Bygones

nº3. the brother

He thought he could have her. The brother who sought her out first, the one that called "dibs" had fooled himself into thinking that The Girl would be his. Not in a possessive sense of course, but in a relation ship one. By, was he a joke. 

Though, looking back on it now, it seems that it was clear she wasn't into him. He was an idiot for think that she - a strong willed, independent and feisty girl - would ever actually like him. The Brother who always played video games, watched too much porn and smoked a little too much weed at times. He was the slacker of the house, yet he was the one who kept up his grades and attendance. Why would she be with the stoner when she could be with the next best thing ; his older brother. 

The Boy was two years older than The Brother and The Girl, he was in his last year of high school and he was living life to the fullest. It wasn't as if The Boy expected that he would fall in love with a 16 year-old girl who's only dream in life is to get out of her home town. The Boy was bookish, he associated with characters like Mr. Darcy and Heathcliff, the majorly controlling fuckboys of literature, sympathizing for them because he himself had those flaws too. God, did The Brother hate The Boy. 

It wasn't until The Brother had cracked that The Boy and The Girl knew exactly what they had done to him. It was the fourth of July, a happy day for those American's. They were at the beach, watching the fireworks being set off, of course The Brother had tagged along with them, he always had. It was one of the consequences of being The Girls best friend and shoulder to cry on whenever The Boy shit on her mood. He sat there, in god awful American Flag shorts and those sunglasses with the flag in their lenses. He had a joint between his lips, trying to distract himself from the ongoing lip smacking going on beside him. The sun was setting, he couldn't see the sun in his eyes, but the sky was pinky colour, one calmed him down and made him want to go to sleep. After starring at the sky for long enough he looked to left of him where the two lovers were previously making out only to find The Girl looking up at the sky with tears in her eyes. 

"I zone out for five minutes and you guys go from dry humping to being separated." He said, his mind fuzzy as he stuck the butt of his joint into the sand. 

The girl laughs boisterously at his comment. Her eye crinkle and her lips curl showing her perfect set of off white teeth. His stomach clenches as he looks at her, and his mind plays tricks on him ; he's seeing three of her right now. All of them lovelier than the next. 

"Thats what love is," She says in an endearing voice, although The Boy is a dick, he is the boy she loves and she can't help it. "You're over come with emotions and sometimes its happy ones, other times its negative ones. Love isn't simple, love is always complicated; thats how it is." 

It was then that he realized just how dumb that sounded, how stupid it was for her to say that love had  to make you cry, it had to make you switch moods in nanoseconds and it was supposed  to look like a shit show. 

He didn't believe one single word. 

"Bull shit." Maybe it was because he was kinda high, and maybe it was because he was just sick of being jut the brother  that he stood his ground for once and took a leap. "Love shouldn't make you come to my room crying when you guys fight because he said some dick thing. Love shouldn't be so stressful that you forget to eat when they're around, love shouldn't make you fail chemistry. Love sure as hell wouldn't make you say that shit!" He startled her, "Love should be simple, maybe not clean and prim, but you should know how you feel, and you should be open. Love is knowing how to treat someone and knowing how to comfort them, love is knowing that they hate The Notebook and love Bridget Jones' Diary. Love is being honest. Love is being there , present and never falling back... love is letting your brother have the girl of your dreams, even if its killing you inside." His voice had risen and he hadn't noticed his brother standing right behind him. He didn't notice until said brother picked him up by the collar of his shirt and turned him around to punch him in the face. 

And that was the end of their good relationship. It wasn't because The Girl got in the way, or the fact that The Boy was possessive and ignorant. It was because The Brother said something neither of them wanted to hear. He defied our protagonists and contradicted their love. And they don't like it when people do that. 

He is our third Bygone.