//------------------------------//
// Home 
// Story: Navigate 
// by Sleestack 
//------------------------------//

	The screen went black for a second, the break between the commercial and the show, and the television became a mirror, capturing the couch, the lofty ceilings of the room it was in, the fancy artwork hung up on the walls, and the two siblings sitting down on the floor in front of the couch. There was a boy, seventeen years old, tall for his age, with short black hair and light olive skin. Sitting next to him was a girl, eleven years old, with short blonde hair and pale skin. It was hard for some people to believe they were related. 
She was watching the screen, but he was watching her. Her hair had just started growing back and she was gaining all the weight she lost, and he was relieved about that. But he was also felt immense pain at the moment, because she was torturing him. She knew he hated My Little Pony, and she had heard him voice his many opinions on it, but she kept using the same explanation as to why she made him watch it.
“You promised.” She smirked. “You said you'd do anything.”
“I know, but that was when I was going through the bargaining stage.” He said, trying to sound like he was joking rather than angry. “You're making me go back to anger. Besides, I think the warranty of that contract has expired.”
“No, the 'contract' says it's as long as I'm better. When I stop being better, you can stop watching.” she said, making air quotes around the word "contract".
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“...Don't joke about that, Ren.”
She looked away from the screen and saw the seriousness in his face. “Sorry, I didn't mean it like-”
“No, I know, it's just, it's still kinda hard to make it a joke, you know?”
“I'm sorry.” she responded.
“It's okay.”
Even the TV made no noise for a second. There was a pause in the conversation between characters even, just to emphasize the awkwardness in the room. It was quickly picked up, however, by one of the characters saying... something. He blocked out their voices most of the time. It was the Yellow One saying something to the Orange One.
“What about me?” he interrupted.
“Huh?” she responded.
“What if something bad happened to me? Could I stop watching then?”
She smiled. “Psh. Right. It doesn't count if you do it to yourself.”
“Dammit.” he said. She took a cushion off the couch and started assaulting him with it. “Darn! Fine! I meant darn, alright!” she continued hitting him, while laughing.
Their father's voice called them from the other room. “Trip!” Renee stopped as they both looked towards his voice.
“Yeah, dad?” Trip said as he stood up. He walked to the door of the TV room, to the dining room, to the kitchen, through the living room and over to the front door where his dad was putting on his jacket and shoes.
“I'm going to a meeting tonight. I didn't have time to cook, so just go and buy something from Wendy's or something, okay?” he handed Trip two twenty dollar bills. “Tonight's meeting’s gonna be a little more than two hours, so make sure she's in bed by ten.”
“Alright, dad. Not gonna strangle anyone?”
He rolled his eyes. “Ugh. I don't know. If I hear Jackson complain about random shit again, I might have to rip his scalp off.”
Trip laughed. “Just say ten 'Hail Maries’ or something.”
His dad smiled. “Your mother was always the religious one, not me. Christ, I don't even know if I remember how the fuckin' Hail Mary goes. I'll just have keep to myself, I guess.”
“Okay. And Dad?” Trip said, barely above a whisper. His dad stopped and looked at him.
“Yeah?”
“I'm proud of you.”
His dad nodded. “Thanks, buddy.”
“Ten months.”
His dad smiled again. “Soon to be eleven!” He gave Trip a hug. “I'll seeya later, bud.” He let go and called to the other room. “Bye, Ren!”
“Seeya, dad!” She called back.
He opened the door and headed out.
Trip walked back into the TV room, where to his annoyance, he found that his sister had paused the show.
He rolled his eyes.“You don't even have the decency to watch two minutes without me?” Trip said.
She grimaced. “Nope. I don't want you to miss one precious frame.”
“Renee, you will be the death of me.” He sighed.
She pointed the remote at the screen. “You gonna sit?” She pestered.
He looked at the screen, at two of the cartoon horses, frozen in mid sentence as he considered her offer. “Actually, I'm pretty hungry. I'm gonna go get us dinner. What do you want?”
She smirked. “Dad told you to go Wendy's, didn't he?”
“Yeah. You know that's all he thinks we eat.”
“Yeah. Just get me two of the #3’s and a Coke.”
Trip looked at her wide eyed. “Sure you can stomach all that?”
“Yes! I haven't eaten anything all day!”
Trip gave her a stern look. “You know that's not healthy...”
“Well, if you get me something to eat, I'll be fine!” she yelled.
“Okay, Christ. I'll be back in a second. Feel free to watch without me.” he said, gesturing to the screen.
She smiled. “Okay. I'll rewind it when you get back.”
He laughed. “Damn you.”
“WHAT was that?”
“Curse. I said 'curse you.'”
“That's what I thought.”
He left the room and grabbed his keys off the counter off of the counter as he walked out the front door to his car. As he got in and started the engine, the stereo turned on, blasting his music way louder then he remembered having it.
