//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Brony and the Baddy? // by Blazidude30 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 "Your stepbrothers?" Sonata asked. "Yeah," Brad answered, "And have lived with me in this house for the last 3 years." "Braaaaaaaaaad? Hellooooooooo?" "Why do sound so depressed about them being back?" Sonata asked confused, "They're only you're brothers, right?" "Supposedly," Brad said, "But they just annoy me to high hell. You saw the state of the stairs coming up here, right?" "Brad, where ar- what the hell happened in here?!" 'Sounds like they found the mirror,' Brad thought. "Yeah?" Sonata replied, "So they cause a little mess. So what?" "It's not just a little mess," Brad tried to keep calm, "It's a pain trying to get around here sometimes. And did you see their rooms passing on the way here? And guess who has to clean up after them? ME!" The sound of the footsteps began to emanate from the bottom of the stairs. "I'd better get to them before they see you," Brad said quietly, "I'll introduce you, but I want to see the mood they're in first. See you in a sec." "OK," Sonata replied quietly. Brad left Sonata in his room; closing the door behind him. Once he had shut the door, one of those Brad dreaded seeing had arrived at the top of the stairs. "There you are!" "Hey, Josh," Brad said, "How are you then?" "Eh, alright," Josh answered, "Football was alright, Robbie and I decimated proper hard!" "Where is he anyway?" Brad asked. "He's downstairs getting a drink," Josh answered, "Anyway, what the hell happened downstairs?! Why's the mirror smashed on the floor?! Your mum's gonna kill you, you know." "Yeah, yeah," Brad shoved off, "Whatever. Can you meet Robbie downstairs in the room? We have something to discuss." "What?" Josh asked, "Is it 'Who's paying for a new mirror?' or 'Who's telling your mum that the mirror's broke?' Because both of those are gonna be you." "No, just...meet me downstairs," Brad sighed, "I'll be down in a couple of minutes." "What's the matter with you?" Josh asked, "You seem down about something." 'Yeah,' Brad thought, 'You guys coming home.' "I'll tell you downstairs." "OK then?" Josh complied confused. With that Josh went downstairs to wait for Brad, while Brad went back to see Sonata. "You OK?" Brad asked. "Yeah, I'm good," Sonata answered, "But I'm more concerned about you. Are you sure you wanna do this?" "Nope," Brad said honestly, "But I have to if you're gonna live here." "Thanks," Sonata responded, "OK, let's do this. I know you can, just stand up to them." "Let's hope I can," Brad said hopefully. Sonata jumped off the bed and followed Brad downstairs. As she continued further to the living room, she could hear voices in conversation. "So what's up with Brad?" "I don't have a clue. He seemed proper off it when I was talking to him." "Do you recon he's gonna come out of the closet at last?" "He might." The voices became louder, and Brads' dread increased. 'I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna do this, I really really don't wanna do this.' Before Brad was visible in the doorway, he stopped and looked at Sonata. "Wait for my cue," Brad said quietly to Sonata, "You'll know it; trust me." Sonata simply nodded. With that, Brad took a deep breath and walked into the living room. When Brad appeared in the doorway, conversation halted and the two boys on the sofa looked at the figure before them. "Hey Brad," Josh said. "Hey Josh, hey Robbie," Brad said monotonically. Brad went to sit on the other sofa; carefully maneuvering the broken bits of mirror on the floor. Robbie was the first to speak. "So, what's up?" Robbie asked concernedly, "You look really fed up." "Well, to be honest Robbie," Brad began, "It's a number of things." "Like what?" Josh asked. "Well, there's..." Brad started. 'God I hate to bring this up. Every time.' "There's the washing situation. It's getting ridiculous. Can you not do any washing yourselfs?" "Well sorry, Brad," Josh argued, "No-one asked you to do the washing for us. We could've done it you know." "But you don't," Brad pointed out, "And that's the problem. I hate to complain, and you know I do. You've known me long enough to know I hate to complain to others, but Christ you do not do enough washing. You saw how bad it was up there Josh." "Yeah, we were gonna do it when we got back," Josh argued. "But you say that and wouldn't do it," Brad raised his voice slightly, "Even when our parents lived here you said that, so why do you think it would work on me?" "You're not our parent," Robbie pointed out, "You just happen to be the oldest of us, but that doesn't mean you can boss us about!" "I'm not bossing anybody about," Brad countered, "I'm simply stating that the two of you aren't pulling you're weight around here." "I'm still at school working on my GCSE's right now," Robbie stated, "I can't help with you as much as you. I