My Brother, The Dentist

Chapter 6

School the next day was a drag, double maths, physical education then Spanish. When am I ever going to need to solve simultaneous equations in my later life? That's one question I would love to have answered! Nothing exciting took place throughout the day, except for Spencer and Austin having a royal rumble over a piece of gum; that was gold! And I never thought Austin would've won, maybe I shouldn't make assumptions. Well, Spencer has to pay a visit to my big brother after having some of his braces broken. Don't ask me exactly what happened though, i'm no expert! At least i'll have a conversation starter to lighten the mood with Sam later. Until he starts sticking his fingers and tools in my mouth again. Ooh that sure does give me the shivers!

The clock struck 3:30 and the bell for home time rung. Next stop... Sam's office!

I grabbed my belongings from my locker and headed out the doors with Kyle, aka. ninja kid.

"I'm telling you Billy, braces aren't even that bad" Kyle began. "Mind you, I only had them about a month. I got sick of not being allowed to eat sweets, popcorn and all that good stuff, so I demanded I had them taken off. My wishes came true and now i'm stuck with my same old semi-wonky teeth. But I couldn't be happier with them" he grinned.

I laughed at his cheesy smile. "I know, I know, I'm just a little tense."

"It'll be fine, trust me!" He smiled. "Well... until they grab the drill! And start drilling the insides of your mouth and blood begins squirting everywhere and there's nothing you can do about it because there's four other doctors holding you down laughing maniacally one after the other and..."

"KYLE! DUDE!" I yelled.

"Oh, sorry, I was in one of my little fantasy worlds again wasn't I?"

"Well I should hope so!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes disapprovingly.

"I'm just kidding around Billy, no need to take all this crap so literally. The wost that'll happen is Sam poking your mouth a bit but he's a great dentist, right?"

"Right..." I agreed, half heartedly.

We arrived at the dreaded office after a ten minute walk of insanity.

"This is your stop Billy! Good luck bro!" Kyle pulled me in for a hug and I grabbed him tight. He pulled me in even tighter then slapped my back. "Go show 'em who's boss buddy! See you later, with your new smileeeee!" he winked at me, waving whilst walking off into the distance.

"Well, I guess this is it" I gulped, as I headed towards the doomed doorway. What on earth was I letting myself in to?

~

The doors slid open automatically, and the dim stench of cleanliness and latex gloves hit me right up the nostrils. I took a seat hiding in the corner where I usually sat, and decided to wait for Sam to approach me. I could hear a drill coming from the distance, and a subtle whining for mercy coming from the same room.

"AAAA...OOOO...EEEE. ZZZZZZ... NOOO...PLSSSS...AAAH"

After a short amount of time the drilling stopped and two people emerged from around the corner, one who looked maybe one or two years older than me with thick, curly brown hair was holding tightly onto his cheek, tears swelled up in his eyes. The other, still wearing gloves splatted in blood, a surgical mask placed just below his chin, and an unusual apron covering his scrubs. My brother.

"You should feel better very soon Henry, just take some tablets if you have any pain. See you soon!"

"Fank oo" the boy replied, rushing out the doors, happy to be free.

Then my brother spotted me out the corner of his eye and quickly slid off his gloves, chucking them away in a hurry. "Alright Billy?" he smiled.

"Not bad" I countered. "What happened to him?" I questioned Sam.

"He didn't look after his teeth properly Billy."

I nodded, and felt the blood from my face vanish. Sam noticed this and came over to my side. "So, you ready then?"

I nodded hesitantly. I followed Sam into a room and plonked my bum down on the 'operating' chair. Sam took off his mask and apron, and threw them out of sight.

"Billy, I'd just like to apologise for your appointment the other day, I shouldn't have treated you the way I did, I should've been more patient. I'll never be like that again, it was horrible of me."

Ugh, did he really have to bring that sinister day back up?

"It's fine Sam, we've moved on" I replied, not wanting to dwell on the matter.

"Okay bro. Anyway, just give me one second and then i'll be with you." He scruffled up my hair then exited the room. Now was my chance to run...

Sam returned moments later holding a tray of tools, in which he placed beside me on the table of the chair.

"Good day at school Billy?" he conversed, whilst searching through cupboards and opening packets of things.

"Alright I guess. Did Spencer Jenkins come see you today?" I asked.

"He did indeed, bunch of broken brackets is what that boy had, took me ages to fix them! And all because of what?"

"A piece of gum" I laughed.

"He shouldn't even be eating gum with braces" Sam groaned sarcastically, as he walked back over to the chair and placed a few more tools on the tray, as well as placing a bib over my school uniform I was still wearing. "Oh well, nothing I can do" he sighed.

"Sam..?" I interupted.

"Yes?" my brother immediately replied.

"Why have you put a stupid bib on me, I'm not a baby! I'm 13 now you know..."

