Facing Facts

Why? Do I ever need a reason?


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As the elevator doors dinged open, Donovan hoisted the last load of wood onto his shoulder and stepped out into the hallway. After eight trips from the lobby to his apartment carrying the thick planks, his shoulder was aching. As he pasted by Link's apartment, the door opened and twelve-year-old Link watched as Donovan walked by, neither of them saying a word.


Donovan nudged his apartment door open with his foot and hauled his load into his room, dropping with a loud bang onto the other pile of boards. Moving to his tool bag - sitting on his bed, he removed a measuring tape and a pencil and began making marks on the wall. He was determining the height when Link walked in. He stared at Donovan who was penciling in a line on the wall.


"What are you doing?" Link asked, scowling.


"Building a bookcase."


Link eyed the pieces of wood skeptically. "Why?"


Donovan turned around and had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Because I need a place to put my books."


Frowning more, Link surveyed the rest of the room, spotting a small bookcase shoved aside.


"Why not use that one?"


"Not big enough."


"You could just buy a bigger bookcase then," Link said.


Donovan could have, but he felt to help maintain his sanity he needed to build one.


"I could," he said, "but I know how to make one so I'm going to."


Donovan walked back to the tool bag and rummaged through it pulling out a hammer, a box of nails and L shaped brackets.


"How do you know how to make one?" Link asked.


Donovan wanted the kid to leave him to his work but since this was the most Link had talked since Donovan had arrived five months ago, he figured it would be a bad move to push him away.


"Two years ago," Donovan said, kneeling down by the pile of boards. "I broke the one in my room by overloading it. My dad said since I was a fool to break it, it was a good time to learn how to make one myself. One that was stronger. So he taught me."


"How old were you?"


"Fourteen."


Link sank onto Donovan's bed, his face crumpling. "My dad never taught me to build anything."


Donovan didn't reply. When Link wasn't taking out his anger over his father on Donovan, he was playing the pity card. In the first couple of months, Donovan had been sympathetic, but all that sympathy was dried up and he wanted to smack the kid out of his self-pity. But knowing his mother would kill him if he did, he simply said nothing at all.


Donovan had hoped teaching Link how to throw a punch would have bonded them, but when Link failed at it after one time, what connection Donovan thought he had created was gone. Now they were two people stuck together. Link wanted someone to hate and pity him and Donovan wanted to be left alone.


As Donovan was hammering two boards together, his phone rang. He raised his head as Link snatched the phone off of the bed.


"Who is James?" he asked.


"My brother."


Link's forehead creased and Donovan knew what was coming next so he went back to his work.


"Did you know I have a half brother. I didn't even know that until a few months ago. I've never met him. He doesn't even know I exist." Donovan banged away at the nail, not saying anything. "Does James know who I am?"


"Yes."


Before Donovan knew what Link was doing, the phone was answered and James's voice came through the speaker.


"Sup Donny?" James said.


Biting back his frustration at Link answering his phone without asking, Donovan sank back on his heels.


"James you're on speaker and Link is in the room."


There was a pause and Donovan knew James was trying to figure out why Donovan answered the phone and put it on speaker with Link there.


"Cool," he said. "How's life little man?"


Link hunched his shoulder's. "It sucks. I found out who my father was only a few months ago and have barely seen him."


Donovan didn't know what Link's plan was, have the whole world to know his sob story and get everyone to feel sorry for him or make his father pay by having everyone know how he failed?


"That's great," James said, surprising Link and making Donovan fight against a smile. "Look, Link, why don't you stop being a piss ant and taking out your issues on my brother. A lot of people have worse fathers than yours, ones that beat them half to death for no reason. So why don't you grow up and deal with it? Sound good?"


Donovan put his back to Link so he wouldn't see that Donovan was trying hard not to burst out laughing at Link's stunned expression. After a second, Donovan heard the phone thump to the mattress and Link leave. Sighing, Donovan grabbed the phone and set it beside him.


"You shouldn't have done that," he said.


"Yeah, well mom's love and patience tactic hasn't been working for you, I figured someone should lay it out for him. He'll be fine. Everyone needs a smack in the head once and a while."


"Thanks."


When Donovan had first arrived in DC he had tried to keep the worst of the situation from his brothers, but they knew him well enough that they could tell when he was lying and had pried the truth from him. Though Donovan hated to talk about Link to them since he was supposed to be protecting him, it had helped him not feel so alone.


