When my parents got a divorce, I remember feeling as if the world was ending, but I didn't realize that the apocalypse had started when my mother had started her new job and the fights were a direct result of her lack of discretion. My mother had always had questionable relationships with her superiors, but the turning point was when there was no question about their relationship.
I had seen Harold come to the house a few times when Dad wasn't home, but didn't really think twice..I didn't want to think twice, either. What she did on her own time was her business and not mine. I was an only child when she was with Dad, but when she finally got her hands on Harold's money, they tied the knot and suddenly I had an older brother. At first, I loved it. When I was a 'lonely only', I had the attention of both my parents in abundance, to the point of needing therapy twice a week and a prescription for anti-anxiety drugs. My Dad still called me every other night to check in, but my mother's attention was constantly divided between Harold and Danie and she had no energy left to worry about me yet still managed to be halfway decent at her job, which was working as a secretary at Harold's law firm.
This, and Harold tried his hardest to get me to love him. Anything I mentioned I wanted or even just dropped subtle hints I had any desire for Harold would come up with an excuse to buy it for me and when he ran out of reasons I would just find his gifts tucked into my purse, my backpack when I was in highschool, and even just sitting on my bed when I got home from school or just sitting on my bed. The greatest gift was parked in the driveway on my nineteenth birthday. I woke up on the day of and saw a new car in the driveway that I thought was someone else's, maybe someone Mom had over. An hour later, Harold told me where he hid the keys to my brand new black Malibu and I almost died. I had just totaled my first car trying to avoid hitting a deer and had been saving everything I earned to replace it. The weight was suddenly lifted. I didn't have to take public transportation, pay Uber, or beg my friends for rides anymore. I was elated. I thought,
'
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. I still got the attention I wanted, really, more than enough.
'
The only compromise was Daniel.
Daniel was the most obnoxious boy I had ever met when he was a teenager, but as he grew into an adult, I experienced things that I thought of as
'positive attributes.'
He was great at some of the video games I liked to play. Whenever I was in a tournament and he was home I would ask if he would join my team for the guaranteed win. When we were younger, I remember installing a padlock on my bedroom door because I came home to him digging through my hamper one day after school. Looking back, it wasn't the only time I caught him doing weird things like that, but I didn't really consider them anything sexually gratifying for him. I always just saw those incidents as accidental happenings and probably something I would have been more wary of if I didn't spend a good portion of my life without a sibling before he showed up. Mom was in her own world half the time too and I didn't know how mentioning anything like that would go over with Harold, so I kept my mouth shut and eventually forgot about whatever happened. Other than those few things, we mostly got along, especially when we got older together and became adults.
Daniel was the first to move out on his own. I wanted to take a year off to work and save money, but also to test the waters. Daniel had always had the idea that he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer, but I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do and what skills I needed to do anything. College seemed like the option everyone took regardless and I was afraid that I would end up in debt, waste a good four to seven years of my life, and not have anything to show for it other than a stupid piece of paper. My mother had a piece of paper and still pretty much slept with her boss to secure her salary. I picked up a job working as a bartender at a new nightclub that opened in the city while Daniel attended his first semester of college and then his second. The second semester was when things started to get interesting. I was still bartending at the time and had taught myself graphic design and software engineering over the past couple years, so freelance work was also providing cash flow and I was just starting to think that it may be worth getting that fancy piece of paper in software engineering or something relevant.
I got my expensive fancy piece of paper after dedicating another two years to staying at home, working at the club, and saving money. I also ended up moving out of my parent's home and into my lover's apartment, finally breaking free from the strange household that Harold and Mom created.
I had started seeing a guy that I met at the club just before Daniel was to come back home for a bit after he started on his Bachelor's. He was older than I by five years but I thought he was the sexiest man I had ever had the pleasure of meeting and we had become exclusive, other than the rare but hot kink and fetish event we would attend at adult entertainment clubs all over the city - just an example of what I thought was so exciting about my new man, Trey. He was always up to something. Before him, I had had a few guys that I called 'boyfriends' that I would stay with for a few months, get bored, and move on to something shiny and new. Trey was my glittering diamond, my never ending source of new and inspiring adventures. I found it easy to stay with him, but his age would show at times. He did have a good 8 years on me at 29. I was kind of eager to introduce him to my parents, but I kept my cool. With Daniel coming back into town for the summer, I could introduce Trey to my whole family. It didn't work out like that, though.
Just before Daniel flew in, Trey and I got in a ridiculous fight. I don't even remember what it was about. I want to say that he thought that I was talking to other guys behind his back (I wasn't) and when I ignored it as alpha male bullshit he blew up on me like he was a ticking time bomb. We had never fought like that before. I didn't even want to be around him anymore. So, I used the get together at my parent's house just to get away from Trey. I knew that Daniel would let me bitch and moan about my relationship without saying a word. I missed talking to him like that.
The first night at my parents house was so high energy that Mom and Harold fucked off to their bedroom around ten after both of them nodded off several times. We had the house to ourselves and both of us had had a few drinks by the time our parents tapped out. Daniel ran up to his room while I poured myself a rum and coke and made him a gin and tonic. Harold always had this thing about keeping a well stocked and fully equipped dry bar in the den and, as a bartender, I respected that. I had no idea what some of what he kept it stocked with was. Most of the top shelf stuff we had at the club was common, the usual top five, but Harold also seemed to have an obsession with obscure and expensive liquors. I was looking at the label of one of the more strangely designed bottles when Harold came bouncing down the stairs with something in his arms.
"Get ready to have the time of your life, sis,"
When he came around the corner I could see that he was holding a Nintendo 64 console with two controllers and a familiar cartridge jammed into the top game slot. I hadn't seen that console in over a decade and I could just feel the smile that started to wrap around my face, ear to ear. Daniel tossed me a controller and began to hook up the console to the widescreen television in the den. He had brought a special adapter so the colored probes funneled into an HDMI cable since newer televisions didn't have the ports needed to hook up the older systems anymore. He had thought of everything and just thinking that he had taken the time to plan this out made me smile even bigger. Once he flipped the one switch we were both immediately transported into the land of nostalgia and stayed there for a good two hours.
After both of us won some and lost some it was about one in the morning and we were more than a little tipsy. Daniel had made himself comfortable in the huge faux leather recliner that Harold loved and I had sprawled out on the sofa with my feet up. Daniel had picked an old movie as background noise for our conversation.
"So, any lucky ladies in your life?"
"Nah, no time. I mean, sure, one night stands. Nothing serious. What about you? Any lucky lads..or ladies?"
Daniel smirked. He knew that I didn't really have any particular gender preference, though I found myself dating men more than women, I had hooked up with both and a trans woman before. He had been at the house for some of those memories. I sighed. I needed to drink more before I started talking about Trey so I finished my fifth rum and coke in one gulp.
"So, I was with this guy Trey, we live together, actually. I met him at the club a few months back and I really thought that he was a great guy. I was planning on bringing him with me here to meet you, Mom, and Harold, but he turned out to be a real douche,"
"I'm sorry, Harm. Guys do be like that sometimes,"
Daniel quoted the meme with sincerity. He was still the only person that called me 'Harm' as a short form of Harmony when I had been going by my middle name, Morgan, for the past few years. I didn't mind when Daniel called me Harm or Harmony. It was something somewhat exclusive to my family. Both Mom and Harold still called me Harmony, but only Daniel called me Harm.
"I thought he was going to be like..the one? Is that silly? He's older than me and so fucking
hot
