June 30th, 2017
- Present Day -
"And, finally, what I've been waiting this entire time to show you…" Zach holds his hands over Gray's eyes, blocking his vision as he glides the back sliding glass door open and leads him out onto the patio.
"Jeez, Zach, just tell me what it is already!" Gray exclaims anxiously, attempting to tug Zach's fingers away from his eyes. "Is it a-"
"Humongous pool with an amazing view? Yes!" Zach's grin broadens as he squeezes Gray's shoulders tightly. "Isn't it awesome?"
Gray attempts to smile at his brother, but it comes out as more of a grimace. He's happy for Zach; he really is. But there's a minor problem with the pool that he's not quite ready to let on about yet. "Yeah. It's great, Zach. I'm- I'm really happy for you."
Zach's elated expression slowly droops as he stares down at Gray, a look of bewilderment present on his face. "What's wrong? You don't seem as excited as I thought you would. I figured you'd jump in right now."
Gray glances up at Zach, then back down to his reflection in the slightly rippled water. "No, no! Nothing's wrong, seriously! It's just…"
Zach nods his head slowly, motioning with his hands for Gray to continue. "It's just what? Mom practically went insane when I told her about this pool. She said you'd be so excited since you finally got over your fear of water. I'm proud of you by the way."
Gray's blue eyes hastily widen as he backs away from the gigantic pool full of water, Zach's brows furrowing in confusion at him. "Y-yeah? You are? I'm glad."
The 18-year-old smiles warmly at his little brother and gazes up past the pool, admiring the glimmering lake surrounded by a forest of pine trees. "Of course I am. That was hard for you, Gray. But I'm so happy you're past it now. We can have a summer full of fun and water!"
Gray chuckles softly—anxiously—as he attempts to subtly back up to a plastic lounge chair, taking a seat on the edge of it. "Heh, that's great, Zach. That's really great. Water's fun…"
"Isn't it?" Zach replies quietly, grinning down at Gray. "Hey. Why don't you go get your swim trunks out of your bag and we'll go swimming for a while."
"I, uh, well- Y'see…" Gray stutters apprehensively over himself as Zach crosses his arms and stares intently at him, waiting for him to continue. "I- I just went swimming on Monday! Yeah, that's it. I'm kinda done with water this week."
Zach looks completely torn. He wants to believe his brother—because why would he lie about something like this(?)—but, on the other hand, the whole thing seems a little sketchy. Gray hadn't started acting weird until he got around the pool and has a quite conflicted expression on his face, like he's in deep thought about something. "Oh, okay. So, you wanna go get that ice cream then? Since you went swimming a week ago, you suddenly don't want to swim here. But, hey,"—he raises his hands up in mock surrender—"I'm not judging."
"Zach, it was three days ago. Not a full week. And I'm sorry. I just don't really feel like going swimming right now. Some things still get to me a little bit," there's a moment of silence, "I mean, I don't imagine it all anymore when I touch water, but…"
Zach nods, understanding, and plops down on the chair behind Gray. "It's fine, man. I get it. Now, c'mon. I've got all sorts of popsicle, ice cream, and fudge pop flavors in my freezer."
A large grin tugs at the corners of Gray's lips as he jumps up, slightly shivering when he gets near the pool, and trails behind his brother. "There're different flavors of fudge pops? Aren't they supposed to be fudge? Because y'know, fudge pops."
"Oh, Gray. Poor sheltered little Gray. You've never seen a strawberry flavored fudge pop?" Zach chuckles softly as he grabs a chocolate dipped Drumstick for himself and a strawberry banana fudge pop for Gray. "Here, try it. It's really good."
Gray cautiously rips the package off and peels it away from the popsicle, thoroughly examining it.
Zach glances over at him from across the granite countertop and furrows his eyebrows, shooting Gray a strange look. "What the hell are you doing? D'you think I worked this hard to convince Mom to let you stay here for the rest of the summer just so I could poison you?"
Gray snickers faintly as he pops the fruity fudgesicle in his mouth. "Hey, years of living with an older brother has given me instincts that I've learned to keep."
Zach reaches over the counter and playfully slugs him in the shoulder. "Shut up. I wouldn't poison you, and you know it."
"That's what you want me to think. Right before you jump in and"—he positions his arms in a hunting velociraptor's form—"strike your prey. Otherwise known as your little brother."
Zach finishes off the last of his ice cream cone and licks the remnants off his fingers before casually strolling around the island and placing his hand on Gray's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "Gray Mitchell, you, my friend, are very strange."
Gray bites the small remaining chunk of the fudgesicle off the popsicle stick and tosses it in the trash can, quickly following behind Zach to the living room. They plop down on the couch, and Gray leans on Zach's forearm. "Yes, yes I am. But you wouldn't change a thing." He grins up at his older brother—his head resting in his lap—and Zach smiles at him, ruffling his golden curls affectionately.
"You're right. I wouldn't," Zach replies quietly, keeping one hand tangled in Gray's hair and using the other one to grab his arm. "C'mon. Let's go downstairs to the theater room. We can watch some movies if you want."
Gray nods and smiles warmly as he rises off Zach's lap and tags along behind him while they make their way towards the basement. "We're watching The Avengers, right?"
Zach crinkles up his nose, plopping down in front of the DVD player. "No way. We watch that every time. Let's watch Mad Max 2."
"Zach, that movie's rated R. I can't watch it," Gray replies flatly as Zach rolls his eyes, glancing back up at his brother.
"I'm 100% sure you've seen worse things than what's in this movie," he pauses momentarily. "Oh, here's a couple examples: people getting eaten by dinosaurs, dinosaurs getting eaten by dinosaurs, true terror in the victims' eyes."
Gray chuckles softly and motions for Zach to play the movie. "Fair enough. And to be honest, I think I looked a lot more scared than you did. You kept your cool pretty well." His head droops down slightly and his shoulders slump as his voice quiets.
Zach gazes up at him, fumbling with the disc as he places it in the player. "Hey, you did really good yourself, y'know. You didn't cry one time or even really get upset until the Indominus got ahold of your dork pouch and tried to pull you out. But c'mon. What were you supposed to do? You were scared. And so was I—because I'd kept you alive that long and I almost lost you in a split second." He flops down in the black theater chair next to Gray and uses the remote built into the armrest to dim the lights.
Gray shrugs carelessly, kicking his legs up with the reclining feature of the seats. "I guess."
"My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the Road Warrior. The man we called Max."
And, as the movie begins, Gray starts to feel his eyes become heavy and droop shut—he grabs a white, fuzzy quilt that had been lying next to him and throws it over himself. Before long, Gray is peacefully sleeping under the security of the warm blanket.