have to revise for my tests in May." "First of all, Robbie, they are in May," Brad began, "And secondly, YOU AREN'T REVISING FOR THEM AT ALL!" "Oi!" Josh stood up, "He is, and I'm still working my arse off at college trying to be a chef! And it isn't easy!" "Clearly not," Brad sarcastically said, "I also 'worked my arse off' doing my A levels and still managed to get some part time money. And I passed!" "Oh, so that's how it is," Josh realized, "It's those who help pay the bills in this house make the decisions. Well I should also make the decision to kick you out!" "Nobody get's kicked out of this household!" Brad shouted, "ESPECIALLY NOT SONATA!!!" Silence. If a penny was dropped, it would seem like an explosion. Sonata was unsure whether to go in after that. 'I don't want to,' she thought to herself, 'If I'm going to cause so many arguments, I don't wanna stay for this. It'll be just like at home, but I feel so much worse about it saying nothing's happening to me at the moment.' "Sonata?" Josh asked, "Who. Is. That." "She," Brad corrected, "is what I wanted to really talk to you about. But we can't even got on well enough to decide who does the damn washing, no way will you let an extra person stay here." "But who is she?" Robbie asked inquisitively. "Me." Sonata stepped out into the door frame and looked upon the two who had been arguing with Brad. The one stood up looked only 14, and had dark brown hair with fairly light but spotty skin. He wore a black waterproof jacket, and some grey tracksuit bottoms. The other one that was sat down stood up. He appeared only slightly taller than the first, and had a much lighter brown hair. He was very pale, and wore a blue jacket, and grey shorts. He had kind of chubby cheeks as well. The two of them stared at Sonata, and Sonata looked back at them. "I'm Sonata," she began, "Sonata Dusk. I don't know the history between you, but I didn't expect all that." "Sonata, I'm sorry you had to hear tha-" Brad tried to apologize. "No, it's too late to apologize to me," Sonata said, "But apologize to each other." "What?" the black-coated one asked, "Why should we? And who are you? And why are you blue?!" "None of those things matter right now," Sonata said calmly, "What matters is that you guys make up. Please." "Sorry Josh," Brad apologized to the black-jacketed, "Sorry Robbie." "What?" Robbie asked, "Why should we? He was the one having a go at us." Sonata just glared. "Fine, sorry Brad." "Sorry, Brad." "Thank you," Sonata said, breathing a sigh of relief, "I...I don't normally do that, but...but know I can. I just don't like being that assertive." "Listen," Brad began, "I should apologize to you as well. That was the last thing you wanted to hear. You wanted to get away from screaming and shouting, and not to just find more. I just...lost it. All this stress going on, and I wanted to make everything right for you, but things kept going wrong, and I...collapsed." "Hey," Sonata reassured, and took careful steps to the sofa that Brad sat upon, "It's alright. You've done so much for me in such a short amount of time, and I can't thank you enough. But maybe it was too much, and maybe I should just go." "But, wait," Brad tried to argue. "It's OK, Brad," Sonata said with a smile on her face, "I can manage from here on out. You picked me up onto my feet, and I should be fine. You just take care of each other, OK?" Sonata rose up off of the sofa, and made her way to what she thought was the door outside. "Wait!" "Huh?" Sonata turned around, only to find Josh and Robbie approaching her. "Listen, I don't really understand what's happened or why you are here," Josh started, "but it sounds like you had things rough. And you wanted to stay here?" "Well, that's the gist of it," Sonata answered. "Well, it wouldn't be easy," Josh said, "But I wouldn't mind it. What about you Robbie?" "Yeah, I'm alright with it," he agreed, "You seen alright. Thanks for helping us out back there; we can never decide on anything in this house. We always end up having these kinds of arguments, and then nothing gets done." "They're right," Brad said as he stood behind his stepbrothers, "But we did get something done. We apologised; something we never do. We just storm off into our own rooms and refuse to talk to each other for the night. You've done something not even our parent could do with sincerity; be nice to one another. Please don't leave just because of that argument, we'd love to have you here." She looked at the three of them, and then down at her hands. 'I need them,' she thought, 'but they need me too.' "So I can live with the three of you?" "Only if you want to," Brad answered. "Oh, thank you," Sonata replied, "I'd love to stay here." All three of the boys let go a sigh of relief. Sonata opened her arms for a hug, and all of them complied. The four of them stood there happy with who they had by their side. "So, why are you blue?"