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“I’m pretty sure that’s the seventeenth time you’ve checked your phone in the last fifteen minutes alone, Kei.” Akiteru laughed at his brother’s deep scowl, “Are you waiting for something in particular?”
“I’m just checking the time.”
They were sat in the back of their parent’s range rover, well on their way to the campsite for the family holiday. Kei had spent the entire time scowling like he was sat on a pile of lego, his headphones on in a last ditch attempt to drown out the country music their parents were blasting. Akiteru had long ago learnt to live with the docile tones of Toby Keith.
The further out into the country they drove the worst the cell phone reception became and Kei’s phone had long ago ceased buzzing with messages.
Akiteru had watched as Kei had gone through the motions, checking his phone every five minutes to see if he just hadn’t heard it, to dropping it into his bag in an attempt to act as though he didn’t care, to placing it besides him and pressing the button with a quick shift of the eyes to check almost once a minute.
He’d kind of been looking forward to the week without any phones - it would have given him a chance to spend time with his brother. Time that had dwindled down since Akiteru’s last year of high school.
Because of his going away to University, Akiteru reminded himself, because of the distance.
“You told Tadashi you weren’t gonna have reception this week, right?”
Kei pulled his headphones down and scowled at his brother, Akiteru simply smiling in response. Kei just wasn’t a morning person.
“What did you say?” He drawled out.
“You told Tadashi there’s no mobile signal?”
Kei’s face was a picture.
“There’s no signal out here Kei, remember?”
He nodded slowly, picking his phone up and slipping it into his bag. Akiteru stared back out of the window, vaguely aware of Kei picking at the strings of his shirt and tapping his iPod against his knee. At least he could spend the car journey ahead preparing himself for the week of Pure Family Bonding that they had ahead of them rather than desperately wondering why his messages to Tadashi weren’t going through.
There was a gentle noise of Kei clearing his throat, Akiteru peered at him out of the corner of his eye.
The awkwardness was just pure teenage angst, teenage years could be difficult. Even more so when you only have one friend. Akiteru leaned against the window.
It was harder when Kei was younger. His discomfort with others manifesting itself into spiteful comments and an inability to say more than two words to other kids. Tadashi had been seen as a saving grace by the entire family.
Maybe it’d be good for Kei to have a break from Tadashi. Spend some time with his family, with his brother.
He watched as Kei turned the volume up on his headphones before turning back to the window. He couldn’t remember the last time the other had smiled at him and meant it.
That was a lie.
He could remember it perfectly.