The Next Chapter: Twisted Series Next Generation

Chapter 44: Maverick Harper

"Shoot me in the head if I'm ever as smitten as you are."

A deep seated chuckle rumbles from my fathers throat, I can practically hear the acceptance and pride he takes in that fact. For the past time that I have been on this call with him, a large majority of the duration has been spent with him rambling on about my mother and whatever else love ridden thoughts plague his mind.

It is like watching a bee fawn over a flower.

"This will bite you back in the ass one day, kid." His low voice retorts, "So get off of your high horse while you're at it."

"You wish." I snicker out, my hand falling into the pocket of my trousers. Being so pathetically hazed by love to the extent my father is genuinely seems like an impossible task.

In his bitter soul, there is a flame that is oxidized by every breath of air my mother takes whenever she is in his vicinity.

Yes they are painstakingly adorable, however when you have dealt with that for eighteen years you most certainly need a breather. I always believed moving out was my chance to get a breath of escape but they have proven me so wrong.

"Everything settling in good?" Stoicalness returns to his voice, reverting it back to his normal tone.

"Smooth sailing."

"Are you adjusting well to living there?"

"Too soon to tell now, it's pretty much a draft in here. Probably because Niko has vanished off to God knows where."

"It's a blessed thing that you didn't get his impulsivity."

"I can't believe the day has come where my own father compares me to a neanderthal."

A chuckle sinks into the air through the line in a familiar manner. Despite as much of an effort I made to actually convince them to let me move out, being in the presence of my parents has got to be the biggest distraction from the demons that run circles in my mind.

Dad is the one person I most likely speak to most, no offence driven towards my beautiful mother. I have plentiful notions I converse with her.

On another level, dad is a firm rock in the middle of a reckless ocean. Nothing can waiver him which was desperately needed in our family.

He knows which mood to swing with depending on the circumstance, he knows what to get you out of your head. Almost every time I have been triggered, it was his suave voice that brought me down to earth.

Love my mother but she tends to get frantic as she worries which plagues me with enough guilt.

One of the biggest reasons I moved out. It was as if I was taking a step back when I chose not to actively pursue the path towards an undergrad. Like I was still some sort of child that needed to hide behind the backbone of my parents.

Never. I could be as firm as my father. I truly strived to be as balanced as that man, he was sincerely someone I looked up to.

He built everything he had from scratch and rose to where he was today. With the semblance that he carries, I as a child attempted to mimic it from day one.

There will be a day where I do.

"Glad things are going well." He trails off, silence running over the line for a moment before his voice fills it again. "How's your brother?"

Tension in his voice suddenly began to take note. As mentioned before, nothing would waiver Christian Harper.

Except his family.

As much as he tries to deny it, I know he takes blame for the mindset that grew into Callum that built resentment. To his defence, Callum continuously kept things bottled up and let them form a dangerous fire that burned out every hopeful aspect in his mind.

Which only strains their relationship more.

The moment Callum turned eighteen he sought out to leave, fed up with the continuous cycle he lived.

From anyone's eyes, it is insanely easy to antagonize my brother and paint him as the media has painted him for years.

Despite any of that, I know for a fact that Dad has never looked at him in a manner of displeasure or resentment.

Which is one of the biggest things the two of them disagree with.

Dad pushes, Callum might as well jump in a river to knock him off of his game.

Truth be told, I had not seen Callum all day yesterday. And considering the abrupt tension that creased Jeremys brow, conceding curiosity from someone so normally impassive. Something clearly happened.

However, my brother had never done anything to push me and I refuse to do the same towards him.

A part of me hated how everyone used me as a mirror to get through to him. As if I was another version of him. Like I could screw everything up in his fashion all because of my OCD.

The comparison irked me. I loved him, I knew that for sure that nothing could ever waiver that. Well, that was the thought in the past at least.

There was nothing more than I wanted then to be my own person. I was neither Christian nor Callum Harper.

I was just me. And I would prove it.

Sucking a breath and loosening my iron grip on the phone, "You want to talk to him?"

Silence fell over the line again before he spoke, "He won't want to."

"Might as well try." I insisted, my feet already striding across the open area.

"Just, tell me if you sensed something was off."

How would I know? I am not him.

"I haven't seen him since brunch."

Not even the sound of a breath exceeded from his mouth, he remained silent like a mountain.

Taking that as an opportunity with zero protest. My long legs carried me down the broad hallway before my gaze was caught onto the door that belonged to Callum.
"He might be sleeping but let me check-"

My voice was immediately cut off. The motion of my body only managed to push the door halfway open before I caught sight in front of me

Two men sprawled out on Callums bed. Yet neither of them were unfamiliar.

My brother laid there in nothing but his boxers, his messy hair curtained over his face.

On top of him with his legs practically intertwined with Callum lies Jeremy in a much more regained manner while my brother looks like he just got thrown into the ocean.

Jeremy's head is practically laying on Callums naked chest with the other's arms stretched like he is a starfish.

Maybe this was a mirage, that I was so overheated by DC's summer that I was seeing things now.

Two individuals who had to be separated barely two days ago because of their constant conflict now lay together like an old married couple.

No way.