RebelRose

This is my first ever story, I hope you all enjoy it. I'll be writing this off and on so don't expect an upload schedule untill i get more comfortable with it.

     “COME ON CHRIS!”  My brother’s voice boomed through the bathroom door. “YOU HAVE BEEN IN THERE FOR TWENTY MINUTES. GET THE FUCK OUT AND LET ME HAVE A TURN!”

      “Alright.” I sighed. “I’ll be out in a second.” 

       When I opened the door and stepped out, I barely had time to jump out of the way before Justin had shoved his way in. “Why the fuck do you even need to spend so much time in there in the mornings anyway? Just brush your teeth, take a piss and then go.” 

      He emphasized his point by taking out his toothbrush and toothpaste. “Guys don’t need to take that long in the bathroom. Like five minutes at most. Only girls ever spend that much time.” He said, as he stuck the brush in his mouth.

    “Uhh, yeah.” I stumbled through my words. 

    I had no idea how my brother turned out to be such an asshole about these kinds of things. Our parents weren’t necessarily the most kind people but they certainly never raised the two of us to be Misogynists.

    “Whatever, just get the fuck out.” My brother pushed me out the door and slammed it shut behind me. 

    I sighed and walked over to my room, or our room I should say. Ever since we moved to this apartment my brother and I have shared a room. It’s not that our apartment is especially small, it's a pretty good size for a family of four. We just shared a room so our dad could have the extra room as an office.

    Our father worked for a big shot tech company,he’d been spending the last 20 years helping to develop the world’s first fully immersive VR experience. So he needed an office space so he could continue to work from home on the system. He was one of the brains behind the code of the new VR apparatus, taking the scans of the human brain and making sure that the info being directly planted into it wouldn’t cause the subject harm. He also got to test the new headset prototypes to make sure they worked and were comfortable.

    As I got to the room Justin and I shared, I heard a door open at the end of the hall. I turned my head to see my mother, a scowl on her face as she stepped out of her and my fathers bedroom. 

    “You boys are being way too loud.” She said, gesturing wildly. “Your father had a long day at work yesterday and he’s still trying to sleep. Please keep it down.” 

    “Sorry Mom, Justin was just being an ass.” I said softly. Dad was a great man but was very overworked, so I made sure to do as she asked.

    Mom put her hands on her hips and gave me a stern look. “Christian Bryan Robinson, What have I told you about that Kind of language Mister?”

    I flinched at her words. “But I -” 

    “No but's Mister, I don't like you or your brother using that kind of language.”

    “Sorry Mom.” I looked down ashamedly.

    Her face softened and she walked over to me and pulled me into a hug. “I’m not actually mad at you hon. Now go get dressed, it's the last day of the semester.”

    I sighed and pulled away. Mom smiled at me as I went into my room.

    My half of the room was decorated

with the average nerdy posters and anime figurines. Justin’s half was boring, just a bunch of random sports stuff and trophies. At least my side had personality, It had badass girls with swords and guns on the walls and shelves. All his side had was some useless participation medals and trophies from when we were in grade school. 

    Justin was always good at sports which made our mom proud, she had been a track star in high school and college. Me? I was always better with tech and computers like my dad, we tended to bond over video games, comics, and sci-fi movies. He’d even been telling me about the new games his company had been working on. Those he was allowed to talk about at least. Mom and I never really had much of a relationship beyond the basic parent-child dynamic. She was always nice and motherly towards me, but she was always more into the things Justin would talk about than anything I liked. I always wished we could find something to bond over. 

    Maybe if I told her about- NO I can't tell them about that I don't know how they would take it. I thought to myself. Shaking my head. 

    I walked over to my side of the room and made sure to set the curtain snugly in place. It was always awkward for me to have Justin walk in and see me getting dressed every morning so I had insisted on the curtain a few years ago.

    Once the curtain was in place I got out of my pajamas, trying my hardest to not look down at myself. I always hated looking at my naked body. It was so awkward and things didn't look right. Maybe someday I would be able to fix that, but for now I had to deal with it. 

    After looking around to double check that I wouldn’t be interrupted, I lifted up my mattress to reveal my secret stash. I looked through the items and delicately chose a few that I thought might look nice. I then expertly placed the remaining items back into their positions, so as not to show when the mattress was on top of them. 

    At that point I heard my brother open the door to our room and it startled me. I hastily brought the mattress back down to hide everything, and rushed to hide the items I had already taken out in my bag.

    Just as I zipped my school bag closed Justin swept the curtain aside and moved to get in my face, not caring that I was currently shirtless.

