Chapter Two

Jaelyn was in the bathroom the next morning, taking a pull from his prescription bottle and placing the oral chemotherapy pill into his mouth. After swallowing it with water and placing the glass on the sink, he sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror.

He heard a knock on his door. Jaelyn immediately hid his medication bottle in his pocket and turned around. After opening the door, he noticed that it was his little brother, Evan.

"Hey, want to go outside and play some baseball?" Evan asked.

Jaelyn took a deep breath and said, "Yeah, sure."

Evan nodded before turning around and walking away from Jaelyn.

Jaelyn left the bathroom after watching his brother leave as well, hoping Evan hadn't noticed him taking his medicine. Jaelyn walked to his bed and told Evan that he would be downstairs in a few minutes.

"Sure," Evan said.

Evan turned around and left Jaelyn's bedroom.

Jaelyn immediately hid his medicine bottle in his suitcase after taking it out of his pocket. He then grabbed his baseball cap, placed it on his head, and left his bedroom to play baseball with his little brother.

After Jaelyn went downstairs, he and Evan had already gotten their baseball gloves, and they stood outside their house. Jaelyn shut the door, and he and Evan walked together to the front yard to play baseball. Evan held a baseball in one hand and his baseball glove in the other.

"So, uh, how's Dad been doing since he lost his job as an accountant?" Jaelyn asked after Evan threw the ball to him and Jaelyn caught it with his baseball glove.

They tossed the ball back and forth.

Evan took a deep breath and said, "He's taking it really hard. He hates working as a barista."

Jaelyn nodded, and Evan threw the ball back to him once again.

Jaelyn sighed and said, "So he pretty much hates his job?"

Jaelyn threw the ball back to Evan, who caught it with his baseball glove.

"Yeah. I told you, he hates it," Evan said before tossing the ball back to Jaelyn.

Jaelyn sighed once again and stopped throwing the ball. He leaned over with his hands on his knees as he looked at the ground.

"Are you okay?" Evan asked. He could tell that Jaelyn looked a bit off.

Jaelyn slowly straightened up, looked at his little brother, and said, "Yeah. I just got a little light-headed."

Evan nodded and said, "Okay, well, Dad doesn't like his job as a barista because he misses working as an accountant. He literally got fired because he had been coming to work late. Apparently, he hasn't gotten over Olivia's death. I wish he understood that it wasn't your fault that Olivia died."

"Hey, uh, Dad didn't say anything about why he blamed you for Olivia's death?" Jaelyn asked.

Evan shrugged and said, "No. I tried asking him once again, and he said that he doesn't want to talk about it."

Evan threw the ball back to Jaelyn, and Jaelyn caught it with his baseball glove.

"So you honestly don't know why Dad would blame me for Olivia's death?" Jaelyn asked.

"No. I wish I did," Evan said, throwing the baseball back to Jaelyn. Jaelyn caught it once again with his glove.

Jaelyn thought for a moment before looking at Evan. Evan asked Jaelyn if he was going to throw the ball back to him.

"Yeah," Jaelyn said before throwing the ball back to Evan. They continued to play baseball, tossing the ball back and forth.

Eventually, Jaelyn walked back inside the house and heard his mother talking on the phone in the kitchen.

Jaelyn immediately knew who his mother, Leah, was talking to over the phone. He knew it was his dad, Dash, and overheard his mother saying that Olivia's death had been an accident.

"Jaelyn was just twenty years old, Dash! He was still a kid. Of course, he misses his sister," Leah said.

Jaelyn sighed and headed upstairs to his bedroom.

After walking into his bedroom, Jaelyn walked toward the nightstand and placed his baseball glove on it before sitting on the edge of his bed. He swallowed and heard his mother walking up the stairs while still talking to his father, Dash, over the phone. Jaelyn overheard the conversation once again.

"Honey, please, just forgive him. Why? Because he is our son! He is family, Dash!" Leah said.

Jaelyn took a deep breath and began to get emotional. The guilt he experienced in his chest felt like a painful ache. Jaelyn knew it was the same feeling he had experienced since the night Olivia died. He had a flashback of his little sister, Olivia, lying dead on the basement floor after falling down the flight of stairs.

Once Jaelyn's flashback came and went, he sighed. He wiped the tears from his eyes and heard footsteps approaching his bedroom door. Jaelyn saw his mother's shadow on the floor, but Leah walked away from the door and headed back downstairs. Jaelyn closed his eyes and swallowed.

After opening his eyes once again, Jaelyn's nose began to bleed. Blood dripped onto his lips. He gently patted his lip with his fingers and looked at them, noticing blood on them. Jaelyn sighed once again before standing up from his bed and heading toward the bathroom inside his bedroom.

After walking into the bathroom, Jaelyn looked at himself in the mirror. He took a piece of toilet paper from beside the toilet and pressed it against his nose to stop the bleeding. After covering his nose with the toilet paper and hoping the bleeding would stop, Jaelyn threw the paper into the trash can next to the sink.

He stood where he was, thinking about how his father had yelled at him for failing to watch over Olivia when he was nineteen. He had still been a kid at the time. Now he was grown up—a man in his mid-twenties.

During dinner, Jaelyn sat in the dining room across from his little brother, Evan. His mother sat on one side of the table, while his father sat across from Leah on the other side.

