"Why did you drag me out here on my day off?" grumbled Darwin as he looked around the park. There was activity everywhere; children running around and playing and generally being obnoxious, parents chatting or trying to reign said children in. Dogs were barking and darting around left and right (why did she have to drag him to a leashless park?). Hell, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky to keep the sun from blinding him.

Needless to say, he wasn't a very happy teenager right now.

"Because, mister grumpy pants, you need to get out of my apartment every once and a while. And what better place to go than a big ol' park?" teased Margaret with a little skip in her step. "Besides, I happen to know that this particular park has the best ice cream parlor this side of the bay."

"Oh, you just happen to know that?" He rolled his eyes but followed after his sister anyway. What else was he to do; she was his ride home.

"Of course! You don't get between a girl and her ice cream; what're you, insane?" Prancing between a passinh group of children playing tag, she shot him a bright smile. "Today is a day to just enjoy yourself, little bro. Even the weather wants you to have fun out in it!"

A rather large part of him wanted to argue with her. 'Today isn't a day to be happy. Who does she think she is?' it screamed. Of course he didn't say that. He kept his thoughts to himself, as usual. Instead, he just gave her a noncommittal smile and a nod.

Why had he thought she would have been different today? That would've been expecting too much from his sister.

"So, I didn't get a chance to ask earlier, but how's Todd doing?" she asked when he caught up with her. "Haven't seen him in a hot minute."

"Todd's doing just fine, Margaret."

"That's good to hear. He hasn't shown up for one of my streams for, like, a month. Was beginning to think he'd fallen off the face of the earth or something. Tell him to come over sometime; I need his opinion on the next stream."

'Maybe he's started to find you irritating?' he thought as he caught up with his sister. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket, he frowned at the ground as they walked. She did know what today was, right? Why was she being so upbeat?

As the two walked, an awkward silence began to settle between them and the sounds of the people around them. Not that Margaret didn't try to breech it, of course. She was doing her best to at least have a conversation with her brother, but he only answered with a word or a noncommittal grunt. And when that didn't work, she just started to ramble on about the game shop or her stream or some new game that was coming out.

Darwin was fine with that, it meant that he could give minimal effort responses while he chewed things over in his mind. His thoughts drifted between topics, but they always meandered their way back to his sister. She was acting weird; well, weirder than usual. Being animated and talkative was normal; it came with the territory of being a streamer. But this was pushing it.

He had hoped that maybe today would have been different. Maybe she would have tried a little harder to be normal, just for him.

"Darwin, are you listening?" Margaret's fingers snapping in front of his face jolted him from his thoughts and he recoiled from the intrusive noise.

"Why'd you do that?" he grumbled as he pushed her hand out of his face. "I was paying attention."

"Oh really?" Putting a hand on her hip, she leveled an incredulous stare at her brother. "Then what was the last thing I said?"

"You were talking about your stream. It's kind of the only thing you talk about at any sort of length"

"For a little while, sure. But that wasn't the last thing I said."

Darwin narrowed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He didn't want to deal with this today. "Fine then, you caught me. I wasn't paying attention."

Margaret stared at him for a moment. When that moment began to feel pregnant with uncomfortable weight, she sighed. "It's about mom, isn't it."

He blinked. "What was that?"

Stepping up to him, she pressed her finger to his chest and glared up at her younger brother. "Look. You can't keep doing this."

"I don't know what you mean." Unable to look his sister in the eye, rubbed the back of his neck. Why now? Why today? "Could we just drop this? Let's just go get some ice cream like you said and call it a day." He tried to walk past her, but she stepped in his way, her green eyes bright with anger now.

"I'm not going to drop it, Darwin. You didn't think I was going to notice?" There was a tremble in her voice now, an undercurrent of intent so clear he would have to be deaf not to hear. He swallowed nervously. "Darwin, I found the bottles you tried to hide. I mean, really? Behind the entertainment center? The thing I use all the time?"

"Margaret, come on, it's not what you think..." He didn't even believe himself. He knew the bottles of liquor were going to be found eventually, but he'd been hoping that it wouldn't have been today. He was under enough stress as it was was.

"Not... not what I think?" Margaret leaned back a moment, dumbfounded, before she stared at him incredulously. "You want to run that one by me again, chief? I found almost three empty bottles of hard liquor behind that thing; and I'm pretty sure there's a fourth, maybe a fifth. What, did a pack of boozey fairies go through my liquor cabinet and stuff the remains back there?"

"Look, just drop it and I'll explain everything when we get home!" Once again, he tried to walk his way out of the conversation and once again his sister got in his way. Despite him being taller than her by a foot and a half, she was annoyingly intimidating for her size.

"No, I pretty much have everything sussed out, and I don't approve." Folding her arms across her chest, she frowned. "Look, I get it. I really do. Mom's death hit all of us really hard and it hasn't been the same since. Hell, I was a drunk wreck for a month afterwards. But you can't be drinking like this; especially in your teens. What're you, crazy?"

Her words crashed over him like a breaking wave and he was silent for a moment, trying to process what'd just happened. His mouth opened and closed as his mind sputtered to a standstill, trying to process what was going on.

"Margaret you can't-"

"Can't what? Cut you off when you clearly shouldn't be drinking? Yes, I can. I didn't have that person when I was where you are now. I'm doing this for your own good."

"No, you don't understand, I need this!"

"You're sixteen! You need hard liquor like dad needed a gun!" The words tumbled out of her before she could catch them and her hand slapped over her mouth in shock.

The two stood there in stunned silence, staring at each other for a moment as they tried to process what had just happened.

Darwin recovered first and when he did, this mixture of unimaginable anger and sorrow bubbled up in his gut and he shoved her away. "Fuck you, Margaret." Tears dripped down his face as he stomped down the path, his head bent and his hands firmly in his pockets.

She watched him go quietly. She wanted to call out to him, to apologize, but she knew he wouldn't listen. He was as stubborn as she was after all. The best thing for the both of them would be some time apart, as much as it pained her to leave things unmended like this.

Reaching into her pocket, she tugged out her phone and checked for the time. She was running late for work as it was, but Joey knew what today was. He was always the forgiving sort. With a last glance to the receding back of her brother, she walked off in the opposite direction to get to her car.