High School Dream ~ Youtuber Fanfiction ~

Chapter 14

CORY ALMOST NEVER CRIED. Not when he broke his arm in third grade. Not when kids started spreading rumors about him at school. Not even when his own mother's coffin was lowered into the ground.

But when his father and brother lashed out at him- the two people he had left to call his family- he felt like breaking down in tears.

His father and his mother were constantly there for him. Sure, his mother supported him and his decisions more than his father, but they both showed their consent.

His brother was everything to him. Uni was his world, someone he was proud to call his family. Cory never failed to congratulate him when he was proud of something, and was the first to comfort him when something went wrong.

He had never seen Uni's soft, brown eyes filled with such raw anger.

He had never imagined that the rage in his brother's eyes would be directed towards him.

After their mother's funeral, Uni was quiet. Then one day, when Cory came home from school, he snapped.

"Why didn't you go to the grocery store that week?"

The words that Cory dreaded. He had known that his mother's death was his fault; he had been wallowing in a stormy cloud of self-pity for the past week. But nobody had confronted him about it until now.

"Why?" Uni repeated, his brown eyes fixed on Cory. "If you had gone, then maybe she would still be alive. Maybe the crash would've never happened. Maybe," his voice raised to a shout, "YOU WOULD HAVE DIED INSTEAD!"

Cory felt like someone had taken a battering ram to his heart.

"Uni..." he tried to say, ice spreading through his chest.

"No! Instead, you were going through your little phase," Uni sneered. "Letting Mom go on her own and letting her get killed. You could've done something. Anything. Instead you sat at home. The home she worked for to keep a roof over your ungrateful, lazy ass."

"What the hell are you two arguing about now?"

Cory and Uni's father entered the room with a tired face, but a bright fury in his eyes.

"Cory's little phase killing Mom," Uni said, glaring at Cory.

Cory looked up at his father. His eyes seemed hazy and his words seemed slurred.

"What's this?" His father looked from Uni to Cory. "Is this true?"

"He was the last one with her. If he had gone to the grocery store like he was supposed to, instead of talking to his miserable little clique, then maybe she wouldn't have died! Maybe we wouldn't be standing here right now!"

"Uni, how could you say that?" Cory felt his eyes begin to burn.

"Uni's right."

Cory looked up disbelievingly. "Dad?"

"He's right, Cory." His father pointed at Cory. "You killed her. You hear me? You killed your mother. Uni's mother. My wife. You killed her, and left me to deal with a murderer alone."

"Dad-"

"What the hell am I gonna do now?" His father's movements became more aggressive. "I have to raise two kids on my own. One of them may be an angel, but the other- sure as hell- is a demon straight from Hell itself. Crawled from the abyss to murder my wife."

"DAD!" Cory shouted. His father froze, his chest heaving with every breath.

Cory closed his eyes, gathering himself. When he opened them again, he made his choice. "Mom is dead. But she isn't dead because of me. I wasn't the one who crashed into her that night. And this isn't a phase. This is who I am." He backed away, reaching for the door. "And if you've got a problem with that," he flung the door open, "then you've got a problem with me. And by the way, if I was to be charged for this in court, it would be for manslaughter, not murder."

Cory left with tears threatening to fall, sore vocal chords, and an angry family not willing to care.