With his parents in the middle of the coldly silent end of their marriage, it's up to Evan to care for his younger brother.
It was daunting at first, but now that's fed and changed Vincent a few times he thinks he has the hang of it.
"Man, what are we going to do?" he sighs to his younger brother. Vincent, of course, has no answers.
It's the weekend again. Evan can't stand being in the same room as his parents, but feels too hesitant to leave Vincent with them, so he tries to entertain himself without leaving the house.
"Hm, too cloudy to see anything..."
Evan squints at the dark circle in the sky. Is that...?
It gets bigger.
"Guys! Run!" Evan screams.
The meteor lands, sending a shower of rock, dirt, and grass onto all the bystanders.
Huh, that wasn't too bad-
BLAM!
Evan stumbles inside to wash off this soot, but instead finds the house on fire.
He's the only one with the presence of mind to call the fire department.
Delirious with pain and confusion, Evan stumbles towards the nursery. Vincent...
Luckily, the firefighters are quick. The flames are extinguished in a matter of moments.
Leaving the hulking meteor in their front yard.
Once Evan is cleaned up and released to go home, he finds his brother. The doctors said he wasn't injured in any way, but relief only truly floods through him when he holds Vincent close to him.
The family spends days cleaning up. It's the only thing they do together.
"So, uh... what's going on?" Evan musters up the courage to ask, "With you and dad?"
"Oh things are swell," Calvin says acidly from behind them, "We're not divorcing after all?"
"What? But..."
Naomi sighs. "It's complicated, Evan. We...both weren't faithful. We've decided to work things out. But...your father has some conditions."
Evan feels sucker-punched. So his dad was cheating too? Is there no one he can trust? "Conditions?"
Calvin looks sadly at his son. "Your mother is moving to Bridgeport, for work...but also so she won't talk to...that man ever again."
"And your father gets to go travelling around the world, all expenses paid," Naomi's unable to meet Evan's eyes, so she busies herself with tidying up some clutter.
"What!? But...Vincent..."
"He's not my son," Calvin says icily, "But that man won't take responsibility either. We were going to give Vincent up for adoption..." a lump in his throat forms. Learning that Vincent wasn't his son...it destroyed him. He can't bear to even look at the boy anymore.
Evan's mouth is literally hanging open. "No! Don't do that! He's still my brother! I-I'll take care of him! Just...don't give him away. Please."
Naomi and Calvin look at each other. "We'll talk about it..."
"Absolutely not!" Naomi hisses as soon as Evan leaves the room, "He'll only be 18 in a few days! We were his age when we had him and look at how that went! I will not take away his future like that!"
"We'd be taking it away by giving up his only brother," Calvin says coldly, all emotion gone from his voice. "He'd never forgive us."
This makes Naomi flounder. "But...he'd be all alone raising his brother..."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Both of ours," she retorts automatically.
Calvin frowns. "I...suppose it is."
Naomi takes a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. "We...can't just leave him with nothing if we go through with this..."
"Well, I'll let you handle that, for once." Calvin smirks, smugly satisfied, and leaves Naomi there to stew.
Naomi really feels like her mother when she sits down for a chess game with Evan. It's been a few hours since he stormed off, but she wrangles him into a chess match.
"Evan...I'm sorry about this entire situation."
"Is that what you told dad?"
She sighs heavily. "Yes, as a matter of fact. I meant it both times."
"I don't get it. You both cheated...why are you staying together?"
Naomi considers her response carefully. "The truth?" Her heart hammers in her chest, but since the worst has basically already happened, she reasons there's no harm in telling Evan.
He nods, "Yeah, would be nice to have some of that going around for once..."
"I do still love your father, so it's not a completely cold, logical decision... but...I was advised by my manager not to divorce him."
"Huh?"
"Well, aside from the public scandal hurting my career- I mean, think about it, as a woman, would people really trust me if they know that I've been unfaithful?- your father also hasn't had steady employment for the past 18 years. If we divorced, I'd have to pay him alimony but it wouldn't be much... this way he gets to live his dream to travel." And screw his new girlfriend, she silently adds, but restrains herself from saying.
"So, it all works out perfectly- except for me and Vincent, the sons you're leaving behind? Won't that look bad?"
"You're 18, and we can always say Vincent's a distant relative, whom you took in out of the kindness of your heart..." she trails off, seeming uncertain herself. She worries about what will happen in the future, if Vincent decides he wants to know his "real" parents, and finds a wall of silence instead. How far will he go to find out the truth? She tries not to think about it...
"Wow. So it all works out perfectly for you two. You fucking deserve each other," Evan spits out. He knocks over his own king and leaves the room.
***
The days leading up to the big move are chaotic. Naomi checks, double checks, triple checks that the appliances aren't going to explode and kill her children as soon as she leaves. The meteor strike has left her more on edge than she wants to admit, and internally she's relieved to be moving away and leaving that hunk of rock behind.
Calvin spends most of the time sulking, brooding, and snapping whenever Evan or Naomi ask him who he's texting so often. "None of your damn business!"
The day of departure comes.
"Goodbye now, Evan..." Naomi says, unable to meet her son's eyes. They're leaving him with a substantial sum, more than enough to hire a full-time live in nanny for several years and buy new baby supplies, which she tries to tell herself is more than her own mother left her...
"Bye." His response is flat.
Calvin looks at Evan guiltily. He looks so much like Naomi... that never bothered him before.
"Good luck, son."
And then he's alone.
Evan's not prone to anxiety himself, but it is hard not to worry now that he's alone. Money is no issue of course...
But what if Vincent gets sick? Or hurt? What will he do without someone more experienced to turn to?
Sigh. The situation has been explained to Calvin's family, all of them being forced to sign NDAs, so he doesn't feel comfortable calling any of his aunts or uncles on that side.
He calls the only adults he can think of. "Mrs. Wyberman? Can you babysit Vincent for me tonight? I'll pay you! It's just...it's my birthday..."
"And you want to celebrate. It's ok, Evan, I understand. I'd be happy to."
Evan invites many of the teens in town and some classmates who have graduated already.
"Happy birthday!" Stephanie, one of Olivia's younger sisters, ambushes him with a bouquet of flowers.
Her sister Noelle stares disapprovingly. Her sister's turned into a huge flirt ever since she started high school, and as she feared, she's already embarrassing their entire family.
Olivia watches them dispassionately. When will her sister leave the guys alone?
Wow, Evan's popular tonight.
"I have a GIRLFRIEND!"
That never matters to the rabid flower-givers. All they want is for their targets to accept their affections.
Evan moves the party inside, and then begins to feel...
A bit different.
the party winds down. Though Mrs. Wyberman offered to look after Vincent until the next morning, Evan is eager to have his younger brother back at home.
He's an adult now, and one of the only people Vincent has.
I won't be like mom and dad, he promises himself, I'll be here for him.
--------------------------------
AN: And that's a wrap for generation 2! Generation 3 is in effect.
One of the rolls is half-siblings, which is why I had Naomi have Vincent in the first place. Though they aren't the half-siblings the roll implies (half-siblings being the children of generation 4) I thought this still fit the spirit of the roll.
Evan's career and generation goal should become apparent soon. His traits are:
-Genius
-Nurturing
-Unlucky
-Bookworm
-Hopeless romantic
I moved out Naomi and Calvin to a different house in the game. I was very annoyed that SP transferred Naomi to the festival merchant career, which then changed most of her traits. Because of that, she never appears again.
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