After Jaelyn took a bite of his food, he could barely swallow it. He was feeling a bit nauseous. The oral chemotherapy pills were taking a toll on him, and the side effects were worse than they had been on other days. Evan could tell that his brother didn't look well. Jaelyn was playing with his food, and an awkward silence filled the room. All he could think about was throwing up. He felt sick to his stomach.

Evan sighed and took a drink of water as he watched Jaelyn play with his food.

"So, uh, Dash, can you tell the boys about the promotion you received at work today as a barista?" Leah asked after gently patting her lips with her napkin to wipe away the food.

"Congratulations, Dad," Evan said.

"Thank you, son," Dash answered.

Leah looked at her oldest son, Jaelyn, who was staring down at his food, and asked him to congratulate his father, Dash, on his promotion.

"Congratulations," Jaelyn said as he looked at his dad.

Dash gave him a look that made it clear he still blamed his son for Olivia's death.

Jaelyn swallowed as he looked back down at his plate. Evan then told his mother and father that he had exciting news.

"What's the good news?" Leah asked.

"Well, I made it to captain of the baseball team," Evan answered, smiling at Leah.

"Oh, honey, that's awesome news! Congratulations!" Leah said, smiling at Evan.

"That's good, Evan. Keep up the good work, and soon you'll see yourself playing against the Yankees in the World Series," Dash said.

"I find that hard to believe, Dad," Evan said, chuckling.

"I'm serious. You could be a world champion one day. We're proud of you, son," Dash said.

Evan nodded and chuckled. Jaelyn sighed and felt even more guilty because his father wasn't proud of him but was proud of his little brother instead. Jaelyn thought that his father hated him and no longer wanted any kind of relationship with him.

Ever since Olivia died, Jaelyn had lost his connection with his father. They used to do everything together, but that changed shortly after Olivia's death. It didn't take Dash long to decide that he needed to stop having a bond with his oldest son, Jaelyn.

Jaelyn felt heartbroken. He felt as though he were living in a world of chaos.

Jaelyn had been heartbroken when his father, Dash, hadn't attended his law school graduation. Now it didn't matter to him anymore because he would probably never practice law again as a lawyer. He was sick and had cancer.

In Jaelyn's bedroom, he lay in bed with the covers over him. His little brother, Evan, lay next to him, and they stared at the ceiling while the fan blew air across their faces.

"Are you okay?" Evan asked after looking at his big brother.

"Yeah," Jaelyn answered softly.

"You looked pretty sick at the table earlier this evening," Evan said, looking back up at the ceiling.

"Uh, I just didn't feel like eating dinner tonight. I wasn't in the mood," Jaelyn said.

"I thought I heard you throwing up in the bathroom earlier," Evan said.

"Maybe you heard it in a movie," Jaelyn said.

"Come on, Jaelyn. I'm not stupid," Evan said.

"I'm fine," Jaelyn answered.

"Okay, well, shall we practice pitching more than usual tomorrow? I really want a jump-start on the next season, since it doesn't begin until September," Evan said.

"I don't care. Do you want to wake up around ten o'clock tomorrow morning to practice more?" Jaelyn asked.

"Yeah. Sounds great," Evan said.

Jaelyn was beginning to get tired.

"Well, uh, I'm going to go to bed. I'm getting a bit tired," Jaelyn said to Evan.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow," Evan said as he stood up from the bed, walked toward the door, and eventually left Jaelyn's bedroom.

As he continued to lie in bed, Jaelyn stared at the ceiling.

He had another flashback of the tragic accident: himself rushing to the phone to call 911. Nineteen-year-old Jaelyn had been panicked and in tears. Once the flashback ended, Jaelyn sighed and began to get emotional once again.

The next day, Jaelyn and Evan sat on the front porch, talking about going to a summer baseball game at the park.

"Yeah. When is it?" Jaelyn asked.

"Uh, on Saturday at noon. It ends at three. I thought we should do something together since we haven't hung out in I don't know how long," Evan said.

"Yeah, that sounds good. If Mom wants to come with us, she can drive us there," Jaelyn said, sighing.

Jaelyn saw his ex-girlfriend, Eva Roaden, talking to her mother across the street. He hadn't spoken to Eva since the incident that night.

Eva walked inside her home carrying groceries. Jaelyn thought that Eva still lived with her mom and dad. Her parents had been there on the night of Olivia's accident.

Evan looked at his brother and then glanced at Eva. Eva came outside once again and headed toward the car to grab more groceries from the trunk.

"You should talk to her," Evan said.

"I don't know. I sort of called off our relationship after—"

Dash came outside onto the porch and interrupted his son's conversation with Evan.

"Hey, Evan, your mom needs you downstairs."

Evan nodded and said, "Okay."

Evan stood up from the porch swing and sighed. He went to the door and opened it before going inside the house. After the door shut, Dash looked at Jaelyn and said, "You know, I just wish you hadn't come home."

Jaelyn looked at his father. Dash gave him a look that made Jaelyn realize his father hated him.

"Your coming home is just going to bring back memories of what happened that night. I hope you realize that," Dash said.

Jaelyn didn't say a word. He went numb and quiet.

Dash turned around and opened the door before walking back inside the house. Jaelyn fought back tears.

He wiped his eyes with his hands, trying to hide his tears. Jaelyn sat where he was, thinking about what his father had said to him. Evan eventually came back outside and sat on the porch swing. Jaelyn sighed, immediately stood up from the swing, stormed into the house, and slammed the door.