Page 52 of Caffeine & Chaos

“Fuck, Ryan, you’re bleeding all over the damn place,” Justin said, as he gave his brother a shove away from him.

“Had enough then, huh?” Ryan teetered a moment, before steadying himself.

“Had enough of your blood soaking my shirt, yeah,” Justin continued, “I got this one from mom for Christmas last year,” he sighed heavily and dropped to a knee trying to catch his breath.

Ryan slumped against a nearby tree, applying pressure to his lip with the sleeve of his shirt.

“How long are we gonna keep at this, Justin?” Ryan sighed, his frustration evident. “I just want to be here for Mom. I can’t turn back time, and I can’t change how you all feel about me leaving.”

“You’ve got no clue what went down here when you took off, do you?” Justin squinted at Ryan, struggling to open his swelling eyelid. “Dad just shut down. He’s always been a tough guy, but when he realized you weren’t coming back, he closed up even tighter. He stopped laughing, spent more time in the fields, and hit the bottle harder. You didn’t just leave, you broke Dad.”

Ryan’s heart sank as he listened to his brother’s words. He had only seen their father’s anger at his departure, but Justin had borne the brunt of their father’s sorrow. The weight of his brother’s resentment was far heavier than Ryan had ever imagined.

“I’m sorry,” Ryan said quietly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Melanie came trotting back on her horse.

“You two idiots had enough then?” She asked flatly, showing no concern for the state of either of them.

“Yeah, we’ve had enough,” Justin said.

That was likely the closest thing Ryan was going to get to an acceptance of his apology, so he was grateful for it.

Justin walked over to his younger brother and pulled him up off the ground.

“You got a horse somewhere around here?” Justin asked.

“Yeah, it’s tied up on the other side,” Ryan grimaced at the deep crack in his lip. At least he and his brother had come to some kind of truce. For now.

14

Her.

“My God, Ryan, what happened?” Nadia exclaimed, rushing over to assess the damage. His shirt was drenched in blood and torn.

Ryan gingerly ascended the porch steps, waving off her concerns. As he drew nearer, she could see his split lip and the swelling on one side of his face.

“What happened to you?” Nadia repeated, her concern flaring.

“Justin and I had a bit of a scuffle, but-”

“That son of a bitch!” Nadia interjected, her anger flaring.

“Nadia, Nadia, it’s okay. We worked it out,” Ryan reassured her.

“Worked it out? He attacked you, Ryan!”

“No, I confronted him, and he stood his ground,” Ryan explained, lowering himself cautiously into one of the patio chairs.

Nadia stared at him in disbelief. It was difficult to reconcile the image of Ryan, typically so composed, settling a dispute in such a confrontational manner.

“You challenged him to a fight? That’s how you’re solving problems now?” Nadia asked, still in disbelief.

“Problems in these parts aren’t solved with a check book, Nadia,” Ryan sighed heavily, “please, I don’t want to have another fight, I’m tore up enough for one day,” Ryan gave her a weak smile, trying to lighten the mood.

“That much is clear, you look like hell,” Nadia remarked, dipping her hand into her iced tea to fish out some ice cubes. Wrapping them in a napkin from the table, she gently pressed the makeshift ice pack to Ryan’s cheek.

“You should see the other guy,” Ryan quipped weakly.

---