DYSFUNCTIONAL
"Sometimes, we want what we want, even if we know its gonna kill us"
-Donna Tartt
WANT
Andrew Pines opened his eyes against the warm spring sun that was attempting to rise over South Carolina. He groaned and flipped himself over to the other side of the bed once the blinding light hit his eyes. It was Monday. Monday morning meant having to wake up early in the morning and having to cut through the tick infested woods to get to his school, in which he had to endure a whole day of harassment from his peers.
Regardless, he slowly rose from his bed and headed over to his bathroom. He took a long hard look at himself. He was still wearing the faded red shirt he had forgotten to change out of the night before. He didn't consider himself to look like a Pines. He had jet black hair and bright green eyes that were comparable to a tree leaf. He decided that he wasn't going to change into a new shirt, why should he care how others think of him? He slipped into a pair of jeans he found on his room floor and walked downstairs into the kitchen. His dad worked at a law firm somewhere in the city.
Sometimes he felt as if he would have been happier to have remained in Piedmont, but the decision to move was ultimately his parents', not his. It had been over 7 years since he had last step foot in California, so the thought of them moving back was pointless by now.
"He figured that his mom is probably sleeping in right now, and won't be up to make him breakfast, so he decides to pour himself some cereal. He had tried "Overly Sensitive Owl" once, back when his family was still in contact with them. He didn't like the taste anyways. He sat at the empty table and slowly ate, not bothering to check the time to see if he was too early or too late for school. He looked up from his cereal bowl to catch a glimpse of the looming family portrait.
He saw a younger version of his father, smiling for the picture. Andrew thinks to himself that he has never seen his dad smile that wide before, and it wasn't likely that he was never going to see him smile like that ever again. He also saw a younger version of his mother, before the grey hairs infiltrated her head, wearing a satin dress and a pearl necklace. Andrew notes that Mom pawned that necklace in exchange for some money to pay for old victorian house they had purchased in this suburban neighborhood outside of Charleston.
His mom was holding a toddler version of himself, who looked very different from his 13 year old self. His hair was chestnut color back then, which had gradually grown to the black state of his hair. Andrew also noticed two other people in the family portrait, who were standing on the other side of his Dad, about the same height. Andrew took notice to how neatly their faces were blackened out by a permanent marker of some sort. It was a shame. As the years went by with no regard, he forgot the sight of their faces more and more, until the only thing that remained in his memory were the thoughts of them, not the facial looks.
When he was younger, the sudden absence of them provoked many questions from him to his parents. His parents had always replied ambiguously until a couple of years later, when his parents explained the nature of his older siblings to him, which immediately stopped any questions from him about that.
He could recall the conversation clearly, from when he was about 7.
"It's called incest, Andrew."
"Incest? What's that?"
"It's when…It happens when two people in the same family decide to be together."
"Like friends together?" He remembers timidly asking.
"No, um… mommy and daddy together" His father responded to him.
There was a short pause between them, for Andrew to take in what his father had said.
"Daddy?"
Yes son?"
"Am I ever going to see Dipper and Mabel again?"
Andrew could see his father's face growing red, to which he attempted to calm himself down.
"I will make sure to it that you'll never see them again. You have to understand that what they are doing is wrong. By all accounts!"
Mr. Pines' anger was now bubbling over, and there was no way to contain it by now.
"I will not lose my only son to their perverted lifestyle, and I will drag myself to hell and back making sure that they don't become any kind of role model to you whatsoever!" He yelled at the innocent 7 year old child.
It was at this point that Mrs. Pines started to try to calm down her husband from his anger high. She did, but he was mad for days afterwards, barely talking to anyone. He still gets mad whenever Andrew brings them up even now.
Andrew decided that he's had enough for breakfast and started to get ready for school. He jammed his weekend homework into his knapsack and slinged it over his shoulder. It was at this point that he checked his watch. It was 8:25, which meant that if Andrew didn't get to school in 5 minutes, then he would be late. But why should he care? He only goes because his parents want him to make them proud, but sometimes he thinks that they just want reassurance that they're good parents.
Andrew slips out the back door, and walks toward a short cut through the woods that surrounds the back of his house. When he's in the woods, he feels as if he's one with the nature the encompasses the wilderness, he feels safer in the woods than he does at home, with his father, arrogant and cruel, and with his mother, self centered and vain.
