Post by RILEY TRAVIS ECHO. on Jul 31, 2013 13:27:37 GMT -5
RILEY TRAVIS ECHO
WHAT DID YOU DO THOSE THREE DAYS YOU WERE DEAD? 'CAUSE THIS PROBLEM IS GOING TO LAST LONGER THAN THE WEEKEND
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,2px,true] RILEY ECHO | RY, ECHO |
THIRTY-THREE | MALE |
OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH | FALLEN |
HETEROSEXUAL | AMERICAN |
NEUTRAL-GOOD | CHARLIE DAY |
PROFESSER | HEAD SCIENTIST |
PERSONALITY
Riley is someone who isn’t actually aware of what he can do. He is smarter than he give himself credit for., though a PhD can often speak for itself. He would say it doesn’t matter it was a way to keep going to school and avoid the mountain of debt he had looming in the future. Now he would say it doesn’t matter because he can’t lecture a zombie to death. Still here he is and honestly the man is scared shitless, at lest he doesn’t have to worry about student loans any more right?
He is actually very passionate about his studies. He get’s into his own head though and focuses all his energy on one thing while just breezing through the rest of whatever he needs to do. People said he was one track minded. That is the most simple way to describe it. Really it’s more whatever he is doing he is focused on. With research: that will consume him when he is in the lab. If he has to go out and get something he will plan it all to a tee.
Another bad habit Ry has is interrupting people. He is honestly not the best with social situations. He was a nerd in school. Liked watching bugs go through life cycles and learning how life worked. He was also a movie buff, so those were his nights when he was growing up. Reading books about various living organisms and soaking up what he could from them while watching movies. So when going through those oh so important socially developmental stages Riley was locked in his room fingering through books and later diving into the world of the internet.
In his adult life Riley is reaping the disadvantages of his fairly hermit like teenage hood. Riley doesn’t know how to make friends. If he gets talking he doesn’t tend to stop any time soon. Also the man has a stutter. It’s not that bad but rears it’s ugly head every time he talks. So to cope with he rambles.
When he is not being a loud awkward mess Riley is quite. Restricting himself to his room the lab or the back of any other room he finds himself. Riley also tends to not speak unless spoken too as well. He figures anything he has to say people won’t be interested in.
Before the infection Riley found himself just a social outcast that probably was not best fit for his job. Now he is someone who should probably not be alive. If it wasn’t for Grim’s Row he wouldn’t be. Riley is jumpy and was never a physically capable person. Guns scare him more than the actual walking dead (who are endlessly fascinating to him). Luckily his first reaction to anything loud noise now is to swing in the direction it comes from. This also being why he doesn’t carry a gun.
That is Riley, a loud socially awkward jumpy scientist with a stutter..
He is actually very passionate about his studies. He get’s into his own head though and focuses all his energy on one thing while just breezing through the rest of whatever he needs to do. People said he was one track minded. That is the most simple way to describe it. Really it’s more whatever he is doing he is focused on. With research: that will consume him when he is in the lab. If he has to go out and get something he will plan it all to a tee.
Another bad habit Ry has is interrupting people. He is honestly not the best with social situations. He was a nerd in school. Liked watching bugs go through life cycles and learning how life worked. He was also a movie buff, so those were his nights when he was growing up. Reading books about various living organisms and soaking up what he could from them while watching movies. So when going through those oh so important socially developmental stages Riley was locked in his room fingering through books and later diving into the world of the internet.
In his adult life Riley is reaping the disadvantages of his fairly hermit like teenage hood. Riley doesn’t know how to make friends. If he gets talking he doesn’t tend to stop any time soon. Also the man has a stutter. It’s not that bad but rears it’s ugly head every time he talks. So to cope with he rambles.
When he is not being a loud awkward mess Riley is quite. Restricting himself to his room the lab or the back of any other room he finds himself. Riley also tends to not speak unless spoken too as well. He figures anything he has to say people won’t be interested in.
