Brendan

Brendan’s story is shaped by two departures from college and by the family rupture that preceded them: the divorce of Eve Fletcher and Ted. He is an older brother who grew up apart from Jon-Jon, a young man trying to find a workable future after college stops fitting, and a son whose relationships with both parents carry the aftershock of a life once presented as permanent and then abruptly changed. His eventual work as a plumber’s apprentice restores some of his confidence, but does not settle whether education is behind him for good.

Identity and Family Background

Brendan was already in high school when Jon-Jon was born. In the years after the divorce, he did not get along with Ted or with Ted’s wife, Bethany; he privately cast Bethany as the person who had ruined his life. With time, he recognized that this was misplaced blame: Ted had made his own choice, and Bethany was not responsible for the marriage ending. Ted had once taken Brendan out for ice cream and urged him to direct his anger at his father rather than at Bethany, whom he described as an innocent bystander. Brendan’s changed understanding does not erase the distance of that period, but it complicates the earlier division of his family into a guilty father and a hated stepmother.

The custody arrangement gave Ted two weekends a month with Brendan, but Ted did not insist when his son chose a sleepover with a friend or time at home to catch up on schoolwork. Brendan played football, basketball, and lacrosse, and Ted often came to his weekend games before taking him to dinner. Their routine became a way of acting as if the reorganized family were ordinary: father and son talking about the game, with the divorce left in the background. Brendan’s later recollection of this arrangement makes their bond neither wholly absent nor uncomplicated; it was maintained through shared time, but within limits that allowed him to keep his distance.

Jon-Jon and the Family’s Changed Shape

As Jon-Jon’s developmental difficulties emerged, Brendan heard the news gradually rather than through one defining announcement. Jon-Jon was not speaking, ignored toys, and did not look his parents in the eye or smile at them; doctors also expressed concern about the severity of his tantrums. Brendan’s own account identifies Jon-Jon as autistic and acknowledges the limited closeness between them: Brendan had grown up elsewhere, had been in conflict with Ted and Bethany, and was not part of his younger brother’s early life in the same way his parents were.

During a severe episode at the university, Jon-Jon rocked, moaned, clutched his head, and punched himself. Ted sat on the grass and held him from behind, trying to keep his arms from striking his head. Jon-Jon thrashed and screamed; when he broke free, Ted had to restrain him again. The struggle left Ted’s nose bleeding after a backward head butt, while Bethany gave cards to the people who had gathered and apologized for the disturbance. Throughout it, Ted spoke quietly to his son and told him he loved him and that things would be all right. Brendan told Amber that he felt sorry for his family, and that was true. What he concealed was his jealousy: he watched Ted hold Jon-Jon tightly and refuse to let go, and felt that his father had never held him that way. He understood that Jon-Jon could not help his behavior and would not trade places with him, yet the scene made visible an old ache about the different forms of care each son received.

College, Isolation, and Withdrawal

At college, Brendan joined in a crude, performative exchange with Zack about drinking, smoking marijuana, partying, and sex in their room. When Zack loudly added that people would perform oral sex, two women walking ahead turned to look at them; Zack quickly clarified that he would not be doing so and tried to redirect the remark toward them. Their unsmiling response punctured the boys’ boastful routine. The moment shows Brendan participating in the brash talk around him, but it does not establish that the bravado gave him the closeness he needed.

Later, as he struggled at Berkshire State University, he became isolated and spent a night drinking alone while scrolling through his contacts. He left messages for Ted, but Ted appeared to have gone to bed; Eve did not answer. Becca ignored his invitation to Skype, Wade was studying for a midterm, Troy’s phone was nearly out of power, and Will and Rico had taken acid and were not making sense. Brendan eventually called Sanjay because he could think of no one else, and Sanjay answered. The list of unavailable friends gives his loneliness concrete form: he reaches outward repeatedly before finding someone who will pick up.

Eve’s closeness with Brendan after that crisis made her less firm than she believed she should have been. She did not insist that he return to BSU, resume studying, or treat quitting as impossible. Instead, she listened and tried to understand why he would not go back, while Brendan offered grievances about boring classes, a professor’s accent, political correctness, Zack’s absence, poor food, and having no friends. The complaints never gave Eve a convincing explanation, and when she pressed for details, he withdrew into his phone and impatience. Eve contacted an academic dean and Brendan’s faculty adviser; she was reminded that counseling and tutoring were available, but that Brendan himself had to seek them out. Her concern could not substitute for his participation.

Brendan formally withdrew from BSU the next morning after a family dinner at Eve’s home, where Eve, Ted, and Brendan sat together around the kitchen table for the first time in seven years. The following day, Eve and Brendan moved him out of his dorm. Zack was absent and did not come to say goodbye. The possessions that had once represented a hopeful beginning—the fan, lacrosse stick, toiletries, laundry bin, rolled rug, suitcase, and bags of clothes—went into a large orange bin and then the van. Their return to the family home turned the promise of move-in into a shabby load of belongings. The reversal marks the emotional weight of the withdrawal without suggesting that Brendan’s education or future has ended permanently.

Work and an Unsettled Future

Back in Haddington, Brendan later attended ECC and encountered Chris Mancuso, an older former Haddington High football player who was home from college for the semester because of disciplinary trouble. The two had known each other slightly from football, and Chris repeated an invitation to get a beer after they ran into each other at CrossFit. Brendan accepted the renewed contact when he had little else going on, a small example of rebuilding a social life at home rather than simply returning to the friendships and routines he had left behind.

A week after deciding to leave ECC, Brendan began working full-time as a plumbing apprentice. He took to the job: he liked its physical demands, learning the tools and terminology, and ending a day with a tangible sense of accomplishment. The work could be disgusting, but he felt that it was possible to get used to that. Its starting pay exceeded minimum wage, and passing the required exams and earning a journeyman’s license could bring substantially better income. Someday, he might even take over Rafferty & Son. Eve warned him not to get ahead of himself, but was relieved to see him purposeful and more confident than the sullen, beaten-down son she had watched struggle through winter and spring. Her disappointment that he had left school coexists with recognition that this work has given him direction.

That direction remains provisional. In a later conversation with Gareth, Brendan heard about someone who had transferred colleges three times before finding the right fit. Brendan admitted that he had not realized until he said it that he might want to try college again. Hearing friends talk about returning to dorms, classes, and parties made him feel left behind in Haddington, with a future narrowed to plumbing jobs he could not yet imagine wanting for life. He still acknowledged that he might take over the business, but the possibility of returning to school had reappeared. Brendan’s ending is therefore not a neat choice between education and work: apprenticeship has restored his energy, while the question of where he belongs remains open.