The Storm Outside My Door
Prologue
It never should have been like this. How many times I’ve thought that, well, there’s too many to count. Just three years ago, we were a perfectly normal family; now the only sense of routine we have is daily dysfunction, constantly antagonizing our sanity.
My brother and I were always harassing each other. We tried forever just to stay away from one another. But, when I began my freshman year and he his senior, something clicked between us. We became extraordinarily close; he knew all my dirt and I knew his. We became each other’s crutch; if mum was mad at one, the other knew about it; if one of us had done something sneaky, the other knew. There were no secrets between the two of us.
Midway through my sophomore year, though, our world did a one eighty. Luke wasn’t the same anymore; he was always moody, stuck in his bedroom on the phone with his new girlfriend, Sam.
Sam just wasn’t who we had ever envisioned for Luke. She was 22, and had an apartment of her own (if that doesn’t say it all). She wanted full attention from Luke, and she’d sabotage his relationships with his family to get it. She was a vile little thing.
The arguments between him and my parents became more vicious, Luke spitting ferocious words at my Mum and Dad. Dad was the more ruthless parent, his ferocity crescendoing to match my brother’s. Mum, however, cried. She begged him not to leave, pled her love to him.
That really just pissed me off.
~
My mum was seventeen when she found out she was pregnant with Luke. Being raised in a Christian family, this was less than acceptable; manipulation coming from her mother, and being ignored from her father.
Her dad didn’t want much to do with her; he was embarrassed. Her mum, she only had one goal: to teach my mum a lesson. Mum was confined to the house. If a friend called and asked her to a movie, her mum would say, “You can’t go out anymore, you’re a mum now… Should’ve thought of that before you had sex.” Harsh words were constantly radiating through my mother’s mind, breaking her emotionally.
Nine months go by, and Luke is born in November. My mum and dad were married the next September. Mum was nineteen, Dad was eighteen.
They gave up their entire lives to raise their son.
~
My brother and I were always harassing each other. We tried forever just to stay away from one another. But, when I began my freshman year and he his senior, something clicked between us. We became extraordinarily close; he knew all my dirt and I knew his. We became each other’s crutch; if mum was mad at one, the other knew about it; if one of us had done something sneaky, the other knew. There were no secrets between the two of us.
Midway through my sophomore year, though, our world did a one eighty. Luke wasn’t the same anymore; he was always moody, stuck in his bedroom on the phone with his new girlfriend, Sam.
Sam just wasn’t who we had ever envisioned for Luke. She was 22, and had an apartment of her own (if that doesn’t say it all). She wanted full attention from Luke, and she’d sabotage his relationships with his family to get it. She was a vile little thing.
The arguments between him and my parents became more vicious, Luke spitting ferocious words at my Mum and Dad. Dad was the more ruthless parent, his ferocity crescendoing to match my brother’s. Mum, however, cried. She begged him not to leave, pled her love to him.
That really just pissed me off.
~
My mum was seventeen when she found out she was pregnant with Luke. Being raised in a Christian family, this was less than acceptable; manipulation coming from her mother, and being ignored from her father.
Her dad didn’t want much to do with her; he was embarrassed. Her mum, she only had one goal: to teach my mum a lesson. Mum was confined to the house. If a friend called and asked her to a movie, her mum would say, “You can’t go out anymore, you’re a mum now… Should’ve thought of that before you had sex.” Harsh words were constantly radiating through my mother’s mind, breaking her emotionally.
Nine months go by, and Luke is born in November. My mum and dad were married the next September. Mum was nineteen, Dad was eighteen.
They gave up their entire lives to raise their son.
~