Bonding Together

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
Isaac came home to the painfully loud screaming of his mother and father. They bellowed at each other, calling one another horrible things and making terrible accusations. Isaac cringed as his mother blamed his father for the shortage of money. His father roared back at her, claiming it was her fault that he was so angry all the time.

Isaac avoided the living room, which he had recently dubbed the War Zone. Because that was all it was. It was a place of conflict and violence. Isaac didn't want this in his home. He didn't want to witness it.

Isaac quickly scaled the stairs. On his way to his bedroom, he stopped in front of Alexis's door. The door had corny butterfly stickers on it, left over from when she was five and he was seven. In Isaac's desperate attempts to avoid the fighting himself, he hadn't stopped to think about what the conflict was doing to his little sister.

"Alexis?" called Isaac, knocking on the door. "Lexy? Can I come in?"​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

Alexis had arrived home from school a while ago, just when her father and mother had begun their usual arguments. She, wanting to avoid their conflict, had took refuge in her room. Of course, there was no escaping it, since their shouts could be heard throughout the entire house.

She currently found herself curled up in her bed, tears pooling in her eyes making her vision blurry. Where had it all gone wrong? They use to be such a wonderful family. They were practically the epitome of the family everybody wished to have, with the exception of her and her brother's relationship. Now...Now it was all in ruins. A few tears escaped her eyes. She missed those golden times between all of them.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Isaac's voice rang out. Sniffling, she quickly wiped away her eyes and checked herself in the mirror. Thankfully, it wasn't evident that she was crying.
"What do you want, Isaac?" She questioned as she looked up at her brother, with narrowed and guarded eyes.​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"I want to see if you're okay, of course," said Isaac. He took a careful look at his sister's face. "You've been crying," he said. His voice cracked, and a few tears escaped himself. "Why the fuck is this happening?" he said, and broke down. He cried right there, in his little sister's doorway, for a solid two minutes.

He finally pulled himself together. "Come on, we don't need to hear this," he said. "Do you wanna go get ice cream or something? You like ice cream, right? They won't even know we're gone."​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

When she had pulled the door open, she had not expected for her brother to figure her out, nor for him to break down right then and there. "I don't know...," she whispered, her voice wavering. She so badly wanted to join her brother and break down, but she held herself together.

Alexis wasn't sure on what to do. Did she hug him? Tell him encouraging words? Hell, she doubted she could do that when she needed them herself. The relationship between her and her brother was rather strained. The two never got along, always getting into pointless arguments and pranking each other. So now, she was rather confused as he offered to take her out to ice cream.

"Yeah...I like ice cream," she responded with a nod as she peered up at her brother. "L-let's go." Right then, her mother started yelling at her dad, saying words that shouldn't be said. ​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
Isaac shuddered as his parents started arguing again. "Come on, let's go out the window," he said, dodging past his sister and climbing out of her window. A tree grew right beside it; he scaled down the tree, waited for Alexis and led her to his car.

"Do you have a favourite parlour or anything?" he asked as he drove. "We can -- I don't know -- take it to the park or something. As long as we're not home."​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

Alexis followed behind her brother, going down the tree she had used several times to sneak out. Once they were in his car, she buckled up and glanced at him. "There's a parlor in Summerset Boulevard," she said.

Leaning back in her seat, she closed her eyes, trying to keep her emotions at bay. "I-Isaac...do you think things are going to get better?" Her voice was nothing above a whisper and held hope in her tone. That was all she wanted, for things to return to how they were. Not like how they were now. ​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
Isaac's fingers clenched tightly around the steering wheel. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I don't know, Lexy. I hope so. I really do. Some people just become, well, not compatible over the years."

Isaac pulled into the car park of the ice cream parlour. "Come on," he said. He led his little sister into the parlour. "What would you like?" he asked.​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

A frown settled onto her lips at her brother's words. She just wanted it all to stop. All the fighting. All the yelling. She wanted it to stop.

Sliding out of the passenger side, Alexis followed Isaac into the parlor. "Umm...cookies and cream." She said as they waited in line. Once it was there turn, she stepped up to the counter and was greeted with a familiar face. "Hey Alexis." A boy about her age smile at her. "Hey Quinnton."

Quinnton was a bit taller than the average height with dirty blonde hair, that was short on the sides and poofed up in the middle. He had fair skin color with blue eyes.

"What can I get you?" Quinn questioned as he looked at her, before looking at her brother. ​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"Cookies and cream for Lexy, and raspberry sorbet for me, please," Isaac said to Quinnton. When the boy walked away to get their ice cream, Isaac turned to his sister.

"You know him?" Isaac asked​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

Alexis glanced up at her brother, before glancing over to Quinnton, who was serving their ice cream. "Yeah. He's a friend from school." She had the boy for half of her classes and well, he was practically her best friend. Of course, ever since her parents started to argue, she had begun to distance herself from those she surrounded herself with. The poor boy did his best to not lose that bond they have, but it was proving to be difficult, but he was persistent.

