When Clyde Parker, the wayward son and the rotten-apple of the Parker family-tree, storms his way back into Avery Fields, he sets out a flurry of butterfly effect in Dawn Marshal's life.
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"MOVE YOUR BLOODY FOOT, I really don't care," he pushed the door.
"It's about mom..." she added and his face relented, at least twitched slightly. Rocks don't soften.
He opened the door with only a pair of black boxer-shorts hanging loosely from his torso. His eyes sore and red with huge bags beneath them, lips purple and chipped his body pale and bony, she could count the bones in her brother's ribcage. Ethan Marshal was a zombie.
"It better be important."
She hesitantly walked into his room. The place was dark and reeked of something rotten.
"Eww! What died in here?!" she scrunched her nose in disgust, it smelled musty like a month old pizza. She turned to her brother, "When was the last time you showered?" she sat cross-legged on his unmade bed.
"I don't remember and it's besides the point", he muttered towering over her in his six-foot-something glory. She stared at him, trying to discover a speckle of the boy he once used to be. She found nothing. Ethan had his mother's eyes and her raven hair.
"Dad is coming to visit us this Friday" she started and his face contorted in a frown.
"So he finally found time off his trophy family?" he sneered punching the wall beside him, livid.
"And mom expects us to be in our best behavior," her eyes wavered on him for a while.
"SO WHAT DOES SHE WANT ME TO DO? PRETEND THAT I AM OK?!" He yelled making her flinch.
"ETHAN, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE NOT OK, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE HURTING. TRUST ME, MOM BREAKS EVERYDAY EVER SINCE HE LEFT, WE ALL ARE HURTING AS MUCH AS YOU ARE, PERHAPS MORE. BUT MOM AND I, WE HAVE BEEN FIGHTING EVERY DAY. WE ARE NOT LOCKING OURSELVES IN OUR ROOM STONED TO OUR BONES LIKE A BLOODY WASTE-OF-SPACE. UNLIKE YOU, WE ARE TRYING TO HEAL, WE ARE MENDING OURSELVES. WE ARE NOT GIVING UP WITHOUT FIGHTING THE BATTLE!" she shouted back, her eyes filling with tears.
"I got nothing left to fight, Dee" He said softly, tears now trickling down his face.
"You've got me and mom and I believe that's enough," She cupped his face in her hands and wiped away his tears. "All I want for you is to fight and not give up... yet"
He smiled lightly, "You don't know how royally fucked up, I am".
"Try me," she stood up from his unmade bed and walked to the door, "Keep it down will ya," she pointed to the speaker before retreating out of his room.
"Dawnie" he placed a hand on her shoulder, her back turned to his face, "I am sorry for not being the brother you wanted". She nodded curtly not sparing him a glance.
Sibling business was a risky business, there was no exchange policy. You have one and you are stuck with it for the rest of your life.
