The Aruguement
It had been a year since Sunny had left his house.
A year since Basil or Aubrey have spoken to Kel.
And a year since Hero had gotten out of bed.
“Hero, I brought up dinner, do you want it?” Kel asked. His voice echoed around the room, and was met with a thick silence. It was disappointing. “I’ll just leave it here then.”, Kel placed the dish on Hero’s bedside table and turned to face him with a sigh.
“You know we all miss you, mum, dad, me, I bet everyone else too… We could help you if you spoke to us?” Again, the silence responded to his words. It was almost as if there was really nobody else in the room. In fact, if it weren't for the thick bundle of blankets enveloped within a stained duvet and a shit ton of bin bags. You wouldn’t expect anybody to be there at all. Just like a ghost.
It pained Kel to see his brother like this. The awkward, nerdy, kind kid that all of his friends looked up to was now reduced into practically nothing except absence taxes and worried rumours. “You know,” Kel hesitated, “Mari wouldn’t have liked to see you like this… Nobody wou-”
At least this had taken a reaction from Her, but was it really worth it?
Hero sat upright in his bed, his baggy shirt proving how skinny he was getting. Kel was relieved. For a short moment, that was.
“How do you, of all people, know what Mari would think?” While he wasn’t shouting, the venom from his voice was almost deadly itself. Kel stood there, shocked. “Hmm?”.
“Well I don’t, but-” he backed off a bit.
“Exactly! That’s all we needed to know! Besides, why would I trust your interpretation? You weren’t even close to Mari, you just stayed around, like a little buoy bobbing around in this big ocean of a world. You weren’t close with her! There was nothing between you two!” Hero’s words were like a knife in the back. The brother he used to know was no longer here anymore. Maybe he would come back, but now, he was nowhere.
“Yes I was! We all were! Not just you?” It was more calm than he himself expected.
“You saw it that day… You saw her. And you just.. Moved on? Knowing you, you probably didn’t care in the first place, did you!” It wasn’t a question. It was an accusation.
Kel eventually found the words to cut through the tension. “Of course I cared! Why wouldn’t I? Stop it, please…” Kel shuffled backwards as Hero inched closer, he was standing up now.
Kel was crying now. Silently.
So was Hero. Kel was against the wall, Hero only an arms reach away. Hero just didn’t care
“It should have been you instead of her.”
Their parents came crashing into the room, they crouched to the floor fawning over Hero who was sobbing loudly, head in his hands.
Kel was sitting against the wall.
Five minutes was long enough wasn’t it? It couldn’t be Kel’s fault, could it?
He couldn't answer that question.
He dashed out the door.
‘Children who are treated badly by their parents will always, rather oddly, blame themselves’