Most nights end like this

Thursday Day

'Boys!!' Lois's voice bellows as she slams open the door, pulling of the covers of Malcolm and Deweys bed, before she did Reese's. 'Breakfast is off the table in ten minutes,' Reese awoke in an annoyed haze, he felt shitty after the night he had. Half asleep and hungover he ran to the bathroom, attempting to get in first before being cut off by Dewey. 'You annoying little bastard, I'll punch you when you get out!' Reese stops after that sentence, realising his voice sounded hoarse from last night. Dewey walks out, 'alright, I'm out,' Reese goes in, spashing his face with water and rinsing his mouth with toothpaste and water, a poor man's mouthwash. He feels sick but decodes to hold it in until Dewey and Malcolm have left the room. He strolls out of the bathroom to be met with Malcolm saying 'Did you get any sleep, you look like a zombie.' Reese goes easy on Malcolm with light punch to the chest.

At the breakfast table everyone was sat. Hal sat in his tighty whiteys, a newspaper half on the table and half in his hands. Lois had the electric razor, shearing off hair by the ton. 'We should donate the leftover hair to a cancer unit,' Malcolm sarcastically jokes, 'You know how your father gets about his hair Malcolm, we have to do this,' Lois explains for the hundredth time. 'Mom my toast has a green dot on it,' dewey nags, 'then eat around it and don't complain, look at Jamie over there, he doesnt mind, go by his example,' Lois and Hal share a laugh. Hal looks to Reese, 'You've been very quite, thinking about something,' Malcolm interrupts Reese before he has the chance to say anything, 'It's a girl, with Reese it's always a girl,' he mocks Reese. Reese stays silent, he hadn't thought about girls much recently, he's sure that he likes them but he just hasn't felt urges as strongly as most guys had. He hadn't even lost his virginity, when Francis was 14 he lost his, what kind of example was Reese setting for his younger brothers, chastity? 'What's this girl like?' Hal asks, taking Malcolms mocking seriously. 'He likes Jessica from down the road,' 'Do not,' 'Yeah you do,' Dewey chimes in with an annoying chant, 'Reese and Jessica sitting in a tree K-I-S-' Lois intervenes, it's perfectly normal for your brother to like a girl. 'But mom I don't like her,' Reese whines, slightly annoyed, 'Sure honey,' Lois replies. Oh God, 7:50 already, get your butt's to school boys, now'.

Reese looks at sky kittens out of his window in math, his hand on his face, supporting it as he slips into slumber. The bells rings for morning recesses, everyone leaves the classroom but Reese, he doesn't wake up. The teacher loudly shouts 'Suprise test!' To mock Reese, as intended. Reese, shot up and saw that no one else was in class, he gave the teacher a dirty look. The teacher gave a pitiful, fed up look to Reese, 'detention tommorow,'. Reese punched a random locker, leaving a knuckle shaped dent, and a faint smear of blood. Trudging down the halls he was looking for somewhere peaceful to sleep for a bit before his next class. He comes out to the back of the school, that's where he spotted his target, a group of wild Krelboynes hiding from bullies. They cower from him, shakily putting their books over their heads as a shield. Reese stood strong and looked them in the eye, one by one the nerds faces fell into fear, 'I think you know what I want,' Reese snickered. He walked over to them, the rest is history. '$15, impressive bounty,' he said to himself. Still on the prowl for a nice sleep spot he couldn't help but laugh at how he could easily smash nerds, they think he's an idiot and won't amount to anything but their algebra can't save them from him. The bullying made him feel bigger, like he was untouchable. RING!, 'God dammit' Reese loudly said to himself, trudging sadly off to his next class.

The lunch bell rings, Reese had spent the whole day asleep, nobody but his math teacher bothered him as a class without Reese was a lot quite and calmer. He gets up from his desk in a sleepy haze and walks off the the main lunch area. He didn't have a spot to go in, he had no friends to save it. He traced around the room, scanning for somewhere to sit. He went off to a clear table off to the side. The jocks on the centre table effortlessly seduced the cheerleaders, their eyes read fuck me and their body said now. Theyre enchanting confidence mocked Reese. Why couldn't Reese be like this? Glumly, he looked all around, couples and friends, all around him, their laughs became louder by the second, as if they were targeting him. He shot up from his table and went over to Malcolm, trying to make busy talk, just not wanting to be so alone, about tests, he just didn't want to be alone 'Malcolm why are there so many tests next week?' 'It's the end of year tests how do you not know? 'A Krelboyne laughs at Reese with a creepy lisp 'This guy isn't going to graduate!' Punch, Reese pulls a fist and knocks over the kid, right in the mouth, his mouth bleeds a crimson lake, ripped apart by his traintrack braces, his tounge bitten to shreds. 'Don't forget my homework Lloyd,' Reese threatened angrily to the terrified geek. 'Oh-okay,' Lloyd sqeaked like a pussy. Reese walks away, each step crashing onto the ground in a fury, 'they think I'm an idiot, but I'm not,' he raged. He goes through the corridors, punching lockers, leaving dents with bits of skin hanging off them, and red stains dripping.

