dchseventeen

..Faith sat in the big office just off the bedroom and dug through the papers in the file cabinet. Looking for something specific, and nothing in particular all at the same time. She was sure she could find something in here about what had gone on in the past, the problem was there was so much to go through and so little time. She had no idea how long Mike would be gone and she had seen this as her golden opportunity. It wasn�t often that she was alone in the house, she had never come into this office when he wasn�t there, and she felt funny, like he was looking over her shoulder, like he knew exactly what she was doing. Carefully replacing each file to the place where she had found it, so as not to raise suspicions later, she thumbed through more and more until her hands came to rest on a file towards the back of the cabinet marked 1984. The file was labeled cryptically as �medical records (other)�.

Mike pulled Brandon out into the hallway, preparing to do battle with this up-start, for coming here and upsetting his family, for coming here and upsetting his mother, for coming here and upsetting Carmen. He felt the door that had closed behind him open again and the swoosh of his mother following them out into the hallway.

�What are you doing here?�   Mike demanded agrily of Brandon.

�Don�t you talk to him like that.� His mother yelled. Mike felt her come at him, but he simply stood there waiting. He felt the slap, the sting, but no tears came to his eyes in spite of the sting of her hand� instead remorse and guilt flooded his soul. He didn�t say a word as he swung around grabbing Brandon once again and dragging him towards the doors of the hospital exit. �Get BACK HERE with that boy.� His mother demanded. But Mike had already left the hospital, ignoring the reporters, angrily pushing his way past them Brandon in tow, like he had never in his life done before, he was like a man possessed and the reports moved to let him past, the look on his face was fearsome, different from anything they had ever come to expect from the man before them.   This was a man they weren�t anxious to cross.

In Carmen�s apartment the two adults stared at each other with icey determination forgetting for a moment the object of their anger for each other at the time. But just as Brandon was about to slip away to the safety of his bedroom� the phone rang and broke the trance between Mike and Carmen.

Tami had searched the site, searched her many email addresses� looked for him on messenger, nothing. For over twenty-four hours Bryan had remained uncharacteristically silent, that just wasn�t like him. She dug through her files looking for the little slip of paper that she had scribbled on�. Surely she would find it, she had promised herself she wouldn�t use it. She had spoken to him several times before but always when he had called her, never having used the number he had given her, he seemed rather elusive at times, she wanted to give him his space, but damn she was worried. Finding that little slip of paper felt like a gold strike as she hurried to power down the computer so she could use the phone.

�Hello!�

Tami held the phone away from her ear for a second as the angry male voice that did NOT sound anything like Bryan came on the line.

�Bryan?� She was sure this wasn�t the man she knew, but he had never spoken of another man there maybe she had the wrong number.

�There�s no Bryan here, you have the wrong number!� Still shouting Mike was about to slam the receiver down to the waiting phone base, but Brandon stopped him�

�Don�t! That�s for me.� His arms swung in the air as he grabbed for the phone that Mike swung up and out of his reach�.

�Who the hell is BRYAN?   Who is this woman?� He took the boy in front of him by the sleeves and shook him. �Who have you been talking too?� The anger flashed in his brown eyes, he felt himself loosing control and tried to count himself down to a more calm state before he did something he truly would regret.

�She�s just a friend, please, Dad, please.� Brandon grabbed again for the phone missing just as Mike swung the receiver down to bang on the base.

Tami just stared at the phone in her hand as the bang still rung in her ears and the sound of the new dial tone began to ring through it.

�Dad?� did he say Dad? She thought she had remembering him once say his father wasn�t around, she thought he had lived alone. He had told her he was 26, not too unusual for a 26 year-old to live at home with his parents but it never seemed like that, and she knew Bryan had never mentioned parents before except for the passing comments about his father�s absence.

�Michael. Stop.� Carmen pleaded for him to ease up.

�What do you know about this person calling here?� Mike looked at her again with an angry glare ready to melt her, Carmen was a hard woman to fight with, she didn�t back down and she was strong and confident, more so in the last 10 years or so than she had ever been in the beginning, and even then she had been a wild force to recon with when she was mad. �What have you let this boy do?�

�I haven�t LET him do anything. YOU don�t know that he has done anything, the boy has got FRIENDS you know� maybe you don�t. Do you know what it means to have FRIENDS Mike?� She wasn�t playing fair and she knew it, but she was used to winning arguments, with any means necessary. Now was no exception.

�Very funny. This is no joke Carmen. I�m not gonna be put in a position to defend myself AGAIN do you understand me?�

�I understand you perfectly Mike.� She turned and her long brown hair whipped around behind her. �You have Prince and Paris� no need to muddle things up with Brandon.� She felt the remorse at the words the minute they came flying out of her mouth, not at having said it to Mike, but having said it with Brandon in the room. She could see his face fall at the mention of his half brother and sister, without even looking around at him.
�Brandon.� She said as she turned back to find him, to grab him and hold him before the pain sank in, but it was too late the tears were in his eyes already, so instead she began to beat on Michael�s chest. �It�s all your fault. Get out! Get out, get out, get OUT of my house.� She pushed him to the door but he stopped her and grabbed her hands to keep them from punching him any further.

�I know it is.� He pulled her close to him but she pushed him away, heading for the bedroom door that had slammed shut behind her retreating son. She pounded on the locked door and heard the modem dialing up.

�Damn. No getting through to him now, the internet was his release. It seemed to carry him through the pain and she had never stopped him but now she wished that she had not allowed the locks on the doors. �Brandon open this door!�

Mike came up behind her but she pushed him away.

�Now what�s he doing?� Mike asked with the disgust plainly unmasked in his voice.

Carmen was in no mood to have to defend her son to his own father at that moment and she pushed him away hard enough to hear him bang against the opposite wall in the hallway.

�He�s doin what he always does to escape the prison you�ve sentenced him to.�

�Please� So mellowdramatic� a Prison? Really�. I would think with the support I�ve given you that it would hardly be a prison. Although this apartment does seem abit like a prison, why are you living here anyway? I KNOW you don�t have to, I�ve sent you checks every month.�

�Checks every month don�t make a home Mike. He needed someone here every night, not an envelope in the mail once a month.�

Tami says

�Are you okay?�

The pink fushia letters ran across the screen

Brandon says

�Yeah. I�m okay. Sorry about before.�
Tami says

�Who was that? I thought
for a minute I had the wrong
number.�

Brandon says

�Betcha wish you had.
That was my father, he
Just showed up, don�t
Worry. Doesn�t happen
Often.�

Tami says

�Okay, not to change the
subject, but I think I�ve
finally gotten the letter
written.�

Brandon sat back and looked at the screen� changed the subject, if only his old friend knew how much on the subject she was. His fingers ached to tell her, to open up to someone, he knew he couldn�t, but he ached to do it, he yearned for a release, one that his mother could never provide. She tried, but she still loved his father too much to ever allow anything but positive remarks come from her lips. Then again, perhaps an avid fan wouldn�t be the one to tell either, but there had to be someone he could talk to, suddenly he felt he had to talk to someone before he totally fell apart.