Spread My Wings (Fruits Basket)

Lies

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!" the boy called out, running up to his sister. The girl laughed and gathered him up in her arms, spinning around and around until they collapsed on the hard wood floor of their living room, laughing breathlessly.

"We'll always be together, won't we, nee-chan?" he whispered, resting his head on her chest.

"Always," she promised, squeezing his hand.

Suddenly, the warm glow of their sunlit house disappeared, clouded by a swirl of purple  His eyes began to glow a fiery red. "But you broke your promise, didn't you, nee-chan? I'm gone, and I always will be gone." 

I jolted awake from the nightmare in a cold sweat, heart pounding, pulse racing. Glowering at my blaring alarm clock, I let out a groan, slamming a hand down to silence the damn thing.

Cocooning myself back into the covers, I squeezed my eyes shut, enjoying my last moments of peace and quiet, basking in the warm sunlight that pooled through my window. Another stupid summer come and gone, it seemed. And with that, another stupid school filled with yet more blockheads. Why couldn't my stepfather's job just stay in one place? It would make thing a hell of a lot easier for me.

"Hey, Sukochi! You have to wake up now," my thirteen year-old stepsister Kiyomi whined, flinging the door open. Her chestnut hair was damp, the scent of her sickly sweet watermelon shampoo filling the room. So much for privacy.

I scowled at her, running my fingers through my tangled bedhead. "Oh, fuck off."

"God, nee-chan, why do you always have to be so mean to me?"

Those two little words were always a kick to the gut.

Grow the fuck up, Sukochi.

"Don't call me that!" I snarled.

Because the only one that had been allowed to call me that was Daichi.

And now...no one could have that privilege ever again.

"Mom and Dad want you down for breakfast," Kiyomi said meekly. "Sorry for bothering you." Shuffling away, she closed the door behind her; I could hear her thundering footsteps all the way down the stairs.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I grumbled, smacking a hand to my forehead.

I hated this. I hated this so much. Hated how everyone treated me like a bomb about to go off.

Why did I always have to feel so stupid? Like I was the one who did everything wrong?

Because when Daichi died, so did a part of me. I holed myself up in my room and banged on the shower walls and prayed to some God that would never listen. Soon enough, our family business went bankrupt, and I got to watch as my life shattered into a million pieces, my parents' marriage along with it.

They fought and fought, and somehow, Daichi's death always got dragged in. As if that was anyone's fault. As if we could have stopped that drunk driver from ramming into him and dad on that icy road.

I broke my promise to Daichi. I couldn't protect him. He was nothing but good and I was nothing but bad, but then he went ahead and died and I didn't. Why did I get to live, anyways? Why me, and not my perfect brother?

He would have gone on living. He would have made sure everything was okay. He would move on if I was gone.

I really was pathetic.

Everything in my life was just stupid. Candy-coated. Fake.

And today, I was going to yet another high school. The birthplace of all things stupid and fake.