Before the infection Riley found himself just a social outcast that probably was not best fit for his job. Now he is someone who should probably not be alive. If it wasn’t for Grim’s Row he wouldn’t be. Riley is jumpy and was never a physically capable person. Guns scare him more than the actual walking dead (who are endlessly fascinating to him). Luckily his first reaction to anything loud noise now is to swing in the direction it comes from. This also being why he doesn’t carry a gun.
That is Riley, a loud socially awkward jumpy scientist with a stutter..
HISTORY
Just like with his smarts Riley will constantly say is hardly an interesting person with a dull normal life. Really he did have a pretty plain childhood. Ry was the only child to a pair of people who were just living from day to day trying to make it in a floundering economy . He grew up in Pasadena California. In a plane neighborhood. His parents were fairly young when they had him, only 20. They didn’t go to school so finding a well paying job was not something that happened. His parents were kind people that wanted to do well for their child. Unfortunately for them living in the house they had and wanting to supply what they had meant working a lot of hours in mediocre jobs.
Riley was often left home alone that was where he first fell in love with movies. They were there when his mom had to work late. The songs and sounds would fill the empty home. School was just something Riley was never interested in. The other kids he had a hard time get along with and they would make fun of the way he spoke. Though Riley did find some solace in learning, science specifically.
Nights of just movies turned into after school going to the library checking out all the books all the books he found interesting and walking home to read while movies played in the background. Though the boy constantly read science texts, medical texts, and other references his grades were barely above average. A’s B’s and C’s scattered about his report card.
High school was absolutely nothing more than school, library, home. He had friends that were few and far between and even less relationships that were even more awkward and strained. Needless to say that girl friends didn’t last longer than a couple of months at the most. His parents were too busty or tired or trying to hold together their obviously loveless marriage to care about their son’s obvious lack of a social life. He was passing his classes and showed interest in school so that made them happy enough.
High school ended with him graduating in the middle of his class, though managing to pull off a hefty scholarship (only thanks to a paper he wrote about Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) to San Francisco State University. Unfortunatly didn’t escape the need for loans. There he went to start eight years of school focusing on biochemistry. His schooling career focused on his research about parasitoidal organisms.
Riley had a better time in collage. Though he often had long nights and little sleep until he was up and back in the lab laboring over his research (again pushing back any other assignments that didn’t help him in his theses). His coffee fueled days blurred together. He made it through his phd program but couldn’t find anyone who would fund him with continuing on with what he was researching.
Honestly the man was crushed. In school he really believed he was starting to understand and find some tremendously fascinating things. Most places laughed at him, or that’s what it felt like: saying that he should have focused on more useful things.
Frustrated and in need of money for things like food Riley just decided to find some sort of work in his field. Maybe that will help him feel like he didn’t just waist his life. He landed a job at the state collage as a professor. It seemed like life was going to just play a giant joke on him. Why did he even apply for the jb. Riley was no good with public speaking. Even so he needed a job.
By no means was he the best teacher in the world. The good thing was he could easily fill 45 minutes with just lecture. Day in and out he would get up go to school, talk at some kids, library, home throw together something that looked edible and research while he watched movies. It was like his childhood all over again. Just now he had to pay for things and his friends found it to be their jobs to drag him out of his studio apartment. Something about it not being healthy to only have the glow of the tv be the only light he saw outside of his class room. “I walk to work…” He would often whimper back as a half assed argument.
As boring as it sounded with was Riley’s life, and he was okay with it. Sure he wasn’t actually doing what he loved. Sure half of his students seemed to think his class was boring. Sure he only really went out and “had fun” about two nights out of the week. And yes even his research had hit a snag with no financial back up. He couldn’t say he was unhappy with his life. Most of he time he liked it. Watching horror flicks he had seen a thousand times over, repeating the dialog as he jotted down more notes, fixing up this or that theory, while also grading tests. That was his life and Riley was comfortable in it.
