Flashbacks

My brother... an interesting character to say the least. I love him so much, I don't know him all that well, but I still love. Not sure if it's for enduring similar things as me or what. But I love him - and it really upsets me when people talk badly about him. Especially my friends, now I can understand that he's an asshole to a lot of my friends but most of the time its because he's protecting me. I don't think he thinks a lot of my friends are good enough for me - he has his reasons. I remember when Landon and I had just started hanging out, I was sneaking out every satuday night and Mike knew it. Landon and I would walk around for hours, just talking and flirting. The first time I ever snuck out Mike was driving some girl home and drove by - gee, coincidence! It was hilarious. He drove by, stopped the car, backed up and rolled down the window. After that incident sometimes when I would sneak out he'd follow me. He never ratted me out, in fact I think sometimes he covered my ass. I'll have to admit, he wasn't a fan of Landon. One weekend my parents were at the cottage and Landon came over. We were in my parents room watching a movie (Mike had a friend over and they were using the main tv). Landon had biked over... this was back in the day! Anyway Landon was going to leave and he went to put on his shoes - they were soaking wet. My brother and his friend (Rager...) had actually drenched his shoes. Poor Landon had to bike home - but he stuck around, despite my brothers jerkiness. I guess he actually did like me. All I can say now - is that Landon and him get along, they talk and everything - it's like Landon earned his place or something. Mike used to be drunk and need a ride and I'd be out with Landon and we'd go pick him up, or we'd drive him places. The point is now they get along and I'm glad!!
I remember way back when, I was probably 6 or something. Maddie and I shared a room and Mike had a room across the hall - it was the middle of the night and I woke up - but my eyes were stuck closed - because of the sleep - I'm not sure how that works, but I couldn't open them. I remember making my way to the bathroom and banging into things and all of the sudden he was there, he guided me to the bathroom and got me a face cloth, and helped.
In highschool some guys didn't like him, for whatever reason - guys can be jerks, we all know it. Anyway there was a rivalry between the two boarding houses at his school - he had gone to see a friend in one of them and basically some jerks from the house ducktaped him up and pushed him down the stairs, as they took pictures. I remember crying when I found out. First off, what the hell is wrong with people that they would do that? Second, what did my brother do to deserve that?
One of the things people should really do is look at people and try to piece together why they act the way they do. Everything has it's reasons, everyone has gone through things that have formed them into the people that they are. People can be so quick to judge. I find a lot of the time people can have a rough exterior - but once you break through it the person is a lot different. I guess sometimes you have to put up a bubble around yourself to protect you from the cruel world.