family reunion

I was on my way to meet my brother Daniel, the brother I only see once a year. It could be seen as strange to meet up at the gravestone of someone, but that "someone" turns out to be our father, so I guess it wouldn't be that strange. Well, at least not as strange as my brother - andddd here he comes.

Standing at a noteworthy height of 177cm, this guy has always been off-putting. I don't have a particular liking or disliking to my brother, but we did make the agreement to meet once a year. Of course, we chose a time which we wouldn't associate with our mother. He seems to be pretty mad at her for whatever reason, which made him distance himself from everyone, or so I think. I can tell something happened while I was in university, but no one has bothered to explain to me what it was.

I would say he's deeply sadden by the death of our father, but I know that's not the case. There's something wrong with him, but I'm not sure what it is. Well, besides his normal personality, which is already alarming, those empty eyes. So lifeless and colorless that you wouldn't be a fool to think they were pitch black, and the way he always wears the same trench coat. Is he trying to be edgy or get heatstroke? It's hot as hell out here! What is he thinking-

"Hello there! You seem a bit lost in thought oniichan."

"Hahahaha! No stop, don't call me that. It's fucking weird."

"Come on, I know you're not a fan of anime, but you need to adapt. There's a lot of freaks out there that like it."

"Like you?"

"Yup, exactly like me. Well, maybe not as good as me but they have the same taste."

My brother's sense of humor is very odd to me, but he always manages to make me laugh or freak me out, one way or another. We are on completely opposite sides on what we find funny.

I sigh deeply. "So how have you been?"

"Amazing. I'm always doing amazing you know. I have a free house and everything. Why wouldn't I be doing amazing?"

He seemed to have inherited the house for some reason. Could have been our mother giving it to him out of pity, but he mentions it as if it's a good thing. Well, I guess getting a house despite the reason is a good thing, but in this situation it's kind of iffy. I also don't understand why he was left alone to fend for himself all those years. I didn't bother to help him personally, so I don't really ask much.

"I meant money. Are you good on that?"

"Hahaha! I'm a full-grown adult. I no longer need that kind of help. I have a very successful business of investing in meme coins, and I do drop shipping."

I really don't know how my brother gets by nowadays. I'd say he works, but since I don't observe his life closely, I have no idea.

"Ar- are you serious?"

He broke into laughter upon hearing my question. "Hahah! of course not. Who the fuck actually thinks they can make money off that shit nowadays? Come on, I know you're worried about your little brother but I'm fine. Let's go do something together after we pray for our poor father."

"Uhhh okay." my brother quickly put his hands together and just stared at the gravestone. Does he not know how to pray? Or is he just paranoid? Because even with his head bowed, his eyes are open, and he looks around every once in a while. Not like we're actually praying though, more like just saying some words to our father, or at least thats how i think of it.

"All done?" Daniel asks after 15 seconds of us staring blankly.

"Ya sure, I'm done."

"Let's get going then."

Not sure where he's planning to take me in all honesty. Last time, I took him to a party in hopes of cheering him up, but he just stood in the corner, giving off an eerie vibe. I really don't know much about my brother, so I told him via text that he should choose where to go this time, and what he ended up choosing was a ... water park?

This was suspiciously out of character for him. The last thing I expected him to do was take me to a water park, but here we were, two grown ass men, waiting our turn to go on the slide

"Daniel, I was sure you didn't enjoy water parks from what I remember."

"Huh? That's absolutely absurd who doesn't like water parks? I love the smell of chlorine and the possibility of ear infection!"

"Uhhh...ya sure."

Well, at least his more enthusiastic than usual. He's still as hyperactive as ever he sways around in a single spot.

As we waited in line, I spotted a young girl looking at my brother, she seemed to be just about his age. My brother isn't ugly by any means, and his physique is well kept. He was skinny but every muscle was well defined. Seems like he's been keeping an exercise routine to some extent, unlike me. With this beer belly, I look more like my dad while he just looks like? himself, I guess? He doesn't really have any resemblance to our parents.

"Daniel look, that girl is looking at you. Maybe you should try talking to her so you can finally not be a virgin."

"I'd rather not."

