Broken

Things never stay the same...

Not all of Highland Beach is sunshine and palm trees. Some people simply don't have the means to make it financially. Those people usually live in Clifton Court, an older neighborhood that hasn't been renovated since Village Harbor was constructed. The neighborhood has been deteriorating for years and many houses are in a state of disrepair. The people living here are either too poor, too set in their ways, or too strung out to care.
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Megami†
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Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:48 pm

Broken

#1

Post by Megami† »

Even this late in the evening, the sun was still up, but ever so slowly, it had begun to set beyond the horizon. The orange, yellow, and red hues illuminated the particularly unimpressive residence sitting on the corner of "H" Street and Belle Avenue. The house itself was a modest, rather small one story building, easily put to shame by some of the more elustrious residences out on Stonegate Island, but to the family who lived inside, it might as well have been a mansion. It was an unusually quiet evening in Clifton Court, and the only audible noise in the vicinity of the house came from behind the somewhat run-down looking fence that wrapped around the back of the house. The pace of the dribbling noise quickened and the sound of feet slammed heavily into the concrete before, for just a moment, everything went silent. In the next moment, the clanging sound of flesh connecting with the basketball rim resounded loudly, followed by the sound of more dribbling.

Another set of footsteps echoed out from the sidewalk after a moment, along with the light sound of dragging. The source of the noise was a boy, an elementary school student, sidled down the sidewalk into the backyard, dragging his overfilled backpack behind him. As the younger boy rounded the corner through the open gate and his feet hit the patio, the dribbling noise stopped, and the older teenager who had been shooting hoops came to an abrupt stop. He scowled at the younger boy for just a moment, but didn't say anything. Finally, he found his voice once again, and shook his head in disappointment.

"Jamari, where you been?" Tyrese Paramore chastised.

"Nowhere," Jamari replied defensively.

"Nowhere, huh?" Tyrese muttered, still looking at his younger brother accusingly, "Your little meatball-headed ass didn't come home from school, Mama's been worried 'bout you. You don't know how to use the phone?"

"I ain't had no phone to use!" Jamari protested, "Mama know that, she don't need to be worried about me."

"Jamari, you ain't grown," Tyrese stated flatly, "You need to be callin' this house and tellin' us if you think you're goin' somewhere after school. Mama didn't go to work 'cause she was in there callin' all your friends' parents tryin' to find you. She thought somebody done knocked you in the head on your way home or somethin'."

"Mama need to quit worryin'," the younger boy protested, "Ain't nothin' bad never happened to me before."

"Don't mean it won't," Tyrese shot back, "Hadn't nothin' ever happened to me either... you see where it got me."

Jamari's bag dropped onto the cement with a loud thud and he glared back at his brother. It was apparent that his temper was flaring, but Tyrese simply stood there, the expression on his face almost completely devoid of any emotion. When Tyrese looked at his younger brother, all he saw was trouble. Jamari used to be a good kid, but the older he got, the more rambunctious he seemed to get, and the harder it was to keep him in line. His blatant disrespect to their mother angered T on a whole other level, but it wasn't even worth the time and effort to chastise his little brother over how rude it was to make their mother wait by the phone until he finally decided to come home on a whim. At the moment, Jamari was overflowing with anger, and when he verbally lashed out at T again, it was very apparent.

"T, I. Ain't. You."

The words were spat angrily from his mouth.

"Just 'cause somethin' bad happened to you don't mean it's gonna happen to me. I ain't no little kid no more, and you and Mama keep treatin' me like I'm a baby. Y'all need to start givin' me some respect and some damn space! You ain't my daddy, you're my brother, so stop tryin' to act like you in charge!"

T simply looked at his younger brother for a moment before calmly dropping his basketball onto the ground and grabbing Jamari by the arm. He all but dragged the boy by the arm into the back door of the house, but despite his physicality with the younger Paramore brother, he didn't seem angry at all.

"You want respect? Earn it. I hate to tell you this, but you ain't nothin' but a little kid, you ain't grown, and as long as you live under this roof and don't pay the bills, you gonna go by the rules. We gonna keep treatin' you like a baby till you act like a man. But you know, you right, I ain't your daddy, but I'm the closest thing to one you got now. But you ain't gotta worry about it, I'm not takin' you in here to give you a spankin' or some other bullshit 'cause it ain't gonna do you no good anyway. You're gonna go in here and tell Nana Lu what you just told me."

Jamari didn't say anything when Tyrese told him of his plans. Instead, he simply resigned himself to following his older brother into the house. Nana Lu's punishment would be worse than anything Tyrese could have done to him, and Jamari knew that. He cringed at the thought of it and considered protesting momentarily, but decided that he'd said more than enough for the time being. Things had been so different before T got shot. Jamari missed having a brother, he didn't want a father figure.
This is an archival account used by staff to port posts belonging to the handler Megami. While this handler hasn't been around in quite a while, should they return and wish to take custody of this account and/or its posts, they are welcome to do so by contacting staff.
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