WHO: David and Elliot WHAT: Sad brother time. Featuring the Zimmerman classic game: Drunk Checkers. WHERE: The dining area, Sing Sing. WHEN: 05/06/19, night. RATING: Medium for swearing. STATUS: In progress.
Depression was a funny thing.
David always found it strange that he could handle a lot of things by just numbing himself up, acting like he was okay when he wasn't or pretending that things didn't hurt him. That, insofar, had been his coping mechanism when it came to shooting the two men back at the record store. And that, apparently, he could deal with a lot better than being cheated on by his girlfriend of three months. Toss him face to face with the daunting task of killing someone and, though barely, he could keep it together. Turn that face just slightly to the concept of the girl of his dreams fucking his worst enemy? That thread snapped.
Staring blankly at the checker board, though he knew it was his move, David was still stuck on the fact that while Allie said she was sorry, all she'd done was make excuses. For herself and for Brandon. And that brought the niggling insecurity that had haunted him ever since they'd decided to get together: that he'd never measured up to Brandon Stone. That it was Brandon Stone? Yeah, that was probably the part of this that was hardest to forgive. That was the biggest cross David had to bear in this situation.
"Was I stupid to think we were good together?" he asked his brother. "To think that she actually loved me?"
This, right now, was reminiscent of when they finally started getting close when they were younger. Life kicked David down for one reason or another and there was Elliot, with a bottle of booze and a checker board, ready to try and pick him back up again. To listen to his inane whining about whatever had been troubling him and deal with him taking far, far too long between half-distracted turns.
Speaking of which, he finally made his move, jumping Elliot's black checker with his red one and unknowingly setting his brother up for a quadruple jump.
"I mean... she seemed happy for a little while, right? I fucked myself over by shutting down or something." Blame it on himself. Easier that than think that it was just him who wasn't good enough.