My Amazing Family

"Damn that child," I heard my father mutter under his breath, obviously aiming it at me "I can't understand where we went wrong with you, Ezequiel. Why can't you just try to be more like Leon?" he said, raising his voice slightly with each word. The whole dinner table fell silent at my father's question, including me. I could see my older brother Leon glaring at my father, not even trying to hide his anger, "Darling, now is not the time to argue..." said my mother, purposefully hinting towards the window where the neighborhood kids were playing. She knew they could hear my father too.

I was never the golden child of our family, nor was Leon, but turns out the reason my father was upset with me was because he heard I skipped school with some friends. We never really skipped school though, we just hid in the bathrooms. My mother couldn't be bothered by my father's actions towards me or my brother. As long as my mother was smoking her cigarettes, she was in her own little world even forgetting she had children or a husband.

Leon was the only person I could talk to at home, but the majority of the time it had just been me and my dog, Cooper, who happened to be a 3-year-old Saint Bernard. I truly couldn't believe my father allowed me to get a dog, but it was a good thing he did otherwise I would be completely alone when my brother was out of the house.

"Are you okay, E?" Leon had said standing in the doorway of my room, I assume he was referring to dinner because I answered in the most sarcastic way I could think of," Oh yeah, one hundred percent fine" Though afterwards I felt a bit guilty taking it out on Leon "Listen, I'm sorry about this whole situation," he admitted, while looking around my room with a deep sigh "Hey, is this your girlfriend?" with his eyes fixed on a Polaroid picture of me and a girl. I never told him or anybody really, mainly because he would not really care about grade 10 drama,"Yeah that's Tulip," I thought of pointing out how cool she is, but decided to hold back. "You two look cute together" Leon said grinning in amusement. I wish I had something to carry on the conversation, but before I could carry on, Leon had already decided to go back to his room.

From time to time I feel so alone when not being able to hear my brother's voice or that silly old nickname 'E' he gave to me when I was 6. I was kind of glad to realise he never stopped calling me that, it was really comforting to hear. As always I'm not exactly excited for when he turns 20, because then he will move out and I'll be alone with Cooper again.

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