With Love, Elena

11

It was almost night by the time Charles made it back to his house. Driving had been a near impossible task because he was exhausted. Physically exhausted.

As soon as he slumped on his bed, a knock came on his door and he had to get up to answer. Standing at the door were his parents who looked ready to go out for the night.

His father stared at him in surprise. "Charlie, it's 6:00. You were supposed to be ready ages ago?"

Charles stared in confusion at his parents. "Ready for what?"

"For your brother's welcome dinner!"

"Go on and get ready! And what happened to your nose." His mother pushed him into the house and some time later, he was all dressed and groomed, hair gelled and jaw smooth as a baby's bum.

The restaurant they were dining at was the classiest most expensive joint in town and Charles stared at the small crowd that had been invited to welcome his twin brother, Thomas from his adventurous life abroad for the last five years. Charles would definitely be the least pleased person to see him and his parents knew that.

Because he and Thomas had had a very bad fallout before Thomas left, leaving Charles to pick up the pieces of the business venture which Tommy had left ransacked and unsalvageable. All of Charles' hard earned investment had gone down the drain and instead of Thomas accepting his faults and helping rebuild, the ass had run.

And now he was back. And like the prodigal son, his parents were welcoming him back with open arms.

Charles on the other hand did not feel very forgiving. And he was a little mad because Elena had drained him so he did not have the energy to even be here in the first place.

At the thought of Elena, a smile made its way to his face and he quickly fixed his collar, waiting with his family for Thomas to show up. His mother quickly turned to fix his collar for him because he had bent it slightly towards the back.

Then she smacked the back of his head. "Were you seriously about to miss your brother's arrival because you were out having sex?" she hissed in his ear.

He cleared his throat. He had chosen a high neck shirt because he had been trying to conceal the bruises Elena had left all over his neck as well as his chest. "Can we not talk about this here?" he whispered.

His mother clicked her tongue and then turned to the door and smiled as an exact replica of Charles walked in, dressed in an expensive tailor made suit, his lengthy sandy hair tied in a ponytail. Charles tried not to laugh at the deep tan Thomas had because it made him look like a porcelain doll.

Serves him right, Charles thought bitterly.

People clapped and cheered as the pompous ass made his way over, hugging and kissing his parents before he ended with Charles.

"Charlie!" he exclaimed in faux excitement.

Charles simply gave him a nod in acknowledgement then he turned away and made his way to his seat, dreading the night before it had even begun.

.

By the time dinner was served, Charles wanted to rip his head off so that he wouldn't listen to anymore of Thomas's ridiculous stories about how he had ridden on the back of a lion before he shot it in Africa.

"Makes you want to just kill yourself, don't it, Charlie?" someone whispered from his side and as he turned, he saw the bored Osam.

Osam had met Thomas just a few years before he left and those few years, Thomas had made a mockery of Osam, leaving the young man to salvage his reputation in the aftermath.