Chapter 2

Harvey suddenly came over and put an arm around my shoulders. "Come on, don't blame Liam. He'll get mad."

Then he smiled at me, his eyes bright. "Liam, you lost all that weight and never even told me. You really do keep everything from me."

I studied his face.

It was strange. We were twins, but we looked nothing alike.

I had a square face and narrow, upturned eyes. Losing weight also made me look a little more aloof.

Harvey had a rounder face and a dimple in his cheek when he smiled. Everyone had called him cute since he was little.

It was the same at school.

We were in neighboring classes. I was picked on when school started because of my size.

Yet Harvey was always the center of attention. He was known as the most popular guy around.

During a lecture, someone asked him, "Hey, that overweight kid in the class next door shares your surname and is from the same town. Is he your brother?"

Harvey raised his voice. "No way! We don't even look alike."

I don't remember how I felt at the time.

All I remember was walking laps around the field after class. The next day, I started working out to lose weight.

Over three years, I lost 90 pounds.

He was in the neighboring class, yet now he said I had kept it from him.

The front door finally clicked open.

When the lights came on, I finally saw the rash covering my legs.

I pulled Harvey's arm away and walked inside. My bedroom was at the front. It had been converted from a storage room.

But when I opened the door, a little white dog started barking at me. The single bed that used to be there was gone.

Dad and Janet walked past me, pushing Harvey's suitcase toward the master bedroom at the back.

Mom had an arm around Harvey as they went inside. She said quietly, "Ignore his attitude. He acts like the whole world owes him something."

I stood outside the room with my duffel bag. Suddenly, I felt like a stranger who had shown up uninvited.

"Mom, where am I supposed to sleep?" I asked.

Mom rolled her eyes at me. "You've been living out there for three years without coming home. Why would we have a place for you? If you have to, just sleep on the floor in your room."

I looked at the floor. The pee pad was covered in stains, and there was dog poop beside it that hadn't been cleaned up yet. The whole room smelled awful.

"You're telling me to sleep with the dog?" I asked.

Janet had just come out of Harvey's room. Her voice turned icy. "What's with the attitude? You come home and ruin everyone's mood. Now you're picking a fight with the dog, too."

But Harvey smiled. He picked up the little dog and held it up to me. "Isn't he cute? Look, Liam. His name is Lucky. I even brought him some meat. We can feed him together later."

As he spoke, he bent down to pick up Lucky's bowl.

It was a white porcelain bowl with a small blue dragon painted on the bottom.

My eyes widened, and I lunged for it. "That's mine. Give it back!"

Lucky panicked and bit Harvey on the arm.

Harvey cried out and instinctively threw Lucky away, scraping the top layer of skin off his arm.

The very next moment, someone shoved me aside.

My side slammed into the corner of the coffee table, and a dull pain shot through me.

Dad's expression turned dark. "Why are you fighting a dog over some lousy bowl? What are you going to do if Harvey's arm scars?"

Janet had already rushed to get the first-aid kit.

Mom's eyes welled up with tears as she turned on me. She screamed, "You really have the nerve to fight over it? You've always been like this, fighting over everything!

"You stay away for three years, then come back and turn the whole house upside down. If I had known, I never should've brought you back from…"

She paused, perhaps realizing she had gone too far.

But she didn't take it back.

I stood there for a while, then quietly picked up the bowl.

"This is the only thing Grandma left me."