Miss Braxton: Home and Away Fanfic

Chapter 4

Brax and I ambled along the beach slowly, taking our leisurely time and reveling in every second of delving into our backgrounds. The sand was soft and warm underfoot and the salty sea breeze was as refreshing as I could remember. It was a huge change to constantly having to inhale the polluted city air or the smell of greasy food in the café restaurant where I had worked almost every single day for the past two years. I felt considerably better than I had done in a long time. It was as if I had been suffering from an illness and Summer Bay had been the cure all along.

As we walked, Brax and I broached every topic we thought might be interesting to the other. I found out lot of fascinating things about my new brother and the rest of his family. It turned out that Brax was a hardcore surfer and when he found out I shared a similar passion for riding the waves he was truly ecstatic.

"I'll have to take you out on a board sometime then." He offered, throwing me a wink. "See what you're made of."

"Nah, I wouldn't want to embarrass you or anything." I threw back, eyes glinting mischievously. Brax laughed delightedly at that, seeming to warm to the challenge.

As we talked extensively, I noticed a pattern arising. I kept revisiting the similarities we shared and the most important of these was the way we had both been brought up independently, having to care for the people who should have cared for us. Although I told Brax precious little of my current problems, I did give him a small insight into my past. I held back information on my mother's illness and the fact I'd left education behind, but I freely admitted having to become the head of my family, and this was a knife that cut deep for both of us.

When our dad had been sent to prison, Brax, at the meager age of twelve, had taken over the household. His mother, Cheryl, had been an alcoholic obsessed with throwing money down the drain at the bookies and from what I'd heard, she was as good at managing money as an elephant was at flying. That's to say, she was completely and utterly useless. Apparently, she was just as bad at taking care of her children. Had it been left up to her, the family would have collapsed into pandemonium, but luckily Brax had stepped up. Using the blood money Dad had received from the crime that got him sent down; my older brother had set the family up. He quit school the way I had done, and got a job. He wouldn't tell me what kind of job, though I suspected it wasn't waiting on tables, washing dishes and serving food to customers like I did. With the money, he managed to keep his family afloat the same way I did mine. He kept Heath out of trouble as best as he could and almost got Casey all the way through his education if not for our Dad getting out of prison early and interfering with Casey's life so badly that he didn't finish his HSC.

I frowned at that. "Why? What did he do?"

Brax shrugged. "You asked me not to tell you about the old man's death, so I won't. Let's just say it affected Casey's life and stopped him from finishing school."

I squinted against the bright glow of the sun to look at my brother. He had appeared relaxed a moment ago, but at the mention of Casey and our father, he'd balled up again and got that tense look that had crept over his entire body, making it as ridged as a surfboard. I gathered quickly that Casey was a very sensitive subject. They must have been very close if Brax had been the one to raise him. I wondered how his death came to pass so early on in his short life, but refrained from asking for fear of causing Brax any pain in reliving his brother's death. Better for me to leave the dust to settle and revisit the question another time. Instead of asking about Casey's death, I decided to focus my attention on his life.

"What was Casey like then?" I questioned.

Brax grinned, but it was filled with sadness and tainted with bitterness at having lost his brother. His eyes went misty and distant. His face contorted with pain. It was as if the memories of Casey stung his heart.