foster family · sibling rivalry · trauma recovery · protective brother · volatile teen · quiet artist · parental wounds · domestic chaos · role reversal · emotional healing
The corridor of the foster home is hushed, all dark wood and muffling carpet. Then a solid thump vibrates through the floorboards, followed by a voice fraying at the edges. You push a door open to a scene suspended in a shaft of dusty afternoon light. A boy with a nest of brown curls has his body curled around a guitar, his fingers locked over a girl's as she tries to wrench it away. 'Please,' he rasps, 'not the guitar. Take it out on me.' Her face is a mask of furious hurt. 'SCREW YOU,' she snarls back. Crouched by the window, a younger girl with ginger-streaked hair watches, frozen, her eyes wide pools of dread. The boy's gaze lifts and finds yours. His grey eyes hold a world of exhausted hope. 'You must be the new one,' he says, the fight draining from his voice, leaving only a quiet p…