Of course as all things go, things changed. And it was more than just him getting fired, or evicted. Hell a char accident that just added to his pile of debt would have been better than this. Riley had been especially reclusive. Once again in true Prof. Echo fashion Riley had fallen asleep in front of a tv screen note book open and texts scattered about. He had a good stretch and then sirens started going off. It scared Riley half to death and more than got him flustered to start running about his apartment looking for who knew what because the man didn’t even know what was going on.
He managed to calm himself down and turn on the news. There it was the thing that he always had a hunch was going to happen but that was more of a fan boy fantasy. Well not so much fantasy, honestly for Riley more of a nightmare. Even so he made the long hard decision to try and survive. Though he argued with himself that he was the last person who should ever try to do anything but find a corner to cry in while he waited to get eaten or kill himself.
The streets were not a place where he wanted to be. That much was clear. To get out was suicide. Streets had to be packed with frantic people. That’s how the movies always went. He took a mental stock of what food he had. Not a whole lot, he was always bad with grocery shopping. Still it was enough to keep him for a little while, hopefully until people stopped being so frantic.
He pushed all the heavy furniture he could up to the door and there is where Riley made himself comfortable for as long as he could. He would check the reports o what was going on as much as he could. Obviously television news reports were the first to drop. Channels just filled with static. He resorted to radio second. To keep himself occupied riley would read. He would continue his life’s work. Now relating it to this plague that was taking over the world.
His food ran out eventually. He had to leave his safe haven. This was going to be terrible. He found an old back pack and filled it with some things he might need. Water bottles. His note book. Butcher knife, a couple of other items. He wanted to keep the pack light and he didn’t want to be out long. First choice, jump down from the second floor balcony to the street or move the barrier in front of the door. Both seemed awful. Riley went with the first choice figuring it wouldn’t be that high and make less noise. Before leaving he grabbed a cricket bat covered in prop blood he had from a Halloween costume from a couple years ago. Looked like it came in handy again after all.
Riley made it to the ground, though not so gracefully. He managed not to break anything. It was eerie how quite things were. This was a city that was always teeming with some kind of activity. The silence didn’t last long. What riley was hoping was just going to be a simple food run., he was silly to be thinking that (nothing is quite as simple as movies make it look), turned into the single most action packed day of his life. The man really had stuck to his apartment building raiding the rooms. He was more afraid of being trapped in a building with a zombie than in the open. Being in the open, though meant a whole lot more of the things than he expected.
He managed to survive enough to find a couple of things. Being as jumpy as he was surprisingly saved his life the whole time he was out searching. He reacted to any noise made around him. The cricket bat now covered in blood that didn’t come from a costume shop. The day light was quickly fading though and Riley found himself lost. For living in the city most of his adult life he rarely explored past a collage campus.
Shit. What now? Riley found himself absolutely terrified and saying his prayers. Through shuttering breaths he managed to get himself composed enough to find a lace he could sleep for the night. The morning came with him clueless on his next move. Riley figured he might as well do what he did best. And that was science. He figured out everything he knew about where he was and what he had gathered about how life worked now.
From what he could tell it was every man for themselves. He was too scared and socially inept to even think about asking for help. The people tat were living around here were tough as nails. Something he was far from and had never been. There weren’t many people. Riley only saw two the whole day he was out. People were surviving though so that was good.
Riley made it two more days and the was ready to call it quits. He had one chance. Or in his head it was his only chance or he was going to get eaten or starve to death. The more people he had seen the more he hid, but would listen. Figure out what they were doing how they were getting through this. Collecting data. There was groups. The most promising seemed like a group on Alcatraz.
That night he made a make shift map on the back of his notebook hoping he could make it to where he figured he might be able to get help in a day. The good thing about constantly moving meant he could figure out his surroundings. His apartment he had pretty much given up on Knowing what he had gone through to get food, the raiding, meant that people had more than likely busted in by now, and he knew there was nothing left there that would help him. He didn’t miss his bed that much.
