The bright lights from the morning sun seeped in through the blinds caressing every inch of Mark’s face illuminating his sharp features and the purple under his eyes. He scrunched his nose slightly turning around in his bed and pulling the covers over his head to drain out the sound of cars that accompanied the rays of the sun every morning. He stirred around in his bed, the weighted blanket falling of his frame as he desperately tried to fall asleep once again. A few seconds later he could feel himself slipping back into sleep when cold fingers harshly impacted with his forehead making him grab the thing nearest to him in an attempt to hit the person who was responsible for disturbing him.

Mark was on his knees in the middle of a heap of white sheets, a pillow held in both of his hands tightly as he came face to face with his assailant. Johnny stood in the middle of the room with his hands up in mock defeat and a smile adorning his face as he looked at his startled younger brother. Mark stayed still in the position he was in his half-asleep brain still trying to process the whole situation.

“Hey” the blonde-haired boy spoke up waving his hand at his younger brother who leaped off the bed within a split second of him doing so, pulling him into a tight hug that left Johnny fighting for his breath. He eventually rested his hands-on top of Mark’s head patting it slightly as the boy kept his arms firmly around the older boy worried if he let go, he may disappear.

“Are you okay?” Johnny asks after a moment of silence as he felt the nimble fingers of his younger brother clutch onto the back of his t-shirt, refusing to look up from where his head was buried in the elder’s chest. Mark softly mumbled a “No” shaking his head slightly creasing Johnny’s clothes.

-

Mark was currently sitting at the edge of his bed with his head hanging low after pouring his eyes out on Johnny’s now slightly wet t-shirt while his older brother was looking through his suitcase in the room across from Mark’s that hadn’t been lived in for more than half a year. Johnny wasn’t quite sure what he was venting about, the only words that made any sense to him were ‘no’ and ‘messed up’ and he wasn’t really sure what to make of that but it looked like he really needed to let it all out. Seeing his brother right across from his room sitting still on his bed his body hunched forward made him feel all that worse knowing that in the midst of trying to cope with college and the numerous assignments that came with it he had completely neglected his brother and left him alone to take all the burden of being a new adult along with whatever his parents were putting him through. Something he never wanted his baby brother to experience all by himself.

“Hey” Johnny called out throwing a pack of Doritos on Mark’s lap. It had somehow become a tradition for Johnny to buy some kind of rare to find or nostalgic snack from the airport for his brother when returning from college and this time it just so happened to be a pack of limited-edition rainbow Dorito’s. Mark hadn’t officially or in any way come out to him so this was his way of reassuring his younger brother. And since he wasn’t someone who was good with showing emotions showering his loved ones with food an