Mental Fiction Follow Me

I woke up this morning to the sound of my parents fighting once again. It wasn’t something to be ignored but to tell you the truth it was just starting to become more common. Even an eight year old can figure that out.

I hate it when people fight. Especially my parents, and especially when it’s about the stupidest things in the world. For example: yesterday my dad couldn’t find the remote so he asked my mother where it was. She had been having a bad day I guess and decided to take it out on him. Long story short, the solution to the missing remote was never solved and ended up with them arguing about how much the TV had cost to have in the first place…my life as you guessed is not a quiet one.

But when the fighting became too much and I felt like I couldn’t handle their screaming anymore, I knew there was always one person I could go to. That one person being my brother, my hero and my best friend. I always went to him when I had a problem and I needed someone’s help. You’d think that I would go to my parents about that kind of stuff but…they seem to have their own problems to deal with.

I got up from my bed and quietly tiptoed out my door and across the hall to my brother’s room. I pressed my ear against the door to see if he was awake and I knew he was by the soft sound of the TV playing in his room. I knocked a couple times so that I wasn’t just barging in on him…I mean he is 17 after all. I had already learned my lesson once before.

“Come in.” I heard him say a few seconds after I had knocked. Turning the doorknob on the door I opened it and smiled a little shyly at him.

“Hey…can I come in for a little while?”

“Of course you can.” he said with a warm smile and pulled back his covers so that I could lay beside him.
I shut the door behind me and walked over to his bed, getting under the covers as he put a secure arm around my shoulders. “Are they fighting again?” He asked.

I nodded as I rested my head on his arm. “Yeah…I didn‘t pay attention to what it was about though.”

I noticed that he turned the TV up a little bit to cover their growing screaming from downstairs. “Don’t worry about them Trev. You just ignore them ok?”

I slowly nodded my head as I let out a small sigh. “I don’t know how you do it…”

“Do what?” He asked again.

“Ignore them like you do. Doesn’t it drive you crazy?”

He looked down to my gaze that I was giving him, giving my shoulder a small squeeze. “It would drive me even more crazy if I actually listened…I just think about other things so that I’m not bothered by them.”

“I wish I were more like you Matt. You’re not scared of anything.”

He lightly chuckled as he kissed the side of my head. “You are like me Trev. You’re my sister remember?”

I let out a small chuckle myself. “So are you going to Val’s later?”

“I might. You want to come with me? She said she misses you.”

I smiled lightly at the mention of Val. That girl was amazing and I loved it when she would come over. Sometimes she would even take me shopping with just the two of us and we would have a full day with just me and her being girls. I would probably kill Matt if he ever broke up with her.

“If you really want me to…I mean I don’t want to get in your way or anything.”

He looked at me as if I were crazy. “Of course I want you to. You couldn’t get in the way even if you tried.”

I chuckled and rested my head back onto his chest. “Alright, alright I’ll come. Jeez you don’t need to beg.”

He laughed and soon enough I felt his fingers tickling my sides, causing me to laugh in hysterics and holding his arms to get him to stop. “No Matt please don’t!” I laughed. “I hate being tickled!”

And before I knew it he had found his way to roll over me and pin my arms above my head, making me absolutely helpless. “Then say it.” he grinned and I shook my head with a laugh. “Say it or I’ll put a pair of Brian’s boxers in your face.”

I laughed still shaking my head. “Might I ask why you have a pair of Brian’s boxers here anyway?”

He play-glared at me and I only laughed harder. “That’s not the issue at hand Ms. Sanders. If you don’t say it I’ll add one of Johnny’s socks to the threat.”

My eyes widened as he said that. Johnny has the by far nastiest smelling feet I’ve ever smelt in my whole eight years of life. “Alright, Alright I’ll say it.” I pleaded with him. “Just please…keep those horrible things away from me.”

“Then say it.” he laughed.

I smirked as I pretended to act dumb. “How does the little saying go again?…I forgot.”

He rolled his eyes as he re-adjusted the sturdy grip on my wrists. “I, Treva Sanders have the best looking, most handsome and awesome brother ever. I can only hope to be like him someday because I am not worthy of his presence.”

