Painting Flowers

"Jack!" a voice yelled, and I immediately sat up, my head thumping and my heart beating in my chest at a million miles an hour. "Do you want dinner?"

"Uh, okay," I called back, trying as hard as possible to hide the fact I'd just been sleeping, and attempting to sound as awake as I possibly could. "What are we having?"

"Lasagne," the voice replied, and my brain managed to notice it was May I was talking to. I hummed, rubbing my eye and letting out a quiet yawn. "But hurry up, or else Joe'll eat it all!"

"Alright," I sighed, and I slowly clambered out of bed, my vision going blurry as I dragged myself out of the room, down the stairs and into the dining room. Mom, dad, May and Joe were already sat at the table, all eating the lasagne which mom usually made for us.

"Hey, Jack," Joe smirked as I collapsed on the seat, slowly chomping down a forkful of the hot food. "You were sleepy, apparently."

"Mhm," I nodded, gulping my food down. "So I went to bed. That's what people do when they're tired, Joseph. It's an old tale, passed down by generations; people tend to sleep when they're sleepy."

"Oh, haha," Joe said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, and he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's a folklore legend, Jack. This is our family passing it down to yours. Y'know, seeing as you're adopted and all."

"Joe!" Mom snapped, and I sniggered, ducking my head to eat some more of the tasty lasagne. "Jack is not adopted. Nobody in this household is adopted. Apart from Sierra." We all turned to look at the old cat, lying against the wall and playing with her tail half-heartedly.

"Oh, Jack, during your, er, nap, a boy came to the door for you," Dad said, which caused me to turn back to the table. "He looked quite... Alternative. A little like you."

"An emo," May smiled. "Yeah, he had these big puppy dog eyes and he was asking if you were in and I went up and saw you were sleeping, so I told him you'd come back for him. His name was Alec, I think... Alec, or something like that."

"Alex," I said, frowning. "Why did he come here? I don't like him."

May shrugged. "I dunno. He looked really sad. Was it something you said to him? 'Cause you can be super blunt sometimes, Jack."

"Well, he was mean to me," I snapped. "He brought up Kate."

The room fell silent; everybody stopped eating and turned their heads towards me.

"You told him about her?" Joe asked eventually. "Jack, we moved so we could escape those memories, not tell new people here about them."

"No, like... I was talking on the phone to him just after I came home from school, and we got on the topic of how we lived next to each other, and I said we moved from Pennsylvania a few months ago, an- and he was asking why, and I got really uptight, because... well, you know. Then he was saying that I couldn't let things lie because I was asking him why he got all snappy when I told him my brother taught me guitar. He's a weirdo."

"Wait," May said, shaking her head slightly. "You told him Joe taught you guitar?"

I nodded, raising an eyebrow.

"What was this guy's name? Alex? Is it Alex Geskerth?" May questioned.

"Gaskarth," I corrected, staring at my plate. "Alex Gaskarth. Wait, how do you know him?"

"His big brother used to go to our school. Have you not seen the big plaque in the reception about him?" May asked, and I shook my head. "Well, basically, this guy called Thomas Gaskarth killed himself a few years ago, and there's a big thing in memory of him when you first walk into school. Did you seriously not notice it? You must be blind... But anyway, maybe Alex got annoyed because you were talking about your big brother, and his killed himself. Maybe it's not even the same family, I don't know..."

"Gaskarth isn't a very common surname, so I imagine it must be the same family. Plus it all make sense, the whole thing about him getting annoyed when you mentioned Joe," Mom said. "He's in the same boat as you, then, he l- lost a bigger sibling."

I bit my lip as I saw mom's smile falter, and she stared determinedly at the table. I gulped, my mind racing with thoughts of how Alex's brother must've killed himself, and that's why he was so pissed when I was talking about my brother. Maybe I should've been a little gentler with him.

'But he was disrespectful to Kate,' I thought to myself. 'He brought this upon himself.'

I shook my head in attempt to rid myself of these thoughts, and tried to continue eating my lasagne, but my mouth was too dry to properly chew anything. I sighed, putting my fork on top of the plate, and glanced around at my family. Mom and dad were exchanging hushed whispers across the table from us, and Joe and May were frowning into nothing beside me. I immediately felt extremely guilty for bringing the past back up and causing all of these thoughts and memories to return. I excused myself from the table, to no protests, and ran back up the stairs to my bedroom.

I slammed the door behind me, and sighed deeply as I sat on the edge of my bed, raking my fingers through my hair. I lay back on the mattress, and gazed up at the ceiling, attempting to count the guitars again, but my mind was running, and my stomach was squirming unpleasantly with nasty thoughts. I bit my lip, turning on my side and closing my eyes tightly, forcing myself to try and get back to sleep. I found it hard to stop my head from running scenarios through itself, and eventually drifted off to an angry, frustrated and empty dream.