Bringing It All Home
A story about what its like to leave. But more of a story of what its like to come home.
Should this be Bright/Hannah? Should this be Bright/Ephram? You decide. Review.
Bright was drunk.
Very, very drunk. Not in that, 'I-feel-a-bit-happier-than-normal' way. He wasn't sure exactly how it happened. Everything was fine. He'd been hanging out with Ephram and it was going great. They were hanging out, playing video games (No one is too old for Halo 2, though Bright had a feeling there were age limits on taunting the opponents.) And trying to remember what it felt like to be normal.
Ephram had declared this day had to be Man's Day. Bright finally had a steady job. He'd decided to try his hand at auto repair and had found a job at the auto shop in town. He likes to think he got the job all on his own, but everyone in town knew Harold had helped out a bit.
Ephram's life was far from steady at the moment. With the baby almost an hour away, he seemed to be continually on the road, traveling to see his son. Bright knew his son was important to him, hell it was his son, but Bright sometimes felt like Ephram was so busy trying to get his life together it was falling apart.
Both boys decided it was time to grow up a little. Each of them signed up for classes at the community college. Since they were both taking very different classes, Ephram getting a scholarship for the music program, and Bright working on getting his degree in business, they hardly ever saw each other.
Bright moaned and lifted his head off of his bed. At least he thought it was his bed. Ephram made the move into Bright's apartment only a few days ago, but he had already taken the place by storm. There was a large piano taking up most of the very tiny living room, the fridge was filled with some nasty fish he liked on his bagels, and his laundry was strung all through the house. Bright didn't think he would ever find someone who was more messy than him. He was wrong.
Looking around the room, he concluded that this was defiantly not his room. Unless Ephram got him a sweet computer (A gift from Ephram's father, he was still feeling guilty), filled his room with stupid anime or manga crap (Bright didn't know the difference, and thought they were all stupid), and decided to sleep in his bed.
Bright closed his eyes, rubbed them with his hand and then opened them again. Yeap, Ephram was defiantly sleeping with him. No wait, back up, they were sleeping together. NO, they weren't sleeping together they were sleeping on top of each other. UGH!
Bright gave up trying to make this look okay. His brain had been focused on sex since... Well when had it not been focused on sex? But more now than ever. Things with Hannah had not gone exactly how he would have liked them. Everything was great for a while. She came back from Minnesota, and they did the whole, 'Let's be a highschool couple!'. He picked her up after school, they went to movies, and went ice skating. He even went to her prom.
Well, that was part of the problem. Bright had assumed Prom would be special. You know, that kind of special. He made a big deal of fixing up the apartment for her, and getting everything ready. But Hannah refused. He really should have seen it coming, but it hit him like a ton of bricks.
A week later, she went home.
No one ever knew about the prom night. At least he hoped no one knew. He had the vague idea that Hannah might have told Amy, but he liked it more as an idea than an actual fact. Having his sister know about his sex life was not exactly high on his priority list.
So yes, Hannah went home. But not because of Bright. He tried to think it wasn't because of him. Her dad was having a really rough time. Bright understood why she needed to be there. As hard as it was for Bright to watch his mother die, he need to be there. There was no place he would rather be than in his dying mother's arms. He understood why she had to go. But he couldn't understand why she hadn't come back.
She left right before graduation. He assumed she'd be back after everything with her father was resolved. But he didn't hear from her. This summer was nothing like the summer before. He still had all of the letters and postcards she had sent him from that summer they were away from each other. He brought them out sometimes, when he was feeling extremely desperate and unloveable. This summer, he never got a letter. He'd written her a few times, emailed her more times than he'd like to admit, but she never replied. He tried to chalk it up to her having a tough time. Being stressed out with her father and everything.
Lying to himself became next to impossible when Hannah sent that letter to Amy. Her father had died only two weeks after she arrived. She'd meant to write her. Bright assumed he wasn't supposed to be reading this letter, but he couldn't help himself. How could this have happened?
Hannah didn't come back that summer. Or in the fall, when Ephram, Amy, and Bright started school again. There was always that elephant in the room whenever they were together. No one wanted to talk about the fact that Hannah had left them. Amy thought she abandoned them. Ephram tried to understand, he talked about how hard it must have been to lose her dad.
Bright scoffed at his explanation. Ephram had lost his mother. Amy and Bright had lost their mother. But none of them ran away. They didn't hide from their problems. Bright always thought Hannah was unbelievably strong. Now he just thought she was a coward.
Or at least he did at this moment. When he was knock down, fall out drunk. He finally decided it was time to kick Ephram and get up. This was Man's Day! They couldn't waste it being... well being wasted.
Bright knew this day was for more than just himself. Ephram had life a hell of a lot harder. These days it was almost impossible to find the Ephram he use to know. It was so bogged down with student Ephram, Daddy Ephram, and Working Ephram, he never seemed to have time to be Ephram.
Bright missed spending time with him. Sure, he had the guys down at the shop to hang out with. But he didn't really seem to fit in with them as much. They were all a few years older than him. When they partied, they partied a bit harder than Bright would have liked. Bright had prided himself as being a big partyer, but apparently he was a light weight compared to these guys. The one time he had gone to one of the parties they invited him to, he woke up the next morning, reeking of illegal substances and had no idea where he was or who he was with.
Ever since that day, Bright decided he would stick with beer. Beer was good. It came in bottles or cans, which can be stacked to make a pyramid when bored. And it made him forget about Hannah. At least sometimes it did. Other times it made him miss her more, and a couple of times it had lead to the infamous 3 am call, professing his love to her.
The last time he had called her was well over a month ago. It, thank god, hadn't been a drunken call at 3 am. He had dialed about seven times before finally deciding to go with it. It rang a few times before a boy picked up. Bright paused for a second, "Ya, uhm, is... Is this Hannah's house?"
It had been the most awkward 3 minutes of his life. He hadn't really talked to her since she left that summer. They never talked about that night at Prom. It hurt so much when he thought about it. He was so tired of thinking about it.
So, Bright took advantage this moment in his world, the one moment in the last hour that didn't seem to be spinning. Leaning over onto his side, he kicked Ephram in the leg, "Dude, are you wasted?"
"Ya, how 'bout you?"
"Defiantly."
"Sounds about right."
Bright groaned and sat up on his elbows, looked over and Ephram and smiled, "Dude, we're pathetic."
"Hey, at least I'm getting laid."
Ephram, was actually right. Currently he was the only one getting any love from the ladies. After Hannah didn't come back, Bright had hooked up with a few girls, but it never lasted more than a few beers, a couple of dates, and a couple of one night stands. He couldn't see himself with any of the women he met these days. It was hard to see himself in the future at all.
Ephram had a bit more luck with the ladies. After spending the summer in Europe, he decided he was destined to marry a girl with a French accent. Until Laura, the girl from Texas showed up in his music classes. They'd dated on and off for the year, but Ephram had broken it off a little before moving into Bright's. He pretended he dated her for her personality, but Bright knew he just wanted some company. Someone to hold him after visiting his son in the hospital.
Bright laughed and threw a pillow at him, letting his body follow. He slammed into him, and the boys began to wrestle. Of course being stinking drunk it was little more than a push fest. After a bit more of the pull and shove match, they both began to get tired. Ephram yawned and leaned his head onto Bright's shoulder. Sleeping together kept them from being apart.