“Mark’s different, but he’ll be fine,” says my mom. “He just needs to come out of his shell. I’m sure he will, sooner or later.”
I storm downstairs to the kitchen table and shout. “I have had girlfriends, you know! Real, normal girlfriends! In college!”
My mom snickers as she holds up the phone so her friend or boyfriend can hear me.
“Don’t talk about me to your friends!”
“Okay sweetie. I love you.”
I grumble my way back up the stairs and brush past my older sister Katie.
“Mom, I’m going to start streaming in ten minutes,” she says.
“Okay honey. Mark you know what that means.”
Yes Mom, I already know what that means, you don’t have to remind me that I have to stay quiet and not use internet bandwidth while my sister goes naked online. I sit at my desk, put on headphones and study for the fall semester.
Two hours later, my 18-year-old younger brother Timothy enters our room and sits on his bed. “Katie’s done streaming,” he says.
“Great.”
“Jessica’s here.”
“What? You never told me she was coming today.”