7 Chapter 7

  Dylan watched as footage of a blurry man was caught when he jumped over a metal fence with barbwires on top.

  He swallowed hard and cursed while Erin paced about talking relentlessly.

"I'll let him know, thank you," She said with a cold voice, void of any sentiment.

"Corey outdid himself this time"

   Corey Bradshaw was a man leaning in his fifties and their father, Erin never called him dad ever since he got arrested for killing their mother Janice.

"Who was that?"

"It's nothing to worry about, just my colleague pestering me about where I kept the black coffee"

  He remembered thirteen years ago when he returned from a hard day at work, ruffled and without composure.

"You don't think he's going to come back do you?" He stumbled on his words like a teenager again, the news stirred up a lot of emotions in him.

"He better not, I'm going to forewarn them if he comes near us"

  Dylan didn't understand, he drove to prison downtown to see him before delivering Scott's car.

...

   In the dimly lit room, he let out a cold breath when he walked into the room during visiting hours while a sergeant stood by watchful.

   Corey looked tired and disheveled in his prison blue, his chapped lips thinned when Dylan sat down to pick up the phone.

"Dylan, for the past thirteen years, I still feel like I'm looking into a mirror"

He managed a sad smile.

"How's your sister, Erin?" He asked and Dylan sat up, she discouraged him from updating him on her life.

"Coping, how about you?"

Corey nodded in understanding, the cold tick on his face left him concerned, he leaned down on the mouthpiece.

"Dylan, stop coming over to see me" He muttered.

His hand tightened on the phone, his heart racing, his palms were sweaty. As if he would stop coming here.

"Did you fail parole again?"

"I stopped pleading weeks ago" He drummed on the desk causing the sergeant to glance over at him.

"You're quitting"

"I'm doing a favour, goddamit Dylan, your sister's doing you a favour as well. You should focus on your goals and stop fussing about me"

Dylan's hand clenched to a fist on his lap, his leg trembled as he tapped on the floor restlessly.

"I'm not leaving you"

"Sergeant, I wanna go back to my cell" He raised a hand and Dylan winced, the time limit wasn't even over yet.

The sergeant opened the door to a brighter room asking Dylan to leave.

   The one from behind the glass handcuffed him and took him away.

...

   He swallowed hard, fearing that Corey might do something more drastic, his crime had left the family in scars and their relatives from their mother's side wanted nothing to do with him.

  Erin got by but it infuriated him that she felt nothing at all after all these years.

"It's best he leaves that godforsaken place" He concluded.

"No, that's where he belongs."

"Isn't a decade enough?"

She looked amazed "He killed our mom with a kitchen knife."

He felt like he was talking to a robot.

"Let it go, little brother, we don't need him and we've proven that"

She jerked her index finger lower while she spoke with a harsh tone and marched out of the living room.

...

  George walked into the house dabbing blood off his mouth, that delinquent was lucky that he didn't knock his teeth out. Closing the door

  He found Gracie toying with his phone, his eyes flashed when she managed to break off the power button, a storm welled up in his chest but he couldn't lay a finger on her because Dale was watching.

  Gracie's head lowered as she held out the phone with wary sea blue eyes with a finger in her mouth.

"Thanks a lot," He said through clenched teeth.

  She was four years old and had a mean habit of screaming her head off when she didn't have her way but this time she surrendered the object in her trajectory easily.

"Gorge got huwt" She let out, staring at the bloody tissue in his hand before he hid it.

She also had an impediment and couldn't pronounce his name right.

"How many times have I told you to keep your ringtone down?"

He looked in and scowled at the slot with the missing power button then tapped to discover that it didn't come on, the girl had destroyed his phone. Dubious when it came on.

It was Jean who called and he missed it, lowering his head.

"Did you get the pack as I asked you to?" He growled, frustrated from going on a detox for too long.

"They were out," George said, Gracie squealed when Dale grabbed him by his collar.

"Don't lie to me, give it here"

  George reached into his jacket and retrieved the pack of cigarettes to give to him. He was falling right back to his vicious cycle again.

"Get out of my sight, you irritate me"

  He sent George reeling to the stairs, George sprinted up to his room and locked the door shaking, things could have been a lot worse.

  George relaxed on his bean bag in the dark room and rummaged through his phone, empty for anything interesting. He scrolled through his dry Glitch messaging app and then opted for his newsfeed.

  What's worse? He found the grease monkey's Glitch account and thought twice about stalking. He looked younger than he appeared to be in real life, it was an old photo.

"Dead account" He muttered finding a Corgi's picture from 2008 and nothing more.

A red number floated on his screen, he frowned when she sent a hi.

"Did you hear?" She asked "There's been a controversy at the band and Ronnie's been kicked out"

"So?"

"So...you're in"

  It was Ciara Collins, the leader of the school's marching band. Only a few were members because most students didn't know how to play an instrument plus no one cared about marching bands except for watching them create a formation other than 2006.

  He didn't remember the time he signed up to be a drummer neither could he cause himself to feel the excitement, besides he was second choice, everyone knew Ronnie was the best of the best.

"What do you say?"