She watched the display from the living room, smiling warmly at the brothers. She was glad she had witnessed the rekindling of the brotherhood and she knew Jeff had came a long way in the short amount of time she had known him. Jeff wiped the stray tears from his eyes as she cleared her throat and entered the kitchen once more. Matt squeezed his brothers shoulder as she cleared her throat.
"I need a bathroom." she said, laughing nervously.
"Oh, it's right down the hall here, all the way back." Matt answered, pointing his finger at the far end of the kitchen.
"I need you two to follow me." she said, leading the way.
The brothers looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before Jeff followed with Matt close behind him. She had grabbed the bag from the table that Jeff had retrieved from his trunk and opened it, displaying numerous bottle of pills.
Jeff dropped his head as Matt watched on and shook his head. He wasn't sure what his brother was thinking but he could feel Matt was hurt. His face said it all. For the first time since he began taking the pills, Jeff felt guilty.
"Alright, Jeff..." she began, pulling a bottle from the bag. "I want you to take this pills and as you dump them into the toilet, tell me one of your hobbies." she finished, handing him a pill bottle.
Jeff did was he was told as he popped the lid on the container and looked inside. He looked at Janine and then to his brother, who squeezed his shoulder once more and shook his head. Jeff looked closed his eyes as he dumped the contents into the bowl.
"I love to paint. I love art and music." he said, saying the first thing that came to his mind.
"Well, we'll have to put that to use as a form of therapy for you." she said, handing him another bottle. "Tell me one of your proudest moments."
He didn't give a passing second to think about his reply to the question as he popped the top of the bottle and dumped the pills into the water below.
"Winning the WWE Tag Team Championship with my brother for the first time." he said, turning to Matt and smiling fondly of the memory.
She looked at the two brothers smiling at each other before grabbing another bottle and handing it to Jeff.
"Proud moment for you two, I take it. Alright, give me one of your favorite childhood memories." she said.
"Easy. Wrestling around in the backyard with my brother every weekend on our trampoline." he answered, dumping the pills out.
He threw the bottle into the trash as she handed him another bottle. Matt shift his weight from one foot to the other and sighed.
"How many things were you taking, Jeff?" he asked, looking at his brother.
"On a good day or a bad day?" he asked seriously, with no sarcastic tone in his voice.
"Either." Matt replied back.
"At one point, I was on about 10 different med.... drugs. Here lately, it's been about 7 or 8." he replied, guilt-ridden.
"I had no idea." Matt said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I know, bro. I'm sorry." Jeff said, looking away from his brother.
"Jeff, is this the end? Is this really the end of it?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, Matt, I believe it is. I'm tired and wore out. I'm sick of taking something day in and day out just trying to cope with everything. I just wish...." Jeff said trailing off.
"You wish what?" Matt asked, looking at his brother.
"I wish I was more like you. You have everything so put together, so organized. You're like the perfect son and everything is so easy for you." Jeff said, looking at his brother.
"Jeff, don't say that, man. Dad loves us equally and you know that. He doesn't always tell us that, but you have to know how proud of you he is. How proud of you I am. Jeff, I'm envious of you. You have natural gifts like writing and music and me? I can't carry a tune to save my life. I might have the book smarts, but Jeff, damn man, you got the athletic and artistic side of mom." Matt answered.
"Mom." Jeff whispered, looking into the pill bag.
He had always thought about himself when he was taking the pills. He would only think about others if they had gotten mad at him and usually it didn't matter to him unless it was his brother or their dad. He had never once thought of his mother and after hearing her name, the tears filled his eyes again and spilled down his cheeks.
"She would be so disappointed in me." Jeff said, crying softly.
"That might be true, but Jeff, I know what she is now?" Matt said, hugging his brother.
"What?" Jeff asked.
"She's proud of you. She's proud of her son who is getting the help he needs and who is making an effort to change and have a better life." Matt answered.
Jeff looked at the pills once more before taking them from Janine's hands and without a second thought, he popped the remaining bottle one by one and dumped them all into the toilet. He looked at his brother and then Janine, who displayed a smile on her face.
He turned back and looked at the pills before flushing the toilet, watching his old life wash away. He felt a new beginning was coming and even if his mom had passed almost 30 years before, she had been the biggest impact on his life.