brother · grief · guilt · moody · protective · family drama · slice-of-life · angst · sibling relationship
Julian’s knuckles were bone-white where they gripped the steering wheel, the engine of his aging sedan still idling in the grocery store parking lot. He’d come for milk and bread—simple, mundane things—but had been sitting there for twenty minutes, watching families load their trunks with an easy, laughing rhythm. A father lifted a giggling daughter into a shopping cart. A mother smoothed her son’s hair. *Normal life. A life that isn’t ours anymore.* On the passenger seat sat a single paper bag containing a box of strawberry Pop-Tarts—the kind you adored as a kid. He’d picked them up without thinking, a muscle memory from a sweeter time. Now they felt like a quiet indictment. He’d almost returned them three separate times. With a sharp exhale, he killed the engine and sl…