I let out a playful huff as I laughed at him. “Oh come on, best looking? Pft.”

I soon began to laugh harder as he reached over the bed and picked up a sock…Johnny’s sock.
“Ok! Ok!” I yelled in horror. “I, Treva Sanders have the best looking, most handsome and awesome brother ever. I can only hope to be like him someday because I am not worthy of his presence!”

“That’s more like it.” He said with a laugh and let me go. I lightly hit him in the arm as I rubbed my wrists.

“Jerk. You made my hands all red now.” I pouted to him.

“Aww my poor little baby sister.” he mocked me, sticking out his bottom lip and pretending like he was leaving kisses all over my face. “How will I ever go on knowing I caused you pain?”

I stuck my tongue out at him, which caused him to laugh and he pulled me back into his lap. “Aww come on you know I’m just kidding. I would never intentionally hurt you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I teased him as he ruffled my hair. “Intentionally being the key word.”

“Well,” he said as he put me into a headlock. “If you weren’t such a little shit.”

“I take offense to that.” I grumbled under his arm, and began to tease him once again. “And I’m telling dad you cursed.”

“You wouldn’t.” he said, his grip becoming a little tighter.

“Oh I will…unless you let me go.”

He thought about it for a second before he let me go. “You’re such a little daddy’s girl.”

“You’re such a little daddy’s girl.” I mocked back to him which caused both of us to start laughing again. I could never truly fight with Matt. Yeah sure we have our petty little disagreements every once and awhile but usually 99% of the time we were just kidding with each other. Matt and I don’t have your usual brother and sister relationship…we’re actually more like best friends.

Matt and I talked and joked with each other for about 10 more minutes before we heard our names being called up the stairs.

“Matt! Treva! Come down here please!” I heard our father’s voice boom up the stairs.

I looked to Matt in curiosity. “What does he want?” I asked him.

Matt simply shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know…but we better go find out before he gets mad.”

I nodded and he grabbed my hand as he got up from the bed, me following shortly behind him and down the stairs. Mom was sitting on the couch, cheeks flushed and eyes red from obviously all the crying and yelling she had been doing. I looked over to Dad and saw that he was standing on the other side of the room from her. His cheeks were a little pink themselves but he showed no signs that he had been crying.

“What’s going on?” I heard Matt ask them. I was still standing pretty close to him as we stood at the bottom of the stairway, too scared to move as they might have broken out into a fit of yelling again.

“You two sit down.” Dad said calmly. “We need to talk.”

I still stuck to Matt as he led us over to the couch across from Mom. I could tell there was some major tension in the air by the way our parents kept looking at each other and then to me and my brother. Matt could sense it too because there was a worried expression written all over his face.

“So what do we need to talk about?” Matt asked him again. “What’s wrong?”

Mom let out a sigh as he sat down on the coffee table in front of us. “Well kids, you’re father and I have been talking.” I couldn’t help but let out a scoff to myself. Talking? Understatement of the year. “And we’ve both come to realize that we’re just not compatible with each other anymore. We argue, we can’t agree on anything and we’ve both just decided to end it now. Before we end up hating each other.”

“What do you mean end it?” I said, finally addressing to them that I had a voice. “What does that mean?”

“It means we’re getting a divorce, sweetie.” Dad spoke from his seat. “And don’t you think it’s you’re fault because it’s not alright? You two are the only reasons why we have been together for so long. Without you we probably would have divorced months ago.”

“But you two can work it out.” I said pleading with him. “I thought you loved each other.”

“Honey I will always love your mother do you hear me? She gave me two of the most wonderful children in the whole world. I wouldn’t give you guys up for anything.”

“So what’s going to happen then?” Matt spoke as he gently took my hand in his, trying his best to calm me down. “Are you still going to live in California?”

I could hear mom sniffling as the silence took over the room for a few short moments. Dad was looking at the floor, trying to not make eye contact with anyone.

“Well?” Matt asked, his voice rising from his question not being answered. “Are you still going to live near us? You can at least answer that.”

Dad looked up from the floor to him with a sorrowful expression. “I don’t think so son. I got a call this morning telling me that I’ve been transferred to Missouri…we leave in a week.”