By some sort of miracle, the same miracle that had carried him this far, Riley had made it to the docks. He remembered being there once for the boat tour of the island he was looking to get to now. The shops on the pier all ransacked. The place a was a mess now, when before it used to be jam packed with people visiting on vacation.
From here he didn’t know what to do. Riley was exhausted, and tired. He wasn’t eating enough and wasn’t sleeping enough these days. How could he. A day he found some food was a good day.. He wasn’t cut out for this world at all. The next parts were blurry. He must have been found at some point by someone. He wasn’t sure who, most likely a person coming back from a supply run. They took a chance on him. Riley was grateful when he woke up and was still alive, and safe.
After he got some time to recover from his time alone he was assessed, to see where he could help out the group. Riley was more than egger to pull his weight. He didn’t want to be a burden, but he had no idea how he was gong to help at all.
When the world fell apart it looked like his research had finally been something that people were excited about. Though a light sparked in Riley’s eyes that hadn’t been there sense he was working on his theses. Riley jumped at the chance to be a scientist for the group. His jaw dropped, though, when he was set to be the lead. He wasn’t a leader where they crazy?
Riley was nervous but he sucked it up and set to do his job. His pre-apocalypse researched seemed to be of more help than he was expecting but the set back being the ramshackle lab that he was given. It was more than he had before so it was time to really get down to business and make a difference. He had settled into his role but it gets harder daily to find ways to beat the doom that threatened to take everyone over.
Riley was often left home alone that was where he first fell in love with movies. They were there when his mom had to work late. The songs and sounds would fill the empty home. School was just something Riley was never interested in. The other kids he had a hard time get along with and they would make fun of the way he spoke. Though Riley did find some solace in learning, science specifically.
Nights of just movies turned into after school going to the library checking out all the books all the books he found interesting and walking home to read while movies played in the background. Though the boy constantly read science texts, medical texts, and other references his grades were barely above average. A’s B’s and C’s scattered about his report card.
High school was absolutely nothing more than school, library, home. He had friends that were few and far between and even less relationships that were even more awkward and strained. Needless to say that girl friends didn’t last longer than a couple of months at the most. His parents were too busty or tired or trying to hold together their obviously loveless marriage to care about their son’s obvious lack of a social life. He was passing his classes and showed interest in school so that made them happy enough.
High school ended with him graduating in the middle of his class, though managing to pull off a hefty scholarship (only thanks to a paper he wrote about Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) to San Francisco State University. Unfortunatly didn’t escape the need for loans. There he went to start eight years of school focusing on biochemistry. His schooling career focused on his research about parasitoidal organisms.
Riley had a better time in collage. Though he often had long nights and little sleep until he was up and back in the lab laboring over his research (again pushing back any other assignments that didn’t help him in his theses). His coffee fueled days blurred together. He made it through his phd program but couldn’t find anyone who would fund him with continuing on with what he was researching.
Honestly the man was crushed. In school he really believed he was starting to understand and find some tremendously fascinating things. Most places laughed at him, or that’s what it felt like: saying that he should have focused on more useful things.
Frustrated and in need of money for things like food Riley just decided to find some sort of work in his field. Maybe that will help him feel like he didn’t just waist his life. He landed a job at the state collage as a professor. It seemed like life was going to just play a giant joke on him. Why did he even apply for the jb. Riley was no good with public speaking. Even so he needed a job.
By no means was he the best teacher in the world. The good thing was he could easily fill 45 minutes with just lecture. Day in and out he would get up go to school, talk at some kids, library, home throw together something that looked edible and research while he watched movies. It was like his childhood all over again. Just now he had to pay for things and his friends found it to be their jobs to drag him out of his studio apartment. Something about it not being healthy to only have the glow of the tv be the only light he saw outside of his class room. “I walk to work…” He would often whimper back as a half assed argument.
