The Life of Buddy

Chapter XIV

         It took twenty minutes before Brandon was calm down enough to talk to his girlfriend.  Twenty minutes for the raging sea of emotions to settle and for him not have the sounds of Brian's cries of pain playing in his mind.   But he was calm, his eyes were no longer red from crying and he was satisfied that no matter how much pain he had inflicted on his brother he had done the right thing.

          He just found himself hoping that his brother had learned his lesson and there would not be another whipping in the future.  He also hoped that he would not have to whip Butch tomorrow.  But if he had to, he would without any hesitation.

          He turned on the laptop and dialed her number.   He waited in anticipation for the connection to be made and hoped that she had not giving up on hearing from him and went out.  A few seconds later an eighteen year old girl with long brown hair and brown eyes appeared on the screen.

          "I was wondering if you were going to call."  She said with a smile and then her eyes widened in shock.  "You cut your hair."

          "Yeah."  He said grinning ear from to ear.  "You like it."

         "It looks good."  She said floored by his new look.  "Wow."  She said.  "So what made you decide to do this.  Are you trying to impress one of the girls you work with at your father's gas station."  She asked in a teasing tone.

         "You are on the girl I am interested in impressing."  He replied and she smiled in response.

          "Sorry I took so long to call you."  He said.

           "Your study session went longer with your brother then you expected."

           "Yeah it did."  He said.  He thought how she did not know that he was chastising his brother when he messed up.  She knew that Ben would beat his backside when he was bad but he had never told her that he was now doing the same with his younger brothers.  He was not sure how she would react and he was too scared to find out.  Then again there was a chance that she knew. 

              The downside of living in a small town was that very few things were secret.  Everyone seemed to know everyone else's business.   It was a well known fact that Johnson boys disciplined their younger family members when they turned eighteen.  Before Ben was spanking him for misbehavior he was getting his butt reddened by their cousin Chase.  She probably suspected that he had followed the family tradition but choose not to say anything.

             She probably is uncomfortable talking to me about it he thought.

             "Buddy had a hard time focusing."

           She gave him a skeptical look and said "Yeah I am sure he was the one having trouble focusing.  He then let out a laugh and then felt a sense of guilt at laughing.  From the back of his mind a voice chided him for laughing while his brother lays in his room with a roasted bottom.    What kind of brother are you it asked.

              "Brandon."  She said getting his attention.  "Are you okay?"

              "Yeah I'm fine."  He said as he fought against the guilt that was eating at him.

              She did not believe him but let the matter drop. "So why did you decide to cut your hair."

              Brandon ran his hand over the top of his head.  "Because I was hoping it would make me look more grown up to my parents."