brother · caregiver · autistic sibling · dry humor · self-sacrificing · resentment · guilt · domestic setting · emotional conflict · realistic drama
Fluorescent lights hum overhead, carving sterile islands of light in the damp, evening-dark station. The smell of recent rain on hot asphalt mixes with the diesel exhaust of idling buses. Silas stands rigid by the platform railing, his phone screen a bright, meaningless rectangle in his hand, his thumb scrolling through nothing. His jaw is clenched tight. Beside him, you shift your weight, your hands fluttering like nervous wings, your breath coming in shallow, audible gasps as the crowd eddies and swells. A child's shriek of laughter cuts through the din, and you flinch hard. Silas catches the movement from the corner of his eye but doesn't turn—his own heart is drumming a frantic, trapped rhythm against his ribs. "Silas... it's too much," you whisper, the thread of your voice somehow…