As boring as it sounded with was Riley’s life, and he was okay with it. Sure he wasn’t actually doing what he loved. Sure half of his students seemed to think his class was boring. Sure he only really went out and “had fun” about two nights out of the week. And yes even his research had hit a snag with no financial back up. He couldn’t say he was unhappy with his life. Most of he time he liked it. Watching horror flicks he had seen a thousand times over, repeating the dialog as he jotted down more notes, fixing up this or that theory, while also grading tests. That was his life and Riley was comfortable in it.
Of course as all things go, things changed. And it was more than just him getting fired, or evicted. Hell a char accident that just added to his pile of debt would have been better than this. Riley had been especially reclusive. Once again in true Prof. Echo fashion Riley had fallen asleep in front of a tv screen note book open and texts scattered about. He had a good stretch and then sirens started going off. It scared Riley half to death and more than got him flustered to start running about his apartment looking for who knew what because the man didn’t even know what was going on.
He managed to calm himself down and turn on the news. There it was the thing that he always had a hunch was going to happen but that was more of a fan boy fantasy. Well not so much fantasy, honestly for Riley more of a nightmare. Even so he made the long hard decision to try and survive. Though he argued with himself that he was the last person who should ever try to do anything but find a corner to cry in while he waited to get eaten or kill himself.
The streets were not a place where he wanted to be. That much was clear. To get out was suicide. Streets had to be packed with frantic people. That’s how the movies always went. He took a mental stock of what food he had. Not a whole lot, he was always bad with grocery shopping. Still it was enough to keep him for a little while, hopefully until people stopped being so frantic.
He pushed all the heavy furniture he could up to the door and there is where Riley made himself comfortable for as long as he could. He would check the reports o what was going on as much as he could. Obviously television news reports were the first to drop. Channels just filled with static. He resorted to radio second. To keep himself occupied riley would read. He would continue his life’s work. Now relating it to this plague that was taking over the world.
His food ran out eventually. He had to leave his safe haven. This was going to be terrible. He found an old back pack and filled it with some things he might need. Water bottles. His note book. Butcher knife, a couple of other items. He wanted to keep the pack light and he didn’t want to be out long. First choice, jump down from the second floor balcony to the street or move the barrier in front of the door. Both seemed awful. Riley went with the first choice figuring it wouldn’t be that high and make less noise. Before leaving he grabbed a cricket bat covered in prop blood he had from a Halloween costume from a couple years ago. Looked like it came in handy again after all.
Riley made it to the ground, though not so gracefully. He managed not to break anything. It was eerie how quite things were. This was a city that was always teeming with some kind of activity. The silence didn’t last long. What riley was hoping was just going to be a simple food run., he was silly to be thinking that (nothing is quite as simple as movies make it look), turned into the single most action packed day of his life. The man really had stuck to his apartment building raiding the rooms. He was more afraid of being trapped in a building with a zombie than in the open. Being in the open, though meant a whole lot more of the things than he expected.
He managed to survive enough to find a couple of things. Being as jumpy as he was surprisingly saved his life the whole time he was out searching. He reacted to any noise made around him. The cricket bat now covered in blood that didn’t come from a costume shop. The day light was quickly fading though and Riley found himself lost. For living in the city most of his adult life he rarely explored past a collage campus.
Shit. What now? Riley found himself absolutely terrified and saying his prayers. Through shuttering breaths he managed to get himself composed enough to find a lace he could sleep for the night. The morning came with him clueless on his next move. Riley figured he might as well do what he did best. And that was science. He figured out everything he knew about where he was and what he had gathered about how life worked now.
From what he could tell it was every man for themselves. He was too scared and socially inept to even think about asking for help. The people tat were living around here were tough as nails. Something he was far from and had never been. There weren’t many people. Riley only saw two the whole day he was out. People were surviving though so that was good.
