To Brill there was a difference between a comfortable silence and being silenced. A comfortable silence was when you first woke up in the morning and a few moments of quiet. His parents putting a shock collar around his neck was forced silence.
It was a thing that was strangely normalised in Soc neighbourhoods. Just conditioning your kids into being a perfect trophy. Whenever Brill mentioned the shock collar to his friends they looked mildly concerned but not surprised.
It started when Brill was just 10 years old. His older sister Andrea had been in a car crash and died at just 17. From that day on Brill’s parents became obsessed with controlling his life. Andrea was outspoken and she would talk with Brill about anything that interested him. After she died his parents decided that they had to completely control him to keep him safe.
Every single aspect of Brill’s life his parents' control, when he ate, where he stood and soon how much he spoke. It wasn’t even like Brill was particularly talkative in general there was just times were he’d get passionate about something.
The collar had left permanent burn scars around Brill’s neck. Scars that he learned how to cover up. He wasn’t aware of this but his secret boyfriend, Dally, knew that he was covering something up. Being friends with a kid who was beaten by his parents everyday made it so Dally was really good at spotting someone who was hiding something. However, he decided to keep quiet about it
It wasn't until Dally overheard Brill talking with his Soc friends that he realised just what had happened. The most disturbing part of it was just how casually they spoke about things. Dally had heard Greaser's joke about things, but this was difference, it was spoke with such casualness, such normalcy that disturbed Dally.
Brill said the fact he wore a shock collar growing up like it was the most normal thing in the world. Like it was something that every kid went through and all the Socs just gave him pity looks
One night Brill was lying on the couch, some random ballet movie, he was completely invested in playing on the tv, when Dally got home, Brill wasn't expecting him to visit. Dally approached him quietly, seeing for the first time the ring of scars encircling Brill's neck. His voice hitched, not because he had never seen scars before but because of how out of place they seemed. Brill, like nearly all Socs, had perfect skin free of imperfections.
He approached Brill and gently shook his shoulders. Brill's eyes snapped to him before widening, he frantically covered his neck with his hands. Dally grabbed his wrist, not harshly but firm and pulled Brill's hands away from his neck. His eyes were looking directly at the scars, his expression unreadable.
“It was just to help me,” Brill defended his parents, even if they weren’t there right now. “Bothersome kids don’t make it far.”
Dally had to resist the urge to scoff, if anyone was bothersome it certainly wasn’t Brill. There was something about the way Brill was so quick to rationalise what happened that made Dally sick.
“Do you seriously see nothing wrong with what you’re saying,” Dally pressed.
Brill took a moment before responding, “I mean… yes but—”
“But nothing, there’s no excuse for what your parents did to you!” Dally cut him off, Brill just looked down at his shoes.
“I mean, even a though of my friends seemed concerned, usually when you messed up you’d have something you loved thrown out or have to write down everything that’s wrong with you,” Brill reflected.
Dally paused, he couldn’t relate to that but there was many parts of Brill’s life he couldn’t relate with. But especially not what his parents put him through, it was a special kind of cruelty that Dally had never fully experienced.
“You know that was horrible for them to do that to you right?” Dally told Brill who finally looked up.
“I… know,” Brill replied.
Dally didn’t believe him.
Tags: @transmasc-offical @scribbledstars16@your-local-turtle@laufey-official@thecoolvoiceactor-offical@theaterkidest2009