The entrance to the bathroom creeks open, it's disgusting with graffiti on the doors, and tissue paper strung on the ceiling. The stench of piss rots heavy through the air. Reese goes over to a stall, throwing up heavily. His hangovers were always bad when accompanied by moldy toast. He leans back on the stall ball for a second before grabbing toilet paper to wrap his knuckles in. The toilet paper is thin and cheap, breaking at every wrap around his hand, the blood easily soaks through. The after sting of punching is euphoric, its such a raw feeling. He leaves the bathroom, going off to the back of the school.

Met by the gaze of stoners he leans against a wall to the school library. Their smoke clouds fade into the trees above. Reese enojoyed being at the back of the school, it was were he would cut class sometimes. Debating wether or not to bunk the next class he lit a cigarette. Taking bites of his moldy bread and mystery meat sandwhich that Lois packed him imbetween puffs. The end of lunch bell rung but he stayed and finished his cigarette. Reese wasn't smart but he knew how poor he was, Malcolm told him about how bad the family was after doing their taxes. He didn't waste stuff like cigarettes or alcohol; even if he didn't pay for it properly (using money from bullying or stealing). It depressed him that he was so poor, he had fantasies where he was rich. 'My house would be massive, and I would have a pool and air conditioning, and I could share it with my friends, and we could all have fun and party every night,' was his most frequent fantasy. He throws the cigarette butt on the floor, stomping on it with a twist.

Ring!! The bell sounds for the end of the day, Reese gets out of his desk first, practically flying out of his classroom. He goes out to the arching gates that conceal his hell and leaves them with a slight skip. Leaving school is the best feeling, it's imbetween school (hell) and realising you ahve nothing to do after school (also bad), Reese reckoned. He walks past a shop that he sometimes buys stuff with fake ID from, chuckling to himself. Malcolm was going to Stevie's to study for some test. Reese decided that he should catch up on something too, sleep, he had nothing better to do.

Racing through the door Reese went straight for the fridge, grabbing the freshest looking meat slice. He walked off to his room, passing Dewey, who was sitting on the couch happily watching a robot cartoon. Reese laid in the warm embrace of his shitty mattress, he was so tired he didn't care how many springs he felt, just that he was able to catch up on some much needed sleep.

'Reese, it's dinner,' Malcolm said while shaking him. Reese put on a shirt and followed his brother over to the table. 'So son, cooking class tommorow, what are you making this week?' Hal says, 'We're making pizzas, the teachers actually bringing in some Italian guy to help,' 'so looks like we're having pizza tommorow!' Hal jokes. 'Yea I'll bring some back, I think my pepperoni pizza is gonna be the best in the class!' He excitedly explains, his passion was intense when he loved something. He loved cooking, one taste of a delicious meal and you forget whats wrong, but that only lasts so long, where as you can cook for hours of lasting glee. Dewey mentions what someone in his class did that day and the topic shifts. Reese shoves his food down as fast as possible, racing for final chicken wing, it sat their, alone on the plate, and Reese was going to take it. Once the first person to finish their foods fork left the plate, all bets were off. He noticed that Malcolm had almost finished his last chicken wing, it was on now. Reese squints, his hands ready to launch the second Malcolms fork left his plate. 3. 2. 1. An intense wrestle for the last wing was in session, Malcolm almost fell into the peas, Reese squashed Dewey's head, the boys scrambled for it. The chicken slipped out of their grip, flying across the table, the boys stared in Awre as it landed right on Hal's fork, quickly they lunge for it, but not before Hal gobbles it. Reese said 'It flew like a real chicken wing,' with a proud smile for pointing it out. Everyone else shared concerned looks and went back to eating. Still sour over the loss of their chicken wing, Reese and Malcolm leave the table in an annoyed huff.

Malcolm closes the door behind him, Reese walks into to he bathroom to brush his teeth, Malcolm sees the state of his knuckles, 'How'd that happen?' 'I don't remember,' Reese lied, trying not to spit Toothpaste everywhere. 'Reese, where were you last night?' 'What do you mean I was here, sleeping?' 'Yea right, I saw you come in at like 4am,' 'Well, why were you up Malcolm?' Reese rightfully felt smart for pointing that out. He's started getting defensive, Malcolm knew something was up, 'Getting water.' 'Well, so was I!' 'Hm,' Malcolm said, leading Reese on that he believed him. Reese had been acting suspicious for a while, he was doing something at night, 'I'm going to follow him to see what he's doing at night, after my exams,' Malcolm assured himself.

Dewey walked into the room, changing into his pyjamas, Malcolm was already in his bed, reading a book on physics. Reese was looking out the window with his brain turned off. Lois opened the door, 'Goodnight, boys.'