As we make our way inside the house the smell of pizza reaches our noses and we both make our own sound of happiness. We make our way to the kitchen to find Damien at the table, two slices into one of the two boxes before him. He waves at us to sit down since his mouth is full and we both dig in. Pizza for lunch and dinner is like a dream. I could have pizza every meal and be the happiest man alive! Maybe also one of the unhealthiest but still happy.

As our stomachs get fuller we slow down our eating enough to make conversation, Lilly going first on talking about how her day went. It’s something we do every chance we get, the time we have on catching up being so short when it comes to Damien. He misses out on a lot and we do whatever we can to make him feel involved in our day to day.

“And then Sasha said that I could be prettier if I wore make-up,” Lilly finishes, her lips twisting into a scowl. Sasha was a nearly every day occurrence and I wished by this point the little snot would learn her place.

“You can tell Sasha that she needs to fu-” I begin but Damien cuts me off.

“Aiden!” He narrows his eyes at me before turning back to Lilly. “You know she’s full of it, Lil. She’s just jealous that she has to wear make-up to look half as beautiful as you.”

It’s lines like that one that leaves me wondering how the guy is still single. I’d think any woman would be happy to hear that kind of thing on a day to day basis! Standing at 5’8” with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and being in shape from all the hard labor jobs he does you’d think the women would be fighting over him. The only things he has going against him are his lack of time and lack of money. Those seem to impede quite a bit.

Lilly smiles at him and goes back to eating her pizza, that one line righting any wrongs Sasha may have done to her. I wish as we got older things continued to be that simple, that easy to fix, but somewhere along the way things seem to veer off course and little things can have irrevocable consequences. I haven't yet decided if that makes life interesting or stressful.

“How about you, Aiden,” Damien asks, closing up the empty pizza boxes and relaxing back into his chair.

“School was good. We have a new girl named Destiny. Work went well,” I respond, quickly glossing over everything so that I can get to the big, important part. “Gerry is going to let me in the ring for a real fight, finally!”

I expect a smile, congratulations, something to that effect, but instead Damien’s eyebrows furrow and his jaw clenches. He has known that I’ve wanted this for a long time but his reaction is leaning precariously close to being the same as Gerry’s.

“I really wish you wouldn’t, Aiden. Hitting a bag is a lot different than hitting a person. They hit back." I can tell he wants to say more but I don't let him. 

"I know that! You act like I've never been hit before. If you don't think I'm man enough to take it then prove it," I grumble, turning my cheek and poking it with my finger to indicate his target. 

"Don't be an idiot. I'm not going to hit you to prove my point. I don't need to. For someone who seems to think he's an adult already, you should damn well start acting like it! Punching doesn't fix your problems and I know that's what this is."

My hands curl into fists and I clench my jaw, inhaling sharply through my nose. "That's not it at all! I want to do it because I enjoy doing it! Can we please stop acting like everything revolves around the fact that we're orphans because some small dicked fuck shot up a gass station?"

"Watch your mouth!"

"No! I'm sick of biting my lip, of people telling me what to do, and why I can't pursue the things that I want. I'm done with it. Done!" I slam my hand down on the table to enunciate my point. 

Lilly sniffles and I swivel my head in her direction, having completely forgotten in the heat of things that she was still here. Tears run from her eyes and my heart plummets to my stomach. I'm the biggest, most insensitive jerk ever. 

"Lilly, I'm so sorry," I say as I reach towards her. She jerks away, shaking her head and stands up. 

"No, you meant every word. It's okay that you did but it doesn't make it any less painful to hear." She forces a smile through her tears. "I'm going to my room."

We both watched her go, not even moving until we heard her door close. With a sigh, I turn back to my brother expecting to hear more angry words. Our eyes meet and his are expressionless. 

He's scarily good at turning it all off when he needs to. It's like with the flip of a switch it all just squashes down so he could deal with a situation logically instead of emotionally. As someone completely ruled by my emotions, the ability unnerves me. 

"I'll be talking to Gerry about this before it goes and farther. Something tells me that he's just as against this as I am." He grabs the pizza boxes, standing from the table to throw them away before moving to leave the room. "And Aiden," he adds, turning to meet my eyes as he stands in the doorway, "don't ever talk to me like that again."

"Or what?" lingers on my tongue but I don't voice it.  He leaves to his own room and I sit at the table in silence. So much for getting what I want for once.