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Billy sighed as he pulled a freezer burnt steak out of the freezer before turning around and tossing it toward a hunched over figure sitting at the dining room table. “Think fast.”
The boy at the table looked up and managed to catch the frozen piece of wrapped meat in one hand before it could strike his face. “What am I supposed to do with this, Bill?”
Billy rolled his eyes. “Put that chunk on your eye. M’gettin’ somethin’ for that nick on your noggin’.” He gave a brief pause when he saw the boy turning the meat over in his hand. “Trust me, Len, it’ll take that ache away and help with the swelling. Last thing we need is your eye to go on swollen shut.”
Lenny lifted the corner to his eye and winced at the sudden sting. Another longing look at his big brother told him to try again. This time he applied more pressure and breathed through the sting, pleasantly surprised at how it began to take some of the pain away. If only that had been the only place that hurt.
While Lenny found a better hold on the steak over his eye, Billy grabbed a nearby washcloth and ran it under cold water. Once he rang it out, he wandered back over to the table and pulled up a seat beside Lenny. “Alright, lean forward.”
“Bill—“
“Do you want my help or not? If you do, shut your trap and let me help.”
Lenny groaned and leaned forward. “It’s really not that bad this time. I mostly got out of the way,” Lenny boasted proudly. Billy saw through the facade in a moment, could practically hear Lenny’s voice breaking and tears threatening to fall.
‘He takes this harder than you do,’ Billy reminded himself before he could say something hurtful. ‘Don’t give him shite for it when he’s doing that enough on his own.’
“I can see that.” Billy reached out a calloused hand and brushed Lenny’s hair as much out of the way as possible, slickness coating the tips of his fingers. He swallowed thickly as he moved enough to see where a rather impressive shard of glass was sticking out from the back of his head. It had been mostly been covered by Lenny’s mop of hair and Billy momentarily wondered how long Lenny had known it was there and hadn’t wanted to bother Billy until his brother had gotten home from work to find him passed out on his bed, bruised and bloody.
Lenny drew away with a hiss when Billy touched the shard, head turned to the side to see exactly what his brother was doing.
“That hurt,” Billy asked nonchalantly.
Lenny shook his head adamantly. “Not at all. Just spooked me is all.”
“Uh huh.” Billy lifted the washcloth and applied pressure just below where the glass was. “I’m gonna need to pull this son of a bitch out. Gonna bleed like a mother thanks to it being a head wound. You ready for that?”
Lenny sucked in a large breath, steak pressed even further against his black eye. “Yeah, just get it over with, will you?”
Billy didn’t need to be told twice. He braced his fingers around the glass with the washcloth in his other hand at the ready. He took the shard gingerly between his two fingers and let out his own shaky breath to calm himself.
“On three. One!” Billy yanked the piece out, which turned out to be much larger than he anticipated and felt Lenny buck away from him, a sharp cry on his lips. Billy set the blood coated piece of glass on the table and immediately pressed the damp cloth against the wound, already feeling it spurting blood. “Shhhh, shhhh, or you’ll wake mum and dad.”
Lenny gritted his teeth together to keep himself from crying. A few stray tears ran down his cheek from his eye that wasn’t swollen. He brushed them away, but Billy still saw them fall.
“We’ll just keep pressure and make sure your brain doesn’t seep out of your skull,” Billy joked as he gingerly nudged his shoulder against Lenny’s. “Gotta keep those limited brain cells where they are.”
“Shut up.” Lenny reached across and elbowed Billy in the stomach.
Billy grunted in pain, still applying pressure to Lenny’s head. With his free arm he wrapped it around Lenny’s neck and laughed as he knocked his forehead against Lenny’s until his little brother began to giggle alongside of him.
“Stop, stop,” Lenny suddenly panted as his arm snaked around his abdomen. “It hurts when I laugh.”
Billy’s eyes flashed in alarm. “Think ya got any broken ribs? Should probably check.” He went to grasp at the bottom of Lenny’s shirt only for Lenny to shy away. “What are you doing?”
“Billy, just drop it, yeah. S’fine.”
Billy frowned before reluctantly turning his attention back to the gash on Lenny’s head. He didn’t agree with his brother’s decision to be so cagey, yet there was absolutely nothing he could do about it either.
He lifted up slightly on the gash only for blood to continue to spurt out until he was forced to press the washcloth back down, applying even more pressure than before.
“Thought you said that you dodged. Fucker got you right on,” Billy buttered.
Lenny craned his head to the side to look back on his brother only for Billy to forcefully force him to look down. “I did! As least I thought I did.”
‘Shit,’ Billy thought.
“Okay, new plan.” Billy straightened and held up his pointer finger directly in Lenny’s line of sight. “Follow my finger with yer eyes.”
“Billy—“
“I don’t want to hear it! Follow it.” His fierce growl was enough to shut Lenny up and have him follow his finger, eye clouding and going unfocused once Billy moved his finger too much to the left. He knew that Lenny was only working with one eye at the moment with the other swollen shut, but even that shouldn’t have made his concentration that bad. “Damn, I think you got a concussion. Jostled that brain around in your skull.”