"Here you guys go. It's on the house." Quinnton placed the ice cream on the counter and gave Alexis a warm smile. She returned it with a small smile of her own. "You don't need to do that Quinn." "No, no. It's alright. I insist."​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"Thanks, man," said Isaac, picking up his ice cream and leading his sister from the parlour. He drove to a park around the corner. The park was deserted. Isaac sat on a swing with his ice cream.

"Lexy," said Isaac. "If ... if Mom and Dad split up, they're going to have some kind of custody battle over us. You know that right?"​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

Giving Quinn another thanks, Alexis followed her brother to his car with her ice cream in hand. They ended up at the park. Sitting in the swing next to her brother, she moved the ice cream around with her spoon. Though her brother's words caught her by surprise. She had frankly never thought of that. She never thought of what would occur in the future if their parents did split. Never dared to, because it just led to upsetting thoughts. Her thoughts mainly consisted of hope for things to get better.

"No...I didn't think about that." Her voice was rather quiet and she ate some of her ice cream. "When did everything start to go bad?" She questioned, her voice cracking as tears welled up in her eyes.

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"Lexy, I'm going to turn eighteen in a few months," said Isaac, glaring at his ice cream. "I could take legal custody of you, if they're still fighting. Even if they're broken up." A serious aura suddenly took over him. "Alexis, I will not allow you to be in that environment if I can help it. I will fight them for you, if I have to. But, of course, it'd be so much easier for everyone if you just went with me."​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

Alexis sat there quietly, taking in his words. It honestly took her by surprise since, as said before, they never got along. Now, he was offering to take custody of her if things turned out like shit. how would that even work? So many contradicting thoughts went through her head, to the point where she didn't even know what to do. His next sentence caused her to snap her gaze over to the male.

"You would do that for me?" She questioned quietly. "I like the idea, but what about you? Didn't you want to go off to college? I won't get in your way Isaac."​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"Of course I would do it," he said. "You're nearly sixteen. I could take day classes while you're at school. You could take care of yourself at night if I had to work or something. We could do it. I will do it. I know we've never got along much, but this is a time where we have to get over whatever shit we have with each other and be there for one another. And if it means I take a fucking gap year while we get our shit together, then I'll do it, Alexis."​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

His words just blew her away. The fact that he would be willing to sacrifice going to college was just...There were no words for it. Standing up from the swing, she set down her ice cream and rushed over to her brother, giving him a tight hug and burrowing her head in his shoulder. Tears escaped her eyes as she silently cried.

Isaac had a point, they had to set their shit aside and work together to move along. They had no one to rely on but each other. She was more than willing to find a part time job somewhere to help out. She wouldn't let him do everything.

"I...We'll do it, Isaac. I'll get a part time job and help."​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"You wouldn't have to do anything," said Isaac. "I wouldn't make you do anything." He hugged her back tightly, rubbing soothing circles into the small of her back. "We'd better get back, or they'll start arguing about us."

He drove them home. His parents were, as expected, screaming at each other still. Isaac knew there was no hope for dinner, so he took last night's pizza from the fridge and brought it to Alexis's room.

"Dinner is served," he said sarcastically.​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

"But I want to help. I'm not going to let you work yourself out. I'm more than capable of getting a job." Alexis was determined to help him, whether he approved or not.

It wasn't long before they made it back home. The insulting screams could be heard from outside in the porch and Alexis grimaced. The urge to just turn around and head off anywhere else but inside was strong, but she braced herself as Isaac opened the door and she took reluctant steps inside. The shouts immediately intensified in volume and she took quick strides to the stairs and up to her room, practically sprinting up there. It was like a nightmare in the flesh. No kid wished for their parents to yell harsh things to each other. Nor did they wish to see their parents relationship fall apart right before there eyes as they hopelessly watched the thing unfold. No way to help and no way to put a stop to it.

Upon entering her room, she took a seat on one of her bean bag chairs and breathed out a sigh. Alexis just sat there until her brother came up with the box of pizza, leftovers from last night. She gestured for him to take a seat in the bean bag next to hers. "You wanna hear some music?" She mainly just wanted to tune down her parents shouting.​

 

[Memoria]

ISAAC BENNINGTON
"Sure," said Isaac, taking a bite of cold Margarita pizza. He wondered whether Alexis would be playing the music herself. She had a small keyboard in the corner of her bedroom, but he didn't know whether she played it. Isaac certainly did. He had wooed many girls with original piano pieces.​

 

[Mocking_Jayy]

Alexis Bennington

Alexis walked up to her nightstand and picked up the small radio plugged into her phone. Pressing shuffle, music began to play out. Alexis had a variety of music on her phone, which ranged from classical to pop, to rock, and other genres. Increasing the volume, she walked back over to her bean bag chair and collapsed on it. She grabbed the box and pulled out a slice of pizza.
"I've heard you play the piano...You're good."
She had seen him eyeing the key board she had in the corner of her room. Now in days, she didn't have much inspiration to play it.​