“One of these days, he’s going to lose it, and I’m afraid of what we could come home to.” Tina only took her eyes off the road for a moment to gauge her brother’s reaction to her words.

Germaine didn’t bother to turn his head after hearing his sister’s statement of obvious concern. She pushed him further, “It’s getting harder to keep pretending everything is fine.”

Tina exhaled. She waited for her brother’s response, but when it never came, she continued after a forceful gulp of air, “He’s never going to be happy again. We’ve been here so many times before, Germaine.”

After another unusual morning with their parents, Tina was confused by her brother’s indifference. Germaine sat in silence and looked over the hood of the car as the broken, yellow center line passed by in a hypnotizing fluidity.

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After a few moments, Germaine turned to his sister and uttered, “Yeah, he needs help… we all do.”

The rest of the ride to school was in silence.

Once Tina secured her spot in the parking lot, Germaine exited faster than usual, cutting off Tina’s wishes to have a good day.

“Have a good one, Ger-.”

“Sorry, Tina, gotta run!” Germaine didn’t look back at his sister as he hurried to the front entrance to the school.

As Germaine blurred out of sight, Tina whispered to herself, “Thank God I am getting out of this shit show.”