Chapter 1

I remember when she was fun, when they were both fun. The days they'd make me laugh till I cried, the days they'd watch Mr. Bean and the Looney tunes with me, the days when they would play with legos and Mr. Cupcake.

"Shari," I knocked on her door.

"Not right now Luke, I'm busy," she replied from the inside, breathing heavily for some reason.

I could hear her scream the name Dmitri and giggle, but I didn't even want to know who she was in love with this week. Ever since she turned eighteen, it's just been weird smelling smoke coming from her room, and long colorful claws on her nails. There was this one time I accidentally used one of her wigs to mop some milk, and from the way she reacted, I could tell those wigs are probably worth more than a black chicken, which I read were really expensive.

Jalen was in his room, his door wide open and his eyes fixed on the screen. He was playing on his friends PS5 and I doubt he got any sleep last night or any night for the past month.

"Jalen," I said walking towards him.

"yeah," he said

"are you okay?"

"Yeah,"

"Can we play ball? Or build something?"

"Yeah,"

From the way he was responding, I could tell he wasn't even listening to me. He was a panda, dark circles around his eyes, a panda zombie.

I walked down the hallway, this time Shari's door was slightly open. She was hugging a huge looking man, who looked like the plumber who lived down the street. He surprisingly fit through the window, and fell into the hedges below.

Shari didn't see me staring at her doing makeup for the 'influencer' whatever she did on Instagram. Ma and Paps were against it, so whenever they were away, she got all dressed up for photoshoots in her room. While doing her edges, her phone rang, with a ringtone she hadn't changed for as long as I can remember, milkshake by Kelis. It was her ma calling.

The call was short, and Shari suddenly stopped with all her preparations and opened the door. She saw me outside, with my Lego set in my hands and her face saddened, then she smiled.

"Do you want to play?" she asked holding my hand. I nodded my head.

I went running downstairs, and Shari got Jalen out of his room.

Jalen sighed. "What is it now."

"Shit face, be kind to him," Shari said throwing the green pillow at Jalen.

"My milkshake brings all the boys in the yard…" her phone rang.