The Loud family grew anxious, as the two sisters fought hard. Nobody moved, because they know, if one breaks protocol, all will pay the price. Punches and kicks banged as both became bruised. "Give me all you got, I can take it bitch," Luna taunted Lynn as she wiped the trail of blood on her lips. Lynn, who is now laying on the floor with a bleeding eye ran to the sofa.
"Fuck you!" Lynn yelled, grabbing a revolver out of her purse. "I should've killed you three years ago!"
"BANG!" and everything went quiet.
9 days prior...
"The final mission led by NASA and ROSCOSMOS to stop the 11 miles wide asteroid dubbed the 'Alex May' had failed. The estimated moment of impact is 10 days from now." He sighed, "We had grown as a race together, went through mountains and oceans, but now our dream is ending. This is... the end," With that sign-off, the radioman played a timely accurate song, an ironic view of the end. The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis.
"Guess I won the bet," Lincoln sighed as he took a sip out of the bottle of beer in his hand. He sat there on the balcony of his apartment unit. 5 floors above ground, and a nice few feet on a hill. He could see the whole of Great Lakes City. It is funny how at night the city would look like a star-filled sky and look like a dump during the day. He cried. He never wanted to go, but that shit three years ago got his ass handed to him, mangled. That doesn't stop him from missing his sisters, however. Another sister fight protocol or whatnot. That always seems to work fine.
Putting his beer down, he slid his right foot out the window, just as he was about to jump down, his phone rang. Annoyed and didn't want his last moment on earth to echo the ugly tone of his phone, he grumbled and got in to pick it up. "Hello?" he answered, not reading the caller ID beforehand.
"Hey Lincoln..." It was Jordan, his ex-wife.
"What do you want?" Lincoln asked with a zest of poison in his voice.
"I- I... uh, wanna check up on you," Her voice was sad. "With all the... meteor or whatever,"
"Why? Mark left you for his mistress?"
"... yeah..." She sniffled.
"How is that my problem?" He asked, still with the same poison in his tongue. "So far, you've destroyed my plans twice already,"
"Please Linc, I beg you, please..." She begged. Her tone seemed genuine but he doesn't care about her anymore.
"I don't care," He hung up, shoving it in his shirt pocket. He walked back to the balcony and he threw his right leg out. Just as he was about to push the other one and jump. his phone rang again. Angered, he picked it up and yelled through the microphone, "What do you want bitch?!"
"Whoa easy tiger, it's me, Lily," The voice through the phone said.
"Oh, umm... Sorry sis, I was in the middle of something,"
"Were you going to jump?" She asked.
"Jump? What are you talking about? I ain't jumping-"He tried to hide it but sadly, when he looked down, he saw the blonde college student waving at him with her left hand slowly.
"Yeah, I definitely believed that lie," Lily said sarcastically.
"Sorry sis, I- it haven't been a good year," Lincoln replied as tears fell down his cheeks.
"I see that, not to be an asshole or anything, but can I come up there, I don't want a depressed old fuck dropping on top of me and ruining my last days on earth," Lily said, in her sarcastic tone of the no-bullshit Jane archetype.
"Oh yeah sorry, come on up," Lincoln replied as he fixed himself, pulling his leg back in the balcony. Unlike Jordan, Lily never did wrong by him.
Lincoln ran inside and he saw how wrecked the place really is, he never noticed it before. Pizza boxes everywhere, empty wrappers, half-eaten food, the dirty laundry, and somehow a dead rat in the middle of the room. Then the stench hits himhard. The smell of rotten flesh met the vile odour of spoiled milk. He was disgusted. Then his doorbell rang. He ran to the door, carefully not to trip on the mounds of trash. He opened the door, and he saw Lily, college student Lily Loud. Age 22.
"Jesus, did something die in there?" She asked, covering her nose as the stench struck.
"Yeah, a rat, a pretty big one too," Lincoln replied, trying to keep the mood light.
