Achieving Unbroken
Chapter Twenty Seven

—

"I should stay strong;
But I'm weak, and what's wrong with that?
Boy oh boy I love it when I fall for that"
Weak | AJR

—

Jason
[Friday, March 23rd, 2017]

"Happy birthday dear Jo-ey, happy birthday to you!" The five of us chorus as Mama places the made-from-scratch triple chocolate cake in front of my little brother, who turned fourteen today.

"Cake!" Sapphire squeals, her and Diamond playing around in their seats, giggling and saying incoherent things in their high pitched voices.

"Shh, Sapphie," Mom goes, gently pressing her index finger to her lips. "Joey's gotta make a wish."

Joey's face lights up when Mom says this. The twins are young and crave attention, and I know that bringing them into the house has been something that was an adjustment to both Joey and I.

But for Joey, he seems to still be adjusting.

Having Mom defend him and acknowledge that this, right now, is his thing that he gets to do, reassures him. I've tried to do the same; but it feels different coming from our parents. I always feel happy when they give him chances like this. It cheers him up.

He takes a moment — his moment in the spotlight — to think of what he wants to wish of. I can tell that he's prolonging this moment as long as he can manage, because he loves that the eyes are on him for once, he loves feeling loved.

Unfortunately, he makes his moment a little too long. And it's cut short before he even realizes it.

As he was thinking about what he wanted to wish for, I could see Diamond and Sapphire playing around across the table. They weren't too distracting, so quiet that I couldn't even hear what they were saying, so it wasn't an issue.

Until I hear—

"Stop!" In Sapphire's little voice, though it echos through the dining room.

And in a breath, the room is dark. Joey's face isn't glowing; none of ours are.

Diamond blew out his birthday candles. The two candles, the '1' and the '4', Are no longer dripping with wax. They are instead letting out streams of smoke.

Diamond took his wish. She took his moment in the sun. She took the one thing he felt like he had; and made it hers.

"Diamond," Mom reprimands. "You can't blow out your brother's birthday candles! This isn't your birthday."

Livid, Joey storms out of his chair, trying to leave the tear falling down his face unnoticed. He leaves so fast that the chair falls backwards and clatters on the dining room floors, and the only noises made are Joey's feet thumping upstairs and his door slamming shut.

"Fuck," I whisper sharply.

"Jason," Mom snaps.

"Me?" My voice raises. "You should have told the girls to zip it. You should have made sure they were under control."

Diamond and Sapphire sit in their chairs, slumped over, lips quivering as I yell.

"Jason—" Loraine starts, but I keep going.

"That was the most he's felt paid attention to in years," my voice booms. The twins scurry out of their chairs, upstairs and into their bedroom. Guilt pokes at my heart, but I push it away.

"Look at what you did to the girls. You just scared the bejesus out of them." Mama's Southern accent returns. I throw my arms in the air.

"The girls, the girls, the girls. What about your son? Both of you? He's probably in his bed in tears right now. And now I'm going to go and clean up the mess, because you guys probably wouldn't even know how to make him feel better at this point. You only know how to take care of toddlers."

Without argument, they watch as I follow Joey's path up the stairs and tap on his door.

"It's not mom's, it's me."

"Come in."

When I open his door, he isn't facing me. He lays on his bed with his back away from me, but I still hear his sniffing. Closing the door behind me, I go to sit on the edge of his bed.

"Thank you for defending me," he whimpers. I answer after rubbing my hands over my face multiple times.

"Of course, Man. I'm sorry that that happened. I know how excited you were for your birthday."

He doesn't respond.

"Hey, uh... If mom's aren't in the dining room anymore, I can go down and get the cake for us?"

This makes him turn over, face tear-streaked and blotchy, but thankful.

"Thanks."

I smile, and lightly punch his shoulder. But, when I start walking to his bedroom door, an idea pops into my head. I can't help but vocalize it.

"But, uh, before I do that, I'm gonna go check with the twins really quick. Just really quick! I promise. I just think I kinda scared the shit out of them when I yelled at Mom's."

Joey nods at me, just nods; and I take it as my cue to leave.

My knuckle softly taps the door to the twins' room, and I hear one of them hum, so I take it as a "come in". I crack their door open, just to see where they are and make sure they aren't going to attack me from behind the door, and see that they are both curled up on the top bunk of their bunk bed. They curl up even more when they notice me.

"Hey, munchkins," I walk over to their bed and step on one of the legs of the ladder to get to the top bunk. One of my hands reaches out to poke them both in the feet.

"I'm sorry I ruined Joey's birthday," Diamond mumbles emotionally. She rests her head on Sapphire's shoulder, and Sapphire puts her head on top of her sisters.

"Hey, you guys were excited. You just can't blow out the candles until it's your birthday." My mouth lifts into a small grin. "Do you wanna tell him you're sorry?"

Diamond brings her head up, and nods. I get off of the ladder so the two of them can get down, and Diamond instantly grasps her sister's hand and drags her to the room next door. I don't follow them to witness the apology, instead peeking downstairs to see if Mom and Mama are still down there.

They aren't.

Quietly bouncing my feet from step to step, I slide the cake off of the table and grab some randomly placed forks from the table. A little slower than I was going down, I climb the staircase back up while balancing the cake in my hands. When I enter Joey's room again, I catch him in an embrace with the girls. I sneak into the room without disturbing the hug, and kick the door shut as silently as I can.

The three of them release each other, and all of their expressions perk up when they spot the large cake on Joey's desk.

"Cake?" Sapphire whispers, unsure of herself. Joey gives her a small smile.

"Cake."

I hold up the forks that I grabbed after he confirms, and the four of us huddle on his bed to dig in.

We stay in there the whole night; eating most of the cake without spilling on the bed, and later we find Mrs. Doubtfire playing on TV, which is a family favorite movie.

I wake up around three AM to see the girls almost on top of us, comfortably sleeping. Maybe, just maybe, we have finally adjusted.