Riley made it two more days and the was ready to call it quits. He had one chance. Or in his head it was his only chance or he was going to get eaten or starve to death. The more people he had seen the more he hid, but would listen. Figure out what they were doing how they were getting through this. Collecting data. There was groups. The most promising seemed like a group on Alcatraz.
That night he made a make shift map on the back of his notebook hoping he could make it to where he figured he might be able to get help in a day. The good thing about constantly moving meant he could figure out his surroundings. His apartment he had pretty much given up on Knowing what he had gone through to get food, the raiding, meant that people had more than likely busted in by now, and he knew there was nothing left there that would help him. He didn’t miss his bed that much.
By some sort of miracle, the same miracle that had carried him this far, Riley had made it to the docks. He remembered being there once for the boat tour of the island he was looking to get to now. The shops on the pier all ransacked. The place a was a mess now, when before it used to be jam packed with people visiting on vacation.
From here he didn’t know what to do. Riley was exhausted, and tired. He wasn’t eating enough and wasn’t sleeping enough these days. How could he. A day he found some food was a good day.. He wasn’t cut out for this world at all. The next parts were blurry. He must have been found at some point by someone. He wasn’t sure who, most likely a person coming back from a supply run. They took a chance on him. Riley was grateful when he woke up and was still alive, and safe.
After he got some time to recover from his time alone he was assessed, to see where he could help out the group. Riley was more than egger to pull his weight. He didn’t want to be a burden, but he had no idea how he was gong to help at all.
When the world fell apart it looked like his research had finally been something that people were excited about. Though a light sparked in Riley’s eyes that hadn’t been there sense he was working on his theses. Riley jumped at the chance to be a scientist for the group. His jaw dropped, though, when he was set to be the lead. He wasn’t a leader where they crazy?
Riley was nervous but he sucked it up and set to do his job. His pre-apocalypse researched seemed to be of more help than he was expecting but the set back being the ramshackle lab that he was given. It was more than he had before so it was time to really get down to business and make a difference. He had settled into his role but it gets harder daily to find ways to beat the doom that threatened to take everyone over.
INVENTORY
Butcher knife: The closest thing to an actual weapon Riley has. Admitably he doesn’t keep it that sharp because of his clumsy nature he thinks he will hurt himself by dropping it on his foot. He rarely uses it because he would rather not be that close to something he needs to attack to use it.
Cricket bat: It was a prop for a Halloween costume where he was Shaun from Shaun of the Dead. The only time he went to a Halloween party. It is his weapon of choice mostly because it give him a wide range to attack with.
Research note book The note book that holds everything from his life’s research on parasital organizums. It has been filled from front to back so Riley has started cross hatching his notes because he can’t bring himself to start a new note book for the sake of not giving himself the chance to loose it.
Biochemistry book: A basic intro into biochemistry book he has had sense high school. It one of Riley’s favorites and just something he makes a habit to have around. Never forget the basics f your craft.
Wallet: something he grabbed out of habit. It has his drivers license, a two dollar bill from his father, and two old movie ticket stubs. He keeps it for sentimental reasons.
.
OTHER
anything else that you feel needs to be shared with the world about your character can go here; optional.
OUT OF CHARACTER
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,2px,true] Mr. Alice | Uhhh |
twenty-three, male | N/A |
ROLE PLAY SAMPLE
The door clicked open but Luke didn’t bother to look. He could be getting robbed, but the boy wouldn’t care. As long as the guy didn’t bother him why should he? The house wasn’t his he should have even been home. He was waiting though, because Luke knew he couldn’t let this happen even though deep down he was pissed off. He was mad at Anthony, hurt and pissed that the dumb ass would really forget about him.