"Well, I don't want you dribbling all over yourself, alright?"

I rolled my eyes at this gesture, as if I was under control.

"So anyway Billy, I'm ready to start if you are?"

I gulped. "Let's just get this over with I guess." A sudden urge to vomit arrived in my system, and butterflies had magically caught the train to my stomach, and were now rushing around to find the escape route.

"Alright buddy" Sam gently smiled, rubbing my shoulder warmly. Then the next thing I knew, the chair was lowering down into a 180 degree position. I felt helpless.

Sam strolled over to the corner, I couldn't see him though. I heard the wicked sound of the snapping of gloves that I hated the most coming from his direction, and when he returned in my line of sight a mask was covering his nose, mouth and light stubble which scared me as it always did. I didn't like not being able to recognise my brother, I didn't feel the comfort from him anymore, and I felt alone in an isolated place, ready for torture. It was as if i'd just commited a treacherous crime, and I was about to pay the price, whatever that consisted of. Pain most likely!

Sam then took a seat on the rolling stool just behind my head, so the head of my chair was positioned just above his lap, then pulled the tray round so it was above my torso. He then moved the light above my head so it was positioned exactly towards my mouth, while adjusting it, it shone in my eyes slightly which resulted in me stirring, but Sam apologised and settled me back down.

"Firstly i'm just going to use my mirror to look around Billy, nothing too special here." I watched my brother carefully pick up a dainty metal mirror from the tray. He held it so precisely, with his little finger sticking up and his gloves thumb plus two first fingers gripping it tight. "Open please Billy."

I was too scared not to obey my brother, so I rushed to open my mouth without even thinking about it, and soon enough Sam had retracted my cheek back using his free finger, and was probing my mouth with the mirror and his hands. I glared deeply into his glittering eyes, attempting to put him off his work. We made eye contact a few times but he ignored my constant attempts of contact and carried on concluding the situation with my teeth.

'Well if that's not working, i'll try something else' I ominously pondered to myself.

Very slowly, I attempted to close my mouth, trying to hold Sam's fingers in a tight grip with my teeth. He noticed this and before my mouth was fully closed, the tools were back on the tray and Sam was ready for the next step.

"Okay Billy, now that I know what i'm dealing with here, I'm going to give your teeth a good brush before applying your braces. Sound good?"

"Nothing to do with teeth sounds good" I groaned; Sam gave me a disapproving look as he walked off to grab a toothbrush and a tiny pot of blue toothpaste. He returned and plonked his bum back on his stool, opening the pot as he did so. Next, he scooped a lump of the paste onto the electric toothbrush and was ready for the cleaning.

"And open" he instructed. I performed this action but just before the toothbrush made contact with my teeth, I took a firm grasp around his wrist and pushed it away. He looked astonished!

"What's wrong?" he queried.

The only thing was, I didn't know why I'd pushed his hand away. An excuse popped into my head so I announced my sudden thought.

"I...errr...wa...was just wondering, what...the flavour is...?" I stumbled.

"It's bubblegum..." he answered, questioning himself. "Is that alright?"

There was silence for a moment, until I realised he'd just asked me a question. The nerves were kicking in even more now. "Y...yeah! That's great, I love bubblegum" I chirped, with a sense of anguish in my tone.

"I know you do, that's why I picked it" he beamed. 'Ugh, why does he have to be so smug?' I thought to myself. "Let's continue, yes?"

"Sure" I replied, dismay filling my body. I opened my mouth again, slightly smaller this time and the cleaning commenced. The toothbrush whirled rapidly around each of my teeth, not missing a single spot of the surface area and making an ear buzzing sound! It was an uncomfortable procedure, yet obviously bareable. I didn't dare attempt to waste any more of my brother's 'valuable' time, so I sat quiet not moving a muscle, letting my brother do all the work. I allowed him to roll my lips up and down to reach the top of my gums; it made me feel foolish. He had his palm resting on my forehead with his first and second fingers pulling up my top lip; this didn't impress me. I allowed him to pull my cheeks back so he could reach my back teeth, yet this didn't feel good especially with him pulling very hard. He used his thumb and first finger to physically pull my bottom lip down in order to brush my bottom teeth; he was going all out! He even moved my head from left to right for me, depending on which side he wanted to brush at that designated time. Once all my teeth had been wiped of sins, I finally had my lips back to myself. Well, that was until he wanted to rinse my mouth out! Water squirted all around and the suction slirped everything bone dry until all the moisture that ever existed had vanished from my mouth.

"You did very well there Billy, i'm so proud of you!" Sam exclaimed. "There was no fuss at all! Just the way I like it. If only all my patients were like that!" This made me blush, I was happy with how well I was doing myself actually, with having a phobia of the dentist and all that.

But then Sam declared a life threatening message. "And now it's time for the braces."