My Brothers Keeper

Part 1: welcome to our sad life

above: Keenan Kimpton, age 17

It all started in the summer. I think that was the first time I really knew. We were vacationing at our summer lake house on the shore of Lake Ale. Usually it was the whole family but this year Kassie my older brother was at college so it was just me, mom, dad, my little brother Kyle and our incredibly lazy dog Kimpy. His full name is Kimpton, the third in his line, the first Kimpton belonged to my great grandfather and through the years the dogs have been passed down to the oldest son in the family, which in this case was my dad. I'm not entirely sure but I think these dogs are what are behind the K thing. What K thing? Oh don't tell me you haven't noticed. Everyone in our family's name starts with a K. Apparently its tradition. Except for mom, she was lucky enough not to be born into this mess. She has a lovely name, Jasmine, like her favorite flower. Mine too, back home we have a batch of jasmine right on our front porch, walking through the door and smelling them has become more of a tradition to me. My dad's name is Kennedy. Kennedy Kimpton, ooh I didn't mention it? My bad, the dog's name is also our last name. I get the most expressive look of sarcasm every time I have to mention this to someone.

Which brings us round to me, my name is Keenan. I'm 18 years old. A senior at New Orleans high and instead of enjoying my last summer vacation in the city getting up to some good times with my friends, I'm here in the middle of nowhere with my dysfunctional family. The only thing that's making this trip bearable is my sweet little brother Kyle. Well not so little, it's just that I'm so over protective over him, in my eyes he will always be my little brother. He's actually only two years younger than me, a sophomore at the same school so I get to see him every day and watch over him.

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I'm not crazy over protective for nothing by the way, he used to get bullied so much growing up because he was gay and I had to do something. The two years we spent apart in different schools was the worst. When I finished middle school and went to highs school, I had to leave him there, all alone with no big brother to protect him. The kids were so mean to him, one day he told dad that he wanted to take some boxing classes to learn how to defend himself and dad agreed to pay for them. It wasn't long after he got really good at it, started fighting back and the other kids quit picking on him. He developed quite a liking for boxing and kept to it. By the time he came to join me in high school, he was all ripped and didn't even need me to protect him anymore.

Something weird happened. The shy scrawny 12 year old kid who used to get picked on because he was gay was no more. My little brother had transformed into this firm, friendly, social, ripped pretty boy and he soon became very popular. Nobody cared that he was gay, in fact girls still threw themselves at him knowing very well he didn't play for their team. The boys had respect and admiration for him because he was the best boxer in school and in his freshman year he lead the school boxing team to winning the nationals. He inspired a few more kids to come out and soon our high school was an all accepting, very tolerant school. Even though he was just a sophomore, his social status had sky rocketed to one of the top popular and influential kids in school. I got a say, I admired him too. Through all this, he remained a humble and bubbly soul and discouraged mean kids. That was my favourite thing about him, no matter how popular he got, he always just remained my sweet little brother.

I on the other hand was captain of the football team. I guess you could say sports ran in our blood, we were both over achievers in our respectful fields. I was not as ripped as Kyle but I was significantly taller. I had built up muscle over the football practice but it was mostly just to firm and tone my body unlike Kyle. Kyle was not really that buff, just had extinguished biceps and an eight pack with the most adorable V line. I love his body, sometimes I zone out by the lake and just stare at it while he's sun bathing. I know you might be thinking that hes my brother and that's not right but nothing inappropriate I swear, like I said, I admire the guy.