Indoor Tanning

Originally posted on Tumblr 

 

“Dudeeee, you gotta learn how to relax.”

Hearing that voice pissed Roberto off. He looked over to the chair where his older brother, Alistair, was sitting. Two weeks ago, Alistair had been the nerd of the family not destined for anything other than academics. He was destined to go to college, a pathetic nerd. Then one day he comes home talking about how some dude told him to start tanning. Of course, being the homebody Alistair refused to actually sit outside in the sun. Always talking about how bad direct sunlight was for the skin outside of 60 minutes of exercise.

Roberto just chuckled at that. Dumbest shit he’s heard. His brother was smart for school but really dumb with other things. Roberto knew his brother was just too much of a homebody to even sit in the backyard. Didn’t matter to Roberto though. As the younger brother, he always knew he was the favorite. His grades were decent, but he had clearly inherited all the good genes in his family.  The golden child. He wasn’t an asshole enough to say it out loud, but he thought it all the time. Why couldn’t his older brother be bigger, stronger, and cooler?  Be the kind of man that Roberto could look up to.

Then again those were just his musing when he was a kid. Roberto held no respect for his brother in their high school years.

But then last week Roberto noticed that Alistair had packed on a few pounds of muscles. His brother said it was all in the sun, but Roberto knew that was a lie. Alistair got larger and hotter over the next few days. He wasn’t the same little nerd heading off to college anymore. Worst of all? No one remembered it any differently. Alistair and Roberto’s parents were fine with their oldest son looking like a grown ass man. All of Roberto’s friends were curious about his cool older brother and why they never introduced him.

The anger inside Robert just boiled. No one ever realized it, except for his older brother, but even he didn’t know the reason behind it. That’s why when he told Roberto to relax today, Roberto ran to his room. He was supposed to be the cool one, the hot one. Why had the universe forsaken him and given it to his loser brother?