A Struggle for Existence

Brendon sat there and stared into the television. He was watching another one of those religious shows again. Every time they came on, he'd turn the t.v to channel 5 and stare blank at the portrait of Athena, the "great goddess" that Ryan worshiped ever so much. He thought about stuff. Important stuff. He questioned the things that no one really worried about. Like existence and the reason we're here on Earth. It scared him that the religion he followed may not be the right thing to get you to a better place when you pass. He didn't know if he believed in heaven or hell. He'd never wondered about it before. Growing up, all his parents did was brain wash him into believing everything they told him. He was terrified of "the monsters under his bed" until he was 11 years old. All of the kids at school thought he was a dork. Except for Ryan. Ryan was his best friend. He didn't quite understand what Brendon was going through though, because he had his own problems at home.

All Brendon knew, was that Ryan's father was a dangerous drunk and that his parents talked shit about him almost everyday. Brendon would yell at them and tell them to stop talking about Ryan's dad that way. Then his father would lean down to Brendon face, grab a hold of his shoulders, and have a "serious chat". He told Brendon about his drunk sprees and the way he hurt Ryan. Brendon would scrunch his face up and think.

"He's not hurting Ryan, is he Daddy?"

And he would nod, scaring Brendon.

"Daddy, we have to do something. He's hurting him!"

It was always difficult to calm Brendon down after he'd got worked up that like that, and it was almost always Brendon's mother instead of her husband. That got Brendon's mom angry because he'd get him all scared and she'd have to rock him to sleep at night.

Now that Brendon got older, he doesn't know what to believe anymore. He sat there for a while and sighed. He never thought being an adult would be this hard. He relaxed in his chair and covered his eyes with his hand and as he sat there, he thought he heard a baby cooing. He looked around and saw nothing. Then, the baby started to laugh. He was convinced that he was in fact, finally going crazy.

"Auntie Bden, you there?!" yelled Pete.

He sighed and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I'm in the living room!"

Pete and baby Bronx walked in and Brendon instantly cheered up at the sight of the baby. He picked him up out of Pete's hands and held his chubby little hand.

"Aw! Look at you, you're getting so big! I just wanna nom you all up!" Brendon squealed.

"Thought you'd wanna see him." Pete chuckled.

Brendon smiled.

"Thanks man," he said. "You made a beautiful baby.”

And Pete grinned at that, because it was not hard to believe.

“You’ll be a mommy soon.” Pete joked.

Brendon laughed, but then his tone got serious.

“I don’t know if I’m ready for this.” Brendon said, looking into Bronx’s brown eyes.

“Don’t worry. You’re gonna make an amazing dad.”

Brendon looked up at Pete and smiled warmly.

“Thanks, dude.”

“Hey, it’s my job!” Pete laughed, sitting down.

Brendon sat down also, making sure to hold Bronx’s head up right.

“So, what have you been up to?”

“I don’t know, man. Just thinking.” he answered.

“That’s not good.”

“Shut up.” Brendon laughs.

Then, Pete’s serious.

“Thinking about what?”

“Like..existence, you know?”

“No, I don’t know.” Pete says.

“Why are we here?” Bren asks.

Pete furrows his eyebrows and looks at Brendon strangely.

“Well, you’re here because this is your house-”

“Not like that, genius.”

“I don’t know, Brendon. Are you thinking about religion again?”

Brendon nods slightly.

Pete sighs.

“Well stop. You know what religion does to you.”

“But, why are we here, Pete?” Brendon asks.

“You’ll find out down the line. Right now, just live life.”

Brendon takes Pete’s advice. Brendon and Ryan finally have the rights to a beautiful baby girl named Adrisole. And life is great.