“And it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels! Yeah it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike, Heaven's so far away!”
He quickly grabbed the volume dial and turned it down until Dexter Holland's screaming was at non-ear-bleeding levels.
He backed out of his driveway, and drove to the top of the street, where he turned left.
I don't get that show. He thought to himself. Grown fucking men are watching it. It's a show for little girls. Okay, well, little boys would probably like it too, but still. Grow up, guys, seriously.
He turned right.
I mean, I watched cartoons when I was a kid, yeah. But I grew out of that. And I'll even let Renee watch cartoons without judgment because she has two years to catch up on childhood that she lost. Well, that and the fact she's named after a cartoon herself. Way to name your only daughter after a cartoon dog with anger issues, dad.
He turned right again.
Well, dad kind of had an excuse, since he never really could admit to himself that he was an adult. But once he cleaned up, he's stopped watching cartoons. He watches things like football and the news, “Like Reasonable Adults Do.” Dad, the things you say...
He turned left.
But no, the worst part definitely is how much praise it gets. It's not bad for a kid's show or anything, but Jesus people, it’s not Shakespeare or anything. I can't go on Facebook without seeing Todd make a post every week about how 'awesome' the latest episode was. What happened to you, Todd? At least when you went through your Dungeons and Dragons phase, you could keep to yourself. And I even kinda like the idea of Dungeons and Dragons! Why couldn't you try to rub that in my face instead of this escapist, Peter Pan shit? God. I especially hate it when he's like “Oh, if you watch a few episodes, you'll like it!” Yeah, Todd, I've seen just about every episode. I have what's called a 'little sister'. So I think I have the right to not- wait, fuck!
He slammed on his brakes. The neighborhood he was in was familiar, but it gave him more the feeling of going to school or the hospital than getting to Wendy's.
“Shit, shoulda turned right there.” He pulled into a driveway to turn around. As he was backing out, he saw through the window and saw that there was a man sitting on a recliner watching Family Guy. Trip had mixed feelings about Family Guy. Yeah, it was for adults, but animation still reminded him of childhood, and he wanted to leave his childhood behind him.
He successfully readjusted himself and started driving again. It took him a few good minutes to drive all the way back to the intersection where he had made the wrong turn.
Damn, he thought, I was really deep in thought, Jesus.
It wasn't long before he came drove up to the Wendy's he wanted to be at. He pulled into the drive-thru, and he cursed as he saw the line containing no less than eleven cars.
He put his foot on the brake and turned his stereo back up.

Once he had gotten his food and was finally starting to make his way out of the parking lot, his phone started buzzing. He pulled it out and saw he got a text from Renee.
“what's taking you so long I'm famished”
What the hell kind of word is famished? Whatever happened to hungry? 
He responded. “MMWH, calm.”
He always sent her that whenever she wanted to know where he was. Basically, it meant “Making my way home, calm yourself.” He put the phone back in his pocket and almost honked at the guy in a black smart car with tinted windows in front of him who was taking his sweet old time turning left out of the parking lot, despite the fact there was no traffic for miles around. 
Trip didn't honk his horn. He wanted to, oh God how he wanted to, but he had always had the stories of people dying after they honked their horns at somebody, and that somebody pulled out a gun and shot them without even having the common courtesy to step out of their car in the back of his mind.
“Move, you fuckin' asshole, c'mon...” he whispered underneath his breath.
Then, quickly, and in a manner that seemed almost dangerous, the car in front of him accelerated almost to the clear other side of the street before making the sharpest left turn Trip had ever seen and driving into the night.
Trip moved forward and and signaled right. As he looked left, he tried to see if he could find the black car in the darkness, but it was completely gone.
Behind him, a car horn went off. He looked back, and he reached his hand over to his glove compartment and opened it. He pretended to pull a gun out and point it at the car behind him. Laughing at himself, he closed the compartment again and pulled out of the driveway and watched as the car behind drove off in the other direction. 
He drove for about two songs on his CD before he came to an intersection with a red light. He flipped his right turn signal on. Around him there were no cars. A lot of stores were turning their lights off, closing for the night. It felt more like nighttime than it had before.
The light turned green. He rolled through while turning right, and then his phone buzzed again. He made sure he could keep straight and then looked down to get his phone.
He was interrupted by the sound of metal being crushed and the sensation that gravity had gone away for a few seconds.
He was floating, every way was up. Metal scraping against asphalt, bones crunching against metal, glass shattering. His arms gave out, allowing his forehead a straight path into the steering wheel. The direction he knew as “up” was now down, but only for a split second. The car continued to move until it fell on it's side and slid until it hit something.
Pain was creeping into Trip's body all over the place. Blood was slowly pouring into his eyes, and unconsciousness was engulfing his body.