Lenny shrugged. “Figures why I can’t remember shite.”
“Now you can’t remember?” Billy was liking this less and less the more that he spoke with Lenny. “You should have someone other than me check you out. I’m bullocks at concussions.”
“You’ve had plenty. You’re not shite at dealing with them.” Lenny let out a yawn and began to lean forward onto a folded arm.
Billy was quick to elbow him hard in the ribs, causing Lenny to jump in his seat. He turned indignantly and glared at his brother, which was difficult to do with only one functioning eye and a slab of steak pressed on the other. “You can’t get shut eye now! Do you want to fall asleep and never wake up?”
Lenny gave a wicked grin. “See, you’re not bollocks at concussions.”
“Damn you.”
Lenny shrugged his shoulders and turned the steak over for a colder section. “Wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
Billy tipped his head to the side. “What wouldn’t be the worst thing?”
Lenny gave Billy a look that was obvious. “Come off it, Billy. You really think this life is really worth living?”
A surge of panic rose inside Billy that he was quick to stomp out. No way was he going to let Lenny see how frightening his comment was. “I know it ain’t no unicorn and rainbows but we have our whole lives in front of us.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.” Lenny gave a roll of his shoulders as he pressed the steak against both eyes and closed them tightly. This time Billy was well aware that Lenny was crying with tears leaking from under his eyelashes. His shoulders began to shake with silent sobs that he desperately tried to muffle the sound so Billy wouldn’t hear. Comfort wasn’t quite Billy’s strongest suit, though he had a feeling that Lenny didn’t need to hear that right now.
“Alright, enough of that.” Billy peeled the washcloth off and was pleased to find that it was no longer gushing out blood. He folded the cloth and pushed it aside on the table before knocking the back of his hand against his little brother’s shoulder. “Len, look at me.”
It took a moment for Lenny to pull his head from the table and turned to look at Billy. His black eye was jarring to look at, as was his busted lip and the small cut over his cheekbone. A yellow bruise shown high on his opposite cheekbone. There was no doubt in Billy’s mind that his face would be a rainbow of colors the next morning when those injuries fully took hold. Usually their father wasn’t so foolish in striking either of their faces as those would be likely to be noticed from outsiders. It was times like these that Billy wished he could knock the shit out of his father the same that Sam always did to both of them.
“That bastard upstairs was born a cunt and he’s going to die a cunt, ya hear? He is beneath both of us. Only way he gets any joy is by knocking us around like we’re a bunch of punching bags. But it ain’t always gonna be like this, Len. We’re gonna get out, see the world, and he’s gonna be left here wondering where it all went wrong. That’s what you gotta stay focused on, not this here.” He reached out a hand and grasped Lenny’s shoulder hard, giving it a squeeze until Lenny winced from the pressure. “We just gotta make it a few more years and then we’re home free.”
Lenny squinted deliberately. “Don’t know if I can make it that long, Bill.”
“Of course you can. Why the fuck would you say something like that,” he roared, anger searing through him.
Lenny slightly withdrew, nodding slowly so not to risk pissing off Billy anymore. It wasn’t often that Billy showed this much rage when dealing with him. In fact, he was usually the only one that could calm Billy when he worked himself up like this. This didn’t seem to be one of those times.
Billy’s hand clutched into a fist, knuckles rapping against the table. Before he could even try to do something with it, Lenny reached out a hand and covered Billy’s with his own. Immediately, Billy’s hand flexed and rested lightly on the table. He felt as though a tranquilizer had been injected into himself just having Lenny there.
“You’re stronger than you know, mate. You just need to get through this, and luckily you have a pretty badass big brother to go through this with ya. So you are pretty lucky in that regard,” Billy joked, head stooped and butting against Lenny’s, careful to avoid being too rough on the head wound that had finally stopped bleeding.
Lenny couldn’t help but laugh and butt his head back before yawning and leaning sideways so that his head was rested on Billy’s shoulder. His eyes began to close as he snuggled close.
“Aren’t you too big to be leeching off me?”
Lenny let out a low hum, knowing that Billy wasn’t seriously in the slightest no matter how he sounded. “I love you, Billy.”
‘What a sap.’ Billy couldn’t help but roll his eyes, even as his heart warmed to hear his brother say those words. It wasn’t often that they talked or heard about love or feelings such as that. It was always frowned upon, and beat out of them having emotions such as that. It wasn’t something that Billy ever would say first, nor something that he would ever be caught dead saying to anyone else, but this was Lenny. This was the little brother that was different from him, that had a heart of gold that grew more and more likely that it would be snuffed out thanks to the man upstairs. No matter what, he could not let that happen.
“I love you too,” Billy whispered, so low that he was unsure if even Lenny heard him. “And I promise that I’m gonna get you out of here. I promise you that, Lenny.”