"Sweetie, and?"Chloe fiddled with her coffee. Took a sip. Put the mug back on the carpet. Looked out the window. Her grin appeared again, but only for...a second."Mom, I liked what we did, really."She went back to fiddling with her coffee. Maybe it had the answer, but I didn't think so.Kathleen stroked Chloe's hair again and kissed her cheek once more."Chloe, are you worrying about what your dad and I are thinking? That we'll be angry or disappointed or something?"Chloe looked up."No,. The last thing he had ever expected was to be labeled "His brother, the bum." He feared he was earning that title at that very moment.Breakfast: that was a new routine for Brendan as well. In the silent house he sat at the faded laminate table twirling a piece of discount store brand toasted bread between his fingers as he sipped a tepid cup of bitter coffee.He thought back to a lecture in his class on the American History. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the common man in the United. My black curls encased in a satin bonnet, I snuggled under the sheets in my gingham pajama shirt and lace boyshorts, along with Jacob's dress socks to keep my feet warm. I clicked through the recent releases on the hotel's movie channel but found none to my liking. I extracted my laptop from my backpack, browsed my streaming service options, and landed on a home renovation series.While I watched a seasoned house flipper take a sledgehammer to her kitchen wall, I recalled one of the. 'protected'? It was that time when I saw him first. He justhappened to glance at me as I peeked out from behind the corner in thehall, and I was struck to the very depths of my heart and my soul.Our eyes locked but for only a moment or two, but something passedbetween us because I could see that I'd garnered his attention if but fora moment in time. Now you must understand that I wasn't much of a boy.My hair was unduly long and I often wore my older sister's hand me downsthat were.