    “Listen here you little shithead.” He whispered into my ear, fear coursing through me. “Don’t think I didn't hear that shit you said about me in the hall. Next time you want to insult me say it to my fucking face like a real man.” He shoved me back and I fell onto my bed.

 His eyes flicked down for a moment and then he looked me in the eyes and stepped closer, his bulky frame now towering over me. “Talk like that about me again and I'll make sure you aren't able to go to that summer internship with dad you won't shut up about.” 

The fear was evident on my face and he seemed to be satisfied with how uncomfortable he made me. He stared at me for another few agonizing seconds before turning around and going back to his side of the room, not bothering to put the curtain back. 

I sat there for a few seconds waiting for the beating of my heart in my ears to slow down. When I had calmed down enough, I stood up and put the curtain back in place. Checking again that my brother wasn’t looking, I went back to my bag and checked to make sure I had put everything in there before I finished getting dressed for my last day of classes for the semester.

After I dressed and grabbed my stuff I went out into the living room and into the kitchen not noticing my father sitting on the couch until he said something.

“Hey Kiddo, ready for your last day?” He said as I passed.

“I mean, it’s gonna be pretty much like any other day. Just turning in all of our end of semester assignments if we didn't send them in already. Most of the classes I'll only be in for like 15 minutes, so the professors can take attendance.” I replied as I got the bread out of the fridge to make myself some toast.

“You should be pretty excited though, right? I mean after this you only have one more year of classes before you graduate.” He put his finger up. “And you also are going to start that internship next week with my company. I know you have been very excited about getting to test all the new equipment that I've been working on. This will be a great opportunity for you to get introduced to connections too, they will help you to get a job quicker after you graduate.”

“Yeah I am really excited about that, I can't wait to see a real group of professionals at work. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll even get to try out a cool new VR game.” I started talking more and more excitedly, the fear my brother made me feel earlier all but forgotten now.

“Calm down Chrissy, I don't want you to get your hopes up for nothin’. There’s no guarantee they will pick you to test. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya’ though.” 

My chest did a little flutter when my dad called me that nickname, he's been calling me Chrissy since I was in first grade. Justin made fun of me for it of course, but I never asked Dad to stop. It was just something about that name that felt more right then the one I was originally given.

“Alright kiddo, I'd love to chat more but I've gotta go get ready for work now. Have a wonderful last day, I’ll see you when I get home from work.” He stood up and gave me a big hug.

I always loved getting hugs from my dad, he wasn't an overly large man but he was bigger than me and I always felt safe in his embrace.

“Thanks Dad!” I said, after I pulled away. “Have a good day at work.”

“See ya later Chrissy.”

I waved to my dad as he went back to his and Mom’s room while I finished my breakfast before heading out myself.

    Classes were just as boring as I expected them to be, Just sitting around for ten to twenty minutes while the professors made sure people were actually there. Not that we even needed to be there, most students skipped their final classes if they didn't need to present anything. 

    My first class was mostly empty except for the last few students that needed to present, of which I was among, this class and another class later in the day were the only ones I actually needed to be at the campus for. 

    Augmented Physics was actually a really fun class, our project was to create a hologram recreation of a moving landscape. We had to show how trees bend and wave in the wind or how a river moves through a tundra or something like that. I chose to make a recreation of an avalanche. It wasn’t perfect but it was passable enough to earn me a decent grade.

    The next 2 classes were just attendance because we had all turned in our assignments earlier in the week, and my last class was extremely boring. Public speaking was a required course, I absolutely hated it and I had to sit through everyone’s speeches even though I presented mine in the previous class. The Professor had this grading system that basically had all the other students rate the presentation and we all got a grade for being able to describe the subject of the speech. The speaker would also get a grade based on the ratings of the other students. I always thought it was just because the professor was lazy, and wanted us to do the grading for him.

    When the day was finally over I headed straight home, the bus ride was not too bad other than the smelly guy sleeping on the back bench.

    Justin’s car is here? He must not have work today. I thought to myself noticing my brother’s charger sitting in his parking space.

    When I stepped inside I noticed that something felt wrong. Justin is never this quiet. Did some of his friends come to pick him up?  I thought as I took my windbreaker off and put it on the coat rack. Right next to Justin’s.

    “Hey Justin you home?” I called out into the apartment.

    “In the Bedroom.” I heard him call out in return.

    Why is he in the bedroom? Usually he’s on the couch watching sports or NASCAR. I walked down to our bedroom and went to put my bag in its spot when I saw it.

    My mattress was flipped against the wall. Oh no! And my brother was standing in the center of the room staring at me, an evil grin on his face. A flowery dress in his hands.

    “Hey there you little shit, look what I found in your stuff.”