But I didn’t. Instead, the noises in the bathroom got louder, much louder than they’d been in real life. I felt like I was in the room with them. My dad smiled as revulsion flooded my stomach. “I don’t want to do this again…” I murmured, acid crawling its way up my throat.

Dad tilted his head. “No? What about this instead?” He snapped his fingers and the walls around us…dissolved. I was grateful, until the world reformed into something that was almost worse. Dad and I were in the parking lot…the parking lot, and Denny was there, screaming at me. “I trusted you! You said you were my brother!”

Denny started hitting me, the blows coming over and over, hard and fast, and all I could do was stand there and take it as pain exploded over me in an endless loop of torture. Feeling broken everywhere, I finally fell to my knees, gasping, and then all of a sudden, Denny wasn’t there anymore. No, instead of Denny, it was my father staring down at me. I wanted to fight back, I wanted to do something, but like I was a kid again, I was frozen in place, terrified.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered. I wasn’t even sure what I was sorry for, but I knew that was all my dad would want to hear.

He looked down at me with a sneer on his face. “I can’t believe how stupid you are. Leaving her here so you can go off and…what…be a rock star?” He said it with a haughty laugh, and I suddenly felt like all my dreams were a foolish waste of time. “You know you’re going to lose her, right? The minute you leave, the very second you stop screwing her…she’s going to realize she doesn’t need you.”

Even though he hadn’t touched me yet, I felt like he’d just kicked me full force in the gut. All the air left me; I felt sick. I leaned forward to throw up, but there was nothing but pain in my stomach. Dad smiled, satisfied by my reaction. “The only reason you got her in the first place was because you were always around, following her everywhere like some pathetic, broken puppy dog. The minute you’re not here, she’s going to see just how worthless you really are. She’s going to want a real man once she’s free of you…and you know that.”