"His Brother's Keeper"
Characters: Billy
Disclaimer: Based on characters and situations created/owned by NBC Universal, Peter Berg, Jason Katims, Brian Grazer, etc. No harm intended.
A/N: Originally posted 11/21/07. Setting is Season two, after Tim leaves home because Billy hooked up with Jackie, the neighbor.
He couldn't win for losing. Jesus Christ, was he ever going to get a god-damned break? His whole life. His whole god-damned life! Damn! It didn't seem to matter what he did. Right or wrong, it made no damn difference.
He ran his fingers through his hair and slammed his fist down on the kitchen counter.
He'd taken one thing for himself. Because he'd deserved it, damn it. Face it, he got no thanks from Tim. None. Not once. And to think of all he'd given up to raise his little brother. He should be out on tour playing in Tiger's foursome right now, making tons of dough and spending it on women and French wine. He'd been good. He'd been damn good. Instead he had a dead-end job in a dusty shit-hole of a town taking care of his little brother who was determined to piss his chances away and end up just like him. He hadn't traded his future so Tim could flunk out of school. Damn him!
And then there she was. It didn't matter that she'd been with Tim first. He hadn't felt this way in a long time. He'd forgotten what it was like. He'd had no idea that it was going to push Tim over the edge. But he should've seen it coming.
He'd been gone for two days. Billy knew he was staying at Tyra's. He'd felt relieved when he'd seen Tim's truck in her driveway. Tyra would look out for him. She'd proven that already. She had tried before, to steer Tim in the right direction, but Tim wasn't willing to toe the line! No way, no how. Just like their old man. Billy had given up long ago on giving his little brother any sort of guidance. It wasn't worth it, because Tim didn't listen and he was going to do whatever he damn well wanted to anyway! So why should he waste his time?
He wanted to strangle Tim. It was all he could do not to get in his car, go on over to Tyra's and drag that boy by the seat of his pants back home and knock some sense into him. He'd done what was right, damn it. He'd put his life on hold to make sure Tim had one. And look at where it had gotten him. He had no life, no career, hell he didn't have to guess his future; it was staring him in the face. And the one time he'd reached out, to take one thing for himself, Tim had thrown in his hand and quit. Just like that.
Tim was dictating his future once again. The little shit. He'd be damned if he'd continue to put food on the table, clean up after his shit, and play daddy to someone who didn't deserve it, didn't want it, even though he needed it so god-damned. It killed him.
Fine. Let him. Let him go. It wouldn't take him too long to figure out what it's really like out there. He'd figure out real quick how easy he'd had it here. And then maybe he'd realize all this what he'd taken for granted. Maybe then he'd know that there was no such thing as forever and that rewards only came from hard work.
He believed that. He still believed it. Even now. Which is why when Tim finally came waltzing back through that door, he'd start over. He sniffed and choked back the emotion that somehow had crept up on him. Damn. He kicked the wall. He should've known better.
Jesus Christ. Just come home Tim, damn it.