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My only ansas a sigh as I entered the house and jogged upstairs towith hie the fact that my knuckles were bruised and torn in places

“I see those stupid classes are still good for so The only place where we differ is his chosen profession or the thing he wants to do with his life after college A fucking cop

He knows s than most since he’d spent some time in New York with us over the years No s you can’t hide Especially not from someone as smart as him My only hope is that we never stand across the table from each other

GABRIEL

With the weekend behind us, it was back to the grind; school, horades, all the happy shit my parents pay attention to as if neither of the under their roof had changed I s had become so drastic forout Since the day I turned eighteen, it’s like that thing that had been si inside since the day I first learned the truth went on boil

Maybe it’s because, at eighteen, I’m now officially a man Not when I jumped up to six-two out of nowhere the summer I turned sixteen, or when I found the first hair on my chin before that Then I was still souy But as soon as the clock struck twelve-oh-one on the day of ed course

I don’t resented the trajectory ofin his power to take our family business to the next level I know froet randpa before him But unbeknownst to him, I need that cover for what I must one day do

I watched irls ere busy playing on their phones and being their usual annoying selves Pop had his usual indulgent siving et into one of their scuffles Thisit was makeup

Anna and Rosa want to wear it;She still has that old-world style about her that’s so far removed fro to her tell stories of her youth is like watching a rerun of an old black and white filh every ti between dread and hope

I think she’d coes inwith rown afraid somewhat We never talk about it, not since that first hen she sprung it on me

It’s as though she knew that I’d take up theto say? There’s no way I was going to ask for details I knew the most pertinent facts, who, and where Thankfully as behind the tied into the twenty-first century by technology, and it wasn’t hard forAll I need now is time

I listened to my family’s banter and pretended to be part of the moment, but inside I was a cauldron about to boil over It’s been this way for the past two years; in fact, ever sincethat had happened to her, I’ve thought of nothing else

At first, I felt such guilt that I was sorips with that, especially since I couldn’t talk it over with ot the feeling she didn’t want Pop to know that she was sharing her past with ht it up to him

That was so else I’d questioned as well I kneas adopted, that Pop wasn’t e, but I never felt like anything but his until I learned aboutined that there had to be some kind of resentment there