Thomas POV

Have you ever felt like taking a huge shovel, dig a big and deep grave, then with the same shovel give yourself a nice hit in the head? Yes? Good, at least I'm not the only one here. The sole thing that matters in these circumstances is that the death is instant, like 'boom' dead. I mean, apart from the amount of time we would waste, none of us wants to suffer, right? Maybe I could go to Japan and just lay on the rails of one of their hyper-speed trains, did you know that those little bastards run at 320 kilometers per hour?! I bet I wouldn't feel anything. But now you must be confused, so I'll just start from the beginning. Hi, my name is Thomas, and I am a loser.

When you think about a happy and kind family, do you picture something like this?

Man: "Are you implying that I don't care about him?!"

Woman: "I'm not implying it, I'm saying it!"

Man: "If you cared a fuck about his future, then you would be by my side with this!"

Woman: "I do care about his goddamn future! But I also care about being fucking realistic!"

Man: "What do you even mean with that?!"

Woman: "He will never take over your ridiculus auto company! He will be a doctor-"

Man: "Like your father, am I right?! Oh my God, it's always the same shit with you!"

Nah, I bet you don't. Well, too bad because this is mine. And these were the usual conversations held by my and Krista's parents when they talked about me. By the way, Krista is my little sister, not that our age gap is that much, or even existing since we are siblings, but she established that I was the big brother and she was the little sister, strange right? Anyway, back to the topic. Usually my father would say that my future was the auto company he allmighty built all by himself, while my mother would say how ridiculus that idea was, because I, of course, would've been a doctor, just like her divine dad was. I hated watching my parents fight over this things, over who knew better how my future would've looked like, always leaving my opinions out of the entire conversation. I mean, it's not the best when a seven-year old boy hears his mother call his father 'pathetic', nor was it any better when he hears his father call his mother 'bitch', but hey, that's life. When they didn't argue about that, my mother or my father would confront the other about his or her most recent betrayal, and I'm quite sure that both of them had a nice assortment of flings and one night stands. But my favourite part was when they tried to introduce them to me and Krista, because at least I could scare them a little

"My daddy said you have a flat chest."

"Mommy says you have a stinky breath."

"Oh, so you're what daddy calls 'whore'?"

"I pooped in your bag, mommy said it's okay."

"Since I love spiders I put one on your head, do you like him?"

Yeah, I was a little asshole to pick on them because, well, they didn't technically do anything bad, but hey, can you blame me? You don't bring your one night stand to meet your seven-year old troublemaker son and pretend that he stays put, besides, it was a nice way of making Krista smile.

In those moments when our parents would fight harshly, or when mom and dad would slap me or just straight up beat me for my bad behaviour with their flings, or when they used to say "If we had enough money, we would pay someone to take you away from here!" or "You ruined my chance of a happy life!" or something like that, the usually good and nice mood of Krista would turn into a sad and depressed one, and I couldn't blame her for that. It was in those times that I would start to think about how life in our house was since she had memory: constant fights over even the smallest things and, of course, the big things that, overtime, became everyday things, like beating a seven-year old child because he didn't like that you just couldn't keep it in your pants and start working on your marriage instead of, literally, fucking around.

Aniway, back to the present. I was currently sitting in my room hugging my knees against my chest, with my head on them, currently hearing my parents shout about me and my future, and I couldn't but blame myself for their fights: I know it's something I shouldn't do, but it's difficult not to do it when you're the subject of every single fucking fight. It was so painful to witness to something like this on a daily basis, so much that I ended up constantly looking down and cry silently alone in my room. Yeah, cry, I know that it's something a man doesn't have to do, at least it's what my father said to me, and in any case I never saw him cry, so I figured it had to be true, but I wasn't like him: I was so pathetically sensitive I could puke. Literally, I overthought practically everything, and even the smallest of things could potentially make me cry, and I hated it. And I didn't want anyone to know I was crying, not my parents, nor my sister, most of all my little sister: I wanted to protect her in the best way, and crying in front of her wasn't the best way to do it.