“What do you mean we? Dad I can’t go to Missouri! I just got signed with my band here. You know that!”

I put my head into my hands as I listened to my brother yell at my father. I can’t believe this…my family was breaking up before my eyes. And to make things worse, I have to leave California!

“Well then I guess it’ll just be me and your sister then. One of us can’t take care of both of you on our own.”

“This is such bullshit!” Matt yelled as he jumped up from his seat and stood in front of our father. “Can’t you guys just separate when I graduate in a few months? What about Treva?!”

“Matt you watch your language when you’re talking to your father do you hear me?” Mom scolded him but Matt didn’t seem to listen.

“I don’t care mom! My whole family is breaking up! You expect me to be calm about this?”

Dad put his hands on Matt’s shoulders and gently sat him back down next to me. “No son I don’t expect you to take this lightly, but you have to understand. If I do stay here with your mother the fighting will just get worse and I don’t want you two to have to hear that.”

“So go to marriage counseling! Do something!”

“We have Matt. Tuesday nights when we tell you that we’re going out to go bowling with the Baker’s? No, we were going to counseling. It didn’t work.”

“So try harder.” he said with a cold tone.

“I’m sorry sweetie…” mom whispered to him. “It’s not like we want to do this to you.”

I was silently crying to myself now. My worst nightmare was that someday my brother would be ripped away from me when I least expected it to happen. Through all of the troubled times I’ve been through I always had Matt there to help get me through it. I just never expected this nightmare to become a reality and then have to go through it alone. This wasn’t fair at all.

Matt put his arms around my trembling shoulders as he could hear me crying. “Shh, Trev it’s alright. Don’t cry…”

I buried my face in his chest as my cries began to rack my whole body. I was leaving my brother in only a matter of a week and there was nothing I could do about it. There was no way I couldn’t cry when my heart was breaking like this.

“Treva, sweetie come here.” I heard my mother’s soothing voice call to me. “Baby I’m sorry…”

I still didn’t say anything to her as I kept my face buried in Matt’s chest, trying my hardest to calm down. By now my head was starting to feel dizzy and light as I kept my eyes shut.

“Whatever mom…”

***************

I was now sitting in Matt’s car as we drove to Val’s house. He insisted that I get out of there before I broke down into a full ledged panic attack. Matt always knew how to take care of me. Hell he knew more about me than my own parents did. But I guess it could have been expected from their jobs. Dad was a manager executive at some Microsoft company and Mom was an attorney in downtown LA…which meant not very much free time for their kids.

The car was starting to fill with a reasonably long silence now with only being halfway to her house. I could see Matt glance at me every few minutes out of my peripheral vision, sensing that he was trying to think of something to say to make me feel better about this whole situation. I looked over to him and gave him a small sad smile.

“I’m sorry…” I said to him softly.

He shook his head as he put a gentle hand on my shoulder; returning his own sad smile. “It’s not your fault kiddo…I know exactly how you feel.”

I took in a small breath as I just looked back to him, lightly biting my bottom lip as I tried to hold back the tears which were threatening to fall. He gently pulled me over to his side so that I was now sitting in the middle of his truck. One hand on the wheel with the other wrapped around me as I rested my head on his shoulder.

The silence that now came between the two of us was comfortable and warm. I would cherish this moment for as long as I lived. This was one of the last times where it was just me and my brother being together, driving in his car as we enjoyed each other’s company. Only one thing was left to add to this memory and I couldn’t help but laugh as I almost forgot it.

“What’s so funny?” he asked as he looked down at me.

A large smile was plastered across my face as I dug under the seats for his CD collection. I unzipped it and pulled out one particular album which I loved but he thought was rather annoying. It was perfect.
I kept the CD from his view as I ejected one of his Iron Maiden CD’s and put in the surprise one. I turned it to number 4 and turned up the volume.

“What is it?” he asked but his question was shortly answered when the song came through his speakers. “Oh no…” he groaned and I busted up laughing.

“Aww come on Matt, you know you love BARBIE GIRL!” I laughed and began to sing.

He was laughing as well and eventually I got him to start singing along with me. Matt Sanders singing Barbie Girl. Priceless.