"...?" I said it as a joke, but he actually responded pretty mad, unlike other times where he would just brush me off with a joke.

Realization clicked in my head and my eyes lit up.

"Did you finally get a girlfriend?! My lil brother is getting a taste of actual life now."

"Uhhhh no. Well, I'm not really sure..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, it's kind of a long story. I'll tell ya once we sit down and eat some snacks."

"Okay." His expression had changed. I couldn't really read the face he had made. It was just... odd.

We finally had made it to the top of the slide, and I felt a bit uneasy. I haven't been on one of these in a while. My brother looked back at me.

"Are you scared?"

"Nah, it's just the height gets me nervous."

"Is that so? Welp, see you at the bottom." he quickly launched himself down the slide without any hesitation.

"Well, I guess it's my turn." I followed his lead. The way down filled me with a bit of adrenaline before landing in the pool of water that was at the end. I looked around, but my brother wasn't in sight, then suddenly, I felt the tight grip of someone pulling me down under the water by my legs. I panicked, flailing my hands around, trying to grasp some air before being completely pulled under. It was only a matter of seconds but it felt excruciatingly long. My brother surfaced from the water.

"Did I scare you, Carlos?" his expression was serious. I thought to myself, "What the hell was he thinking?!", but the words of confrontation didn't come out. I could only nervously laugh.

"Haha... ya, that was scary, you piece of shit."

"Hahahah! Glad you liked it. Come on, let's go. We need to talk a bit."

"Sure..." I was still in shock from what had happened. The little joke he did wasn't that scary. It was just the fact that he was the one doing it. I did my best to brush off that little incident as we proceeded to walk towards the spot we had saved.

"I'll go for some snacks, Carlos. I'll be back."

"Ya okay." his mood had changed. I don't know why, but he seemed a bit agitated. "Welp, let's hear what he has to say when he comes back."

He walked back with a 2-liter coke, a large bag of chips and some other snack items. I expected at least some sort of food, but this will do, I guess.

"So, are we going to continue our conversation?" I asked

"Ya, sure." he had already opened the bag of chips and had started consuming them.

"So basically, I met this girl, and she seems pretty nice so far, but at times she is a bit annoying; nothing too out of the ordinary to me but I'm not sure if I should actually pursue her. After all, I'm a depressing guy. What if I spred it to her?"

"I mean, does that even matter? You are both interested in each other, you should just give it a shot. You've never dated before, it's about time you give it a try."

"Ya I guess you're right big bro!" he said this very sarcastically and I wasn't sure why.

"So, how did you meet this girl?"

"Ya we just randomly bumped into each other. It was some shit straight out of a romance anime. She had the bread in her mouth and everything."

"...Really?"

"Nah you know I'm just exaggerating, but yeah after we bumped into each other she asked me out. I could tell right away she was going to be really pushy."

"Just as I thought. The only type of women that would probably get a collar on this guy is someone pushy. He would never go out of his way to pursue someone."

He then started speaking fluently about her. It was like listening to a middle schooler speak about their crush, truly a child at heart.

"You seem to like her, Daniel. I don't know why you're so hesitant."

"Nahhhhh, I don't like her one bit!" He said in that same sarcastic tone as before. This conversation is normal, but it seems sinister at the same time.

"Oh, would you look at the time, big bro. it's time to leave! I don't like driving in the night."

"Huh?"

"It was still mid-day, yet this guy already wanted to leave with the excuse of not wanting to drive at night? His home is no more than 30 minutes away. If anything, I should be the one complaining like that. If you didn't want to talk to me anymore, you should have just said so."

"Ya sure, wouldn't want it to get late." "Hehehehe!" he laughed hysterically before speeding off. Yeah, this is how my brother says goodbye to me ...

The sound of a man vomiting from the inside of a bathroom is overwhelming.

"Haha... looks like I'm still not used to staying out like this for so long... This confirms it. There's something wrong in my head... The whole day, I had a large amount of anxiety that wouldn't go down, no matter what I did. Staying isolated for so long did affect me, but it doesn't matter. I somewhat got through the day....

Welp, that whole day of putting a mask in front of my brother was fun. I'll definitely be looking forward to next time ..."