She was currently in the bathroom brushing her teeth. Even if she didn't want me to know that she too was hurt by all of this, I wasn't stupid: I knew that she hated watching our parents fight, bring in their flings, and beat me. So day after day I would ask her to play outside or draw with me, or even ask her if she wanted to put our mother's makeup on me, something that always made her laugh; to put everything in short terms, I would do anything to make her happy and to distract her from the shitty situation we were in at home, while at the same time Krista would show me a happy face to let me know that she wasn't sad at all, despite she actually was. The two of us would always protect eachother, this was an untold agreement that we had, and sweared to respect.

Narrator POV

Krista wiped her tears and got out of the bathroom to see her brother's room's door slightly open. She got near and heard a few sobs escaping him, sobs that were almost muffled by her parents' screaming, but not for her: from her perspective it were those screams that were muffled by her brother's sobs. Her big brother...she of course suffered from the neverending conflicts exploding in their house, but her brother was the one recieving the biggest hit from everything, because added to this, he also recieved continues pressures, he was filled with expectations about his future, and he was only 7 years old, she could only imagine what she would have to endure when he would grow up. As Thomas heard the door open with an annoying noise, he turned around from his spot on the ground at the center of his room, with his eyes red and puffy, and tears staining his cheeks. As soon as he saw his sister's distraught expression, he quickly wiped his tears away and forced a smile on his face, then with a slightly cracked voice said

Thomas: "Hey, sorry I just...hit my toe, nothing to worry about. Are you ready for school?"

Krista wasn't stupid, she knew why he was crying, but she also knew why he was lying: he wanted to protect her, to try to keep her as happy as he could, he would always put her happyness before his, he was this selfless. She too forced a smile on her face and nodded, signaling for him that she was indeed ready. Thomas then got up, put on his backpack, took her sister's hand and walked with her downstares, towards the booming voices of their mom and dad. They stood awkwardly on the first step of the stairs and looked at their parents arguing

Dad: "You just always know what's fucking best, right?!"

Mom: "Actually I do! And I won't allow you to mess up his future just because of some dumb 'father-to-son' tradition you're trying establish!"

Dad: "Are you seriously talking about tradition when you want him to be a doctor like your father?!"

Mom: "Oh my God I swear I just can't put up with you!"

Dad: "For once I fucking agree with you!"

Thomas: "Mom! Dad!"

Thomas had to gather every once of strength to interrupt their banter, and when they both turned to look at them both, he stammered

Thomas: "W-We have school..."

Just then their mother turned sharply her head towards her husband and said

Mom: "Perfect! Now be useful for once and drive my children to school."

Dad: "OUR children! Never forget that! *sigh* C'mon guys, let's go."

The three of them got in the car, Krista and Thomas sitting beside eachother and holding hands the entire time.

The drive to school was silent, you could hear a penny dropping on the ground. Thomas used this time to imagine a completely different life: him, his sister, a nice and comfy house, a dog playing with them in the garden outside while their parents hugged and kissed eachother watching the scene from the porch, he was given the freedom to choose what to do in life, and Krista didn't cry, neither one of them was sad, because they had a perfect family, in a perfect house...a perfect life. He was snapped out of his thoughts when their father told them to enjoy their first day of school, and in that moment Thomas noticed that the car was parked just in front of their school.

They both said their goodbyes to their father and got out of the car. The two children looked at their school with a bit of nervousness, especially Krista, and Thomas noticed it. He then saw a banana peel in the ground, right in front of the school and also in front of every student that was going inside, and he knew just what to do: he walked with confidence purposely on the peel, falling instantly on his back with a loud thud. Everyone who saw him started laughing, but when he turned around he noticed that Krista too was laughing while apologising for it to him. Thomas got up on his feet and walked towards his sister with a smile on his face

Krista: "Why did you do that?"

Thomas: "You're smiling, aren't you?"

