Braces and Bathrooms

When I was 8 years old me and my brother used to fight…a lot. I do not remember what we were fighting about. We were probably fighting over something silly like who ate the last piece of dessert or who got to pick the movie we watched on the tv. Needless to say I did something that was not good to him and cost my mom a lot of money.

My brother was 12 at the time and was in middle school. He had braces on his top and bottom teeth. When I was 8 I had no idea what middle school was like, and did not know that he was having a rough time with friends, so having braces did not help that matter I am sure. Anyway, we had been bickering all day and he kept pestering me for doing nothing and minding my own business. Some people say that this is just what older brothers do, but little do people know I picked on him more than he picked on me. By lunch time of that day we had just gone to ignoring each other and doing our own things, trying to avoid each other. The more I think about it today, I realize how unhealthy that is, but everybody who has a sibling gets into fights with them at least once or twice.

It was night time after dinner and we were watching tv when our mom told us to get ready for bed and brush our teeth. Where we live now my brother has his own bathroom and my mom and I share a bathroom. Back then, he and I shared a bathroom. And what happened that night I am sure he´s happy to have his own today. Anyway, we were in our pjs and went to the bathroom to brush our teeth. We had fought over who got to wet their toothbrush first and who got the first dollop of toothpaste. We were brushing our teeth basically on opposite sides of the bathroom, staying as far away as we could from each other. My brother had finished brushing his teeth and was about to rinse his mouth with water and rinse off his tooth brush. I do not know what I was thinking but it was devious. As soon as my brother bent down to rinse his mouth with the water, his eyes were closed because he was leaning to get water and didn´t want water to get in his eyes. I took the chance when he was not paying attention when I took back of his head and pushed it into the sink. He started whimpering as I saw blood dripping on the faucet and falling into the sink. I was scared that I had broken his nose or something worse. I guess I pushed him harder than I intended to because his mouth was bleeding. After a moment of watching the blood drip on the sink, I thought maybe I just gave him a bloody nose, and I didn´t care too much about that because he has them all the time. The bathroom was small with just a small amount of wiggling room. After I pushed his face into the sink I could not really get away, but as soon as he turned around I knew he was going to give me a taste of my own medicine. I was scared of what he was about to do to me, because even though he was hurting he was bigger and stronger than me. Just as he was about to give it back my mom was running from hearing him scream, and the noise he made when he hit the sink. I didn’t know I was that strong. I did not mean to do what I did, well I mean I wanted to push his face into the sink, but I did not mean to draw blood or break anything. My mom heard him yelling and came rushing into the bathroom. She was checking his mouth while I took the time when my brother was preoccupied to rinse my mouth and my toothbrush. I did not want him to return fire, but I guess I did not have to worry about that because he was too engaged with his mouth that was bleeding. My mom was examining his teeth and had noticed that I had broken a bracket on his braces, she was not happy with me, but I was proud of myself for ¨winning¨. We all went to bed that night, my mom restless because his braces were broken, my brother hurting, and me sleeping soundly for some weird reason I was fine.

The next day my mom called my Nana. Which is my mom’s mom, at this point everyone was disappointed in me. After my mom had hung up with my Nana she called the Orthodontist and set up an appointment to fix my brothers braces. I do not remember what my punishment was, but I think it was something like being grounded from my I-pod. I am glad that I did not break the sink though because my punishment would have been much worse. Throughout the next couple of weeks while waiting for his appointment, he was struggling to do simple things like eat. Every time he would eat, the broken part of his bracket would poke him in the cheek and cut him. So every time he took a bite or was chewing his cheek would be all cut up. It was finally time for my brother and my mom to go to the Orthodontist. He was scared and so was my mom, they didn´t know what to expect. My brother was scared they would have to start the whole proccess over, and my mom was scared that it was going to cost a foot and a leg to fix.

Looking back today I realize that was wrong and it probably hurt really bad. I am 17 now and a senior in high school looking forward to going to college and starting the rest of my life, and my brother is 22 and has a job and his own friends that he goes out with on the weekends. We do our own things around the house and occasionally say hi when we see each other. What had happened was in the past and we both kinda forgot about it. Sometimes today we will bicker but nothing like it used to be. He lives at home so obviously we are going to bicker about some things. Do you know when you hangout with someone every day, and you get sick of them after like a week of being together constantly. I feel like sometimes that´s how it gets and we just need breaks from each other. My mom likes to joke about how that whole thing happened and how my brother got beat up by his little sister. We have all moved past the situation and are now living fight free. He also got his revenge because a few months later, we were leaving Apple Bees, and he found an empty can in the car, he proceeded to throw it at me and bust my lip open. Years later after the incident we had both grown up. After he threw the can at my face it felt like I could finally understand what I had put him though. For the next couple of years we had our little fights between siblings but never like that one. After a while for whatever reason we both decided it was way to exhausting to always be fighting and I think my brother and I were just tired. We both have moved on, even though it sometimes get brought up for fun. Remembering the things you have done in the past can help you to move on in the future and not make those mistakes again.

“braces” by instafoto is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

“12-step bathroom-sink-darkroom program” by willsfca is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.