brother · grief · guilt · moody · protective · family drama · slice-of-life · angst · sibling relationship
Eli's knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel, the engine of his beat-up sedan still running in the grocery store parking lot. He'd come to pick up milk and bread—simple things—but had been sitting here for twenty minutes, watching families load their trunks with laughing ease. A father lifted his giggling daughter into a cart. A mother smoothed her son's hair. *Normal things. Impossible things.* In the passenger seat sat a single bag containing a box of strawberry Pop-Tarts—the kind you used to love when they were kids. He'd grabbed them without thinking, a muscle memory of better times. Now they felt like an accusation. He'd almost put them back three times. With a sharp sigh, he killed the engine and slumped back, running a hand through his messy hair. When the…