Prodigal Catharsis

Chapter Three

Rachel

Growing up with my brother has never been very easy. Being the older child to my mother, and not my father's son, he was given everything from birth. As fas as I'm aware, he never knew his father. Our mom and his dad apparently met at a party on a drunken night and hooked up. After that, he never showed his face again. Thus, my brother was born nine months later. Then one year after that, my mom met my dad and got married a couple of months later. Nine months after that is when I was born.

Tommy was a reckless child, always in and out of the emergency room for broken bones or infected skin abrasions. H was always costing my dad money, and not only hospital bills. Broken bikes, other kids' hospital bills and even some car damage from when he was eight and decided to try driving my dads car. Me on the other hand, I had to earn everything I ever received so I was careful about the moves I made.

There was a time, when I was seven and Tommmy was nine, we were swimming in the pool out in the back yard and he pushed me under the water. I struggled and tried to fight but it was no use, I lost consciousness. Then he chunked me onto the pool patio, ran inside with his fake tears and tried to make himself look like he tried to save me. Mom and Dad both ran outside but Dad is the one who performed the CPR. When I woke up, all I could think about was the taste of chlorine and vomit in my mouth. I knew they were aware about my swimming capabilities but that didn't stop them from restricting my pool usage. All Tommy did was stand there with his devilish, crooked smirk as my parents scolded me.

He then got it into his head that he could terrorize me as long as it wasn't in front of my parents and if he whipped up some convincing tears. Therefore, that's what he did for the next nine years.

When I was twelve is when we received news about a new kid moving into town with his adopted parents. I never payed attention to the matter or to the kid. I was always worried about the next wave of bullying I was about to receive from Tommy.

I did however learn that the new kid's name was Jeff. I noticed him in my classes and it almost seemed that when he noticed me for the first time, he wouldn't stop staring at me. It became quite annoying to be honest and I even considered approaching him about it, but I was too shy. I even used to take bathroom breaks just so I could get him to stop staring at me.

A couple of years later when we were fourteen, I was playing soccer and the kick I delivered sent the ball into the side of the head of a walker-by. It was Jeff and when he turned in anger in the direction of the source, he saw that it was me and quickly calmed down. He looked nervous just before briskly walking away and all I could do was stand there with my hands covering my mouth.

That's about the time Tommy started noticing Jeff looking at me ahd he didn't like that at all. Therefore, That's when he started terrorizing Jeff, which got him off my back but some of the things Tommy would do began to piss me off. I told my Dad about it but he didn't believe me, all he said was, "Stop ratting out your brother."

'He's not my f*****g brother', I whispered under my breath. So, that was the only time I ever said anything about Tommy being a bully.

Tommy would graffiti Jeff's locker, smack him around from time to time, plant stink bombs in his backpack and he even told my friend, Angela Whitman, that Jeff had told him how he wanted to r**e her. The next day, when we were in Math class, Angela stood up, walked over to Jeff and slapped him as hard as she could across his left ear while he was asleep in the back of the class. Angela was suspended and Jeff suffered some eardrum damage due to internal bleeding.

I walked past Jeff one day while he was standing in front of his locker and behind him read in sharpie, 'Jeff likes to suck c***s for real cheap'. I just knew that was Tommy's handy work and the more I noticed Tommy f*****g with Jeff, the more I hated him.

That lasted for about two years until one day Jeff had enough. I was sitting with him and his two friends at lunch and Jeff had just the sweetest look on his face as if I was everything he ever wanted. It was at that moment that I decided to be his friend with hopes that things could go a little further.

Then the notorious Tommy showed up and picked a fight with Jeff. When he noticed that f*****g with Jeff didn't work anymore, he turned on me. I tried to defend Jeff but then Tommy began getting into my face and made me cry with some of the things he said about my Mom. I had my face in my hands, crying, when I heard the crunching sound of Jeff's fist against Tommy's teeth. With that courageous act of kindness toward me, I fell in love with him instantly.

Tommy then pulled Jeff out of the booth and Jeff's shoe grazed the back of my head. It wasnt too comfortable but not the end of the world. Jeff tried to hit him again but Tommy caught his fist and cracked Jeff across the left temple. He went down instantly and was out cold.

"WHAT THE f**k TOMMY", I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"ARE YOU f*****g HIM NOW, IS THAT WHAT'S GOING ON", he yelled back.

I stood up aggressively in a rage, shaking because I was so mad.

"IT WOULDN'T BE ANY OF YOUR GOD DAMN BUSINESS IF I WAS," I started, "BUT SINCE YOU APPARENTLY f*****g OWN ME, NO I'M NOT BUT I WISH I WAS BECAUSE HE'S TWICE THE MAN YOU'LL EVER BE."

Without a second thought, Tommy backhanded me across the mouth and sent me falling back into the booth tavle. I looked over to see Peter and Cody wide eyed, sitting there in sheer terror not knowing what to do.

It was then that school security showed up and tackled Tommy to the ground. His three friends had already bailed about the time I stood up out of the booth. Security had Tommy on his stomach, despite the fact that he kept struggling to resist, and fastened his hands together with their handcuffs.

I knelt down next to Jeff, being careful not to tough him although I desired to cry in his chest. I didn't know if tommy had damaged Jeff's spine so I kept my hands off of him. Security then hoisted Tommy's towering six foot three body up off the floorand escorted him to the Principal's office. All i could do was stay next to Jeff until the paramedics showed up.

When they arrived, I told them about what happened and that Tommy may have damaged Jeff's neck, so they were careful about rolling him onto the stretcher. Before they took Jeff to the ambulance, I gently whispered in Jeff's ear, "I promise to visit you until you wake up." Then I asked the paramedics, "Which hospital is he going to."

"Saint memorial emergency room" he answered. Then they wheeled him to the ambulance.

***To be continued***