I wish I had an excuse for the ridiculously delayed chapter. But I don't. In fact...I got nothing. Lol just know that I am very sorry for taking forever!
I just want to say thank you for all the lovely comments I've been receiving and for all the reads and votes! :) You make me smile.
Enjoy!
The next morning proved to be overly quiet when Everett exited his room freshly showered and ready for the day.
Narrowing his eyes, he realized something was off. A specific noise went missing in the last twenty-four hours and it bothered him that he couldn't figure out which noise now ceased to ring out. His brow created a crease in his forehead as it pushed down, confusion spreading.
Giving a shake of his head and walking to the table, Everett asked, "What chair is this?"
Instead of Jesse's voice, like usual, his father answered the question.
Everett's face showed a bit of surprise. As odd as it may have sounded, that had been his and Jesse's thing for the longest time. It was their routine.
"Uhm, thanks," he replied confusedly, walking to reach his seat and plant himself in it.
Picking up his spoon, Everett shoveled some cereal onto it and shoved it in his mouth, washing it down with some orange juice.
Then it hit him.
The missing noise.
"Where's Jesse?"
He knew something sounded off when he entered the kitchen and he finally figured out what went missing on him.
Jesse wasn't in there slurping on his cereal and making strange eating noises with every second that passed by. So where did he go?
"He left for school a little early. He said something about meeting up with Lizzie," his mom answered, the clanking of pans ringing out and the door to the dishwasher being opened.
Everett felt his shoulders slightly slump and his forehead crinkled with thought.
"But don't worry, sweetheart. I have Cole all dressed and we'll take you to school."
She sounded pretty excited that Everett and her would have somewhat one on one time. But Everett couldn't muster the happiness alongside her. His mother sat down at the table with him, a dull thud telling him that her coffee sat there as well, and she began telling him about her plans for the day.
His mother had no problem just jabbering on about things, even though most of the time Everett wasn't listening. Now was one of those times, but this time, Everett didn't ignore her because he didn't care. This time, he just had his mind focused on the rift he had caused with his brother.
For the first time in his life, Everett stood on the other side of the fence. Unlike how he normally shut everyone else out, now Jesse shut him out. In the back of his mind, Everett tried to remember any time that his younger brother completely blanked him out.
No such time came to the forefront.
Everett couldn't say that he really liked the feeling. In fact, he hated it in every way possible.
But, because he had a stubborn streak, he would never say it out loud. He would just think it a lot.
As breakfast came to a close, Everett stood, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders before stalking out of the home and following his mother out of the house to her mini-van she prized. Everett took the front passenger seat as his mother began strapping in Cole, the two of them exchanging noises and gibberish to each other.
The ride to school felt different. Instead of a roaring engine fill with power, the air in the car filled up with a dulled whirring. Everett thought it sounded like an over-exerted weed eater and he didn't like it one bit.
A creature of habit, Everett had gotten so used to listening to loud noises every morning that now it seemed his entire day would be thrown off because these details were missing.
The mini-van finally stopped and Everett assumed that since the gears were softly changed,, they were parked outside of his school.
With a sigh, Everett grabbed his bag from the floorboard and fumbled for the handle.
"Everything is different in this car," he mumbled to himself, a hint of frustration leaking in.
A hand on his shoulder stopped his movements.
"Everett, sweetie. Did you and Jesse have a bit of a falling out?" his mother asked, concern lacing her words. "You two have always rode to school together. When he told me he was leaving early today, I knew something had to be up. You can tell me. You know that right?"
Everett sighed a little, his head dropping. He mentally debated telling her or not and decided on a bit of half truth. "I just ... said some things I shouldn't have and I'm paying the price, is all. We'll get over it," he replied, mentally adding on, Hopefully.
The hand moved and Everett took that as his signal to go ahead and leave the car. With a gurgling goodbye from Cole and his mother wishing him a good day, Everett slammed the car door shut and stuck his cane out in front of him, lightly swishing it back and forth to look for the first marker into the school. When he finally hit it, he nodded slightly and pushed forward.
"Hey, Everett. How's it going?"
The voice of a boy Everett recognized as Zach came up next to him. He volunteered as a helper sometimes, but he and Everett rarely crossed paths.
Everett shook his head and replied, "Nothing much."
Words currently failed him and he didn't want to even attempt conversation, not that he ever did. His mind ran a million miles an hour, attempting to think of ways to fix what happened with his brother.
The answer, of course, was obvious. Apologize.
But Everett wanted an easier solution, one that didn't involve him being in the wrong. He wanted a band-aid fix rather than stitches.
"So, Charlie isn't here today. He called in sick, but asked me to help you out. Even gave me a heads up that if I attempt to coddle you or hold your elbow or anything like that, I'd go home with a broken nose," the boy joked as the two began walking into the building.
Everett merely nodded in response, following the sound of Zach's voice and footsteps into the building. Zach chattered on about nothing in particular and Everett just nodded every so often, not really keeping track of the conversation.
"Here you go, man. I'll catch you after class," Zach said, waiting until Everett actually entered the classroom before taking off into another direction.
Everett found his seat and pulled out his tape recorder, setting it out on the table for his notes before leaning down and resting his head on his arms. It mentally drained him to be in an argument with Jesse. They had their fair share of disagreements in the past, but this was probably the most intense and he just wanted it to be over with already.
For the entirety of the day, Everett found it hard to focus. He tried to listen to what teachers were saying and tried to keep his attention aimed towards their words, but he failed repeatedly.
