Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Day 361 - Sibling Rival

Sibling Rival
Matthew Ryan Fischer
 
 
If there was one person Ian wanted to beat in any game they played, it was Pete. If there were two, it was Pete and Arthur. Beating Pete was more important though. Ian would come in second or third or any place as long as it wasn’t last, and as long as Pete was behind him. It seemed as if Pete felt mostly the same. Arthur liked to win. He didn’t care too much else about who he beat or what order they lost in, just so they lost. Healthy? Perhaps not always, but it certainly did give the boys motivation.
Pete didn’t have very many friends, not like Ian did anyway. Ian could be the life of the party. Ian could talk to women. Pete was fun and entertaining and his jokes were standard and passable, but by comparison it made everything he did seem just a little hollower and more contrived. Pete didn’t mind that Ian was the fun one. He consoled himself with having fewer, but deeper relationships. Or so he wanted to believe.
At the end of night Ian would find Pete and regale him with stories, recapping adventures and wild trysts. Pete laughed and smiled and was rarely jealous of his brother. He was often there for the adventures, even if Ian didn’t always remember it that way.
Arthur had no interest in stories. He had no interest in retelling events or living vicariously. Arthur found his own path and made his own love and luck and if he had something interesting to tell, he told it to himself and remained a mystery to the other two boys.
Arthur went to college and when he came home from break, he brought his new best friends, Adrian and Jean. They had secret codes and inside jokes and often snuck out at night to smoke cigarettes and take a nip of brandy from a flask. Ian and Pete were not invited. On the weekends, they’d go into town, and Sunday morning they would return, singing and giggling and still inebriated.
Pete began to hate Adrian and Jean.
“Who do they think they are?” he’d say. Ian had no answer. He didn’t understand his brother’s preoccupation and tried to distract him with a game of pool or darts or tales of the Murphy sisters or inspire him by dreaming about some upcoming cookout or party of their own. Pete didn’t care about any of that anymore. He was strangely obsessed with these two schoolmates that were stealing his brother away.
“Why them?”
“If you want to go to the party, just ask. I’m sure they’d let us.”
“No. They’re from Arthur’s class. They wouldn’t want us there anyway.”
“You don’t have to be so bitter.”
“Arthur was never like this before. He never drank. Or ran around after midnight.”
Ian thought his brother was sounding more and more like their mother, but kept that to himself. He could beat Pete at a lot of things, but if Pete were in the mood to tussle, he could give out a mean punch or two before Ian cold do anything about it. Ian had felt the bruises one too many times.
One night Pete snuck out his window and headed behind the barn, where he found Adrian and Jean, smoking and drinking.
“Are you going to offer me some?”
The boys looked at Pete and shrugged and passed him the flask.
Pete began to imagine slipping something into the flask, making them sick and watching them puke. Maybe they’d puke on each other. And Arthur would see it and laugh at them. Pete chuckled to himself. He would find some ipecac or soap or something awful. The summer would be ruined and maybe they’d go home.
Arthur appeared, a little surprised to see his younger brother there.
“You drink now?”
“I do.”
“All grown up.”
“We were about to take off, go see about some girls. You want to tag along?”
Pete thought about Ian, wondered what he was doing, wondered if they should invite him. But Ian was boisterous and loquacious and would probably steal the attention of any girl Pete liked. Fuck him, mumbled Pete.
“What?” asked Arthur.
“I said fuck yeah. I want to go. Let’s have some fun.”
The others nodded and smiled and they passed the flask around again as they headed off.

No comments:

Post a Comment