Finally Falling

34: He's an attractive pig

"Ha! In your faces suckers!"

"That is so unfair. You picked up one of the lighter ones so it was easier for you to carry and aim. Of course, you knocked them all out."

"Nobody likes a sore loser Jace."

"Oh quit whining, you both know that in the end, I'm going to win this."

"Over my dead body Justin."

"You know, surprisingly, that's not too hard to make happen."

"You know, surprisingly, you're not too good at bowling."

"You know,surprisingly-actually there's no surprise there, you're not at all good at fighting back with words."

"Ladies and gentlemen," Jace yelled out, causing disapproving faces to look our way, "I present to you, the live version of Tom and Jerry," he said motioning to us with his arms.

"I'm Jerry!" Justin and I said in unison resulting in the disapproving faces to blend into humoured ones.

"Oh get on with it, Justin your up."

Justin picked up one of the balls, lifting it with ease. He mocked us as he walked toward the line which signalled that the ball was to be rolled and not another footstep forward was meant to be taken. He obviously anticipated that he was going to strike them all, but was disappointed when only one pin was left standing.

Jace and I looked at each other and immediately broke into the celebratory dance that we choreographed just a minute ago when Justin's ball rolled to the side of the aisle, failing to knock out any pins. We must've looked like lunatics to be able to earn such odd and amused looks from strangers. Neither of us cared as we both continued to hop around happily until Justin deepened his scowl.

I don't even remember how we ended up coming here. I'm pretty sure it was Jace. He apparently got tired of the depressing atmosphere that was thickening by the second after I got released from the hospital. So here we are having some sibling bonding time. Justin doesn't seem pissed for once if anything I think that he's happy. As happy as Justin can get with his snide comments and constant retorts.

The bandages around my head were off and thinking back to the night in the hospital, I remember how my stomach hurt so much after Brandon kept making me laugh. He stayed by my side the whole night, refusing to go home even after the nurses told him that I was doing fine.

With a loud and deafening sound, the scores on the television screen above popped up. Justin lost and Jace and I tied, no surprise there. Jace and I tie at literally everything. Every game that can be thought of, we somehow annoyingly tie at.
I guess it was a twin or something.

Once again, Jace and I broke out in our celebratory dances while Justin threatened that if we didn't hurry up with taking off the bowling shoes provided to us and slipped back into our own shoes he would leave without us.

***************

"You're a pig."

"An attractive one."

"Jace, I don't say this often enough, but I love you. And because of that love, I will bravely sacrifice my one and only dictionary to enhance your blank and completely barren mind in which information just does not seem to want to settle in."

"You lost me at Jace..." he said, proving my point.

"Hey!" Jace pretty much squealed as Justin took one of the chicken nuggets and stuffed it into his fry-filled mouth. What sophisticated brothers I have. One keeps shoving his face with food and the other screams like Regina George when she finds out that Kady gave her fat building muesli bars instead of weight reducing ones.

"Okay, so I have something to tell you, Justin."

"You finally took my advice and brought a life?"

"No, but I did by you some good advice. Actually, the advice came free after I told them about the brain cells that you lost talking to Jace and the ones that you never contained. They felt pity and said that a person shouldn't be both stupid and-"

"Wait, just to be clear, so you didn't buy a life?" Interrupted Jace in the midst of my incredibly smart and snarky speech with a grin.

"I should have just bought you a brain instead," I muttered.

"Yeah. You should know where to find one," commented Justin with a humoured smirk.

I opened my mouth to say something snarky back to him but then reluctantly decided against it because if we kept going on like this, I wouldn't be able to tell him what I was meaning to tell him.

So instead I said, "Brandon and I dating was just a charade."
He was about to steal another chicken nugget from Jace when his incredulous expression snapped up to meet my serious one.

"What?"

And so I told him. I told him everything. Beginning to end. He never once interrupted me whilst I unfolded the scheme to him. He seemed too shocked to say anything until "So why are you telling me this now? I mean, why suddenly just tell me and not go through with the plan till the end. What about the part where he breaks up with you?"

"Justin I'm done with this family being so distant from each other. I hate the fact that I thought I had to come up with this plan for you to understand that I thought what you were doing was wrong instead of you just listen to me. And," I breathed, "I hate the fact that every time you see me, you get reminded of the fact that I'm the reason they're dead."

A long and painful silence.

Then his words sliced through the unbearable silence like a sharpened knife.
"You were eleven. I didn't think you could look more scared than when you were six and I told you that there was a monster under your bed waiting to throttle you. But you did. You looked petrified and so innocent. You ran into my arms as soon as we entered the room and you just burst into a fat blob of tears. You held all of it in before we came, all that hurt and fright in because you didn't want anyone to think of you as weak. You never have let anyone think of you as weak. And the only way I saw my scared little sister through that façade of nonchalance was because I know you. I know that you would do anything and everything to protect the people you love. I know you hide a secret stash of candy in your socks and before you ask, of course, I took some.
Also, I know it wasn't your fault, I just blamed you without actually blaming you because it was always easier to accept than the harsh reality of the truth.

"Oh and also, I know you like Brandon."

Am I really that obvious?

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