This argument with Jesse needed to end.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Everett and his mother entered the home after she picked him up from school, with Everett setting his bag down in the chair before making his way to the fridge for something to drink.
Cole had fallen asleep on the way home, making his mother quite happy. After laying the little boy down in his bed, she told Everett she would be taking a bath and his father should be home soon. He only nodded his acknowledgement before taking his newly opened soda into the other room and flinging himself down on the couch.
He closed his eyes and savored the silence engulfing the room, taking small sips of his drink to relax him. After a few moments, the back door opened and a familiar voice filled the home.
"I won't be back for dinner, Dad. Can you pass that along to mom for me?"
Everett heard Jesse speaking in the kitchen and quickly stood, making his way in.
The conversation that previously filled the air shut down, making Everett sigh heavily.
"Jesse, come on. How long are you going to ignore me?" he asked, finding his way to the counter and leaning on it.
Jesse made some sort of a noise and Everett heard him walking around. "Until you realize why you were wrong to do what you did."
Rolling his eyes, Everett shook his head and just turned away to leave the room. He didn't want to listen anymore. Things were shifting in his life and the best thing he could do at the moment was just walk away and black out the world.
After all, that seemed to be his hidden talent. Hiding from the world and tuning out the things that he didn't like. And right now, he had no intention of listening to Jesse babble about how wrong Everett was. His previous feelings rushed back to him, making him clench his fists. So what if he had a problem with Lizzie? Everyone was different and he shouldn't have to get along with everybody that crossed his path. So what if he told a little white lie to get her off his back?
Why did Jesse insist on being a brat about it when it didn't even work?
Grumbling, Everett just slumped into a seat, crossing his arms stubbornly as he heard the back door close, signaling Jesse's departure.
At that moment, it felt like everything in the world was against Everett.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dinner felt way too quiet on Everett's ears. Sure, the normal muted chatter of his parents filled the table, along with the random noises Cole decided to make every so often.
In other words, it was absolutely awful. Everett missed the chatter of Jesse as he listed off the new car parts he purchased for his Mustang and how shiny they were thanks to his amazing skills with brake clean and a rag.
He wanted to listen to Jesse rant on about his day because in reality, the conversation between his parents bored him to no end. Endless words about trivial matters at work or the normal report about whatever Cole did that day.
Overall, he nearly leaped for joy when dinner ended. After helping clear the table (usually Jesse helped), Everett grabbed something to drink and left the room, eager to be alone with his thoughts. Between the pity he could feel his mother passing him concerning the argument between him and Jesse and the boring topics of discussion, Everett just wanted to pop in a DVD and chill.
Finding the case for Firefly, he picked up the first disc in the case and slipped it in the case, hitting the play button before standing, grabbing the remote and heading to his chair.
Listening to the opening lines of the first episode, Everett slumped down into the recliner in his corner of the living room, pulling his legs up into the chair and unlocking the footrest. In the back of his mind, the words that Jesse spat at him the previous day repeated over and over, like a skipping CD. He felt pretty bad about everything that took place, something that hadn't happened in a while. Everett had a habit of not taking the feelings of others into consideration.
Seemed as though Lizzie's entrance into his life was bringing more changes than he cared for.
For what seemed to be the very first time, Everett let himself think about what his brother had given up as well. For once, Everett's mind didn't focus solely on himself; his family came into play and he thought about what they might be feeling as well.
When Everett thought of his disability, he only thought of the way it affected him. After all, he suffered the brunt of it.
But he never gave himself time to think of what this did to the rest of his family. Tuning out the rest of the world and trying to think of the situation from a neutral viewpoint, Everett began to list off the things his family did for him.
His mother had given up a career. Sure, she worked from home and with Cole around, the blame didn't fall entirely on him. But her dreams had been pushed to the back burner indefinitely. Dropping her life to take care of her suddenly disabled son had to be tough. Of course, Everett knew that she would do it again if need be, but it couldn't have been fun for her.
Gulping, he moved onto Jesse. This one took a little more thought and Everett had to think outside the box. How many nights had Jesse stayed back when he spoke of something his friends were doing just so he could keep Everett company when they were little?
How many times did he have to miss something because Everett needed some sort of help growing up? How many times did he reject sleepover options in favor of having sleepovers with Everett in tents they built in the living room? Jesse never had people over and stayed home most of the time, taking over caring for Everett when his parents had to leave for one reason or another.
In most ways, Jesse had to grow up before he should have just because Everett needed help.
Sighing, Everett buried his head in his hands. It felt like life just got a whole lot more complicated than it needed to be.
Scraping his brain for all the answers he needed, Everett began asking himself questions about his thoughts and actions leading up to his deceit.
What was it exactly that made Lizzie crawl under his skin? The only reason he could think of ran alongside her being an artist. But suddenly, that reason alone didn't seem like enough. After all, his brother had artistic talent and Everett didn't get annoyed in the same way.
Her abruptness could be interpreted as annoying, but Everett knew she meant well. Unfortunately for him, all the signs pointed in the same direction.
He made a mistake. A big one.
"Looks like I just have to push aside my dislike for the girl," he mumbled, flopping backwards in the chair.
Everett knew that after all his family and his brother specifically had done for him, he could do this for Jesse. He would swallow his pride and the annoyance he felt and try to be a little nicer to Lizzie.
For Jesse and for everything that kid had done for him.
Nodding his head, Everett exhaled loudly.
Now all he had to do was apologize.
And Everett knew that would be the hard part.
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