Both of us were writhing in pain. I pinch the bridge of my nose with my shirt in an effort to stop the bleeding. Natalie held her head and looked at her hand every so often to inspect for blood. But only one of us was bleeding all over the kitchen tile.

Our father stormed in with massive stomps. “What are you two doing!” He demanded.

Natalie glared at me. “He slapped me in the face and threw me into the stool!”

“She punched me in the nose!” I complained.

He looked between us in anger. “The fuck you slap her for?”

“She punched me!”

Natalie's jaw clenched. “You slapped me before I punched you!”

“Fuck you, bitch.”

“Peter!” Our father roared. “Why did you slap her?” I stayed quiet. “Peter!”

Natalie sat up straight. “He keeps going on and on about Lucas and I told him to give it a rest.”

He loomed over me. “You hit her because of that?” He was glaring at me now. “It’s been two years. Get over it, Peter. I’m getting real tired of this constant fighting between you two.”

I got to my feet. That fat bastard didn’t understand. Not that he ever tried to. In his eyes, it was a miracle that Lucas had killed himself. At least we won’t have another mentally ill homo walking around, he said. To this day I could still see the near heart attack in his eyes when he learned Lucas’ crush was me.

I leaned over the kitchen sink until my nose stopped bleeding. Natalie continued groaning as dad wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. My sister was daddy’s little girl, after all. Even with Grace around, Natalie hogged all the attention. I’d say I was jealous, only I hated our father with a bloody passion. Not to say we had a great relationship before 2017, but ever since Lucas’ note, it's like he decided I must be gay and rejected me already.

“Don’t hit your sister. Ya hear?” He hissed. “She’s smaller than you. You’re her older brother.”

“By five fucking minutes,” I grumbled.

“What was that?”

“I got it!”

Dad gave her one last hug before leaving through the archway. My bitch of a twin made sure to give me a grin of satisfaction before leaving the area. I’d love to smack her fucking face again.

With my nose all healed up I took myself upstairs, noticing the absence of my mother. Grace was swinging in her swing while dad and Natalie got back to whatever it was they were watching. I lazily made my way down the hall and opening the last door on the right. I threw my backpack, forgetting again that it was ripped apart, and all my shit fell on the floor again.

I glared at my textbooks and notebooks and all the other straggling pieces of paper. My head felt like a balloon ready to pop. I really didn’t want to deal with that shit at the moment. So I fell into my bed with a large thunk and faced the wall.

I stared at it until I fell asleep.