"What are you up to?" James asked.


"Building a bookcase."


James's laughter filled the room. "You already break the one you have."


"No, but I would have eventually. It's a pathetic bookcase it can only hold about thirty books. I had to start piles along the walls."


"Of course you did. How many books did you read this week?"


"Nine."


James clucked his tongue in disappointment. "I knew this would happen. You go to middle school again and become a slacker."


Donovan smiled as he screwed an L bracket into one of the boards. "Give me some credit, two of the books were a thousand pages long."


"I still think you're falling behind."


"That's not what my teachers think. Yesterday I was sent to the principal's office for getting caught reading in class again. It's the twentieth time."


"I always knew you were a troublemaker. What did you do?"


Donovan lined the board he was working on against the wall and connected the other half of the L bracket to the wall.


"I told the principal to check my file. When she saw that even as a transfer student I had the highest GPA in the school she didn't really have much else to say to me. Even suggested I think about skipping a grade. I told her I would take it under advisement."


James laughed again and Donovan smiled, feeling how the sound made his apartment not feel like the barren place it usually did.


"How did your date with Rosa go?" Donovan asked, moving to the next section of planks.


"Great, she thinks I'm devilishly handsome and the funniest man on the planet."


"She hasn't texted you back, has she?"


"Shut up. You know the ladies love me."


"Only when they don't know you have two older brothers that are better in every aspect."


"You should picture me giving you a rude hand gesture right now."


"Okay, I'm effectively wounded by it."


"How's your love life?"


Donovan snorted. "It's great. Yesterday a girl came up to me already blushing, giggled before she said hi, giggled after she said hi; so if I play my cards right we might hold hands under the table during recess."


"Player player. Don't go breaking too many hearts, alright?"


"I will work hard to resist. How did the attack on Corporal Dalton go?"


When James laughed, Donovan knew he was in for a good story.


"Okay, so we roped Private Wyatt into the scheme. And you know the bunker on the east side? It was the perfect lookout."


As James laid out the story, Donovan worked, his smile slowly fading away. Everything James said, he could see clearly in his mind. But it was only in his mind. He couldn't smell the ocean in the air. Couldn't feel the heat of the sun on his neck. Couldn't see the reactions of all the men in on the plan. He was thousands of miles away in an apartment that never knew noise.


By the time James finished the story, Donovan was barely listening, finding it too hard. He gave the right response to it, but it felt hallow. Luckily, James was called away and Donovan didn't have to try to pretend for any longer.


"I'll talk to you later," James said.


"Okay."


"Got your six."


Donovan paused, the hammer hovering above the nail. "Yeah man, got your six."


The line when quiet and Donovan tossed his phone back onto the bed, returning to his work, letting the focus of putting together the bookshelf be all that he thought about.


He was halfway through the project when Link walked back into his room, hands shoved into his pockets. Donovan glanced at him but went back to drilling a hole into the wall.


"Hey," Link said.


"Hey," Donovan said.


Link shuffled his foot and Donovan continued working, completely fine with ignoring the kid.


"I'm sorry," Link said.


Donovan looked at him, not saying anything. Link broke away from Donovan's gaze.


"Your brother what he said...I'm sorry...that I've...you know been getting mad at you and everything."


Donovan nodded in acceptance, grabbing a screw.


"Do you want help with your bookcase?"


Donovan stared at Link who shrugged and offered him a half-smile.


"Yeah," Donovan said. "You can help."


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*lays motionless on the floor until you're certain I'm dead*


Ha! That's the most threatening threat of all! Cause if I was dead then there would be no more updates! That's right, tremble my friend, tremble! 😏


(🤔 Wow! I really am odd, aren't I?)


Any who! If you want to tell me what you think, go ahead. I sometimes wonder if you get bored of answering this question, so if you don't want to answer then don't, I'll still love you! 💬🗯💭📚


Okay! Can we all please just admit that Donovan got ten times hotter because not only can he read nine books in a week but he can BUILD A BOOKCASE!


Gosh, no wonder he had to fight the girls off with a bat! I have half a mind to just into this book and fight for him my self!


Question: if I did a Live Chat on Instagram all about A Secret Service and how it came to be and all it's twists and turns would you be interested?


Vote, comment, follow but only if you have nothing better to do.

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