-[CLOSED]-[COMPLETE]
Ike was positively shaking, having gotten the virus scan running on his laptop before coming into his brother’s room. "Kyle... How... how do people know that..." It was something he had tried to repress, and most of the time successfully.
Kyle looked up when Ike appeared at his bedroom door. His knuckles were white, he was clenching them so hard, but he sighed. "Dude it was pretty well documented."
"Ugh. I'm screwed." Ike moved to sit on his brother's bed, still positively shaking. "But... so much stupid stuff happens... why can't people just forget? Just let me forget..."
"No one in this town forgets anything," Kyle sighed. He reached over to ruffle Ike's hair. "Dude, everyone has done something stupid. Trust me on that."
"But I want to forget! It... God, I was horrible to you. And.... damnit I was 3! How the hell could she do that..."
"Because she was a fucking awful woman." Kyle set the laptop aside, after frowning at the conversation on the screen, and sat up out of his pillows. "Ike... it was a long time ago. It doesn't have any bearing on today."
He nodded, still shaking that people know about it and remember it. "I guess..." Ike’s voice was uncertain, and probably more at this moment than most of the time he really did seem to be the 10 year old little boy.
Kyle frowned and patted Ike's shoulder. "Listen. Kevin is a fucking moron, okay? He's a know it all asshole who doesn't really seem to understand how to function in society. No one else really cares about that stuff. We all just forget and forgive, for the most part. No one thinks about it anymore--hell. i haven't in years. But if you want to talk about it, we can."
Ike nodded, not really saying anything at first. It wasn't exactly something he talked about. He sighed, "I was raped by a teacher and became a douche because she actually managed to convince me I was enough of a genius to have some idea of what love was at three? What is there to talk about?"
"That." Kyle raked a hand through his hair. "Ike.. have you said something to dad about this? I know not mom but... i mean... maybe you need to talk to a professional or something. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, either, sometimes that kind of stuff helps. You're old enough now to understand what went on back then, and that's... well. that's some tough shit."
Ike frowned a bit, "There's no way I could go to counseling without Mom finding out... and then she'll be all wanting to know what's wrong. And ... no. I mostly just try to forget it. I mean, ok, so repressing something might not be the healthiest way to deal with it. But... you're not really supposed to remember things that happened when you were three anyway." He sighed, "Unless you're a stupid genius whose brain developed too quickly."
"Maybe mom should know, then." Kyle frowned.
"You're kidding right? I mean, if Kevin knows, doesn't mom already know?"
"Not that you remember. We just... kind of assumed... I mean, you never talk about it, so..."
"Oh..." Ike shrugged, "I don't think Mom needs to be any more overprotective than she already is."
"I....." Kyle sighed and nodded, "Yeah, ok. Just.. talk to me if you need to or something, okay?"
"Thanks." Ike offered his brother a small smile. "I think I'm going to tell Mom I don't feel well tomorrow. It's not like I miss anything when I don't go to school. And, yeah. Maybe I should talk to someone. That one counselor wasn't too bad. Hell, he could probably write a paper about how sexual abuse in child geniuses leads to delusion or something."
"Mackey's alright, really. So long as you get him alone and speak honestly... otherwise he tends to get weird ideas." Kyle shook his head. "Look.. it's getting late. you should try to sleep or something, yeah?"
"Yeah... I guess." Ike sighed, "And... yeah, I don't think Mr. Mackey is really who I want to be opening up to, Kyle. I'll think about it though. And maybe I'll talk to Dad. Thanks for listening."
"No problem, dude," Kyle tried to smile, ruffled Ike's hair again and playfully shoved him toward the door. "Get some Zs and don't think about it too much, ok? You'll give yourself a headache."
With a nod and a sigh, Ike headed for the door. When he got there he stopped for a moment and turned back to look at his brother, "Kyle? Could you do me a favor tomorrow?"
Kyle had turned to type something at Stan when Ike stopped. He hit enter and lifted his head, "Yeah, sure"
"Kick Kevin's butt for me?"
"You can count on it."
"Thanks. Night." He left his brother's room and moved back to his own where he quickly got into bed, hoping sleep would come quickly and let him stop thinking.