Andrew knows that one day, he will visit his brother and sister. He doesn't hope, or he doesn't think he will, he knows that someday, he will finally get the chance to see his siblings once and for all. He knows that after all this time, he still loves them, and he's sure that they still love him too. The only thing that Andrew knows about their location is that they're in a small town in Oregon, not far from Portland, and they live in a tourist trap with their great uncle.
When his brother and sister retreated from their parents, they went to the only place they knew they could live safely without the prescience of their parents, maddened with the news of their children's unnoticed relationship.
The last time that Andrew Pines ever saw his siblings was 8 years ago. Dipper and Mabel, who were both in their sophomore year, attending different schools in the Seattle area, but they shared a one bedroom apartment in the downtown area. They had come down for spring break so they could visit the family. The gaps between when they came down to Piedmont were becoming gradually longer, and Andrew was excited when he heard that they were going to keep him company for a two whole weeks.
"When he heard the doorbell rang, Andrew ran with all of his might to for door, but his Dad beat him to it. He ran past his dad, to his young adult siblings and hugged them without even getting them first. Dipper and Mabel laughed at their younger brother's greeting, and tried their best to hug him back, Andrew being three and a half feet at that point. Dipper picked Andrew up and carried him around the porch, making whooshing sounds, making Andrew pretend he was flying. Andrew always loved it when Dipper did that, and he had fond memories when he did that when Andrew was little.
When Dipper put down Andrew, Andrew immediately asked his older siblings to play tag with them in the backyard. He had waited three whole months for his siblings to come back home, and he wasn't about to waste any time on catching up with them. mabel promised they would, but they needed to tell their parents something first. His mom told him to go upstairs and wait until she called him back down. But when his mom dismissed Andrew upstairs, he sneakily crept down the stairs and hid behind the door frame that separated the kitchen from the den.
"Mom, dad, Mabel and I have something to tell the both of you" Dipper said to his dad, expecting anything on either side of the spectrum from one of them getting married or one of them flunking out of school.
"Dipper hesitated before saying something that would impact the lives of himself, his sister and his parents.
"Dad, Mabel and I…are in love"
For his dad, everything stopped. The world stopped revolving, the birds stopped chirping, and his mind stopped thinking.
"What did you say?" His dad asked, hoping that he misheard them.
A second of silence passed.
"We love each other" Mabel tried to explain, before her dad punched her in the face. She fell back in her chair, clutching her already bleeding nose. Differ lunged forward to Mabel, who was starting to sob.
"What the hell is this? What?…HOW?" Mr. Pines said, as he tried to formulate what to say to either of them. He pointed to Dipper.
"You…how...how could you do this..to your own sister!?" He angrily shouted to Dipper.
Mrs. Pined was starting to sob, trying to think where and how everything went wrong. She began to visulaize herself walking in Downtown Piedmont, people whispering about her children as she walked by people she used to call her friend, before they had left her alone in the wake of this madness.
"What…what will people think of us? How could you do this to us? How could you?!" Mrs. Pines shouted to her children, Mabel still clutching her nose, the crimson liquid beginning to seep through her fingers.
Dipper turned away from his hurt sister to face his parents, already filled with rage and anger.
"I can't believe that I thought that you would accept us for who we are. I thought that you…I thought that you loved us, and would love us no matter what." Dipper boldly remarked to his parents./div
"Consider yourself cut off! If you think for one second that we're going to pay for your school, you are sadly mistaken!" Mr. Pines shouted at them.
Mabel slowly stood up from the ground to face the red frowns of her parents. Dipped put his hands on her shoulders and whispered words of reassurance to her, before kissing her full on the lips.
As if Mr. Pines wasn't angry enough, he went ballistic when he saw that kind of affection being practiced by his children.
"GOD DAMNIT! GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE RIGHT NOW!" he shrieked at them, pushing them out of the front door./div
"I swear to god, if I ever see any of your faces again, I will fucking kill both of you!" He shouted at them. /div
Mabel began to cry, her tears mixing with her nose blood as it rained down her face.
Mr. Pines grabbed the suitcases that Dipper and Mabel had carried in with hem and threw them out on the front lawn, their clothing spilling all over the grass.
Dipper opened his mouth, as if to say something in retaliation, but quickly ran to the front yard to stuff the clothes in either of the suitcases as quickly ad he could.
Both of them ran off the property as quickly as they could, knowing that they could never go back there.
Andrew just knew that one day, he would reunite with his siblings, he just had to. He couldn't bear that thought of living through his life, not ever seeing them ever agin. Honestly, he didn't know what would scare him more: never seeing them again, or being presented with the opportunity to meet them.
