Chapter 26
Max was fifteen years old and sitting on the couch in front of the TV playing a video game as Heath quietly shuffled into the room.
“What you doing?” Heath asked.
“You kidding me dude? I'll give you one guess,” barked Max with undue contempt and without looking away from the TV.
“Can I play?” asked Heath without outwardly reacting to his brother's tone.
“Shut up. Go away.”
Heath left as quietly as he entered only now he's holding back tears. His presence in the lounge room where Max was playing his game was replaced by their father’s voice yelling from another room. “Max,” his father’s voice boomed. Max paused his game knowing he had to pay attention. “What?” He said to the empty room knowing his father could hear him from the next. His father responded without appearing from where he was sitting out of sight, “Let your brother play the game with you.”
In protest Max dropped the game controller and turned the TV off. “I'm going out anyway.”
Heath was watching from the kitchen as Max jumped up and walked out the front door. His father called to him from the other room but his voice now sounded softer, “Sorry matey, I tried.” Heath shrugged to hide the feeling of rejection, and replied, “I'm going for a ride.”
As Heath headed out, his father called from behind, “Don't go too far, or for too long.” Heath rolled his eyes knowing his father wouldn't have said that to Max.
Max and a small collection of his friends sat in the food court of the local mall yelling and laughing like a bunch of... teenagers. Despite their young age they discuss getting drunk and having sex along with telling stories about drug taking which are detailed enough to be exciting for each other but anyone listening would laugh, or cry, at the naivety of what they're saying. They were having fun though and they didn't care who they annoyed.
Max loved being the centre of attention whether it was because he was telling a story to entertain or because he was yelling at a friend for doing something that annoyed him. He'd talk loudly to his friends just so the people around them could hear whatever awesome thing he had to say. He'd talk with his hands, using gestures to exaggerate his story until it was as epic as he could make it.
All of that is what Heath noticed from his seat a few tables away.
When he started studying his brother, started learning as much as he could about him, he quickly realised Max was predictable regarding where he would hang out with his friends. They were either at a park near their school or they were at the mall.
Heath left home on his bike earlier and rode down a path which would give him a view of the local park while remaining hidden. He saw his brother wasn't there so he went to the mall and only spent a few minutes wandering around before finding the group. He took his own seat at a table nearby. He would watch for as long as it took him to learn something new; something he could use. Sometimes he wondered why they were so different when they shared so much history. Physically identical while the inside couldn’t be more opposite.
Teenaged Max was happy to draw people to himself, and between his ability to tell a good story and the confidence with which he approached people, he was starkly different to Heath. His ability to also explode at his friends for no reason always surprised Heath but he was still all too familiar with it.