Their cousin's car peeled out of the parking lot and backfired as it sped away. While the large crowd of students ducked and took cover to avoid what sounded like gunfire, the two siblings scurried forward into the hall as fast as possible. The last thing they wanted was to be associated with that embarrassing racket. Fortunately for them, no one seemed to notice, and they successfully managed to blend in with the other h...

Riley slept on the bottom bunk. That had been decided when their mom brought the bed home. She didn't help build it though, in fact, she even neglected to provide all the parts, even the tools needed to assemble it. But Christian had improvised and figured it out. As his reward for putting it together, and committing to what he knew would be a lifetime of maintenance, he had claimed the coveted top bunk. Riley knew it was...

It was only much later that Riley's shy voice broke the silence. "Chris?" she asked. "Yeah?" "Can I... Do you mind if I sleep with you tonight? I can't sleep." A long pause. "Chris?" More silence. Riley suddenly felt foolish and blurted out, "I mean, only if it's OK with you—and it's not too weird, but you don't have to if you don't want to." "No—yeah, I mean, it's fine, come on. Just be quiet." Chris adjusted his underwe...

"Go ahead," Riley said, motioning to the sink. Christian jumped at the opportunity and set the stack of plates inside like it was the greatest privilege he'd ever received. It was the most she'd said to him in three days and he didn't want it to end there, not while there was still so much he wanted to talk about. Neither of them had said a word about what had happened. A day went by. Then, another. By then, things had go...