Krista hugged him tightly

Krista: "Thank you, big brother."

Thomas chuckled at her and said

Thomas: "Krista, we have the same age."

Krista looked up at his brother

Krista: "I don't care: you're my big brother, and I'm your little sister!"

They both laughed at that and hugged for a bit more, then they parted and started walking towards the entrance of the school.

Krista's first half of the school day was not so bad: she made a few friends, the teachers loved her...all in all it was a nice start. The same couldn't be said about her brother: the boys picked on him because he had huge glasses, and maybe they didn't like his Spongebob T-shirt, or his short haircut, or the fact that he was very shy with the new people, plus the fact that he fell on a banana's peel right at the entrance didn't help making him look cool. Apart from the boys', he was also the girls' target, and he noticed from the various whispers following his every step. The only ones appreciating him were the teachers, that noticed right away how kind, nice and intelligent Thomas was.

Lunch came, and the two children, once taken their food, walked outside and approached a few tables. Of course Krista was always welcomed, but the same couldn't be said for little Thomas, who was always given the smug eye, a basic way to say "We don't want weird losers at our table.", so Krista and Thomas decided to eat on their own.

Once the meal was finished, they were about to go back inside, but in that moment Krista saw something on the ground, she shook her brother's arm and pointed a finger towards the thing she saw

Krista: "Thomas look!"

Thomas narrowed his eyes, trying to find what she was pointing at

Thomas: "What? What do you see?"

Krista took his hand and started to drag him

Krista: "Here, come with me!"

Krista dragged him towards the grass, where she picked up a little strange animal. Thomas tried so hard to understand what the thing was, but the only thing he got from it was that it was small, black, and had some hair

Thomas: "What the hell is that?!"

Krista slapped his arm

Krista: "Thomas! Mommy said no swearing! Now come on, we've got to-"

And right at that moment, Krista saw a girl hitting the nearby the metal fence with an umbrella continuosly, so she started to walk towards her, with Thomas following her and not understanding where was she headed, then she stopped and said to the girl

Krista: "Excuse me?"

Thomas moved his gaze up and saw the girl Krista was talking to, she was a petite brunette girl with wavy hair and a frown on her face, it was like she had a very bad day

Krista: "Can you move?"

Krista walked forward and stood in front of the metal fence gate, still holding the...whatever it was in her hands, then she asked the girl

Krista: "You want to hold him?"

Then Thomas, perplexed, asked

Thomas: "Wait, how do you know it's a 'him', it could be a 'her'."

Krista: "But he's not pretty, so it has to be a 'him'."

Thomas mocked offence and hurt by putting his right hand on his heart

Thomas: "Ouch, sis..."

Which Krista laughed at, while the brunette hesitantly picked up "him" and smiled a bit at their playful banter, Krista then saw the brunette picking "him" up, and said

Krista: "But don't squash him."

The brunette, then, talked for the first time in front of them

???: "Hi, guy."

Thomas thought to himself 'What a pretty voice', but he didn't think about it for too long.

Krista: "If you want, you can be his other mom with me, while my brother is his dad."

Thomas: "Since when I'm 'his' dad?"

Krista turned around and answered him

Krista: "Since I picked it up."

The brunette then, visibly startled, said

???: "Really? I gonna be your other mom and take such good care of you.

Thomas POV

Yeah, parenting didn't last too long, since the girl, whose name I learned was Nadine, managed to suffocate...whatever that thing even was...inside of her pencil box. Well, honestly I didn't feel ready to be a dad aniway, so that was cool, most of all because now Krista and I had a new friend, someone else besides eachother to spend our time with. That day we made a vow

Thomas: "Okay, now place your hands on top of mine."

They did just that, and then I continued, while looking at them in the eyes

Thomas: "Here, now, we vow to eachother that we're gonna be besties 'till death do us part, let's say it together."

Thomas/Krista/Nadine: "Besties 'till death do us part!"

Looking back at that day, I wish things were simpler...