It was hard to deal with, even a year later.
Ghino and Fabian hardly saw their dad anymore; he was in his room or at a bar or at the cemetery. Fabian, setting his sights on college by now, had two things in his life: school and Ghino. As soon as Ghino got home from school, Fabian would do whatever Ghino wanted to do for two hours, and then he'd help Ghino with his homework, and then do his own homework.
He didn't have many friends, let alone a girlfriend or even thinking about having a girlfriend. There was a girl he had his eye on, but it was the tragic case of she-doesn't-know-he-exists, so he didn't bother. He was busy enough with Ghino, who was missing both a mother and a father.
Ghino was just getting home, with Fabian reading his book on the couch, just as always. Dad was upstairs, working from home as he'd been doing for sixteen years now, and Fabian met Ghino at the door.
"Are you ready for our walk, Fabe?" Ghino asked, his eyes sparkling.
"Let me put up my stuff, kid. Where do you want to walk today?" Fabian asked, taking off his backpack and jacket. It was warm enough to not need one.
"Can we go to Diana's? I wanna play Galaga," Ghino asked. He loved his Galaga, even though he knew he'd never be as good as Fabian.
"You 'wanna' play?" Fabian asked accusingly.
"I want to play," Ghino said under his breath. Fabian smiled.
"Go get your money and be sure to put it in your pocket," he said, sitting on the couch and turning on the news as Ghino ran upstairs. Once again, there was a rape, a murder, and some politician's mistake. Rolling his eyes, Fabian turned the television off and grabbed his wallet, removing any unneeded money and sticking it in his back pocket to be carried to his room.
"I'm ready!" Ghino said as he reached the bottom stair. Fabian smiled again, ran into his room, and stuck the money in his miniature bank.
"Let's go!" Fabian said, grabbing his little brother by his hand and leading him out the door.
Fabian loved walking with Ghino. They could really talk about anything that happened to come up. Ghino was balancing himself on the curb, like a tight-wire champion. He was wiggling around like a mermaid that had just gotten themselves some legs, though, and just as a car was swerving around the corner at high-speeds, Ghino completely lost his balance and fell in the wake of the car.
Fabian panicked and lunged for his brother who had yet to realize the car, which had started to slow down just as Fabian grabbed Ghino and lifted him on the sidewalk and to safety.
The car skidded up next to Fabian, who was tightly squeezing Ghino as if he'd never let go near the edge of the curb, and rolled down the windows. "Be careful, kid!" the man inside yelled, making a nasty face at Ghino. Fabian looked at the man with an incredulous expression.
"You, telling my brother to be careful?!" he exclaimed, standing up and setting Ghino down. He approached the man in the vehicle. "Look mister, I don't know who you think you are, mister, but look at that sign." Fabian said, pointing to the "Slow: Children at Play" sign about 20 feet ahead. "He's a CHILD at play, sir, and you shouldn't be whizzing about the city going four-hundred-miles an hour!"
The man inside the car scowled, growled a little, and Fabian backed away as the car sped off. "SLOW DOWN!" Fabian yelled and went back to his brother.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Ghino..." he started.
"Why are you sorry? That was super cool! You just told that guy right off!" Ghino was obviously very proud of his brother, punching his fists in the air as if shooing off that man. Fabian nearly blushed, then told his brother to stay off the curb, which made Ghino look a bit disappointed. Fabian noogied him, and the two laughed.
"So, what happened at school today?" Fabian asked again.
"We took a math test."
"How do you think you did?"
Ghino didn't answer. Instead, he looked at the ground.
"Ghino, was it fractions?"
Ghino nodded sadly, without making an eye contact. He hated to disappoint Fabian.
"Oh, Ghino, I'm sure you didn't do that bad. We've been working on fractions for weeks!"
Ghino looked up. "What if I did do that bad?"
"You're kicked out of the house," Fabian said without the faintest slight of humour in his voice. His mouth was closed and he looked as serious as serious could get. Ghino laughed nervously, then Fabian quit the act and laughed with him, ruffling Ghino's hair.
"We're here!" Fabian exclaimed, walking into Diana's.
A/N: Weird stopping point, I know. Kind of a filler-chapter. Thanks for the one review; it meant a lot. Note the lack of sarcasm there. Anyway, expect close-to-weekly updates from me; the first 7 or 8 chapters are done, so that means I don't have to work to get the chapter done in a specific time frame. YES, me and my awesome planning skills.
Anyway, here's hoping to reviews! Cheers!