[BRIAN]“Dad, I’m so sorry!” Kian winced, and probably said for the fifteenth time, not that I had been keeping a count. My headspace had been a jumble of its own kind, not a single straight thought that I could recognize as my own.That is what happens when you trust your kid with your phone. They rob you of your peace of mind and leave you to fucking question everything in your life. God, how did I not see this coming?Today, I chose to drive the car myself, since Kian loved to see me behind the wheel, something he revealed while we went on a long drive that night, nearly to one of the cabins we owned beyond the city limits. We hadn’t traveled that far or anywhere else since Val died. But I could tell by the way his eyes sparkled at the familiar roads, the scent of pines and woods that he wished to come back here someday.If it wasn’t for Kian’s school the next day, and of course the fact that his mom still needed to find him tucked in bed and not driving too fast with his having-to

[AVA]“You did what?” Is that what he said? Did my brother truly make things worse than they already were? “What on earth were you thinking?” I feel like I keep saying that, but people around me don’t seem to get tired of surprising the hell out of me, so maybe it’s not entirely my fault.“Obviously I didn’t,” he shrugs, as if it’s not a big deal, as if messing with a fucking gang leader is something he does every day, like brushing his teeth or going for a run first thing in the morning. He then frowns. “And why are you so upset with me? Isn’t this what you wanted me to do? To take care of it?” He has the audacity to act as if I am the bad guy here. A terrible, stupid man.“To clean up your mess, yes. Not make matters worse?” I can’t believe I’m practically spelling it out for him. What the heck is the matter with him? “What did you expec

[BRIAN]I was fifteen years old when I first kissed a girl. Evelyn Gordon was her name. She was in my class and the most stunning girl I had ever seen. Mason, my twin brother, was also smitten with her. But I didn’t realize it at the time. I was so caught up in my own world, weaving all kinds of fantasies with her, that I didn’t notice how my brother looked at her or how he always got tongue-tied whenever it was their turn to sit together in Mr Warren’s lab.Mr Warren used to have this bowl system where instead of sitting in our regular seats or wherever we wanted, he made us pick a folded paper from the bowl and whichever number was written on it, we were stuck on that bench for a week. I recall being jealous of Mason because every time Evelyn smiled, laughed, or just pushed some hair out of her face, or blushed the deepest shade of red at something he said, I had a nagging suspicion that she was mistaking Mason for me. At least that

[AVA]It’s been a month since that night—correction: morning. A month since I saw the last of Brian. A month since we had that moment and he kicked me out of his life as if I had no place to be in it. Maybe he was right. Maybe there was no reason for me to feel so betrayed. Maybe it was just what he said it was. A mistake. And hoping that it was anything more than that was just plain stupid.After making sure I took the pill and forcing me to swear that I would take the rest of them too, Brian dropped me outside of my apartment building and left once I got in. I had a spare key with me, so instead of molesting the doorbell, I stuck the key and got myself in.I cried the entire time that day, not even bothered that only a day was left before those goons showed up to recover their money again. It was as if nothing else really mattered, as if my life was over and nothing good was left in it.But I reminded myself&md

[SEAN]Have you ever experienced a deep sense of helplessness? A feeling of desperately wanting something, but being unable to pursue it out of fear of hurting the people you love most? These situations are all too familiar in my life. I have become the epitome of sacrificing my own happiness for the sake of others’ comfort. As the eldest child, my family expects nothing short of perfection from me.Anything less, and I am deemed a failure in my father’s eyes. Anything more, and I’m burdened with the immense pressure to maintain my own success. It often feels like I’m being squeezed from all sides. If I don’t take action to help myself, I fear I’ll suffocate in my own loneliness and perish.I don’t understand how some people manage to remain happy no matter what. They don’t care about others’ opinions of them. They are unfazed when their parents act unreasonably, solely interested in molding them into a certain image—as if they were mere pets or show ponies, meant to be trained and gr