"Was gonna come and spend the rest of the week playing those stupid Ace Savvy fighting games you got me addicted to, now that I see your house and how miserable you look, I'll pass, come on, get your cleanest pair of pants, we're gonna get drunk tonight," Lily said. Lincoln followed, picking up a pair of khakis, he slid his noodle legs in.
"Done,"
"Damn bro, even your cleanest pair looks like wet undies," Lily's eyes widened. "Nevermind, pretend like I don't mind,"
"Gladly,"
"You're disgusting," Lily threw a soft punch on his arm.
"Same thing you told Lana," and Lincoln returned it back.
They got in Lily's car, the backseat had luggage, and there was a bag of weed on the dashboard. Lily, took her jacket off and threw it in the back. Black leather and it smelled like lemons. Better than piss and dead rats. The drive was calm - minus the dead bodies clogging the streets and the burning cars from the Thursday night riots - and serene. Lily had her mouth shut along the way.
She's tensed. I know that much. "Lils, you alright?" I asked her, she sighed.
"My tough bitch routine didn't work?" She asked with a slight chuckle. "Is it that obvious?"
"You haven't shout a single quote from your favourite porn video, and you're driving below 60, something is definitely wrong here,"
"Dang it, I know I should've cursed that dead guy out," She joked.
"I'm serious, is something bothering you? Other than my stench?"
"Other than your stench? no,"
"Liar liar, slutty undies on fire, I'm your brother, ya can tell me anything, except for your sex life, I'm not having that talk," I joked, but truthfully saying, I really am worried.
"... Remember three years ago?" She asked, her tone was weak, she was afraid.
I nodded.
"Lynn contacted me last month, she wanted your phone number and address, she wanted to come visit you," Lily said, the meter still under 60. "I said that I don't know anything about where you are or what you do anymore, not a half baked-lie since now you smell like a wet blanket. To shorten the story that is already short, Lynn wants to apologise for being such a dick to you,"
"You didn't give her my phone number right?" I asked, just to be sure.
"Nope, but then I realised, maybe we should use this time to reconcile with the family, it had been years man, I miss dad, and mom,"
"You should go, I'll just stay here, waiting for it to end," I said.
"Come on man, I know you hate them after-"
"HATE? I lost my wife because of them, I begged them not to do it and they did it. They destroyed my work life, they destroyed my marriage, they destroyed everything!" I yelled.
She sped up, the bar reached 72. "Lincoln, you're not the only victim here, you fucking asshole!" Lily yelled. "Luan got her work destroyed too, Luna had to use a fucking pacemaker to live, and Lori got herself a stillborn. Why? because they were on your side. I was a victim too Linc... I was," She cried, the car slowed down, the bar went below 50. "Lincoln. Mom told me that I was on my own when I was 19. I was 19. I had no one man. You and Lori were too depressed, Luan was knee-deep in debt, Luna almost died,"
"Lily, I- I... I'm sorry,"
"It's okay, I get it, happens to the best of us," She threw a smile.
"I'm sorry Lily," I sighed, "So, you wanna go back to Royal Woods?"
"Yeah," She nodded.
"I'll take first drive. Get some rest sis," I told her, and she appreciated it. She unbuckled her belt and we switched seats. I drove and drove. When we reached the sign that said, "Leaving Great Lakes City" All I could feel was the breeze of less polluted air, and maybe freedom. Freedom isn't concrete so I didn't feel it I guess.
"All I wanted was a beer, now I'm in a car for a road trip I didn't even packed for," I said. Lily looked at me weirdly. So I said to her, "what, I'm quoting my comic,"
"You narc," She joked, throwing her face out the window. The sight of trees breezing was calming to her. "Hey Linc," She called.
"Yeah, sis?"
"Thanks,"
"No, don't thank me. I, thank you,"
"For what?"
"For being there... Shouldn't we tell Lori and Luna that we're going back to Royal Woods?"
"They're already on their way, we should meet them out of town, at Flip's"
"Fucking Flip,"
"Yup, Fucking Flip,"
