Post by Alex Jones on Feb 9, 2018 22:20:20 GMT -5
Dallas Texas
11 years ago.
It was a beautiful mid-August day in the suburbs of Dallas. The sun beat down. The heat was high but low humidity as a warm summer breeze moves through the trees and across the grass. Cars kept pulling up to the small house and people dressed in black slowly shuffled into the house past an older woman, her face covered with a black veil as they all stopped to offer words of sympathy. Drowned out by the gravity of the situation. A tall blond woman sat next to the older one, Her hands in her lap as she stared forward.
Sitting alone to the side, his legs up and crossed on a white painted beam is Alex Jones. Much younger than we see him now. No beard or color in his hair. It sits tied back out of his fresh boyish face, his upper body slender and undefined hidden under a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie. He lifts a beer to his lips sipping it with a shake of the head, The blond looks over and sighs deeply. Alex turns and looks out onto the street as more seem to be coming, a boy much younger than him but looking oddly similar stands with a few older people, they all talk to him, offer words of kindness and support.
He didn’t even hear her footsteps, her voice cutting through the haze. “I know it’s a wake but would it kill you to look like you cared about Dad?” Charlene “Charlie” Jones, Alex’s younger sister stood next to him. She was physically big for her age, at 15 she stood 5’9, only slightly shorter than her older brother, athletically gifted with a kind face and bright blue eyes much like his own. Alex sat there taking another sip of beer, a sigh coming after the mouthful. “It seems like when you die your sins are absolved and everyone seems to forget what a royal asshole you were….”
The words spit like venom, anger and frustration behind them as he noticed the young boy crying. Dylan Jones, or DJ. he was 13, he wiped his eyes turning from the group of relatives and well wishers, no one noticed the tears. No one except Alex and Charlie. “He’s not taking it well Alex.” He scoffed and shook his head. His mind drifting to another place he’d rather be, far away from all the mess he’d left behind. A place with a certain pale girl with long black hair and a mean look in her eye that seemed to disappear when Alex smiled. “And what do you want me to do Charlie?. The old man is gone, nothing will bring him back and honestly...I wouldn’t want him here anyway….” Alex shook his head again kicking his legs off the bannister, a few small white paint chips fell to the floor and Alex turned to his sister.
“He wasn’t the same man Alex, he changed. He knew the mistakes he made and he-” “Oh fucking stop Charlie.” It was said louder than Alex had intended, it rang out through the house and out onto the porch. The older woman obviously their mother looked up shocked. Alex sighed and turned away taking another sip of his beer. Charlie shook her head and looked at it. “Continuing the family legacy I see…” Alex ground his teeth together and looked down and away, his hand gripping the glass bottle as he noticed Dylan, his younger brothers eyes staring a hole right through him.
“He never forgave you for leaving.” Alex shook his head and finished the beer throwing the bottle down into the trashcan on the ground below the patio. “Yeah, the old man told me not to come back, remember?” Alex’s mind flashed back to that night, the sound of the glass bottle breaking in the small trashcan taking him back to that moment, the small scar on his cheek burning with the memory or glass shattering off the wall and hitting his face. “No Alex...not Dad…”
Her head moved slightly motioning back down to Dylan who had now looked away and focused elsewhere. Alex sighed again and swallowed hard. “You’re putting all this on me?. I don’t need this sis…” Alex pushed up and away making his way into the house as Charlie followed, Alex made it to his old room but before he could close the door Charlie stepped in. “I didn’t say we were done” Her voice was low and filled with hate. Alex raised an eyebrow and stepped back surprised. “You don’t get it, when you walked out you weren’t just getting away from Dad you walked out on us...me...mom..Dyl….”
“You left us Alex, you stood there and took the abuse and even though Dad stopped drinking last year, how do you think it was before that?” Charlie snarled, her eyes filling with tears, her hands shaking along with her voice and breathing. “Who do you think he took his abuse out on?. It wasn’t mom, it wasn’t me….he needs you Alex….” He looked down and balled his hands into fists, his stomach aching as his heart seemed to drop into it. He swallowed hard and again his mind flashed back to her.
“You don’t understand, I have...I have a life Charlie.” His sister shakes her head and steps forward taking his hands in hers. “It’s family, our family. Our brother, mom, me. We need you….what do you have there?...a job?..friends?...a girl?...” Alex twitched, Charlie scoffed knowing the answer with a sigh. “No piece of ass is worth abandoning your family, if it was meant to be you’ll be together someday. But right now...right now your place is here…” She calmed herself and have him a kiss on the cheek turning to leave. Alex sat on his old bed, his hands under his chin.
"Fuck"
