Blackbird Week 3 - Story Post 2

[esotheriasims]

The atmosphere in the Blackbird house over the following days was… awkward, to say the least. Everyone was seemingly going about their own business, but Annika could feel the tension between her brother and herself almost like a physical sensation: Marcus spoke little, answered her questions with curt, brusque one-liners, and generally seemed distant and mopey. He’d never been much fun to begin with, always wearing his Serious Older Brother status like a prideful old maid - but this was a whole new level of passive-aggressiveness, even by Marcus’ standards, and Annika wasn’t blind to it. Especially in a house as small as theirs, where it was impossible to avoid each other.

So she decides to corner him one day and find out what the heck has gotten into him, lest she lose her own sanity. 

Annika: “Okay Mr. Mopey-Dopey, out with it. What’s wrong?”



Marcus rolled his eyes at the inane moniker and let out a small snort (and it was the first time in days he did anything even resembling a smile), but then quickly settled back into his usual gloomy mood.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said simply, already starting to turn away from her, but then he remembered the nickname again with a disgusted look on his face and added: “Mr. Mopey-Dopey? Really?”

“Yes, really”. Annika cocked her head to one side in a dramatic manner, pulling a teasing grimace at her brother. She knew full well that Marcus probably thought that she was being an annoying brat right now, but there was no way she was letting him pull his usual derisive tactics now that she actually had him talking to her. They were having this conversation even if he hated her by the end of it.

“It’s not ‘nothing’, I’m not dumb! So what is it, huh? Huh? HUH??”. Annika poked her brother’s bicep harder with every new 'huh’, earning her an angry glare and a swat of the hand. 



Marcus: “Ow, STOP IT! Gosh, you’re such a brat! Why don’t you go annoy your precious boyfriend and leave me alone?!”



And there it was: the root of all of Marcus’ pent-up frustrations. Not that Annika couldn’t have guessed it on her own, but hearing him say it out loud still felt like a small victory. “My boyfriend, huh? You mean your best friend Phillip?”, she asked, donning a sly smirk.

“He’s not my friend”, her now flustered brother spat with disdain. 

“Since when?”, Annika pressed.

“Since…“, glaring at his sister, Marcus was evidently having an internal debate over whether to keep the following words to himself. But the temptation of actually saying out loud that which has been plaguing him all these days proved too great to ignore. “Since you both betrayed my trust!”, he finally retorted, then let out a long, ragged sigh, like he just dropped a big sack of grain from his shoulders.
 
Annika couldn’t help roll her own eyes now. Marcus wasn’t a bad guy by any means, but he could be such a gigantic stick-in-the-mud sometimes. She knew he carried a chip on his shoulder ever since he found out about her and Phillip dating, but what exactly about it frustrated him so much, Annika couldn’t possibly fathom. Was Marcus really hypocritical enough to think that Phillip was good enough to be his buddy, but not good enough to be Annika’s boyfriend? And if that wasn’t the problem, then what was it? She certainly wasn’t buying that dumb 'betrayal’ excuse even for a second - as far as Annika was concerned, it was just a cover-up for the real reason, and she could only think of one plausible one.



“Oh Marky, why are you so jealous? We can both hang out with Phil, it’s not an either-or thing!” She hung herself around her brother’s neck like a baby chimpanzee, nearly toppling him. Dumbass or not, Marcus was still her brother, and despite her better judgement, she still loved him.

“I am NOT jealous!”, he broke free of the hug and pushed her away, putting a bit more force into it than he’d meant to. “You just don’t get it, do you? This isn’t about jealousy! It’s about me worrying out of my damn mind because my barely-14-years-old moron of a sister is sneaking around with horny dudes without so much as a second thought for her own safety!”



Annika stood with her mouth agape. Whatever turn she’d been expecting the conversation to take, this certainly wasn’t it. Did her brother really just say 'horny dudes’? “Uh, I’m almost 15,”  she tried to correct, but Marcus wasn’t in the mood for semantics.



Marcus: “How do you not get it?? Guys that age only want woohoo and nothing else! And yes, your precious Phillip is no different! I’ve heard him talk about 'bedding lasses’ at least a million times! I’ve overheard YOU and him talk about woohoo in the dining room that day too, for the record, so don’t even try to play dumb with me!” 

Annika’s entire face was now a bright, burning shade of crimson. Goddammit, she really should have kept her voice down.



“But of course he doesn’t care about the consequences, because it won’t be him who’ll get knocked up and shamed for not being careful enough!”, Marcus continued to lecture. “That’s gonna be all on you! But have you thought of that? No, of course you haven’t! You don’t even know where to get birth control here - hell, I bet you don’t even know what birth control is! You’re still just a big, dumb baby trying to act all grown up!”



The unexpected insult coupled with the sheer awkwardness of the whole conversation was simply too much for Annika to handle. Was she really standing there, listening to her stupid brother rant about bedding lasses and birth control and getting knocked up? But the most frustrating part of it all was that, in her short-circuiting state of mind, Annika didn’t know what to say to any of it. All she could think of was stare at her older brother in utter shock and disbelief.

Frustrated tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes; she was not going to cry, she was not, shewasnotshewasnot. The last thing she wanted right now was to give this asshole that happened to be born into the same family as her proof that she actually was a baby like he accused. But the thought came too late - the floodgates had already opened. 



Marcus: “Oh, Annika! I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”



All of the aggravation Marcus had felt just moments ago had instantly vanished at the sight of his crying sister. He rushed to her side and put a protective arm around her violently shaking shoulders.

Marcus: “Hey, I didn’t mean that at all; you’re not a baby and you can date whoever you want, all right?”

“Like I need your permission,” she countered with an angry sniff, simultaneously trying to punch Marcus and wipe the tears off her face, not really succeeding at either. “You can be a real jackass sometimes, you know that?” 

“Yeah, I know. I’m totes a jackass. A mega jackass, even. Jackass extraordinaire. King of all jackasses”, Marcus was reciting softly, still squeezing his tearful sister in a tight embrace. Her soft sobs were slowly being replaced by giggles. “But I’m also your big bro who cares about you and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you, okay?” 



“Gee Marky, don’t get all cheesy on me now”, Annika chided playfully and smacked her brother across the shoulder, finally freeing herself from his embrace. Her tone was dismissive but not hostile, and Marcus knew that the show she was putting on was just an attempt to recuperate her hurt pride. He hated himself for losing tact and making her cry, but the point he was trying to get across was important and he hoped that he’d managed to drive it home.

“Date whoever you want, but please promise me that you’ll be careful,” he called out after his sister, who was now idly prancing around the living area and mostly ignoring Marcus’ presence.
She slowly turned around.

Annika: “Marcus?”

Marcus: “Yes?”



She flipped him off, then burst out laughing.