He heard his name and still didn’t move. At lest he wasn’t getting robbed. Really if he had then he would have to explain it all and that would have just been a big bother. When did he become so apathetic? Right after Anthony got out of the hospital…that was right. Luke took the time to spend every night there, making sure his bother was okay, worrying himself sick over the littlest thing. And what happened? Tony doesn’t bother to be at home. He don’t bother to be at work, he doesn’t even try to do anything to make this better.
Tony walked into the kitchen and Luke only watched him with the corner of his eye. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this. He wanted to be the little kid he never remembered being just give his brother a hug and ask him if he was okay, if he stayed safe, and if he had fun. Luke knew he couldn’t. He can’t keep letting his brother get away with this. Life was hard. And it seemed like the word was against their family, but that didn’t make it okay to just give up. For the first time he was going to be selfish. He was done with being the forgotten brother.
“hey”
Anthony took a set next to Luke and Luke finally looked up at his brother. It was hard to not just break down right then. He his hand still held onto the pen with a fist. He pen his hand and slapped the pen down. The thud of his palm hitting the note book sounded in the quite house. It was a harsh sound. Luke wasn’t sure if he even meant to do that. All he knew ws it was taking everything in him not to just open his mouth and go of.
“What makes this fair?” He spoke in a whisper, voice cracking just a bit. It hurt to talk right now. It had to happen. “What makes it okay for you to just give up? Why am I expected to be an adult when you can’t be one? And why the fuck do I have to feel like I’m dieing because my brother can’t even say thank you for staying with him in the hospital….because I don’t think it’s okay…I don’t want to sit here next to you…but Tony, I need you as much as you might not deserve it.”
Luke took time to glance down at the table then back up to his brother. He got it out. He got all of it out. He felt like an ass now. Tony had every right to do what he did. “I’m so sorry…” Luke then spoke quickly looking away from Tony again. Shit he was going to cry. “I didn’t mean…you had every right to…I’m sorry Tony,” He ended in a mumble and glanced at his brother again. What was wrong with him?
[/div][/center]He heard his name and still didn’t move. At lest he wasn’t getting robbed. Really if he had then he would have to explain it all and that would have just been a big bother. When did he become so apathetic? Right after Anthony got out of the hospital…that was right. Luke took the time to spend every night there, making sure his bother was okay, worrying himself sick over the littlest thing. And what happened? Tony doesn’t bother to be at home. He don’t bother to be at work, he doesn’t even try to do anything to make this better.
Tony walked into the kitchen and Luke only watched him with the corner of his eye. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this. He wanted to be the little kid he never remembered being just give his brother a hug and ask him if he was okay, if he stayed safe, and if he had fun. Luke knew he couldn’t. He can’t keep letting his brother get away with this. Life was hard. And it seemed like the word was against their family, but that didn’t make it okay to just give up. For the first time he was going to be selfish. He was done with being the forgotten brother.
“hey”
Anthony took a set next to Luke and Luke finally looked up at his brother. It was hard to not just break down right then. He his hand still held onto the pen with a fist. He pen his hand and slapped the pen down. The thud of his palm hitting the note book sounded in the quite house. It was a harsh sound. Luke wasn’t sure if he even meant to do that. All he knew ws it was taking everything in him not to just open his mouth and go of.
“What makes this fair?” He spoke in a whisper, voice cracking just a bit. It hurt to talk right now. It had to happen. “What makes it okay for you to just give up? Why am I expected to be an adult when you can’t be one? And why the fuck do I have to feel like I’m dieing because my brother can’t even say thank you for staying with him in the hospital….because I don’t think it’s okay…I don’t want to sit here next to you…but Tony, I need you as much as you might not deserve it.”
Luke took time to glance down at the table then back up to his brother. He got it out. He got all of it out. He felt like an ass now. Tony had every right to do what he did. “I’m so sorry…” Luke then spoke quickly looking away from Tony again. Shit he was going to cry. “I didn’t mean…you had every right to…I’m sorry Tony,” He ended in a mumble and glanced at his brother again. What was wrong with him?
