I'd been living at home way too long.
...
As I walked in the front door of my parents' house, our little dog greeted me with all the enthusiasm of the walnut-brained, but I could care less. I was ready to move on. I'd graduated from college a year ago and opted to move back in with my folks to save money while I started working. At first, I loved coming home to my mom's dinner on the table, a large, clean house, and my laundry folded on my bed, but as the year wore on, the suburban monotony grated on me. Most of my friends still lived in their college towns, so I spent my evenings reading in my room, working out at the gym, or fucking around on the computer. I wasn't lonely... But I was bored.
Dinner that night was ordinary. My mother asked Dad about his day at the office, he complained about his employees, and I chimed in every so often with a smartass remark. It was pleasant but uneventful. As I helped my mom clear the plates from the table, we heard a knock on the front door. I kept loading the dishwasher as Mom went to answer it.
I heard an excited yelp from the front hallway. Oh, god. Who could it be but Matt, my stepbrother?
My mother married my stepfather when I was about 6 years old. It was the second marriage for both of them and an argument in favor of trying again after a garbage first marriage. It wasn't without its trials, of course, which came mostly in the form of Dad's first wife's bullshit. She rarely allowed him to see Matt when we were kids, and that drove him almost to his breaking point on a number of occasions. Now that we were adults, and Jan (the first wife) couldn't dig her talons in so deep, Matt was making his own efforts to spend more time with Dad. This was a good thing... for Dad.
My relationship with Matt, however, was always sort of fraught. We were competitive. We were often at each other's throats when we dignified each other's presence with attention. I think we'd gotten along as young children, but puberty shoved us in different directions.
So Matt was here. Great. My mom totally fawned over this kid, and Dad tried to make up for what he viewed as his past failings by giving him everything he could now. All I knew was that this meant I was in for some annoying dinners staring at his smug face. As I resigned myself to this fact, I finished loading the dishwasher and turned around.
He was leaning against the doorway of the kitchen, staring at me.
"Oh... Hey. So, what the hell are you doing here?" Why was I acting like such a bitch? He was (technically) my brother, after all, but just the sight of him stirred me up.
"Hah. I got some time off work, so I thought I'd come visit you guys for a bit." I could only hope that "a bit" mean just the few days left during the week so he wouldn't be hanging around while I tried to relax on the weekend.
"Cool... Well, I've got some shit to do. 'night."
I sauntered past him to climb the stairs to my room. Halfway up the stairs, I looked down and saw him, still staring at me from the doorway of the kitchen. Okay, asshole. Whatever.
I spent that night wallowing in my annoyance with the fact of his presence in the house. Why the fuck was he here? And why the hell was it bothering me so much?
The next day was business as usual. I almost forgot about him because he was still asleep when I went off to work. When I got home, though, he was there, lounged on the couch like he owned the place.
"Hey. Good day at work?" He couldn't have looked less interested in a response. I think he was watching "Cops". Riveting.
"Yeah, it was fine, blah, blah, blah. I take it you spent the whole day like this?"
"Yup."
"Right." I rolled my eyes and went up to my room.
We made it through dinner alright. The parents were so happy he was there that it was kind of cute. It even warmed my heart, a little, to see Dad like that. Okay, I thought. I will tolerate your presence.
We decided to do some good old fashioned family television watching. NewsHour, of course. We were a PBS family—none of this "American Idol" bullshit. So we sat on the couch, and I paid a little attention to the TV but mostly enjoyed my family's colorful commentary. The parents got sleepier and turned to their respective easy chairs for crossword puzzles and magazine-reading. I curled up on the couch with my current book. Matt was flipping channels.
Eventually, Matt and I were left alone as Mom and Dad headed to bed. It was quiet. I guess Matt had picked up a magazine or something—I don't know. He was reading. I was reading. We were curled at opposite ends of the long velvet couch my father inherited from his mother.
My eyes were getting heavy in the dense prose of my book when I felt something touch my foot. For the briefest of moments, I thought it might be the dog.
My body went rigid. Matt's warm hand was resting on my toes.
I felt paralyzed. From the corner of my eye I could see that he was sitting there, one hand holding his magazine, one hand on my foot, looking totally absorbed in his reading. Casual.