Falling For An Inmate

Chapter 10: Creating a rebel

CHAPTER 10

Arya Crawford

To the outside world, we all grow old.

But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other when we are born. We share knowledge of each other when we are six or twenty or fifty. We live outside the touch of time.

Once, my mother told me that a brother is a friend given by Nature.

She told me this when I was five and my brother was thirteen. We had just had a massive fight over what to watch on TV. When he wouldn't let me watch Tom & Jerry and insisted on watching Transformers, I told my mother that I hated him and that he was the worst brother ever. She had chuckled and dried my tears, informing me that in the long run he would be my favourite person and that Nature had really blessed me. I disagreed with her but kept quiet about it.

Today, at eighteen years of age, I still disagree with her. What was Nature thinking, giving me Aaron? Why would Nature do something like that?

We definitely did live outside the touch of time because for someone who was physically twenty-six years old, he was acting like a complete child.

The grandfather clock in my living room showed a scolding 3.23am in the morning. Aaron and I were seated on the couch, staring at the TV screen with intense concentration.

"Goal!" I whisper-yelled so as to not wake my parents.

If my parents woke up, we were gonna get into a load of shit.

The rectangular coffee table placed in front of the couch we were sitting on was a mess. There were two large plastic bowls of chips and popcorn. There were less snacks in the bowls and more on the table, the floor and...the couch. There were empty cans of Coke and mugs of coffee occupying the remaining space.

Yes, if my mother saw the mess, we were definitely getting our asses handed to us.

"Shit" Aaron muttered.

I smirked and began some classic commentary.

"With only 15 seconds left on the clock, will Aaron be able to get a goal and equal the score or lose to Arya and forever remain a loser for the rest of his life."

Aaron grunted and started pounding his thumbs on the gaming console so hard, I was sure we'd have to buy a new one by the time this was over.

I focused my attention on the screen again to try to score another goal before time ran out.

And here's why I was complaining about my brother.

I was so close to scoring another goal. So close. And just as I was about to, with 5 seconds on the clock, Aaron started to pull on my gaming console and push my fingers away so I couldn't shoot.

We were having a tug of war with my gaming console and being physically superior, he won. He yanked it out of my hands right before the time ended.

"Aaron, you cheater!"

"Huh?" He looked at me innocently.

Innocent my ass.

"Don't even try to play dumb with me. I still won though." I stuck my tongue out at him.

In my defence, I was younger than him so I was allowed to act childish.

"No way, I want a rematch. You had the better console."

"Ohmygod, Aaron. I refuse to believe you're twenty-six. You are such a sour loser! I won fair and square. I am the FIFA champion."

He got off the couch like it burnt his ass or something and swiped the plastic silver trophy sitting on top of the TV.