Different didnât have to mean bad. She had a point and that was one he was trying to learn and take to heart because heâd always been taught the direct opposite, that âdifferentâ was bad, wrong, unacceptable. Their father had instilled into their heads at a very early age that they had certain expectations to attain and uphold, good grades, extracurricular activities, had to be active members in their community, volunteer, and most of all do not smear the family name. When Luka had been turned into a werewolf, their father had made it out to be the worst atrocity that he had ever committed even though it had been a horrible accident and August had been too indoctrinated into their familyâs mindset and scared of their father to even question it. There was no saying no to their father. It was always âYes, Sir.ââ Lately though, with the introduction of more open-minded people and no longer working behind the scenes as a hunter, his opinion was slowly shifting, or at the very least, he was more open to considering that maybe not all werewolves were bad and not all supernatural beings were monsters.Â
August took the refilled glass and this time sipped the amber liquid, letting the flavor marinate on his tongue as it was intended to, tasting oak from the barrel it had been aged in. She was certainly revealing a lot about her family to him in this moment, her words coming out openly and he found himself smiling at the end of it when she outstretched her hand, which he took and shook firmly, âAugust,â he offered his own name which would vary slightly from what was on his card since he never went by Augustus, âand I think I just âdownloadedâ a lot of information on you,â borrowing from her verbiage which he found interesting and hadnât heard of learning new things about someone compared to âdownloading,â so he asked her, âAre you moonlighting as a bartender and do you work in the tech industry?â
âGuess I should try and even it out a little bit,â he mused faintly, âI donât really have a lot of family here so canât compare all too much but my little brother Luka lives here. Heâs the one Iâve come here to spend more time with. BeenâŚâ his eyes squinted slightly as he counted in his head how long it had been, ââŚover a year at least since Iâve even spoken with him.â His tongue swept across his lips before he took another sip from his glass, âIâm aware that makes me a horrible brother,â he said before she could comment on it.
A small amused smile spread across the witchâs face. âIn tech? No, no. Nothing like that. I work as a barista when Iâm not working here. This is mostly a part time thing when my family needs someone to cover a shift or two.â Back when she had been in college still it was a little different. Shifts at the bar was the only work she had outside of helping out with her brotherâs kids and the other kids in town. Working at the cafĂŠ had only come once she had put the kibosh on the idea of becoming a nurse and dropped out of school. There didnât really seem to be a reason to keep on going when she knew that she wasnât going to actually go into the profession. It hadnât exactly been something she had been looking forward to or anything of the sort anyway. It had been something she wanted to do simply because of her brother, his problems, what he dealt with and put his family through. She had wanted to be able to help him and people like him. But her brother rarely felt a sense of thanks for anything anyone in the family ever did for him; she had decided that she already did enough things for the rest of the family so going into a career because of them? It began to seem ridiculous.
âIf you were a bad brother then you wouldnât be worried about being a bad brother,â Will reasoned, leaning on the bar across from him with a shrug, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. She had seen enough bad family members in town to know that when you really are terrible to your family? You donât think about how you treat them; you donât think youâre doing anything wrong; you tend to consider yourself somehow above it all. âSometimes family comes apart for various reasons. Things happen, life gets in the way. But if you didnât care that you hadnât spoken to him? If you didnât worry you were being a bad brother? Thatâs when you could consider yourself a bad brother. The fact that youâre here trying to fix things between the two of you? Thatâs what matters. A bad brother wouldnât even bother doing that.â
âDonât be so hard on yourself,â Will requested, offering a friendly smile. âIâm sure you coming here to see him will mean more to him than you know.â