That's what you do with the youngest child. You coddle them and believe they could do no wrong. If I wasn't born, Ellis would have been the youngest and they would have treated him the same way they treated me. And since I've been here, I have not gotten into any trouble at all. I never even got in any trouble when mom and dad were alive, either. I'm not like you guys. I don't start shit. I got chased to our house by the older kids everyday after school. I got my ass kicked so many times and nobody was there to help me. You guys were all here not giving a damn about anybody but yourselves!" I exclaimed with tears streaming down my face.
They sighed and I ran to my room.

I kept crying for a couple minutes while laying on my bed and then calmed down.
"Can I come in?" Maverick asked while knocking on the door.
I didn't say anything and he opened the door.
"Why didn't you tell mom and dad?" He asked.
"Because it's embarrassing to tell your parents that you're getting your ass kicked on the daily, okay?! And telling them would have made it worse." I answered.
Maverick walked over to my bed and stood by it.
He sat down on my bed and he said "It would have stopped if you told them."
"No it wouldn't have. You don't know anything about what happened. People like you don't get bullied, they're the ones that are the bullies." I huffed.
"That's a good point. I'm sorry for what I said. Not just about the bullies, but about everything." He apologized.
"I'm not accepting your apology, or declining it right now." I said.
He nodded and looked down at the floor.

"How long were you planning to stay here?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Maverick answered.
"Stay here and never go see mom or dad or me ever again?" I asked.
"We were planning on surprising them for Christmas this year, but we didn't get the chance to. We talked to them on the phone a lot, though." Maverick answered.
"And you never bothered to talk to me?" I questioned.
"Well you were always in bed or I would hear you whining for whoever we were on the phone with to give you attention." He replied.
"Well that's what ten year olds do." I said.
"You weren't ten when I left." He replied.
"You're right. I was nine. I hadn't turned ten yet when you left. But when Ellis and Jonas left I was ten. I thought you guys were coming back for holidays like you said you would. But you never did. Do you know how much it sucked to come home to an empty house and be alone in it for three hours until our parents came home? It sucked." I told him.

He sighed and didn't say anything.
"You never called us either on our birthdays." He pointed out.
"I did. But you guys were always out celebrating whosever birthday it was, so you would never answer and mom wouldn't let me leave a voicemail." I said.
"Oh." He replied.
"The cuts on your arms weren't from the accident, were they?" He said.
I shook my head and he sighed "You could have told someone. You could have called us. You could have told our parents."
"No I couldn't have. Mom would just get way too protective and she'd make sure I was never alone. I tried calling you guys. You never answered." I said.

He looked down and sighed.
"I'm sorry we've been such shitty brothers to you. The only opinions that we had of you were from three or four years ago. We thought you'd still be a brat that gets away with everything." He told me.
"You're still a brat though." He smirked.
I rolled my eyes at him and he laughed.