Post by Devon Patrick Andrews on Nov 22, 2012 14:35:22 GMT -5
[bg=b6aadf][atrb=width,350,true][atrb=border,0,true] Devon Patrick Andrews |
[/blockquote][/color]
"I hate my family."
The Phone Call
There had been a moment when he looked down at his phone. For a moment, he thought about not answering it. Nothing good ever came from answering his mother's calls. After all, there had been a reason why he had moved away as soon as he possibly could. But he had to be the Good Son. He had to answer it.
The tired little “hello” wasn't fully out of his mouth before his mother started talking. “Devon, hun? I've got bad news.” Devon was not surprised. “Your brother's not doing too good.” Again, he was not surprised. His brother hadn't been doing too well when he had moved away from Rodeo five years ago, not that his mother had been too concerned then.
“What did he do now?”
“It's not nothing he did, not really.” Her words weren't that reassuring. Nothing new there, either. “He just got out of rehab.”
It was at this point that Devon had do take a few deep breaths before he started arguing with his mother. Because, as far as Devon was concerned, getting out of rehab implied that Ryan had very much done something. “For what?”
“He had a cocaine problem.”
“I'm pretty sure he still has one.” He shouldn't have said that, but he had. He had next to no will power when it came to his family. He had to work his damnedest to keep his mouth shut around them.
Surprisingly, his mother didn't answer with denials. “Exactly. He's gone to treatment, but I'm scared he's going to fall back into it. We need you to come home, hun.”
“What?” He was already shaking his head in answer. “I can't just move back to North Carolina. I have a life.”
“That's not your life.” She said, and before he could protest, she went on. “What you're talking about is a job and a house. But this is your brother's life. Please, Dev. You're the only person he listens to. The only reason he got through high school was because of you motivating him. I think you can keep him clean.”
Devon wanted to argue against everything she said. Tell her that his current life—his nice apartment surrounded by wonderful neighbors, a surprisingly well paying job at a private school, a circle of close knit, supportive friends—was his life, and that it was bullshit for her to just trivialize that. That he didn't “motivate” his brother in high school. It was more him constantly calling his brother stupid and talking about how embarrassing it was to have an older brother who couldn't pass a basic test that made sure Ryan stayed in school. He wanted to tell her that Ryan's problems were his own, and that he shouldn't have to give up everything that made him happy because his brother had fucked up.
He opened his mouth, but his mother interrupted. “Your father would—” Devon never heard what his father would do because he was talking over her, assuring her that he would move back home to help Ryan. That was always how she got him. Mentioning Dad. It wasn't fair. He wanted to complain. But he couldn't.
Dad wouldn't complain.
The Family Dinner
He hadn't even been done explaining his vegetarianism to his mother for the thousandth time before Ryan started in on him. “So, still gay then?” His brother asked cheerily. Devon had expected to find a skin-and-bone junkie wearing the mask of his brother when he got home. But Ryan looked nearly the same as when he last seen him—sure a little rough around the edges, but he had always been a partying type. It was stranger to him for some reason than finding him hollowed out.
“God dammit!” Devon exclaimed, pushing away his mother's meatloaf. “How many times to I have to tell you? I am not gay. I'm asexual.” Ryan was by no means the only person ever to make the same mistake—Devon, after all was a bit effeminate, a fastidious and snazzy dresser, and took pride in his personal grooming—and he didn't often get so angry at them. But this was Ryan. Ryan the perfect, fuck-up of a brother. He could rile up Devon with just a simple question and a shit-eating grin.
“Yeah, sure. Is that what you told David Welch when you went down on him under the bleachers?” Ryan asked sweetly as their mother made squawking noises of disapproval.
“I did not go down on David Welch under the bleachers!” How many years was that stupid rumor going to follow him?
“Oh, right. Wasn't it in the backseat of his car.”
“No I didn't!” He yelled, not caring that he sounded like a five-year-old.
“That's not what everybody was saaaying.” Ryan said in a sing-song voice.
Both of the brother were startled out of their fight by a casserole dish being dropped unceremoniously onto the table in between them. “Both of you shut up right now! That's not something you talk about at the table. Think about your father coming home and hearing you say thing like that. Now, eat!”
Ryan obeyed, but Devon couldn't help but look at his mother. He had been avoiding it for awhile, but now that he was back in Rodeo, it was going to be more difficult. He had noticed it years ago, how his mother would talk about his dad like he was still alive. It wasn't all of the time, but it was worrying. And it was really the last thing he needed, a mentally unstable mother to go along with his junkie brother.
There really was no place like home.
- Age: 26
- Member Group: Faculty
- Occupation: High school English teacher
- Family: Grace Andrews (mother, 50), Ryan Andrews (brother, 28)
- Play by: Jeremy Dufour
Ells cental Simon Pendergast
[/center][/font][/color]OH YEAH COOKIE ?! OF CAUTION 2.0 MADE THIS! AND WILL POKE EYES OUT IF I STEAL OR CLAIM AS MY OWN T.T
[/COLOR][/CENTER][/color][/td][/tr][/table][/center]
